Thursday
Miramar
8/10/14
Dear Everybody.
Just received your letter last night Annie, & very pleased to get it, thought you could not have got my address, when it did not come sooner. It was quite a surprise to us to have to come ashore again, we heard on the Saturday that we had to come, but did not do so untill Monday. dinner time. We had revellie at five in the morn. expecting to be ashore at ten o’clock, but at ten we had not made a move, & it was five before we were all clear of the boat. From what is called Clyde wharfe, which is on the south side of all the others, we had about 6 miles to come to our camping ground, & and had to walk all the way & lead our horses, arriving here about 8 o’clock very cold & pretty tired.
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I can tell you the lot of us were getting pretty soft on it, for the want of exercise, & we felt it fairly long before we got here, however we are soldiers now & these things must not count. Our tents were all pitched when we arrived, the kettle boiling & we sat down to bully-beef & bread & butter, quite a decent meal for the first night in camp. The horses stood the boat journey very well, & with the exception of those that contracted strangles, very few were put out of action. Of course we were not allowed to ride them for a day or two, untill their legs cooled down a little; we had to lead them about for exercise twice a day. However we are quite restored to normal again & things are going on very well indeed, expecting to be away every other day. I think I told you of our experience with Kate, well I have not heard from her since & do not know whether she will be down before we leave or not.
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Have been out to Meir’s twice & once to Penningtons, & very kindly received at both places. Am under promise to go to Penningtons any time I like, but do not know when it will come off, because we have lectures for an hour every night now, & it would be pretty late to go anywhere after that is over. I am writing this on an army service sketching book, while our horses are having a bite of grass. We left camp with the whole lot to give them an hours grazing, & it is up now so will have to hustle back. Will finish this again, but when, I do not know. Here I am again about 20 hours later, & just up from a good dinner. The perfect calm of yesterday has turned into a very strong wind today. We have been out on the hills all morning working out little attack practices set by the Colonel.
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He is a very keen soldier & a grand man to the men, he always gives them a very good hearing in any trouble they may get into, but if they cannot assert themselves he can be very stern, he will be laughing & talking with you one minute when something goes wrong then he will freeze up in a second & you would never know he was the same man. It has been said of him that he is the best soldier leaving New Zealand, & I quite believe it. We are going to have a big day tomorrow Sat. 10/10/1914. All the troops camped in & around Wellington are going to concentrate on the old lower hut racecourse, for an inspection by General Godley. There will be something like 4,500 men turned out, quite a sight it will be I can tell you, & a long day for us, it means that we have to do a 30 mile march in the day. So when you consider that it is a mixed army you can well imagine how long it will take us. I have not been able to see Jess for two days now & unless I can get some leave this afternoon will not be able to see her untill Sunday. The best of it is I got her to do some buying for me a couple of days ago, & I have not been out since to see how she got on. However I can only hope for the best, & get out when I can. I believe she will be able to see the last of us yet, for it is pretty certain that we are to leave on the 15th that is of course if the GERMANS can be kept out of the Pacific. It is also pretty certain that
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we are going by the suez canal now instead of by cape-horn as was originally intended. I can assure you that is about the best piece of news we have heard for a long time, for nobody was looking forward to the blizzard that would be sure to strike us if we went the other way. It seems to be the general wish of every one in camp to be away from here, & on the deep as soon as possible. Well time is just about up again & I must be off, will finish this again. This afternoon the N.C.O.s. are being put for their exams & the troops are to be drilled by them. I might say here that Hugh Crawford is going up, after a fair bit of persuasion. Here it is sunday morn again & I am going to try to finish this so as to be able to post it this afternoon. As I was saying that Hugh Crawford was going up for the exam but at the last minute he thought he did not know enough & pulled out. However a big crowd went up, the results of which are not out yet, but think the force should be able to get som very good N.C.O.s out of the material supplied. Yesterday, we went for a long march out to Lower.Hut, about 14 miles from here. We left here at 8.30 o’clock arriving there at 1 o’clock, a fairly good march when you have to consider that we had to conform to the infantry pace. It was an awful day, simply blew a hurrican & some parts of the journey the spray from the harbour was blowing right over the road, very pleasant I can assure.
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The road runs round the harbour all the way, & from here right untill we past the Well. township & on to the other side we had it either in our teeth or broad side on. It was absolutely the fiercest gale I was ever out in. It started on Friday afternoon & got worse & worse all night; it was great fun, about half a dozen tents were blown off the men altogether, one in particular, the wind got inside it lifted straight up over the horses heads & landed it on the road about 6 chains away. When we got up Sat. morn. the store tents were all flat & all the mess tents too. However I am very pleased to be able to say that things have calmed down now, & today is just perfect. Here it is Monday morn 10.A.M. & I am trying to write a few more lines. I am out with the horses trying to get some grass for them & by jove some of them need it. This I think will be our last chance of getting any for them, because it is quite definite that we will be away from here on Wed. & away from Well. Thursday, that is the way things are arranged for at present. You can tell Hutton, Lottie that Birtie is doing well & rousing round the same as the rest of us. You can also tell the Menzies that I have heard of George often enough, but up to the present have not been able to see him. I went to his boat on Sund. but he had gone ashore, so I left word for him to come out here tonight, but would not be surprised if he does not get.
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We are going to break camp here tomorrow afternoon, so that means that we will have another night without sleep. We will not be able to run away & leave our tents standing the same as we did at Tahuna. Everything will have to be accounted for & packed up & sent into Defence stores. I received your letter allright Lottie & I have the honour to inform you that Officers have no regimental number, & that in future my address will be as under. The next time they write from home I would like to know it they have heard anything about the money I alloted. I take it for granted that you should receive the first payment about the end of October. Make Charlie or some of them write also & give us some of the goings on on the place, I would like to know if you have changed your minds about the quantity of oats you were going to sow, as it is quite common talk up here that most farmers are sowing a great deal more than they had intended. Well I think it is time I stopped now, I want to write North as well, & also to Jack. I think this is the last you will get from New Z. all right. I have been sitting down behind an old shed writing this, so you will need to overlook all mistakes, & I take it for granted that you will be able to read the writing. In case I should not get time to write Mr. Diack tell him that I have not forgotten him & that he will hear from me sometime. Remember me to every-body round about, & I will say au revoir again. Your loving brother E S McI.
address over.
[Insertion on top of page 7]
I meant to tell you that the pen is going grand now; thanks to Eric.
[address over page]
Lieut EMS McIntyre
7th Southland Rifles
Otago. Mtd. Reg.
H.M.N.Z.S. No. 9.
G.P.O. Wellington.
