AFTER 72 YEARS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 302, 21 December 1935, Page 11

AFTER 72 YEARS.

TO FOLLOW TRAIL. MEMORIES OF VON TEMPSKY. GRANDCHILDREN'S VISIT. Seventy-two years ago there landed in New Zealand a man named Von Tempsky—a Prussian from Central America, and a soldier, who within a, few years wae to engrave his name on New Zealand's scroll of fame. He wad Major Von Temsky, leader of the famous Forest Rangers, whose exploits during the Maori wars in the Waikato equal those of any adventurer the world's early history has know. Yesterday there arrived by the Strathaird six of his descendants, a daughter-in-law, three grandchildren, and two greatgrandchildren, paying the first visit of j the family to New Zealand for over 50 , years. Millionaires they are now, cattle ranchers from Hawaii, and they have come to follow in the footsteps of their famous ancestor. They will travel by the Strathaird to Wellington, and from there will go first of all to the South Island for a tour. Later, according to the arrangements made for them by Mr. J. Gibson, they will make a .tour, of the North Island, covering particularly the ground covered by Major Von Tempski and his Forest Rangers, in the Waikato, the East Coast and Taranaki. On Oia Trails. To these visitors to our shores— American is their nationality—the names of Mangapiko, Orakau and Ngutu-o-te-manu are already well known, for to them came the diary of Major Von Tempskv and his descriptions of those famous early battles; not, however, that of Ngutu-o-te nianu, for it was there that the leader lost his life, gallantly ae he had lived. In imagination they will be stirred by j the ambush of Mangapika River, which J made Major Von Temsky the romantic hero of early colonial life; and maybe some of the heroism of Rewi's gallant defence of his pa against an overwhelming -force,, and the- retreat-caused mainly

by the tactical skill and bravery of the Forest Rangers, will leave a lingering cry in the air—"Ake, Ake, Ake, kia kaha"—to be caught in the imaginations of a later generation. Papers Still Kept. Major Von Tempsky was a writer as well as a eoldier, and his papers now in the possession of the family tell many a story of those days and of the people of early New Zealand. His diary they sent about 12 years ago as a gift to the New Zealand Government, and the others are safely stowed away at Hawaii. That apart from hw crest, which is the possession of another branch of the family, is all that the family has that was the personal property of the pioneer eoldier. His famous'bowie knives and his sword were left behind in New Zealand.

While here Mr. Robert Von Tempsky will investigate the rumour that that sword was found here some months back, but it is his belief that it ie not the genuine sword. According to reports the original was a celebrated weapon, which, in the shaft, held a funnel of mercury. That will be, however, but one of the objects of this visit. For Mr. Robert Von Tempsky, his wife, mother, sister, and two sons, it will be a holiday towards which they have been looking for many years, and they will make the mast of it. In the seven weeks they will be here they will savour the nsMng, and the many other attractions at their command.

They return to New Zealand with the feeling that they belong here, and New Zealand will accept them in the same spirit.