MCOBiSTELL.]

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14. How is that?—l am only the executive officer, and all 1 have to do is to requisition. 1 am instructed from headquarters that so-many men will arrive on a certain day. I requisition for the clothing and equipment and everything necessary for those men. 15. Begin with March. You were notified on the 12th March of the stationary hospital, and on the 18th March the men came in. Was there any difficulty with regard to their boots?— Not their first issue. 16. Did you requisition as soon as you got the number, in each case?— Yes, unless I had the supply in stock. If it was a small number of men I invariably had the boots in stock. 17. Take the material number we have—the 2,200 men : you were notified on the 19th April ? —Yes. 18. And they came in on the 29th May? —Yes. 19. Six weeks after; yet you had not the boots for the second issue?— No. We had the boots for the first issue, within a few pairs of odd sizes. 20. How was it you did not have the second issue?— Because they were not delivered to me from'the town stores. 21. On what date did you requisition for those boots?—l could not say exactly from memory. It would be some time in the vicinity of the date when I received intimation that the men were coming in. 22. Have you got a letter?—l can produce the requisitions. 23. I should like the requisition for these 2,200? —Very well, sir. 24. You might, also send the requisition, or a copy of it, with regard to the 464 men who came in on the 18th April. You had only four days' notice there. But on the 29th May there were the 2,200. You might send us a copy of the requisition, so that we can find out how it was you did not get these boots I —Very good, sir. 25. Now, can you tell us when you did get these boots? You were short for the 464, I suppose ?—Yes, but not for the first issue. 26. I mean for the second issue?—Oh, yes. 27. I want to know when you got the second lot?—I got the balance for the 2,200 men on the morning of the Bth July. I at once returned them to Wellington so that they would be forwarded on to the camp to which the troops were going. 28. Tell us when you received the different lots. I suppose you would receive some before? —Yes. I have the requisitons dealing with them. 29. The Stores Department here could give us the dates, could they not?— Yes. 30. Who is the man?— Major O'Sullivan, Q.M.G. 3. 31. Passing from boots, were there any other materials that you did not receive in time to be served out? —Yes. In connection with the 2,200 men who arrived on the 29th May 7, when they arrived it was a Sunday, and the blankets had not come to hand, and I had to get those up from town. We got over the difficulty by obtaining blankets from town. That was an error on somebody's part. 32. Had you requisitioned for these blankets?— Yes. 33. Mr. Ferguson.] Some weeks before? —Yes. 34. Five or six weeks before? —Some time in the vicinity of the date when I received word that the men were coming. 35. The Chairman.] AAlien did the blankets come?—l got some on the Sunday and the balance on the following morning: that would be on the 30th May. 36. Anything else?—l do not think anything else was short for the first issue. 37. It is the business of some one at the camp to see that every man does get his complete lot, is it not?—lt is my business. 38. If a man does not he comes to you?— Yes, he complains to me through his company or platoon commander. 39. Are those complaints made in writing by the company commander?—No; he generally comes along and tells me that So-and-so has not got his equipment. 40. The main defect, then, as regards material has been with respect to the second supply of boots?— Yes. 41. You attend to the sanitation. With regard to sewerage, we will say, how does that operate —satisfactorily?—Not at present. 42. AA 7 hat are the defects that you consider exist? State as candidly as you like, because we want to get at the bottom of things?— The first defect noticeable by me in the present system was with regard to the latrines and different places connected with the sewerage. The men walking over these places brought mud and earth on to the concrete beds. This was washed down into the traps, and following along the pipes came to the manholes. The result was that from the bottom of the manholes you could bring up shovelful after shovelful of earth, Then the water went through the manholes, one of which contained a cage, and in this cage all the grease and solids which had escaped the different traps on the way down was caught. But beyond this again is another manhole, and that again has contained —every day we have cleaned it out, —a certain amount of grease which had not been caught, by the previous cage, and also some silt. The water ran then from the last manhole into the soak-pit. The soak-pit was not able to carry the soakagc, That, of course, was something that no one could foresee. The result was that the soak-pit filled up and the water backed up in the drain, and I had to open fresh soak-pits leading off the second manhole from the present soak-pit. 43. When did that occur? —Somewhere about the end of June or the beginning of July— after the three thousand men were placed on the sewerage. 44. It was that extra number of men coming in that showed the system to be inadequate?— Of course, as far as the soakage in the soak-pit is concerned, I do not think any man could foretell