RELIEF WORK IN CAMP

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21249, 1 August 1932, Page 13

RELIEF WORK IN CAMP

Sir, —The members of the Orongo camp are extremely interested in the identity of the gentleman who has hidden himself behind the nom de plume of "True Blue." For one who professes to have such an intimate knowledge of the camp, the conditions of its occupants and their work, ha is strangely at sea. We may be a "splendid lot of fellows," but are decidedly- not "optimistic" on the miserable sum we receive and the pitiful allowance we are able to make our wives while here. It is just above starvation. There is no hope to buy clothes. Regarding the cottage we are in; it is leaky, surrounded by such a mass of mud, with no proper dry track to get in and out, that once inside of an evening, unless we borrow gumboots, wo are marooned. There are still insufficient drying and bathing facilities. Regarding our "first-class chef," where did "True Blue" get his information ? We are the best judges. We do not wish to discuss the question in public, except to controvert the statement of "first-class chef." We were engaged to dig fescue. If "True Blue" will term a drain, with 3ft. 6in. of water in it and 18in. of silt, a dry drain, we must quarrel with his definition of the word "dry." The engineer did leave orders for the whole of us to get into this, although neither the Hauraki Plains County Council nor the Labour Department had supplied us with gnmboots, except for two pairs. Wo are all doing our work and most of the settlers are well pleased with the work we have done. We shall continue to at receiving less payment than was received 20 years ago, when rents in town were about 50 per cent less than now and most other commodities accorded. Ten men and a cook came down; there are now seven and the cook, one man having been invalided back owing to trouble brought on by the wet work. Two others left for other work. This is in about six weeks. Comment is needless. E. J. B. Allen.