UNIQUE MUSEUM

Waikato Independent, Volume XLIV, Issue 6076, 14 July 1947, Page 2

UNIQUE MUSEUM

AT TRENTHAM MILITARY CAMP ANCIENT AND MODERN IMPLEMENTS OF WAR

At the back of a lecture hall in Trentham military camp there is taking shape a comprehensive and unique small arms museum (says a Wellington daily newspaper). Under the guidance of the small'arms training section of the Army School of Instruction interesting items in small weapons are finding their way to the museum from all "arts of the camp and from many odd corners of the country.

At the end of the first world war various sections of Trentham camp were holding enemy and allied weapons sent out by the British Wfar Office for demonstration. These were packed up with the thought that one day thev might constitute a museum of weapons used in " the war' to. end war." In;the uneasy peace this little collection attracted other implements of war from old soldiers and others who knew of its existence till it grew of its own accord, as it were, to be a sizeable and representative museum. When war broke out again in 1939 many of the weapons became useful once more for demonstrations, as both sides were using 1914 weapons at first. , So the cache was broken open, and it was found that it would fill a decent-sized hut. '■

Some, surprising pieces were there, including suits of armour of doubtful history, a Chinese gun-making t display from the Dunedin Exhibition of 192." and a huge German gas mask with the filter chemicals still eating their way through the mask.

Up-to-date additions were made almost daily as a steady stream of material began to flow from the British War Office once again for demonstration. The museum was used extensively during the war and .contributed a major part to the training programme.

Now that there is no longer an enaiess tramp of embryo soldiers past the tables and display cases, a more museum-like atmosphere exists, and any civiliai. lucky enough to be admitted can browse for hours through the deadly but undoubtedly intriguing items.

Rifles and pistols of every vintage dominate the display, but there is no lack of variety of other exhibits. In the medley of oddments there are German shell cases from 1914 almost the size of bass drums, a last-war cross-bow for throwing grenades silently, wooden truncheons studded with steel spikes, and much similar paraphernalia,, Machine-guns, ancient and modern, abound, including one made at Petone railway workshops in 1915 which cost "almost as much as a battleship." This is an exaggeration, of course, but it is said that the cost was .so steep that it was the first and last one the workshops made. An earlier machine-gun is one that climbs up and down the* trench on a toothed** pole. Its dazzling brass-work is always kept polished. >

Such is the obvious fascination of visitors that the Army School intends to establish the museum as a permanent section of the camp and enlarge its scope to handle the latest in small arms. It hopes, too, that it will never again be used for the,instruction of anyone but historians