WITH THE AUSTRALIANS.

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume VIII, Issue 3, 1 July 1915, Page 138

WITH THE AUSTRALIANS.

One of the twelve nurses who were privileged to join the Australian Army Nursing Service from New Zealand wrote from Sydney, April 11th : — " I expect you all have heard before this that we did not reach Melbourne as we expected, but spent our time here in Sydney. It turned out the best arrange-

ment possible for us Auckland girls, as we found an old friend and sister from our hospital at the Club, and she has been invaluable in her help. You may remember her — B. G. Davies is her name. She has given us practically the whole of her time and refused work until we go. We all feel we can never thank her sufficiently. It has been a wild rush for us ever since we landed, and to make matters worse it has rained solidly each day until yesterday. The Australian nurses have received us very nicely, but they are quite at a loss to know how it is we are going with them. Our uniforms are very nice on the whole, but terribly hot, I'm afraid. We have one thick grey outdoor frock with scarlet shoulder-cape, and a huge grey overcoat — or cape it is really. With this is worn an absurd little bonnet, grey and brown. There is no protection from sun, and they sit on our heads like a pea on a pumpkin. For indoor wear we each have three grey zephyr dresses and four grey aprons in addition to our white ones. The numerous extras we have had to get have taken all our cash. Each provides her own stretcher, eider-down, towels, bedroom ware (enamel), knife, spoons, forks, etc. We expect to leave at 8.30 a.m. on Tuesday and sail by the " Kyarra s: via Brisbane, Singapore and Ceylon, our destination being probably Egypt, where we hear scarlet, measles, and pneumonia are raging.' 1