Military Camp,
Tahuna,
Dunedin.
6/9/1914
Dear Everybody,
Well here I am again & I suppose you are thinking it is time I was writing you again. We are just in from a mounted parade on the beach between St. Clair & St. Kilda, & it is just a perfect morning, the sea is as calm as a mill pond, but the beach shows indications of there having been a heavy sea sometime between Sat. morning & this morn. The bathing shed at St. Kilda was as flat as a pancake this morn. We also had a church parade this morn at 9.15 & then a mtd. one at 10 am, that I think will finish parades for the day. The camp is thrown open for visitors at 3 o’clock, until five, & general leave is to be given the men from 3 o’clock, till 9 o’c. That is one of the privileges of being & Officer, you can come & go when you please, so long as you are present for the parades stated on the orders. I do not know whether you will hear from Ruth or not, but she arrived safe & sound, & we, Lottie & I, met her at the train & went to Gillises for tea. They are coming into camp at 3 o’c, then we are going out for tea & to church; unless of course something unforeseen happens, which is very propable in this place. Yesterday, Sat. the Troops were invited out to the Dunedin Hunt Clup
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Steeplechase races; the mtd. men rode out & the infantry walked, so you can imagine the tramp they would have. We left camp at ½ ten arrived ther about ½ one, but had to go about 3 mls further for water for horses, net result was, that it was ½ two before we got to the races. However we managed to see the first race, & were able to wait for two other events as well; we had to leave at four so we had no time there at all, it really was not worth the ride. We left there at four, & struck camp at ¼ to six, cutting out the distance in an hour less than it took us to go out. On arrival here the troops expected to hear that general leave would be given, but old Glendenning said no & no it was. So after tea a great shouting started, a mob collected, & rushed the guard, with the result that about 100 got out, about 80 of them were caught either up the town or at the gate when they came in; I have not heard yet what will happen them, but should not be at all surprised if they were dismissed from the force. It is a lump off locking them up the way they are doing, & I am quite sure old Glen is at the bottom
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of it. When we came here first & right up till Friday the troop leaders could recommend men & get passes for them, but now leave in that direction is stopped too. It is in a sense the men’s fault, because for a couple of nights the men were given general leave, & a number of them got the worse for liquor, & some busybody rung the Colonel up & told him that about 50 of his men had been seen the worse for it so next day it appeared on orders that no more leave would be given whatever; & so the thing goes on & the innocent suffer for the guilty. Well it is time I was away for dinner, so I will just go, & will finish this again. Well here I am & have had a tip top dinner, made up of roast beef & mutton, roast onions & potatoes, & a real good plum pudding. So far our Sunday’s dinner has been all that could be desired. That is not to say that on other day they are not so good, but on Sundays they seem to be spotlessly clean, & more enticing. Up till now we have spent all our time in getting the men equipped, & a rare old job it has been, it has caused me more trouble than anything I have ever had to do with military affairs. The department are
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a bit short of uniforms & it is the deal’s own job to get the troop to look presentable with two or three fellows wearing civilian clothes in it. Another contract is the horses, we cannot keep them on their own lines, they are continually breaking the halters and getting away or are deliberately shifted from one line to another. We had 33 horses issued to my troop in the first place, & now our is reduced to thirty; however we have had them all branded now, & if they do get away we can always claim them again. They are branded on all fours, the off front wears the arrow, near front the number, near hind O.M.R. & on the off hind our squadron has its own private mark, namely a circle with a cross inside, so you can imagine what the Colonel would say if after all that we should not be able to trace our horses. I have been fairly fortunate in getting hold of horses, we Officers are supposed to have three each, & I luckily had first pick, & secured three very nice hacks, two of them are four year olds
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& the other is about seven. I have not dropped across Obstipoff yet & would not be a bit surprised if I never see him, he may have gone on to ChCh. or right to the North Isd. I would not have minded having him, as one of the ones I have is a bit inclined to be heavy headed & I know that bob would have made a tip top trooper’s horse. It is marvelous the difference in the appearance of the horses since they came into camp, they at first just seemed scrubbers, but now they look a real good lot, Jack when he was up noticed a big difference in their appearance, in the few days he was up, so I would just like him to see them now. He gave them his black mare, & she has landed in my troop, quite a little beauty, just the cut of a troopers hack, & she seems to have given up all her old tricks. You are all aware that Jack McIlivrich is going, well he is also in my troop, & quite one of the keenest & most willing men in it. It was very funny I might have missed him altogether, he was here three days before I saw him
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& he was always falling in with our squdn. Lottie was the first too tell me he was going, so I made it my business too look him up, & I found him amongst the late comers, attached to our squdn. He was quite down when I saw him, he was thinking he was going to be left behind, & so he would only Howie had not the full number of men for machine-gun-section, & he happened to light on a man in my troop for his section, thereby leaving me one short, so I just plumped Jack into the vacancy, & I can tell you he was very pleased. Is’t it a caution Bill Cowie being dead & Mrs Chum Southern too, there will soon be none of these people left at all. Now I suppose you are aware that we only draw half of our pay abroad, & that the rest accumulates here & is paid on discharge. Well there is an arrangement that any man can allot his portion to any body he chooses, & it will be paid every month. Well I thought five shillings a day was a good bit to be left in the hands of the government when somebody could be having the use of it. So now Thos. B. McIntyre should receive about one month after we sail
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a cheque for about £4. Now you can just use this money the same as any other, it is better that you people should have it than the government, because if I did not make that arrangement I could not draw a penny of it untill I return. Whereas now if I should ever run short abroad I could very easily get a pound or two of what I would be quite sure would be my own. I have also had to buy a number of things since I left, & I have booked them too you Tom, so that they can be settled when you please. We are just drawing camp pay just now, namely 8/- per day, we do not get our ten shillings untill we are on board the boat. We new subs also received £20 pounds to buy our outfit & I can assure you it will take it all to get everything we want. I hope that when everything is settled I will not be found on the wrong side of the ledger, I think the bill from here will be about £3/10/- but am not sure. I have got £5 valuation on my saddle, but have lost the run of my old one, & unless it returned with old pat I have lost, however I have made sure of another one in the mean time & will stick to it in place of my own.
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Now in regard to our exams I am very pleased to be able to inform you that we came out on top. Out of all the candadates sitting in Ingill & Dunedin the candadates from the seventh Reg topped the lot, the 5th next 12th next & the infantry bringing up the rear. The result of the Ingill lot were Sgt Mjor Cameron 1st. Sgt. McDonald 2nd, Sgt.McIntosh 3rd. myself , 4th. Sgt. Hargist 5th. Sgt. McHay 6th. & I do not know how they run after that. But it means that I am highest of the three that have been appointed to the expeditionary force. Well this is mounting up to a budget indeed, so I think I had better put the peg in. Tell Lizzie I got her letter all right. Have received a couple of telegrams from Waiheke since I arrived here, also a letter, & a couple of letters from Kate. I expect Lottie & Ruth will be in my tent by this so I had better say good-bye for the present.
I remain
Your loving
Brother
E.S.McI.
P.S.
No definite news as to our departure, but do not think we will go before the end of the week. Expect a letter before then.
