Te Marae o Hine/The Square, Palmerston North, 1921.
“For five days I had occupied a cellar beneath a wrecked building in Villers-Bretonneux, France. An oil lamp burned continuously, for no light entered my gloomy abode. My duties as a company clerk confined me to my musty, dimly-lit quarters.
“Here, I was comparatively secure from shell fire, for the wrecked building overhead was really a five-ton pile of protective bricks.
‘My commanding officer was quartered in a cellar 20 yards away, and we communicated with one another by means of a low tunnel which acted as a speaking tube ... it was very quiet at 8pm on the night of June 9, 1918, when I sat at a rickety table to compile the daily ration statement.