H.—6c.

TROOPER MCGOVERIN.i

43

827. You say when you made the complaint to an officer he took you to the cook-house and gave you more food ? —He gave us more. 828. And then you say you were not satisfied ?—I do not say I was not satisfied. 829. Were you satisfied that he did what he could for you ?—We had to be satisfied, I suppose. 830. Why ?—I thought it was enough, such as it was. 831. What was the complaint to the officer? —That there was not enough stew. 832. You say that you complained that there was not enough, and the officer took you to the cook-house and got you more?—A little more. 833. You said you considered it enough ?—They reckoned it was enough. 834. Did they go away satisfied ?— I went up with the officer and he got us some more, and we had to be satisfied with that. 835. When you were mess orderly did you not see that there was sufficient for the mess ?— No; I just took what they gave me. 836. That is to say, you bought your own food and did not care much about your mess-mates ? —No. 837. Captain Lewin.] You say you gave these cooks Is. for a cup of tea and a bun ? —They sent me down potatoes and something else. 838. Did they not give you meat ?—I never took meat on the boat. 839. Did other men get meat from the cooks' galley ? —Yes. 840. They got good meat, I suppose ?—I could not tell whether it was good or not. 841. Was it better than the men got?—l could not say. I never troubled about it. 842. The Chairman.] Was the crew fed from the same galley as the troops? —I could not say. Trooper Chaeles William Dodd examined on oath. (No. 11.) 843. The Chairman.] Were you a member of any contingent ?—The Eighth New Zealand. 844. What was your rank ?—Trooper. 845. Were you in either of the other contingents ?—No, sir. 846. You sent up your name and address as being willing to give evidence before this Commission : will you be good enough to inform the Commission what you wish to say?— Well, I do not know anything about the hospital. I was in the troop galley assisting the cook. Sometimes the meat was all right, and at other times it was pretty bad and half-cooked. That happened on several occasions. Of course, I used to tell the cooks, and they used to say it was quite good enough for the "dogs," and they said when they took the Tommies over they had far worse than that. The tea was not fit to drink. They used to make two half-boilers of tea and filled them up with cold water, and it was the same with the soup. Then, with regard to those preserves and the apples : the apples were alive with maggots, many crawling over them. Of course, the troopers would never eat them. Then, the rice was all mouldy. Then, there was fish: the fish were left on the deck. Of course, the dogs used to run about and do what they liked on the fish, and the fish was brought in and shoved into the boiler. Of course, the troops would not eat it, and bully beef was given instead. The same boilers were used for the tea as were used for the meat, and the other boilers were not half cleaned. The steam was turned on, and then the tea was put in and it was boiled. There was no room to hang the hammocks down in our lot—the H squadron. It was completely crowded down there. I think that is about all. Ido not know anything about the hospital or anything like that. I was always well myself during the voyage. 847. The Chairman.] What complaints have you about the water? —There are several complaints. Sometimes the water was off. It was off pretty often, and you had to wait for water. I think that is about all. 848. What were your duties in the troop galley ? —I used to go there and lend a hand in many things. 849. Were you employed in the troop galley : how did you get there ?—I only went of my own free-will. 850. Were you ordered there? —No ; I went of my own free-will. 851. Did you go every day? —Yes ; from half-past 6 in the morning till 8 at night. 852. When you saw all this bad making of tea did you never take any steps to remedy it?—l just told the cook ; and he said it was good enough for the men, and the Tommies had the same. 853. Did you bring it under the notice of the officers?— Yes ;my own captain was one, and once or twice to Captain Haselden. 854. Did you report this to him ?—No, I did not report it. There was plenty of reporting as it was. The troopers never had half enough to eat, and they used to come to the butcher's shop and get bully beef. 855. Did they always get it?— Not always ; but they got it sometimes. 856. You thiuk there was not enough meat served out to the men?—No, not by a long way. 857. Have you any idea how much was served out to each man ?—I could not tell you exactly, but there were joints cooked for fourteen or twenty men. 858. You think the men did not get enough rations ?—No. 859. They did not get anything like 1 lb. a day ?—No. 860. Did you help the cooks ?—Yes. The meat and potatoes came along and were shoved into the boiler and the steam turned on. 861. Did you have the turning-on of the steam ?—Yes. 862. Did the men ever get baked meat?—No ; always boiled or stewed. 863. You say sometimes the meat was good and sometimes bad ?—Yes. 864. How often bad ?—Pretty often. The men used to complain about it.