[22/09/1915]
N.Z. Expeditionary Force
D Company 8th Reinforcements
Trentham Military Camp
Wed 22nd
Dear May,
We are getting along in great style here, every day we are onto fresh work & find the job very interesting. We finish our preliminary firing practice tomorrow & leave this week for Tauherenikau camp further up the line. We were supposed to be here for 7 weeks & the change in the arrangements is generally interpreted to mean that we are to leave earlier than was at first intended but of course we have heard nothing official & I think it unlikely they will change the standing arrangement of sending a batch every two months. Today when we were at the butts a little black spaniel got up the back of one of the targets & was having great sport chasing about after little puffs of dust that the bullets knocked up. For two hours it dodged in & out among the bullets, & one time it came round onto the mound in front of the targets & raced up & down past the targets barking like mad at the whistling bullets. We saw dozens of bullets land within a few inches of it but none touched
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it. There were 500 of us shooting at 25 targets so you can imagine how many bullets were flying about. At last when we were just about finished for the day they reckoned it was becoming a nuisance as it was getting between the men & the targets & taking away their attention so one of the staff officers picked up a rifle & took a shot at it at 250 yards & knocked it clean out first shot. It seemed a bit of hard luck after it had had such a run of good luck. Last Friday we were all on scrubbing out the hut & as there were too many cooks at the job a few were amusing themselves playing catchers with a stone when one chap caught it on the side of the nose with the result that he had to put in three days in the casualty Hosp. with a broken nose. There was supposed to be an inquiry but it seems to have blown over as there has been no more said about it. There is not nearly as much rowdyism here as I had expected. I imagine a crowd of crooks with inquiries & C.B. (confined to barracks) galore but
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I am glad to say I had made a big mistake. I have not heard of a single thing being lost but on the other hand there is hardly a day but someone finds a wristlet watch, purse or something of the sort & hands it in to the Officer in Charge. The washing that I was so afraid of losing never causes us the least anxiety now & if it is not dry at night it is left out until morning. As far as I know only two men have gone up. One was discharged on the spot & I believe the other got a fortnight C.B. with pay stopped. As there are about 5000 of us here it is not a bad record for a month. The chief failing here is the language. I never heard anything like it but I suppose it’s a soldier’s privilege. I have heard of people ‘swearing like a trooper’ but I never fully realized what that was like before. I see by this morning’s paper that Barty Farrington has been wounded but it doesn’t seem to be anything serious. We usually manage to get a paper every day but very often we have only time to look at the headlines so we probably miss a good deal of the news.
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We have just received word that we leave by train tomorrow morning for Tauherenikau. The permanent camp there is just being built & will just about be ready by the time we leave so that we will have to live in tents with floors. Any I have spoken to who have been there seem to be well satisfied with the camp. It is about 3 miles from Featherston. Paddy Boraman has managed to get into the Force & is doing fatigue work over at the race-course Hosp. He is on the permanent staff of the army service corp but expects to get away as a driver to the ambulance corp. Last night he came over & asked me if I had his watch with me so I told him I would send for it. You might post it up to me, it is the silver one & has his name on. There is an old brassy one there too but don’t send it. Most likely I’ll have to return it as I don’t suppose he will have the cash. Expect to have a batch of prints for next letter.
Love to all
Len
