OLD VETERAN'S PLEA.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 234, 4 October 1927, Page 8

OLD VETERAN'S PLEA.

COMPASSIONATE ALLOWANCE.

DESERTED TO HELP WIFE. A PAGE FROM THE PAST. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Monclay. There is a "human interest" story in the petition of Robert Bennett Brickell, of the Veterans' Home, Auckland, who is seeking from Parliament a compassionate allowance.

He says he arrived in Auckland as a boy of 15 years in 1863, and was met on the ship by recruiting officers who ordered him to report to the Defence Office for medical examination, the Maori war being in progress. On the following day he was passed as fit for service, and later he served throughout the Waikato war, including the siege and capture of Orakau. Again in 1866 he served in the Bay of Plenty campaign, being continually under fire. Two years later, having in the meantime been married, he joined up with the Armed Constabulary, his young wife consenting. He was under fire throughout the last of the Taranaki wars and later saw service in the Urewera country and as a member of the Lake Waikaremoana expedition. Afterwards he was-sent to Napier for a est, and was joined by his wife and infant child, his wife's mother having died. Discharge from the forces was efused him, and his division joined the xpeditionary force for Taupo.

"After the first day's march, when the division was at Taupo, 120 miles from Napier, petitioner, with the knowledge of the precarious circumstances of his wife and child, felt indeed a desperate man, and that night, after thinking the matter over very seriously, he came to the conclusion that having served his adopted country faithfully and well from 15 to 22, with cot a single black mark, his next duty was to his wife and child."

Petitioner left camp that night and rejoined his wife and child. He points out that all deserters were pardoned in 1913 He is now 80 years of age and is in humble circumstances. His four sons and three grandsons served in the Great War.

Mr. W. J. Jordan (Manukau) presented the petition.