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[h. lockwood

94. You prefer the louvre ventilation at the ends ? —Yes 95. Is that not draughty ?■ —No, not in my experience. I have had a good deal to do with wood and iron—fourteen years in South Africa in batteries and things at the mines. We have always used the louvre ventilation at the mines. 96. Were you at Trentham when the sample hut was built ?—No. 97. Do you know the hut which was built first ? —I was under the impression that the lirst hut that was built was the one the carpenters are using. 98. Has not that louvre ventilation ? —No. 99. Is there no hut there with louvre ventilation under the gables ? —Not where the soldiers are. 100. How long did you sleep in a hut ?—All the time I was there. 101. The whole five weeks ? —I used to come into town on the Saturday nights and go back on the Sunday nights. 102. Where did you find the draught came from ?—From two places—above and below. 103. What is the draught from below due to ?—Wrong construction of the hut. They put in what they call a plinth, and I think it is a great drawback. For one thing it catches all the water and makes the floors damp. With the corrugations running down the walls you have the iron on the plinth. It catches the water all the while, which runs in beneath. 104. Does it stop the draught ?—No. 105. How would, you stop the draught ? —The plinth will stop the draught from coming up under the iron, but it does not stop it from getting underneath, the floor. 106. It stops it from coming up the iron ? —Yes. 1,07. Whore do you say the draught comes ?—ln between the wall-plate and the flooring. Instead of the flooring running over the wall-plate, as it should do, and right up against the iron, they have built the floor to butt against, the wall-plate, and when the flooring dries out a little it will leave a space all along where you will be able to see daylight. 108. That could easily be, stopped, I suppose —that small opening at, the end of the boards, I suppose, could easily be, stopped by a piece of moulding, or packed paper, or something like that ?—You could pack it with paper, yes. 109. A number of men who came in at the end of May were put into hutments that had no windows, you say ? —Yes. 110. Were there frames provided for those windows ? —The frames and the sashes came up separately. The sashes were not fitted. The frames came up ready-made, and the sashes came up separately, and the sashes had to be fitted and hinged on the job. Why that was not done somewhere else I do not know. 111. How long had the sashes been on the ground ?—There were enough sashes to finish the huts that the men went into. I had to cover them up. 112. How long had they been on the ground ?—There were enough sashes and frames there to have done the other huts. 113. It would be the fault of the foreman, I suppose, that they were not put in ?—Yes. 114. What is the foreman's name —Seddon ? ; —Seddon was the foreman. I suppose the two of them were equally to blame. 115. Give us the name of the other ?—Wilton. You may think I am speaking against him, but I have a right to explain why I say this. The Chairman : The object in getting the name is that if they think it necessary this man may be given an opportunity of explaining. Witness : There is no reason that I can think of at all why those sashes and frames should not have been all ready and put into those huts. Besides that, the timber was brought on to the ground by carts, instead of being placed near the mill, where it ought to have been put. It was often unloaded two or three hundred yards away, and then it would have to be brought back to the mill to be cut. 116. Mr. Gray.] Why do you not think the double hut is a good plan ?—lt is too long. 117. Too long for what ?—-With the alleyways between the huts you never get a chance of drying the ground at all. 118. What difference does it make whether the hut is 50 ft. or 100 ft. long ? —lf they are broken up more you get more air and wind. 119. That is the only objection ? —Yes, I suppose so—except that you could not get the louvres to act as well in a hut with such a length as in a small one. Aylmee Blacltn sworn and examined. (No. 60.) 1. Mr. Skerrett.] You are a sergeant-major in the New Zealand Modioal Corps ?—No, not at present. 2. You were ? —Yes. 3. Where are you at present —attached to headquarters ? —Yes. 4. Would you mind stating very briefly your military experience ? —Seven years in tho Royal Army Medical Corps. 5. In what capacity ?—I joined as a private, and became a sergeant. Before I joined the Army I was in the Navy five years and a half—the Medical Branch of the Navy. 6. So you really had twelve and a half years' experience in the Imperial service on the medical side ? —Yes. 7. I think you came to New Zealand as a civilian ? —Yes. 8. And volunteered for service on the outbreak of the war, and you were sent to Samoa as a private in the New Zealand Medical Corps ? —Quite so.