ARMY DEFAULTERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 December 1943, Page 4

ARMY DEFAULTERS

LIFE IN STRATHMORE CAMP WORK AND DISCIPLINE. USEFUL TASKS ACCOMPLISHED. The present war has produced in New Zealand at least 750 military defaulters. This is the number that has passed through the main defaulters’ detention camp at Strathmore, in the high country some thirtyfive miles south of Rotorua, from where many have been drafted to other camps established through New Zealand. Of the total, just over 60 have transferred voluntarily to the military forces ,and, in one capacity and another, are said to be giving satisfactory service. Inmates of the Strathmore camp at present number 230. From them, work and good behaviour are demanded. Discipline generally is good. In charge of the establishment is Mr C. L. Christiansen, a returned service man of the present war, and assisting him is a staff of some 40 farm overseers and patrol men, many of whom are returned men of this or the last war. BREAKING IN LAND . The camp is so organised that the inmates do all the 'work, except, of course, control and supervision. They provide the labour for the farming and breaking in of some 20,000 acres of land, which is carrying at present 13,000 ewes and 2000 head of cattle. This area comprises the Strathmore, Galatea and Paeroa blocks. At Galatea there is a branch camp to which suitable good-conduct men are drafted for shearing, shepherding and other duties, while on the Paeroa block a bush camp has been set up to which men are sent on week-days to cut and split fencing battens needed for the estates.

All the labour of the inmates is for the benefit of State enterprises. It’is never available for any private undertaking. Since the camp was founded the men have constructed 485 chains of new roads and 708 chains of new drains, some large. They have cleared 1283 acres of light to heavy tea-tree, which provides fuel for the camp, planted 2465 chains of shelter belts, and constructed 3107 chains of new fencing. In addition, there have been the many tasks of farming, gardening, shepherding and wood-cutting to occupy them. A certain amount of renovation, including the old homestead, has been done by the carpentering gang. As soon as the Lands Department can provide the timber, these men, who include about 15 tradesmen, are to be employed on the construction of cottages at Strathmore in preparation for the future settlement of the block. JOBS FOR TRADESMEN. Tradesmen appear to have been found among the men for almost every task. By training new hands, sufficient labour has been created to man the cookhouse, bakery, power plant, tailors’ shop (where the inmates’ camp clothes are made), boot repair shop, a garage which does all major repairs to the department’s trucks and tractors, and to provide hospital orderlies as well as men for many other odd jobs. The inmates get no pay except a small sum credited under a system of industry and good-conduct marks. Their huts are regularly inspected and periodically searched. They are permitted mail and one' parcel of stipulated value each week, and they have a library. Visitors may see them for two hours on Saturday and Sunday afternoons ,but the visits must take place in a special room set apart for the purpose, and under supervision. They have an allowance of tobacco.

MEN BENEFIT. The men occupy individual huts. It is better for discipline. Barbed wire surrounds them, and, while they are given a certain amount of freedom in mixing in the compound, control is such that anything in the nature of a general meeting is precluded. A common room with fireplaces is provided. The food is plain and good, and much of it is now produced or killed by the men, although, owing to late frosts, potatoes have to be grown in another area. Many ot the men have benefited by the life, as is shown by their physical development, while sickness has not been abnormal. But no visitor would leave with the impression that life has been made easy for these men who find themselves in military defaulters’ camps.