Change

Not a few of them had known the stairs and benches (are they still as hard?) of Wikitoria. Not a few noble lumps of grey matter were concealed beneath those peaked felt hats, and many a body schooled to athletic endeavour in a cooler clime now flaunted itself in tropic shirt and shorts.

Ron. Corkill, a second lieutenant of Artillery, practised the mysteries of his craft "somewhere in Fiji." If memory serves aright, I. A. [unclear: Berendsen] was also seen, in masterly con templation of a strange and complicated machine alleged by the gunners to be an offensive weapon. It looked offensive. In the P.B.I. Bill Trickle-bank and [unclear: Iai.] 'Galloway were "[unclear: pipers]," and led their men in many a [unclear: grim] battle with [unclear: imaginar] [unclear: invaders]. Bill Leith combined the duties of sergeant of "Meds" with those of honorary [unclear: Jibrarian] of the Y.M.C.A. Library a [unclear: upon] indeed to those of us who had gotten the habit of reading. All [unclear: honour] to the staff who put in so much [unclear: fabour for] so [unclear: little] reward.

Graham Wilson, also of the Medicals, having earned his commission on the field, is now also a "pipper" and a person of consequence. Sergeant [unclear: Sturmer], once of V.U.C. Tramping Club, now practises his bush-lore on the Fijian bush, a pleasant place enough were it not for things with a surplus of legs and offensive arms, and trees and plants which sting and scratch.

In retrospect, it seems that we had a lot of fun in Fiji, and were quite happy much of the time. Australian beer was a shilling a bottle, when supplies didn't run out, and tobacco was cheap. Our chief trouble was boredom. In the absence of an enemy, Army life is apt to pall. Suva was small and the white population rather exclusive, and once the glamour had worn off we found it dull and dirty. The natives are interesting, but ethnology does not provide much entertainment for the average man; so, in short, we had little to do.

The New Zealand of which we have dreamed and sung, in verses, none the less sincere for their ribaldry, seems a cold place indeed, and many luxuries are distressingly short, but—we're Home at [unclear: last.]

And so we "say farewell to Fiji, lovely isle of the South Sea, set like a jewel [unclear: in] the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean, and as we watch its mountains fade on the horizon we say, "I wonder if there's a wet canteen aboard?"

Sa Moce