61

H.—l9a

43. Were they cooked ?—Yes. 44; And sufficient in quantity ?—Sometimes we had none at all. 45. Did that often happen ?—No, not often. 46. What was the tea and coffee like?— The coffee was good, but the tea was never good. 47. What was the matter with it ?—lt was muddy, and seemed to be made of bad water, or was boiled. 48. Was there milk in it ? —Yes. 49. Was the tea smoky ?—No. 50. Had your horses rugs ?—Yes. 51. Was there room enough in the picket-lines for the horses?— When we first went there there was plenty of room, but after that we were rather crowded out. The picket-lines were too crowded. 52. Did you see the kitchens ? —Yes ; I was one of the orderlies on several occasions. 53. You mean that you had to get the rations for your tent ? —Yes. 54. Were there any officers present at the serving-out of the rations?— Yes. 55. How many?—On the first day I do not think there were any, but after that there were always two or three. 56. What did they do at the serving-out of rations ? —They tried to get them evenly distributed as far as they would go, but any one going late came in for a very small portion. We were the junior corps, and came in about the last. 57. What were the arrangements for cooking there ?—There were just two railway-irons arranged longwise for boiling the food, and that was all there was. 58. Did you consider that sufficient ?—Not if I was cooking myself. 59. What would you have had ?—I should have had something over the place to keep the rain off. 60. Was there much mud about the kitchen ?—lt was very bad. 61. Did you notice where the meat was kept ?—No. 62. Had you any small things cooked, such as sausages and chops ?—Sometimes sausages. 63. Were they cooked ? —The sausages were boiled, and cooked too much generally. 64. What have you to say about the state of the mud in the camp ? —lt was bad, and was very wet in the tents. 65. What time did you arrive in camp? —2 o'clock on Friday morning. 66. Was it raining then ?—Yes. 67. When did the camp get very bad on account of the mud ? —lt was very bad then. 68. Did it get better or worse ? —lt got worse about the tents on account of the horses tramping round. 69. What about the flat? —That was horrible. On Sunday it began to get bad. 70. Did you shift your tents?— Yes ; but one of our tents was left on the flat. 71. Whom did you get your orders from ?—We did not get orders from any one to shift our tents. There was a general understanding that if we liked to shift we could. 72. Did you not get an order from any one?— Captain Milne Thompson said we could shift if we liked. 73. Did your corps furnish a guard in camp ? —Yes. 74. Was there always a guard on duty?—l think so. 75. Did you sleep in the camp the whole time? —Yes. 76. Do you know if any of the men slept out of camp ?—I do not know of any instance. 77. Besides what you have been asked about, was there any matter you had to complain of in the camp ? —We complained about the insufficiency of the food, and once about there being no horsefeed. We had no oats for a day and a half. 78. Where did you get your horse-feed from ?—From the tent up near the officers' mess. 79. Did you always get it there ?—Afterwards we had it in a tent up the hill. 80. Did you make any complaint to anybody ?—We complained to our own officers. 81. And what reply did you get from them ?—They said they would try their best to get things remedied. 82. Were they remedied ? —I did not see much improvement. 83. How often did you or the men of your own corps complain ?—Certainly on three occasions. 84. Did an officer visit you at meal-times? —Yes. 85. Did you make any complaints then ?—Some of the men did. 86. What were the nature of the complaints ? —Generally the food was insufficient or badly cooked. 87. What was the weather like during the camp, generally ?—lt was wet on two days, I think. It rained at night several times, but during the day it was fine most of the time. Often there was a heavy shower at night. 88. Wednesday was wet, was it not, when the medals were distributed?— Yes; and the Friday we went in was wet. 89. Have you been in a mounted camp before ?—No. 90. Do you think there was room enough there for the number of men and horses ?—I should not think so. 91. Tell me if there is any other matter that you think was ground for complaint there : how were you off for water ? —The water was cut off twice, I think. Once the pipe was mended, and when broken again it was never set right. 92. How was it broken ? —By the horses. 93. What did you do then for water? —We got it from the other side of the ground and carried it across. There was one trough where we could always get water.