[28/08/1915]
Trentham
Sat.
Dear May,
We are still having a good time & are more than satisfied with our treatment. We have got in with a very decent crowd of chaps & our platoon officers are particularly good & see that we get all we require. The work isn’t bad. It would be solid if they kept it up but they are very reasonable & give us plenty of spells. We rise at 6.30 pack up our clothes, wash, clean our boots etc & have breakfast, porridge & stew, about 7.15 or 7.30 & parade at 8.20. We march to our parade grounds & have squad drill until 10 then 1/4 of an hour’s sit down & a free & easy lecture on Discipline, Health, Soldierly Spirits or similar subject. 10.15 to 11 Physical drill smoko & lecture till 1/4 past then squad drill until 12 when we march back & are dismissed for dinner. Dinner consists of dry rations – bread butter cheese & jam & tea. We fall in about 1.20 & leave for parade ground at 1.30. The programme is similar to that of the morning & we are dismissed at 4.30. About 5.15 we have tea. This consists of roast meat, potatoes, sometimes vegetables & plenty of bread etc. We are then off for the day but of course can’t leave the grounds. At 9.30 roll is called but we need not be in until 10. At that time every one must be in bed & lights out. No one is allowed to talk after 5 past 10 nor are we allowed to talk or get up before the bugle goes at 6.30. Everything is done systematically & right on the tick &
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no one is allowed to do anything that will cause a disturbance to the rest. We are treated very fairly & get plenty of chances to lodge any complaints. Every breakfast & teatime the Q.M. Sergt comes around & we have to drop our knife & fork & he asks if there are any complaints about the food. Twice a day we are lined up & any who are not feeling well have to fall out & are marched off to the Dr. No matter what we want we just have to mention it to the Corporal & he sees that we get satisfaction. They are very particular about health & sanitation. Every Saturday & Wed we have to be examined by the Dr & go for a swim in the afternoon. We got our 1st dip yesterday. The whole camp – 3500 of us marched about a mile to the Hutt River (about the size of the Dome). It was a great sight. It is in among the hills with lovely clumps of bush & open spaces with green grass along the banks we were all marched in & dismissed for 1/2 an hour. It is not compulsory to go right in but everyone must wash his feet; however the water looked so nice & I felt so grimy that I went right in & had a fine splash. The bank & water were just teeming with men. It reminded me of pictures I have seen of myriads of sea birds crowding along a beach & in the water. About camp everything must be put in it’s
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place. Throwing refuse, scraps or orange peel about the camp is a great offence & we are not allowed to spit anywhere within the camp area except in the gutters. I don’t know what the punishment is & am not anxious to find out. We have been warned that grave offences mean instant dismissal from the forces. Last Friday we were put on cleaning up the old camping ground where they had the tents. It must have been something awful. Trentham is just a broadening out of the Hutt valley. It is about 1 mile across with scrub covered hills all round except where the river runs through. There is a main road & the Wairarapa rly running through & about a doz or 20 houses. The plain is very level but is old bush country & for the most part is black swampy soil with old stumps of trees in it but in many parts the gravelly subsoil comes very near the surface. Parts of it are just in their natural state – boggy swamp. The watercourses are not creeks but just shallow hollows something like the one in our paddock. Well it was right across one of the hollows that the camp had been pitched. The majority of the tents were on the slope but they had made no attempt to dodge the hollow
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[Small diagram showing layout for tents and ditches]
& quite a number of tents were pitched right in the lowest part. They had dug ditches, some of them a foot deep, right around the tents & then connected them with the ditch next door as above. The tents were inside the centre & were only 4 feet apart. There was no gravel except on the main track through the camp & there was only a sprinkling there. The rest of the ground between the tents & where many of the tents had been is now dried land but we could see it had been horribly puddled up. It resembled a dried up stock yard more than anything else. Many of the poor beggars had carried turf from somewhere & turfed the whole floor of their tents. Pretty well all of them had built a row of large boulders round the edge of their tents & white washed them. It probably served to cheer them up a bit but it fell to our lot to remove them all & level off the ground. The whole camp turned out with barrows, picks, shovels & spades & after about 3 hours we got it pretty well finished. I believe we are to use it as a parade ground now. We could not help being struck by the contrast between the old style and the new. The whole of the present hut area is gravel & all the gutters drains sinks etc are concrete & are washed down & scrubbed several times a day. The huts I have already described. I hope soon to have a few snaps
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to send you, they will give you a better idea. It would be difficult to imagine a cleaner or healthier looking show. Cleanliness is supposed to come next to Godliness but up here it comes before it – very much before it I am afraid. There is still a lot to do especially to the side tracks & footpaths, but it is being pushed on as quickly as poss. There is a railway line right through the camp & train loads of gravel come in as quickly as they can empty them. The men start work at 7am & go till 6 & today (Sunday) they are working away as usual. The shops in the camp are also open on Sunday they say it is the only day in the week that they do any good especially the photographers. Of course it is our day off. We have to rise at 6.30 & parade for church 1/4 to 10 & today we had to parade before the Dr at 11 & all had to gargle our throats with some purply coloured wash & let him examine them. We were then dismissed for the day so after dinner I took my pad and pencil & pushed off out onto the hill to do a little writing in quietness. The other 3 are scattered about the hill too at the same job. There is always so much talking in the hut that I can’t write more than a few scrappy lines. There is a fair sprinkling
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of people out from Well. today & the band is playing so it is all right sitting here in the sun shine among the manuka & looking right down on the camp. It is the best days writing I have put in since I came here – about 3 1/2 hours of it at a stretch. This morning we went to the Meth. Church & tonight I think we will attend the Presb. for a change. Most of the churches have rooms here for writing & social gatherings & there is always a bit of music going somewhere. There are a few sideshows chiefly shooting galleries & a picture show. There are also 3 photographers, 2 jewellers, 3 tobacconists & hairdressers, a stationer, a billiard saloon, 2 laundries & a tailor beside the canteen where we can buy pretty well anything we want. Albert B & I paid a memorable visit to the barber last night & had a real military clip – fringe & all right off as close as the machine would go. It has spoilt our looks completely but it feels lovely. I had a roll of film dev’d on the grounds last night but it wasn’t too good a job, so will keep the rest till I go to Well. Will enclose proof off the best of them. One is our first meal at Trentham the other was taken at Milton station “the day after the night before” & represents one phase of a soldier’s life. Will have to stop now.
Love to all from Len
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P.S. Tell mother not to do anything about my housewife just now unless she has already finished it, but she can post up my little scissors. We had a swag of holdalls tossed into the carriage at one of the stations as we came up & I got one so at present there is no need for it. Furthermore it is made of strong grey flexible material something like thick silenese. It is quite strong & tough & not nearly so bulky as canvas & when we leave here all our belongings have to go into a small canvas bag which has been issued to us so space will be limited. Will let you know my requirements later. Haven’t seen Aunt Tot yet but dropped her a few lines one night last week.
