I THE STEAMER PIONEER.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 250, 21 October 1919, Page 10

I THE STEAMER PIONEER.

I <To the Editor.) Sir, —My father (now deceased) was a member of Colonel Pitt'e Volunteers, and used ofton to refer to the part played ! l>y the Pioneer during the Maori war. jOn one occasion, the Maoris becoming poaeeased of an old ship's gun, fired a I weight through the funnel. I cannot e4iv j j whether bTic carried masts at all, but she was, I believe, fitted with perforated pipes placed round the hull to eject steam in the event of the natives attempting to hoard the ,vosael. It hae been stated that even recently the o!«I turret wart being used as a. lock-up at ', Mercer.—l am, etc., AKTiirn cooiiNGS. I (To the Editor.) ! Sir,—The steamer Pioneer about which ] a correspondent asks, employed on the Waikato River during the Waiknto war,! : wua an iron vessel without masU. One j of her turrets lay nt Mercer for a long ; time, and was used as a lockup. Mr.: 1 l.inmer, who was police constable at ( Mercer in the seventies, states that he • often used it a= a lock-up. In the early ' sixties there was a wooden sailing vessel, ! built somewhere north of Auckland, and named Pioneer. An erroneous impreni Rion existed in some quarter that this wooden sailing vessel was. transformed into the river steamer Pioneer. — I am, etc., ANDREW KAY. Kihikihi, October IS, 1919.