TEENTHAH CAMP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16010, 31 August 1915, Page 8

TEENTHAH CAMP.

COMMISSION'S REPORTt

STATEMENT BY MINISTER,

CRITICISM OF RECOMMENDATIONS

|[bt telegraph. __ s mM I Wellington-, Mond ar . ! interview this « rai ' ,J*J ,J- Alien, Minister . r /." *' M H^ , mer.d.t-ons ~f the Trenlhun CY~ *" ri o^ l^ -all the mis.*,,, betake I am not \atU-l T' I* U,m. For trance, tie c^LS* ipn»e„d.U»t. porch •door of every hutment That Li* 6 *« Wl.v di.cus.ed at the Urn SH"* , *er* bum. As a matter of fct *£ I door, were made especial Urge ft ? j -de , or better ventilation. £? ** ,»u»» n - 6 suggests « . hat sonU?" ; -ore than . , w be M dryuig-room, *ith a s«,v £ in* "J »• do that * e shall destroy the vLv , Uan. This « exactly what the IS , »en reported to me when the hu^ ! »*«* bunt, i d 0 not knot ! £ *<** what ev,Hon-» ti. • U P"3 -Ut evince the lommissionm £ .their recommendation, because I £* i not seer the evince ; but. so far*! | know, the B u S ge^n i? contrary to «I ! advice of all our med ical officers 2 | certainly -contrary to all the advice | to ; me by medical m«u Th* pj^ l-ul nave to be very careJully coH | before we give effect to it.

j Lining of the Huts. i 'As to the hning of the iron hatmarf, this ;s not a momentous uuestuvT^ that the winter is neariv " Sdl C Ua,d already that I i,« to 1' *g j question over until General S3 **" i arrive., and then I w?l Lk e fefe about it. Certainly the evidence oTfe! sublet u very contradictory. s«nem*fi cal men do not co^^e^neSS^' the huts should be lined, and theTW Defence authorities do „<? conift necessary. I have had a telegram £52 effect trom them. General HendmS^S j be here now in a week or tea darT

Main Question Hot Answered. 'The Trentham Commission has left m in a very awkward position. The a ™ turns I wanted them to answee they hs Te not answered at all. The main Se£ was whether anyone was to blaWfe anything, and to this thev have gh4 Z answer. One thing they state lerfecS clearly, that the outbreak of c-eW spinal meningitis was not caused br *sx. thm? within the camp, nor did the mea&t originate m the camp. Another Hot that is clear is that Trentham is qmte | suitable site for the camp " *

Dangers of Subdivision. •;" On the question of subdividing the camp Mr. Allen said : —' 'If we have too much si division in our camps It is going tods* great deal of harm, because we have ad. a sufficient stiff. There is no doubt M reasonable division is a good thine because the aggregation of Verv large 'bibb bears 01 men increases the danger from aa epidemic if one breaks oat. mat we nope to do is to watch the sick parade so closely as to stop epidemics, and I creawon whether there is mere strict medical examination in any camps of the world than we have in New Zealand to-day. A personal examination of every man" regularly. lam not able to say how often, but it is at least once a week.' We have 3 sufficient staff for two permanent camps and one field camp, but this will invoke a heavy strain on the staff. We nave bees able to obtain the services of a few* additional instructors, Imperial men who have been in civilian occupations in' Sew Zealand. We have tried again to get some wounded British officers from Hose, who are unfit for service at the frost again, but we have had no satisfactory answer to that request yet 5

Busy Training Men. " The commissioners say it is a matter for regret that the Public Works Department was not called in to lay out Qa drainage. Now the man who was alia in to plan the drainage system :«k Major Morton, Mr. W. H. Morton, city engineer, who is an expai in daisage. I cannot see how it weald fast made things any better if the PsSc Works Department had been tailed i. As a matter of fact, since. tbe Palis Works people have taken charge the? ta» not altered Mr. Morton's system of 3s? drainage, They have altered the saj&* ! drainage, which was designed by M& Jikell, bat the alterations arfc-inraa*; quenoe of the regrading of the roads. were going to do these things, S ** could not do them all at once. We were busy training men. We are reminded thai some of the tents for the severffc reinforcements were placed too dose togjflsf but we never intended to keep the aea in those tents. We were Tailing for b*fc to bo built while we had the sub it camp. Our capacity for carrying oat IS" tensive improvement scheme* wis limited. We were making necessary inipwreaießts, Jwit we were doing the work by degrees

The Essential TJriaj.

" We had before us atari tis essential thing—to keep our reinforcements cp &w to train them as well as «e amid, Is, that essential the camp satisSed ns. . w» results of our work have bees |iesfcd *{ the front. Tie fifth, remforcemensi to** been sent straight to the f«a£ && Egypt, because the general officer..eoamanding there considered them .ft *? f into the firing fine. I think it is;J»S«?; ously to the credit of the twining w» New Zealand that this was so." -