AN OVERDUE MEMORIAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 197, 18 August 1920, Page 4

AN OVERDUE MEMORIAL.

There was unveiled to-day. -if) years , after the last tihot was fired in the 1 Maori wars, a memorial to the white sol- • diers and loyal natives who fell in these • struggles. Let us hope that we shall get '■ our memorial of the Great War with a ' little less delay. While the Victoria ■ League is to be congratulated on its t achievement, it, is hardly creditable that i the men who fought at Ohaeawai, Waioi reka, Rangiriri, and Orakau should have • had to wait so long for an adequate memorial in the city which of the four i Xew Zealand centres has the closest ) connection with the Maori wars. As I time is reckoned in the annals of this i young country, these wars are now i ancient history, and probably not one I Kew Zealander in a hundred could pass ian elementary examination in their • causes and events. This is a pity. It is ' true that our local wars, measured .by world standards, were very trifling . aliafc;, and unfortunately it is r also true that for the series of wars r that began in IS6O and lasted till IS7I the Government's share of responsibility " was not light. The Waitara blunder is a thing that sensitive Xew Zealauders ■ would like to forget. But these struggles . were our own wars, fought on our own t soil, against an enemy that had no' superior and periiaps no equal among the sa-vage races of the world, an enemy " that lias since become the white rnan'd t friend in a comradeship cemented by common .sacrifices in battle abroad. The story of these ware is rich in the interest that springs from heroism, hard- ' ship, enterprise, romance, and the clash •of races. The memorial was needed, not . only to commemorate the sacrifice of the men who fell, but to stimulate interest in the Dominion's history. Uufortu- ' nately, by a surprising mistake, the I memorial is limited in its application to , the period of 1545-tili. We understand these dates were officially supplied Ito the Victoria League, but why it ! I should have thought that those who -1 fel 1 after 1860 should not lie eoni- , memorated we do not know, unless it is . that this date marks the end of the Imperial troops' share in the wars. ' After rS6t> there were the campaigns i asainst Titokowaru on the West Coast. and the long struggle with Te Kooti, , which extended from the Bay of Plenty to TTawke's Bay, and from Poverty Bay 'to Taupo and Rotorua, The Te Kooti campaigns were the most remarkable ;of all. Not only did many gallant men fall in them, but in no other 'fighting ' did white men and friendly Maoris suffer ' such hardships. This memorial is to the friendly natives ac well as to the white 3 soldiers, and it was in the period 1866----1871 that these contingents did their 5 most valuable wort. W T e 'hope this in- - ius+iee .will at once he rectified. 1