TRENTHAM CAMP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16009, 30 August 1915, Page 9

TRENTHAM CAMP.

RESULT OF INQUIRY.

REVIEW Y MINISTER

SOME NEGLIGENCE ADMITTED

I come observations regarding the report of the Royal Commission on the conditions j in Trentham camp were made vesterdav jßy the Minister lor Defence. Mr. Allen ! drew attention to the fact, established j by the inquiry that there was no inherent I danger in the situation of the camp. Mr. Alien said that nearly ail the improvements which the commission recommended had been undertaken, and most of them had been completed. The road improvements were practically completed, the provision of stretcher-beds had | been completed for some time, the sur- ' face drainage was a most completed and several other matters, such as the' sick I parades, had been remedied before the commission began its inquiry. Overcrowding of Camp. "I want to refer t<> the so-called overcrowding at Trentham," Mr. Allen ontinued- "The country must recognise that a demand was made upon the Defence Department for more men for Imperial needs. We thought we had made provision by authorising the erection of hutments, but, unfortunately, there was delay in building them, so that when the Trentham Regiment came into camp it , was for a time necessary to have more ; men in a hut than we desired ourselves. So far as I know, and I think the evidence will prove this, the » epidemic, curiously enough, did not break out in the huts that were temporarily overcrowded, but in the others, and" in the tents, where there was no overcrowding. In view of the possibility of epidemics and the wisdom of not having men too close together, we have decided' to reduce the number in each hut from 50 to 50. Ihe commission now says there is sufficient room for 32. The" number of men in the. camp had gone up to 7000. but it was the original intention that the Trentham Regiment should be moved to another camp after it had completed a , certain period of training. The Departj ment had decided that there should not be more than 4000 men in Trentham, and the commission savs we can have 4000 to 4500. A Warping Neglected. " Undoubtedly the medical side of the military organisation did not realise to the 'full that the epidemic was increasing pretty rapidly." Mr. Allen said. -1 am bound to say I do not think sufficient foresight was exercised to make provision for such an epidemic. Even if reasonable loresight had been exercised, it is quite conceivable that the overcrowding would j have taken place. Tike, for instance the 1 epidemic among the Maoris. You do not make provision for this sort of epidemics ' until you are face to fare with them. Ihen the Departments set themselves to the work and do the best thev can in the circumstances. This epidemic developed more or less suddenly. There w.is a certain amount of warning, and as far as we neglected that warning we are" to blame but the sudden development of an epidemic may find the best organised communities without proper means to meet it. I sav without hesitation that when Colonel \ ahntine came in. as he did at the verv first moment I knew alx.ut the conditions in the camp, every step human thought could suggest was taken to meet the difficulty, and it was met in an extraordinarily capable way.

Suitability of the Site. "I particularly want the public to realise that there was nothing whatever in Trentham that caused the epidemic," Mr. Allen added. "In view of the commission's report, the public mind must be set absolutely at rest on that point."' Mr. Allen emphasised the fact that the camp area , comprises 1260 acres, of which 400 acres are level and only a small portion is swampy and unsuitable for military exercises. The authorities have also the use of 100 acres belonpin? to the Wellington Racing Club, and adjoining areas, of which tin use has been granted h\- the owners. Th- commission describes the climate of the locality as healthy and bracing and declares that there -was nothing m the site to cause preventable disease.