Papawai
12/6/1916
Dear Lottie
I received your letter last Sat & I must say I was pleased to get it also that you were able to get work so soon after your arrival back from holiday. It will be much nicer I should say to be situated the way you are at present but what a lot of night duty. Our squadron came here last Wednesday to shoot & by ten this morning it was all finished but it happens that some cases of measles have been reported in our quarter & we have to undergo isolation for perhaps a week or more. One consolation is that we are having splendid weather frosty night followed by warm days. So far it has only been a holiday for us & if the elements continue favourable I think the change will do us all good. I have manage to shake my cold off & am feeling fine again, everybody tells me I am putting on a little condition but it is also true of every one of us.
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What about things on the other side of the world it is just very midling just now what with the Naval engagement & the loss of Lord Kitchener things are in a bad way. I believe that the man who can fill his place & do his work as thoroughly as he did his will have his work cut out. We had a church memorial service here last Sunday & the parson delivered rather an eloquent address. This institute here is built of iron and is about as warm as it is outside if one sits still for five minutes it takes very near as long to get moving again. The whole camp is only capable of accommodating up to two hundred men so that you see it is only a small one. By the way it is only about a mile & a half from Greytown and it is not much of a place. The Hospital is a fine place right enough but very much scattered. I was out to Greytown to a ball last Thursday but as it is all, butt in, I did not have much of a
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time. I only had a few dances then had supper, the main thing as far as I was concerned, and got back about twelve fifteen. I enjoyed the supper very much & I can tell you, I did my duty, to the trifles, jellies, sweets, & fruit very thoroughly. We marched up here in fine style it was a grand day for marching & as our O.C. is a grand sort he did not knock us out, giving us about ten minutes spell after every half hours marching & as we had plenty of fruit some brought with us & the rest we bought off fruiteers we met on the way we arrived in camp in good form, as it is only about seven & a half miles out & we took just five minutes under the two hours to do it (that is actual marching time) you can see we were not bustled. The worst part of it is we all expected to get back to Featherston on Saturday & did not come prepared to stay any length most of us left a big share of our kits & very few brought their uniform.
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It was after our arrival here that word came that we were to go into quarantine & the cases had been reported before we left. This is quite the last place to be it is so terribly quiet and you cannot put your foot down without tramping on a stone. We all say we will be glad when we get back, home, but as long as it does not rain it will not be so bad & as the tents are fine & warm we are quite comfortable & if the work is not any heavier than we have had it will be all in favour of a bit more condition. Today we were all picking stones and placing them in two rows to make roadways, this afternoon we spent picking them out of the surface of the ground with picks. This sort of work is alright as you can do as little as possible & smoke & talk all the time in fact it is just the Government stroke. Well I hope all the Dunedin folk have returned to good health including yourself, there is nothing to write about round about here
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unless I detail to you all the wild rumours that are circulated & that would fill a book. It will be very nice if the Marama is on her return trip will it not but I hardly expect it. Will have to stop this now as my stock has run out & I am as cold as a stone. I must say we all enjoyed the Rothie & Orepuki cakes very much we had two fine suppers off them the last two nights we were in Featherston. It was very funny that they should both come by the same mail. I suppose Ernie will be in France by this time unless he has again proved to be the unfortunate one. I can well imagine his disappointment if it is so. I will just close hoping this finds you as fit & well as it leaves me.
Your Loving Brother
Charlie
