RANDOM SHOTS

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 88, 15 April 1899, Page 4 (Supplement)

RANDOM SHOTS

Some write, a neighbour's name to lash, loml write-vain thpught-for needful Somc Swrite'to please the country clash, And raise a din. For me, an aim I never fash— I write for fun.

It is somewhat of a coincidence that while the British and American bluejackets were bravely battling for their lives against an overwhelming force of naked Samoans at Vailele on the afternoon of April Ist, the Auckland volunteers were excitedly enrolling at the same hour of the same date at the Easter encampment for expected service in Samoa. But what a difference there was! Our untried citizen spl-

tliers were busy signing their names and getting photographed under the admiring gaze of their lady friends, while at that moment, so to speak (I am not taking into account, however, the difference in nautical time),the AngloAmerican force was fighting its way through the bush against a horde of savage sharpshooters—the very work in which it was fancied the Auckland volunteers would be employed. It is iust as well that the Aucklanders didn't happen to be-there; there would have been a few vacancies in their accustomed .places in this city when the war was over, and a few more graves xmder the cocoanuts at Mulinuu Point.

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It is a most regrettable thing that the lives of brave men should be thrown away as they were in that unhappy encounter in the bush at Vailele the other day. Surely valuable lives of Englishmen and Americans are of more importance than the dispute as to who shall or shall not be the nominal native king of Samoa. It seems the height of folly (now that the catastrophe has occurred) to send a small force into the bush, to which they are unaccustomed, to perhaps face an active enemy of ten times their number. Samoans, like the Maoris, delight in bush fighting, and the laying of ambuscades is their favourite and most successful form of warfare. The best cl white troops are handicapped m ibe bush against a light-going enemy; and if the trained and hardy sailors from the warships were so hard hit that they had to retreat, leaving their dead behind them, how would our volunteers, however plucky they might be, come o\it of it ■under similar circumstances? The loss of life would be great. But New Zealand volunteers have done valiantly and well in the past, and will again. This is another point for consideration: The Mataafa party are patriots fighting for their country—whether they are really right or wrong, they -consider themselves in the right—and they are entitled to just as mtich consideration as Avere the brave Waikato in the kingite war in New Zealand. All the rights are not on the side of the Europeans, and it is saddening to see a fine race like this decimated, harried, and impoverished through the miserable intrigues of outsiders.

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The officers of the expeditionary force which was ambuscaded at Vailele seem to have been especially picked out as targets by Mataafa's men. Three officers killed is a big percentage out of a total of seven fatalities. It was the same in the recent fighting on the North-West frontier of India, where the Afridis' bullets were for choice aimed at the officers. Poor Freeman died while looking after his American allies, and there was something heroic as well as pathetic in the way the gallant young Ensign Monaghan of the Philadelphia met his death. He could have saved his life had he chosen ; his wounded comrade besought him to leave and seek safety in retreat, and Monaghan could have done so witiiout disci-edit to his courage. But like a brave gentleman he Btuck by his stricken friend, and died there fighting against fearful odds, game to the last. ' Gi'eater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend.'-

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It is incidents like these that show •what men are capable of under the fiery test of danger. The Vailele fight adds another to the list of ' little wars' in which British officers and men have left their bones in all corners of theglobe, fighting in the cause of the empire. But it is notable in another way, for British and Americans united there in a common cause, fighting shoulder to shoulder as they ever should' and always will, I hope. One of the verses of Rudyard Kipling's poem ' The White Man's Burden 'is peculiarly appropriate just here : The ports ye shall not enter, The roads ye shall not tread, Go, make them with your living And mark theni with the dead! This idea has been expressed long before in Mrs Hemans' ' England's Dead,' and the ' Graves of a Household,' which beautifully emphasise the pathos of the thought. Truly the Vailele track was marked with the dead that day. It should come home to tis, for in New Zealand we have many reminders, in the lonely North, in the rural graveyards of the. Waikato, on the seashore at Tauranga, in the green groves of Taranaki, of the valiant English dead. On the tombstone in the little churchyard at Russell, Bay of Islands, erected to the memory of the officers and sailors of H.M.S. Haz- ' a'rd, who bravely fell at the defence of Kororareka against Hone Heke's warriors in 1845, is to be seen inscrib.ed this poetic tribute, from Mrs Hemans, which may fittingly be placed over the last resting place of the sailors at Apia : • . , The warlike of the Isles, The men' of field and. wave, Are not the rocks their funeral piles, The sea and shore their grave. Go stranger, track the deep; - Free, free .the white sail spread, Wave may not foam, nor wild, "wave sweep, :.''' .. •" Where rest not 'English dead. :; -y. Some timely remarks on the desirability of preserving the sites of. historic events in New' Zealand were made by the Premier, the other day when unveiling the monument erected near Christehurch to mark the site

of the ancient Kaiapoi Maori fortifica- j tions. He said that there was danger of future generations accusing the. colonists of to-day of not having taken care to preserve'for the future in as near their original, state as possible the old Maori pas and other localities rendered sacred by'reason of heroic deeds in the past. He thought that steps should be taken, by legislation, if necessary, to see that these places and the sites of historic encounters between pakeha arid Maori should be religiouly set apart and reserved to the public for ever as places of colonial interest. This is a praiseworthy suggestion, and one that all who admire a brave race . and who take an interest in the stirring past of New Zealand will endorse. It is too. late to save many of these places from desecration. Where the Gate Pa stood there is now nothing to be seen but a furze-covered waste; nothing remains of the old fort where so many brave British soldiers and sailors fell. The Orakau Pa, a spot which, in the words of Sir George Grey, is in the eyes"of all 'almost sanctified by an act of invincible and heroic courage on the part of a small body of hostile natives,' is now a peaceful farm, and a road passes through a part of the old entrenchments, and there is not a vestige of the famous stronghold left.

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The only visible relics of the forformerfightingdays in theWaikato.for instance, aye two or three of the old blockhouses, which were erected on the frontier some years after the Waikato war was over, and which were garrisoned in the troublous times of Te Kooti. One of these stands at Orakan, near the site of the famous pa. of the Ngatimaniapoto; a quaint, top-heavy looking loopholed structure standing- on a little knoll looking King Country-wards, where the old 'Aukati' line used to run. These old blockhouses are picturesque reminders of the soldiering clays, and if they can be preserved, they will serve to recall memories of the past, and will be of interest to all colonials as well as to stray visitors from abroad. But- a more permanent memorial would ,be to restore some of the old fighting strongholds of the once-dominant race, at any rate sufficiently to indicate the lines of the defences. At Raugiriri there is nothing- to show the visitor that a stirring engagement was fought there in the war days', but there, as in many localities elsewhere, the actual site is a public reserve, so that there should not be much difficulty in some cases in doing something to mark the spot in a fitting manner. At Ruapekapeka, Ohaeawai, Okaihau, and elsewhere in the North, a good deal could be done in the way of restoring these historic places; and at any rate a public move in that direction would show that we were not unmindful of other matters beyond the mere making of money, and .that we appreciate the feeling which has woven a pleasing sentiment around these now hallowed spots, in these lrfter days, when Maori and Pakena are as brothers in the land.

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Cheap labour is bringing its own retribution iv Fiji. The docile and patient Indian coolie, who lives on a little rice, and seems to thrive on nothing at all, has been imported into Fiji'1 by the thousand for the sugar plantations; but for all his docility and patience he seems to be able to teach the Fijian a thing or two. I notice by a Fiji paper that at the approaching criminal sessions at Suva there will be no less than ten Indian labourers tried on charges of murder, and one on a charge of attempted murder, besides a number of minor charges. More murders are in fact committed in Fiji than in the whole of Australasia, and nearly all the crimes are perpetrated by these lowclass imported coolies. It is questionable whether the benefits of cheap labour (or rather a form of legalised slavery) aTe not more than outweighed by the injury done to the community by the addition of a large criminal population. The cheap and nasty Asiatic is not a being to be encouraged in this part of the world, though the Fiji planters don't seem to be able to do without him. Anyhow, we have no use for the Hindoo here.

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One evening during the week a rather funny scene was witnessed by a crowd assembled at the. corner of Karangahape road and Pitt street, the cause of the amusement being a fight between a Briton and a Chinese. In this particular, case the Briton was handicapped because he had only^pne arm, and was also, well, not in a condition suggestive of a strong leaning towards prohibition. Evidently he had been studying the course of events in China, and noted the way the Great Powers were helping themselves, and seeing a Chinese coming with a trap thought he also might do likewise. The Briton hung on to the horse's head despite the sweet smile on the face of the Chinese as he politely requested that the man should let go. At last John did what his countrymen should do at Home, decided to fight for his rights. He got down and went for that man in a real business-like way, and the crowd, recognising John had provocation, did not interfere. At last the Briton's friends dragged him away, and held him till John quietly drove off. The Briton presented a sorry spectacle with clothing torn and bespattered with his own gore. His rage was so intense at being whipped by a Chinee that he struggled madly to go after John, and wept with fury because his friends wisely restrained him.

Elderly playgoers in Australia who can recall the Antipodeans tour of Charles. Matthews and his wife in the late sixties or early seventies will note with surprise that the lady has only just passed; over to the majority. She was of course only half the age of the volatile Charles, (who had previously espoiised Madame Vestris), but proved a pretty playmate to him in his old age. I remember her as 'Lady. Gay Spanker' particularly well,. and also as Mrs Sebright in.'The Overland Route,' and Harriett Eouth in Edward Yates' 'Black Sheep.' A cablegram which appeared in the daily papers a few weeks ago. is explained by the following paragraph: Following upon the disbandment of the Carl Rosa Opera Company, a new organisation has been formed, under the name of the National Opera Company, to produce English and Continental operas, chiefly in the provinces The manager of the new company is Mr Robert F. Cunningham, formerly of Melbourne, and, in addition' to a number of members .of the Carl Rosa Company, the artists include Miss Alice Esty and Mr Alec Marsh1, who visited Australia with Mr Cunningham in 3895; Miss Julia Loel and Mr William Walsh, of .Melbourne; and Miss Cicely Staunton, of Sydney.