MANIFOLD TASKS

Timaru Herald, Volume CLV, Issue 22790, 14 January 1944, Page 4

MANIFOLD TASKS

W.A.A.C.’s On Duty In Pacific No Glamour About An Arduous Job From the Official War Correspondent with the N.Z.E.F. NEW CALEDONIA. Jan. 7. From duty on the home front to active service with the Kiwis in New Caledonia is a test proving the mettle of the Kiwi Company. N.Z.W.A.A.C.. and demonstrating that the New Zealand girl is as competently adaptable as any girl in the world. None of the W.A.A.C. duties are easy, and anyone thinking in terms of glamour still has a lot to learn about island life. A visit to the Fourth New Zealand General Hospital (which is now almost completed by the works service engineers) gives some indication of the range and nature of the task undertaken by the W.A.A.C.’s. For instance, in a hospital ward where bondages, pyjamas, linen, etc. are gathered and taken to a washing machine, the girls commence at 7 a.m., working with a morning tea break until noon and from 1.30 p.m. to 4.30 pjn. In the ironing room a minimum of 20000 articles is ironed weekly. The girls have to stand over hot irons in a temperature of 95 degrees. The one break for most of the girls, as for all the men, is mail call, but this for the W.A.A.C. personnel handling all inward and outward mails means more highly concentrated mail work than for most post offices in New Zealand. Another task involving much hard and detailed work for the girls, is in notating pay cards and doing clerical work in the quartermaster’s office. The work of the V.A.’s brings them in closer touch with the eralities of the conflict now going on. Theirs are the less pleasant tasks, but ones that evoke ready and genuine praise from their patients. One wounded man describes bis treatment in the ward as “like a dream.” Tne W.A.A.C.’s perform many other duties in the laboratory, mess huts, dieticians' department, clubs, recreation centres, etc. An important fact is that the girls pre conscious that they are doing an important job. and that the monotony and unchanging routine is part of their work. Leisure hours are spent at the rivers, most of which are close to the camps. Debating is a popular pastime and the W.A_A.C. team has not yet suffered defeat. Pictures are fairly regular and patients able to go find that they have first preference of WA.A.C. company. The disadvantages of the work are offset at the Fourth General hospital by comfortable living quarters in 18ft by 16ft wooden huts which four girls share. There is also an excellently equipped recreational hut for the use of the girls.