GETTING TOUGH

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXII, Issue 8871, 8 February 1943, Page 2

GETTING TOUGH

BOYS IN NEW CALEDONIA PROBLEMS OF A SOLDIER NEWS OF SIX W AI!11 HOYS

Nows of interest lias filtered through about six Waihi boys in an engineering company stationed in New Caledonia. Their names are Jack Furey, Jack Craig, Jack Walsh, George Worth, Harry Neno and Bill McConachie.

Their camp is situated in pleasant surroundings (in so far as pleasant: surroundings go in the tropics) near a stream—swimming pool and all. Tents are pitched amongst- small Iree? which afford some shade from the hot sun. A mess room t<? accommodate the whole company has been built native style, bark roof, open sides and concrete floor. A hank of showers serviced by a petrol driven centrifugal pump, has been rigged up on the bank of the stream. Everybody can swim in the stream hut no washing is allowed in it. Special laundry facilities have been provided.

There is an argument on at the moment as to who is the lies' laundryman in the company. Jack Walsh claims that socks should he boiled foi JO and not 35 minutes-—or hours. He is not quite certain which. Others say that socks should he washed once a week, or once a month, or something. depending on how sensitive your tent mates’ noses are. Then such questions arise as to how much shrinkage per week per pair of socks per man would he considered fair wear and tear by the O.C. How To Darn

The question of darning caused diversity of opinion. It is a pity that mothers don’t standardise on a “correct” darning procedure. It would save such a lot of heated arguments, fuss and bother to the lads overseas. As a last ditch of defence, each soldier tops his argument off by saying. “Well, my mother taught me this way, so you can all go to h What about the food hi Hie joint’.’ As a matter of fact this important commodity is plentiful both in quantity and variety. There must be a catch in it .somewhere-—it is all tinned food. Due to having to open so many tins per day per man, she cooks have developed something akin to “housemaid’s knee” in the elbow. Jack Furey is now carrying out extensive sharpening and tempering experiments on the matter of “how the h- to keep a sharp ‘edge on a tin opener.”

It is surprisin'; to what extent Hie rooks have mastered the art of camouflage. With a little bit of “doctoring'” here and there plus a largo amount of “tall” talk, they can sometimes fool the hoys into thinking that there are whitebait fritters on the menu. The basis of this dish is macaroni and tinned fish—what happens after that is a closely guarded trade secret. Onions Popular The only fresh vegetables available are onions. These the hoys eat in abundance due to the lack of feminine talent in the locality. At least so they say. Fresh fruit is available in small quantities only. Now uiid (hon a tew bananas, pineapples, paw paws and mangoes find ; heir way into camp. Fresh meat is in short supply, there are plenty of cattle, belonging to the cattle king of the district. 1 hese are tame. There are also plenty of deer. These are rapidly passing from the tame to the semi-wild state. Both organised and disorganised parties all claiming to bo born leaders and expert shots have been “molesting” the deer of late. Venison has been served in the cam]) at least once a week. When some high, ranking oilicer pays the engineers an ofiieiul call, and remarks, “What the h is all the shooting going on np the hack/” some tactful person immediately speaks, up and says, “Oh, that. It’s just the hoys shooting on Hie range l .’ Surprising how sound carries in this place. The deer seem puzzled as to what all this shooting is in aid of. Now and again they are stalked and shot, la many cases they are “'shot at.”

shot. up. shot away, frightened out of their wits, seared, disturbed at their meals, unduly molested, made to suffer from powder burns and generally put to quite a lot of unnecessary inconvenience. The question now arises—should sappers he issued with scatter guns (for the use of) in place ot .MO,” rifles, tommy and machineguns. Somebody suggesfod herding the deer up and driving fill rough a minefield. At least one of them might be unlucky enough to se; a mine otT, which would provide the necessarivenison per company per one meal per week. Drinking Water The most outstanding .act of gallantry to date happened when Jack Furey ran a deer down raid dispatched it with a l.iltint pocket knife. Apparently the poor creature was suffering from shellshock and utter bewilderment. It has taken everybody a long - time to become used to .drinking chlorinated water. To some people water is

something to be taken in minute quantities in the absnee of beer, to sustain life until beer becomes available. Others there are who merely regard it as a mixture of two gases. H. and 0. Others use water exclusively for making tea or (2) adding to milk in bal'd times.

The average soldier overseas develops a great respect for water. At one time in New Caledonia the beer ration was 2 A bottles per week per man. Unfortunately the beer ran out. Until more arrives everybody has to resort to drinking water. The climate is more or less ideal—

not too hot during the day. cool at night. Rain falls during three months of the year, January, February and March. During these months severe flooding usually occurs. Rivers overflow their hanks for miles around. All camps are therefore pitched above high water mark.

They '“Caught” Their Fish Fish are plentiful both in the sea and in the rivers. Pressure of work and training have not allowed the lads to go out on any fishing expeditions, except on one occasion. There was great bustle in the lines one Sunday morning. Everybody was getting ready to go fishing. Some were chopping down “rods” and hunting up bits of string. Others were making improvised lisli hooks out of bent pins and old nails. Others were busy digging for worms and other creepycrawly animal life which abound on his island.

Some of the Waihi gang did not appear to he the least hit interested in all these unnecessary preparations, as 'hey termed it. After a morning’s fishing, they were the only ones who retained with a catch. It appears that in former days they had been taught th ■ “art” of fishing by a celebraiod Waihi sportsman. When asked by their cobbers. “How the h did you guys come by those fish?” they merely replied. “Oh. we just tickled them.” Further questions about this “tickling” business were tactfully evaded. The whole company is kept busy all the time at training and work. A six-day training and working week is observed. Night exercises are carried out twice a week. Lectures are given two nights a week. Sunday is free—sometimes. Everybody is getting toughened up in preparation for 'be hardships which lay ahead. Sooner or later there will be a shift further up into the fighting zone. Flies. Ants, Bugs One annoying thing about the place are the swarms of mosquitoes, flies, aids, bugs and spiders. The mosquitoes work- in shifts day and night. Every edible tiling has to be strung nil away from the ants. The sanitation of the camp is good. This keeps the fly menace under control. The civilian population on the island is composed of French, Javanese’ and native kanakas. The Javanese work chiefly in the numerous small nickel and chrome’ mines, back in the ■tills. There are very few civilians in this locality. French is the universal! language spoken on the island. Those hoys who have learned French at secondary school are able to converse intelligently with the French people. Social life as once the boys knew it, just does not exist any more. Spare ' ime is taken up with reading and writing. Everybody looks forward to mail day. That is one of the bright spots in their existence. There are two battery wireless sets in the camp. These were bought in New Zealand -lit of regimental funds'. The boys are all fit and well. Each •me exhibits a dark suit of sun tan. They are all willing and anxious to do their bit for their country and hope it won’t be too long before they return to good old New Zealand. Should anybody wish to write or ■end magazines to these boys, the address is: 20 Fd. Coy.. N.Z.E., 2NE. F.l. P., A. 150. Overseas.