11.—19b.

204

[H. T. J. THACKER.

cases were separated from one another, but it took quite a lot of the nurses' attention that were not invalided to look after their sister nurses. The nurses were in bed absolutely ill: there is no doubt about that. I think that points to the virulence of the trouble. It is very seldom you get nurses attacked so that they cannot look after themselves. Now, sir, I want to make just a few remarks on the whole position. In regard to the food, the men have complained personally to me—the men who have reported sick and otherwise 136. The Chairman.] Does this apply generally to the men who have been, sick all the time? —Yes, to the invalids. They say the food that was given to the sick men was very indifferently cooked. I have questioned the men particularly on this subject. I questioned them on Saturday in and about the buildings on the racecourse, and they said they scarcely* ever saw vegetables. They got stews, and they said that if about the fourth man discovers a bit of carrot or a bit of turnip in it it is about all he can see. That is not because of the scarcity of vegetables, because in a city there are tons of vegetables to be had. These men want green vegetables. 137. We had evidence that these men got vegetables three times a week?— The sick men and soldiers generally should have vegetables. It is all very well to talk about war-time, but these men were training to fight the biggest battle that has ever occurred in the world, and we should have the best food we can get to feed them. 138. There is nothing in the scale, but the evidence we had was that (hey got vegetables supplied from.Taita? —Yes; it is a matter of necessity. 139. Mr. Ferguson.] They had special contrivances to cook them in? -I do not think there are enough cookers. Tho sick men told me that they got half-boiled sago and half-boiled rice. When I was out there three weeks ago I saw the sick men in and about the tea-kiosk eating big crude lumps of bread with a little bit of jam on it. I think they call that morning tea or lunch. That is no good for a sick man ; he needs plenty of soups and hot milk. 14-0. You did not see any soups or milk foods?— No. 1 suggested that in my interview in the paper, and I believe there was a great improvement after that. These men want soups and jellies to get them back on to their proper food. Then again, there is almost a total absence of bathing facilities. There should have been at least five or six hundred shower-baths in the camp generally, if not more. If they could not have been warm they ought to have been tepid, so that the men could wash themselves. Now, 1 know of a man who came in from Trentham to get a bath. 1 took him in because I wanted to sec the experiment. You could almost see the dirt on his face. I took him into a hotel and gave him a bath, and it surprised me to see the amount of dirt in the water after he had finished. If they could steal some hot water from the gympie, or poach some in a small bowl, it is all they could do. There was also an insufficiency of soap, there being practically no soap at all. 141. Mr. Salmond.] It was not supplied to them? —They did not, have any soap, and they complained that there was a dearth of soap. 142. Do you know that soap was not supplied to them free?—l do not know anything about that. 143. What do you mean when you say there was an insufficiency of soap?—l mean the men could not obtain soap. 144. They could not buy it at the canteen when they wanted it?— That is wdiat, they told me. Now, there is a question, of vital importance, and that is that we have sent to the front a large quantity of motor-ambulances, while there has not been one in connection with the work of the camp. When this disturbance began these sick men with measles were taken at late hours of the evening in open motor-cars to Kaiwarra and the different hospitals, and the Defence Department could very easily have secured two or three. They only had to ask for them and the people would have given them. We see motor-ca.rs being given and raffled in connection with the patriotic funds, and it would have been an easy matter to have taken the bodies off the cars and fixed them up so that the men could be carried in comfort. 145. Dr. Martin.] The men were brought into town from Trentham in open taxis?— Yes, in open taxis. The men were waiting in the jockeys' quarters to be taken in. 146. Were any men in a serious condition brought in in that way? —I could not say that, because I did not see them. These men were smothered in measle-rash, and you know, doctor, that we do not allow a measle patient with a rash out of bed. These men were, in their ordinary attire waiting to be transferred to town or Kaiwarra. I tried to get, two or three of the men together to come and give evidence, but they said they could not do it, They said that the greatest luxury of their lives was to get off for two or three hours to Wellington—not to have a meal, but to get a bath and get cleaned. 147. Mr. Ferguson.] Did the officers tell you that? —The officers and non-commissioned officers. 148. And Medical Officers? —I had very little to do with tho Medical Officers. Another thing, sir, which is a great omission is that the authorities should have had in the City of Wellington a consulting or waiting room where the doctors of Wellington would voluntarily have gone and put in an hour or two during the day, and where these soldiers could have called and got such things as tonics and have been prescribed for. 149. The Chairman.] To attend to any one on leave?— Yes. While I was in Mr. Fletcher's chemist shop the other morning four soldiers came in; they did not know what they wanted : some of them had healing sore throats, some husky voices, and they looked depressed and miserable. T spoke to one of them, and as they came along I could hear them saying that they knew I was a doctor. They all practically had the same thing—a good tonic to pick them up and put them back on their food. I am sure the Wellington doctors would do that; they only need to be asked. The whole thing, to my mind, comes to this: that there has been antagonism between the military section, of the doctors' in Wellington and the civil doctors; there has been a rupture