CARPENTRY AT THE FRONT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15884, 3 April 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)

CARPENTRY AT THE FRONT.

A rotf.vo publisher, writing to his uncle, says: —" Thanks for the cake, which arrived at an opportune moment, just as we had made ourselves some tea. Two minutes after the parcel had arrived there was not'much left of the cake. I like the look of the tin-openers,' tho big, murderous-looking weapon, which made light work of a tinned plum-pud-ding this evening after another opener hud got tied up. "We have settled down hero to a very regular existence now. Life in the battalion must be dreadfully monotonous. Life with the cooks I enjoy—there is the ordinary work of cooking, etc., which keeps us fairly well occupied. Snare time is spent in walks towards the front, or, as we call them, Cook's Tours, and in bridge-playing; and then there is unlimited scope for carpentry, in which Mac and I indulge. Our tools are a lu.mmer, a meat saw, a screwdriver, and a pair of pincers; our materials, wooden boxes, nails from the boxes, sacks, straw, etc. Our works of art (or, I should say, Mac's, as I have only assisted in some of them) are a bath (two boxes and waterproof sheet), three tables, an upholstered settee and armchair, a sideboard with two drawers, and a six-panel door for our room to replace a curtain. Betides these there are numerous shelves, etc. Our next undertaking is to bo a bedstead. " A day or two ago we saw an aeroplane very high up in the sky, then innocent little puffs of white, looking like cotton-wool, appeared in the sky all round her, and we knew it was a German machine being shelled by us. "On one of our tours—in fact, it is one of our regular afternoon tours—we came across an English 60-pounder battery of four guns. We went up and chatted to the gunners, and while there they* fired several rounds at 4600 yds; hills in between prevented our seeing the target. Directions for firing were 'phoned by an observer a mile away, who gavo so many degrees left or right of a centre line. ''On Boxing Day we had a decent walk to a town 10 miies away, which we found occupied by the French, no English troops there, so we were objects of interest. Top-hole dinner, started home 4.30, the only excitement being challenges by numerous sentries after dark."