Coins & Tokens - Miscellaneous Tokens

Lot 4942    SESSION 17 (9.30AM FRIDAY 15TH SEPTEMBER)    Coins & Tokens - Miscellaneous Tokens

Estimate $500
Bid at live.noble.com.au
SOLD $300

FEATHERSTON CANTEENS, (Featherston Military Camp, 1915-1927), fourpence chits, A 80116/7 consecutive pair (Y.p29). Extremely fine and very rare. (2)

Although these chits are not specifically mentioned in the following dissertation, one could reasonably assume that they were used in the first camp (prior to 1927) rather than at the Internment Camp of WWII. Further research may confirm this.

"Featherston Camp was the largest of the military camps in New Zealand where reinforcements for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force trained during the First World War. Most army personnel trained at Trentham Camp from October 1914 until July 1915, when the Defence Department revised its training arrangements. From January 1916 Trentham and Featherston camps shared the bulk of New Zealand's training needs, with Maori and Pacific Island troops based at Narrow Neck Camp in Auckland and medical reinforcements at Awapuni Camp in Palmerston North. Featherston Camp, together with its satellite camps at Tauherenikau and Papawai, could accommodate 9850 men in huts and tents. Its campsites and training grounds collectively covered 1861 acres (753 ha) of land in the Featherston-Greytown area.

Around 60,000 New Zealand military personnel who subsequently served overseas spent time at Featherston Camp, about two-thirds of the total. The government used the camp as a military hospital and German prisoner of war camp during 1919, and then as an ordnance depot until 1927. The army built a new Japanese prisoner of war camp there in 1942, which was closed in 1945.

Canteen & Shops

The men could buy extra food and other goods at the camp canteen with their weekly allowance of 4s ($20-$25). At 208 feet (63.4 m) long by 52 feet (15.8 m) wide, the canteen was one of the camp's largest and most conspicuous buildings. Stanbrook noted: 'At the canteen the soldier is able to buy clothing, toilet requisites, fruit, soft drinks, all kinds of tinned goods, cigarettes and various tobaccos, stationery, hot tea and coffee, cakes and meat pies - in short, the canteen has nearly everything for the man who has money to spend. An on-site bakery provided fresh food. One thing the canteen could not sell was alcohol. From February 1915 it was illegal to sell alcohol to soldiers in uniform except to drink on the premises where they were sold, and from November 1915 it was illegal for anyone to possess alcohol on the grounds of a military camp. The Defence Department initially contracted private operators to run the canteen, but cancelled the contract early in 1918 so that it could be run by C2 men (those classified medically unfit for military service) on behalf of the Department. This both lowered prices for the soldier and generated some income for the Department.

The Department also allowed private businesses to operate in the grounds of the camp. The shopkeepers paid both rent and trading rights to the Department, and opened at times prescribed by the camp authorities (7-8.30 a.m., 12-1.30 p.m. and 4.30-9.30 p.m. on weekdays; 12-9.30 p.m. on Saturdays). This arrangement provided basic services to the recruits and also helped meet the huge costs of operating a military camp. By May 1916 the shopkeepers at Trentham and Featherston camps had collectively paid the Department ?20,750 (equivalent to more than $2.6 million in 2010) in rent and trading rights. The shops at Featherston included military outfitters, bootmakers, a laundromat, baths, a watchmaker and jeweller, a hairdresser, a bowling alley, and a recreational indoor rifle range.

The camp closed in 1927.

The government reoccupied the site of the main Featherston Camp in September 1942 for use as a prisoner of war camp for Japanese work crews and military personnel who had been captured by American forces at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. These men were housed in wooden barracks buildings constructed on top of the concrete remains of the First World War camp. The perimeter was secured by high barbedwire fences. An incident at the camp on 25 February 1943 culminated in the deaths of 48 prisoners and a guard. The surviving prisoners embarked for the Japanese port of Yokohama on 30 December 1945."

(Courtesy Manatu Taonga/Ministry for Culture and Heritage - 'Featherston Military Training Camp and the First World War, 1915-27')