A World War I diary kept by 85713 Private P W Rule machine gun section 49th Reinforcements, the diary covers his training in New Zealand from the date that he leaves his home town of Timaru until the date that he discovers that the war is over and he is no longer needed to deploy overseas, the diary is interesting in that it covers not only the training of an elite force of specialists (machine gunners) at the time but that also the author is having to contend with the influenza epidemic at the same time. He details medical issues as well as the occasional death during training at Featherston Camp, the diary covers 1918 and is well detailed, the author did not serve overseas due the conclusion of hostilities, and few men kept diaries during this period. Rule was obviously a soldier with some ability partly as he was made a specialist (machine gunner) and partly as he regularly led his gun crew. A very interesting document