MAORI WAR VETERANS.

A REUNION AND AN ACCIDENT

WANGANUI, Nov. 17

Sunday last was the forty-third anniversary of the fight at Weraroa, where the well-known redoubt of that name was successfully defended by the "Weraroa Boys" against a determined attack by a large body of Maoris.

A number of survivors determined to celebrate the occasion by a reunion at the spot where the redoubt stood. Ten veterans started out from Wangariui this morning for the scene of the now historic engagement. There were three motor cars, and all went well till after passing Kai Iwi, when the leading car, which was a considerable distance ahead of the others, crashed twenty feet over the bank on the side of the road, carrying the driver and three occupants to what at one moment looked like certain death.

Those in the. car were Richard Tingey (Wellington), J. Northover (Marton), and E. McCalloch (Wahganui), and the chaff cur. Northover was thrown clear, but the car capsized on the others. Nofthover ran back and gave the alarm, and when the wrecked car was lifted sufficiently the imprisoned men were released. It was found ■that Tingey kad a rib broken and that the other three were seriously bruised and shaken. Their escape from death is regarded as marvellous. The irony of the affair is that the "Weraroa Boys" to-day sustained more casualties than they did at garrison forty-three years ago.