unknown survival kit/ration

[dialga16021999]

so...while in Amsterdam i found a unique looking survival kit in an antique shop. it has no known date codes and all i can really see from it is that it was made in new Zealand. in anyone has any info please post here.

becasue the pictures are low quality, and i don't have a better camera. here's a list of the items included.
contents-
whistle paper
matches tourniquet
candles antiseptic crystals
fishing line & hooks plastic bag
scalpel blade needle & thread
aspirins pencil
elastoplast food tablets
bandage heliograph
stile dressing
sticking plaster (1 yard) it also says manufactured by c.m.s cartridges

[MinnTech]

can you post a higher rez set of pictures or ones with better focus?
It's pretty much impossible to read what's written

[wats6831]

so...while in Amsterdam i found a unique looking survival kit in an antique shop. it has no known date codes and all i can really see from it is that it was made in new Zealand. in anyone has any info please post here.

becasue the pictures are low quality, and i don't have a better camera. here's a list of the items included.
contents-
whistle paper
matches tourniquet
candles antiseptic crystals
fishing line & hooks plastic bag
scalpel blade needle & thread
aspirins pencil
elastoplast food tablets
bandage heliograph
stile dressing
sticking plaster (1 yard) it also says manufactured by c.m.s cartridges

Hey, can you get some good photos of it? Or if you want you can send it to me and I will do a review or a photo shoot of it? You may want to consider sending it to one of the reviewers as well, to get it properly documented.

[specopsaust]

I've got one here.

NZ-made "Surviva-Kit". In the 1970s these were popular with hikers/trampers/bushwalkers.

Here's some pics to document the kit and its contents - Victorinox Huntsman in the last pic for scale. The container is the same size as a tobacco tin. As promised in the instructions, the interior of the tin itself certainly is shiny enough to use as a signal mirror, but I wouldn't go punching holes in the tin as they suggest. Instead, the "V" finger method, while aiming over the top of the tin would have been more appropriate. The only discrepancy I've found with the list of contents is that the elastoplast and the yard of sticking plaster appear to be the same thing.
The "Food Tablets" appear to be malted milk tablets.
The last image is an ad which appeared in a bushwalking magazine circa mid 1970s. Note the "Surviva-Kit's" companion, an emergency ration pack called the "Canpak"

[steve1989]

Wow, thank you for sharing that! What a great little kit.

[carlosflar]

Interesting kit! But i find weird at there are food tablets, that sice they cant have many calories, i would switch them for water purification tablets

[specopsaust]

Interesting kit! But i find weird at there are food tablets, that sice they cant have many calories, i would switch them for water purification tablets

Back in those days, the "antiseptic crystals" included with this kit were also used for water purification (amongst other things). The crystals themselves are condy's crystals, AKA potassium permanganate. More recent studies have proved that potassium permanganate is not the best form of water purification since its efficacy depends upon a contact time of over 24hrs for a 1g to 1 litre solution to kill most nasties. Compare that to modern chemical water purification tablets such as Aquatabs (sodium dichloroisocyanurate) which have a contact time of 30 minutes for a 1 tab to 1 litre solution. But back in the day folks carried condy's crystals instead of proper water purification tablets, and since they were included in this kit, no further water purification chemicals would have been thought necessary by this kit's designers.

Personally, if I was to include some type of foodstuffs in a survival kit, it'd be tea, sugar and stock (bullion) cubes like OXo or similar. Sure, with they're more as morale boosters than anything else, with the stock cubes only providing 16-odd calories each, but the stock cubes might add back some salt.

I'm betting they included malted milk tabs in this kit because that's what the designer was familiar with from various wartime kits and civilian emergency rations of the 40s, 50s and 60s. Based on calorific value, as you say they aren't that useful. According to the nutritional info on a packet of modern Malaysian market Horlicks' "Malties" (, which are re-branded traditional Horlicks' Malted Milk Tablets) each tablet has just over 5 calories, so this little envelope of "Food Tablets" would have a total calorific value of maybe 23 or 24 calories.

It's interesting how emergency ration technology has changed over the years from the Boer War era pemmican and chocolate of the British Emergency Service Ration to the Horlicks' Tablets of the WWII and post-war years, to the compressed freeze dried foods and cereal bars of the 60s and 70s to the Mainstay-style high calorie emergency food bars of today.

[Mattm199]

Interesting First Aid instructions - first, "Stop Breeding"
Good advice for those backpackers in the 70's!

[SentientTootsieRoll]

Interesting First Aid instructions - first, "Stop Breeding"
Good advice for those backpackers in the 70's!

I was just waiting for someone to say it. I knew we were all thinking it, but I didn't want to be the one to say it.