HOLIDAY CHEER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 8 January 1944, Page 2

HOLIDAY CHEER

N.Z. TROOPS IN PACIFIC TURKEY AND STEAMED PUDDING RACE MEETING AT BASE CAMP (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) South Pacific, Jan. 2. Wherever they were stationed in the Pacific Islands, New Zealand troops celebrated the incoming new year and the normal cheer of Christmas and New Year week wih all the festivity which could be expected in the circumstances. Achieving remarkable results through improvisation, divisional soldiers treated themselves to a fete of concerts, aquaplaning, boat races, swimming, driving, horse-racing, singing. pictures and eating too. The concerts were provided by the Kiwi Concert Party which has been touring the forward areas in recent months. Wherever suitable stretches of calm sea were available, the thrilling sport of aquaplaning behind landing craft, formerly used for invasion and now kept busy maintaining communications, attracted the attention and enthusiasm of scores. Native canoes and boats captured from the Japanese, and anything floatable, were brought into racing trim for the occasion and though the times recorded scarcely compared with Henley regatta standards, yet the spirit of competition and the dourness of struggles left little to be desired. Horse racing, of course, was confined to the imitative operation of dummy horsey dependent for their speed on . the fateful casting of dice, though in the base camp, reinforcement and staff personnel turned on a full-scale meeting much like those held when the whole division was further south. Nearer the base, too, hospital units and clubhouse organisers went in for de* corative effects, band music and dances that fittingly celebrated Christmas Eve and the greetings of the first moments of the new year. • FESTIVE FARE United States supply officers saw to it that New Zealand and American troops lacked as little as possible in the way of festive fare, turkey, steamed puddings, nuts and chocolate figuring on the menus. Supplement with Christmas parcels the rr n received from home and through the National Patriotic Fund Board, foodstuff supplies were adequate to cope with th« emergencies of the season. •RANCID” A I *ULAR WINNER Sick and wounded men of the Third Division back from the front line enjoyed the New Year’s Day race meeting together with the personnel of base units. “Rancid” by “Butter” out of “Tin” was a popular winner. “Willie Win” by “Horse” out of “Breath” which followed “Rancid” home in the fifth and last race of the day ran true to breeding, as did most of the entrants of the 32 horses gathered from various owners throughout the district. The staff of the convalescent depot running “Relief” by “Leg” out of “Plaster” produced a horse which covered four furlongs in little over a minute. The most successful jockey was a former apprentice to H. and A. Cutts’s Riccarton stable, E. J. Pinn, with two wins. L. M. Pell, brother of the Auckland rider, S. Pell, took one race as did C. L. Goulsbro’, who has raced with success at many New Zealand meetings. The fifth event, for which the totalisator was open, was for local riders. The totalisator figures were * little more than 7000 dollars.