FORESTRY CORPS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23817, 19 November 1940, Page 9

FORESTRY CORPS

jfIOOPS FKOM DOMINION wOBK IN ENGLISH PARK HELP OF enemy aliens unskilled labour supplied r f noM ot'R OWN correspondent] 1 LONDON, Oct. 22 In a verdant park in Gloucestershire, company of New Zealanders drawn * the" timber-felling trade of the Islands are felling and milling the j re woods. Trained to use the rifle and the Bren as well as the axe and saw, all jnen are fully fitted for the strenuous work of timber felling by Years of experience in the virgin pine forests of New Zealand. Compared with the giant trees to liich they have been used, most of them find thcir P rescnt work vcr >* cas-v----god v"0 » ien as many as ton trees in a day. —Others are engaged on the sawing of t]j e : wood into the lengths and si7.es iu which it is required for military and civil purposes.. Ninety New Zealanders at Work There are about 90 of the men enraced on the work, all of them voluntas who joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in January and Febjuary of this year. They are commanded bv their own officers and are, of course, subject to'normal military discipline, wearing the distinctive uniform of the New Zealand Army. Much of the unskilled labour is carried out by a volunteer corps of enemy aliens who are not,interned, and who arc anxious to help the war effort by doin" work to which most of them would never have dreamed that they would be able to adapt themselves. They, too, wear Uniforms and have their own officers, commissioned and non-commissioned. They are drawn from every profession, and represent most sections of the intelligentsia and business classes of Vienna, Prague and other central European cities, where tho coming of the Nazi regime has meant the suppression of the Jews. They are all aliens who have been passed by the police as above suspicion in their loyalty to the British cause. . - Warm Tributes Paid At one. time these khaki-clad, sunburned timber workers were the leading men in their professions. One of them was the leader of a famous Viennese symphony orchestra' " Now they are loading wood and sawdust, clearing branches, driving tractors, and even learning to fell some of tho smaller trees themselves. A tall, heavily-built New Zealander paid that, although the aliens had only been on the work for. a few days, they picked up the technique with extraordinary rapidity. All the New Zealanders, officers, noncommissioned officers * and men, spoke highly of their enthusiasm and willingness to learn. "Talk about work," one of them said, "you can't keep them from it."

GIRL RESCUES PETS BRAVE WORK IN THE DARK AIREDALE'S VALUABLE AID DOGS, CATS AND BIRDS SAVED [FROM A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT J LONDON, Oct. 22 Dressed only in a thin nightdress with a gown thrown over it, a London girl one day'this week w.prked through the early hours in darkness rescuing injured pets of people whose homes had been bombed. ' With only a small -torch to guide her, the girl, Miss Jean Morton, ignored bombs and shrapnel dropping round her. She worked for four hours excavating (logs, cats and even birds trapped by fallen debris. Sbeila. her pot Airedale, followed her wherever she went —barking signals where she sniffed out fourlegged brothers and sisters injured or trapped. Jean did not stop until she was satisfied she had done all she could. Then she returned to the animal centre in Fitzrov Street; where she works as veterinary assistant,' donned her white overall and set to work dressing and fcandaginji more injured animals. "I Could not have done it without Sheila," she said. "She seemed to sense •what was going on. Wherever she sniffed out an animal she barked." > While Miss Morton was speaking 20 people arrived with injured animals, some to be destroyed. Jean was on the job helping to put the animals painlessly to sleep and comforting their owners. Airedale Sheila, still on duty, stood near. "Apart from animals outside, there *ere our own in the clinic who were frightened at the noise of bombing and gunfire," said Jean. "I gave each one a sleeping draught.,' That took a lot of m ? time. Altogether, I think I rescued four cats, a dog and a canary. Others Xere brought to me by their owners." , One of Jean's strangest patients is a tiny blackbird. It was brought in by its owner, an old man. Mr. J. Langdon. ttho also brought his pet greyhound Peggy, who refused to leave her home until her master had been rescued, was uninjured. The blackbird was buffering from shock. KEAS AT LONDON ZOO DESTRUCTIVE HABITS KUSE ADOPTED,; by keepers [fp.OM A. SPEC'IAL correspondent] LONDON, Oct. 22 Of the London Zoo birds with destructive beaks—and therp are quite a numj^r~"perhaps the worst offenders are. the three New Zealand kens who came 1° England last year. Although they av © only short, curved beaks, they do fi l incredible ain °nnt of damage. sometimes they chew their cage-wires the \vhole area, has to be rewired, they batter their nesting's until the woodwork becomes unrupoable, ]\f oro recently the kens atacked the door leading to their slecpg quarters and played such havoc with , nc woodwork there that they could no - "|er be shut in at? night. . - °w, the keepers have thought of a , y .out of their difficulties. Tn the ca 2 e they have placed several treerrmmPs - 'voli furnished with bark. Of u,. rse ' the keas do not know it. but s .we-stumps have been provided tli«" A v f° r them to ruin. And ruin p m they do. a fA' er .v now and then the birds make flead set" at one of the stumps and 'R? v 'l y at !t "»tif they have stripped thft' p Kirk awl damaged niueb of behind. Then they foregather the!their norches and contemplate f,J beak work"—with evident satisto ew i " *^ s H . "lie tliev are not left long iheir triumph, for the keepers the damaged stump and reP«ce it ffith R ne^one ;