OBSERVATIONS ON THE ACTION OF RANGIRIRI, FOUGHT DECEMBER 20, 1863.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XX, Issue 2139, 28 May 1864, Page 6

OBSERVATIONS ON THE ACTION OF RANGIRIRI, FOUGHT DECEMBER 20, 1863.

As a specimen of the kind of criticism which is sometimes indulged in by correspondents to the "English press, and how easy it is to plan the capture of a Maori pa when wo are at a safe distance, and on the opposite side of tho world from it, wo quote the following letter from a correspondent of the Jrnnj and Navy Gazelle : [The following remarks on a very successful if severe action contain, along with much of doubtful justice, some cntical canons of perfect soundness. "We do not adopt all our correspondents, views, buL publish his letter reserve, having received additional correspond-ence-n hich induce-, us to think that the facts areundoubted,and the .■>tricturesnot undeserved. - Ed. A. i, N.G.] " Why were man tent llius (o slaughter when tho application of .vjii'-t science would have muleicd the opcuiticm compnriitncij eas^ ' " j^Arini's Pcninsvlu. On the morning of tho 20th December, 1803, a Held force of some 1.500 British troops, accompanied with Artillery and a comparatively strong force of Engineers, advanced to attack some 900 well-armed and del ermined) Maoris, stiongly cntienched in a good position on the TVaikalo river. The action which followed is easily described. The British troops advanced in two bodies from opposite sides, and carried all the outworks with a rush at the bayonet, slajing some forty of the enemy, and suH'ering coinpaYalm-ly little themselves. They were then cheeked by finding in front of them a midable field redoubt with a paiapet of IS feet. Tho most profound ignorance seems to have existed up lo this moment as to what was going to be attacked. However, some laddcis were brought up, and the troops ■were ordered to escalade. The ladders proved to be too short. The most valiant and daimg officers and men weio soon put hors do comhat by mounting the ladders and being shot o(T by the enemy, who were themselves protected. The troops having lost the formation, and also those leaders who come to the iront in emergencies, recoiled. The artillerymen, leaving their guns (now useless, as they could not fire without hitting friend and foe alike,) dashed to tho assault with revolvers and short swords; their leader, scrambling up fiom the lop of a ladder, actually stood on the parapet for a moment, but w a-, immediately shot down, and his body fell inside the Mork; the sergeant -major v.ho •na-i next to him on the ladder was shot, also three corporals and a gunner, and that party also recoiled. The sailow also tried an escalade, and were repulsed with a loss of sin: officers and several men. Darkness came on. The troops lay on their arms all night round the work, sheltered m tho outwoiks v. Inch they had captured first, and preparations w cie riado for escalades at different points the next morning , but at daylight the while ILig was shown by the enemy, and the garmon "surrendered unconditionally, hich they would infallibly have done if the troops aftor capturing the outworks had entrenched themselves round the redoubt, and gh en the ercmy JS hour*) 1 vertical fire from the ihips and field guns. Mortars aro not absolutely necessary. The British attack was remarkable for the utter absence of science ; the troops were led as if they were savages instead of being those of a nation devotes millions to the training of its officers of the scientific branches A party of Engineers under a colonel were present ; we do not find a single one (officer or private) in tho list of killed and ounded. Were they not in the ditch placing the fatally short ladders ? "Wore they not with tho advance ready to " tin n " the captured outw orks ? fn short, what need was there of an assault? The work mas surrounded ; the commander could not have feared a relieving army of Maoris — nothing could be more advantageous for the disciplined troops than a fight in the open. If vertical fire did not produce the result wished lor, surely flying saps might have been made to the salients, which might have been partially breached by shells from the Armstrong guns,'and placed themselves in the open, entirely out of the range of the enemy's fire. The only science show n was by the Maoris, who being undisciplined, naked savages, placed themselves in such a good military position that they repulsed twice their number of disciplined British troops. But whou as tho loader of these troops? Surely it was some young officer of infauliy, knowing no tactics but a volley and a charge. Wo such thing. It was tho scientific general, par excellence, of the whole British army, who had been for some years at the head of the Council of Military Education, Council superintends the scientific instruction of tho army. This general had been purposely seleclod to conduct the operations in JN T ew Zealand, and another one deposed to make room for him. After all our costly experiments, is this tho only way in which we can attack — the same way that savages would ? If so, what use in Engineers. Artillery, &c. ? Better have nothing but infantry. This was no sudden outbreak, when it was advisable at all hazards to strike a blow ; but the attack had been long meditated, and preparations had been going on for six months. If the position had been reversed, and the savages themselves had been the- assailants, they could only have attacked in tho same way, only they probably would have had ladders of tho proper length. A"-am, supposing our columns had penetrated intoiho work, what -n ould have been the result of a sories of single combats at close quarters ? No time to load the rifle; athletic, wellarmed, half-naked savages against British soldiers in confusion, after tumbling and jumping down a parapet in ones and twos; no formation; the savages in superior numbers, and at bay ; no chance but to conquer or die ; the ground probably broken and encumbered with traverses, — the British officers would have been slain to a man at once, as their regulation sArprds are useless for cut or. '

thrust ; and the probability is that every soldier J that got in. would "be cut to pieces "before re serves could como up. The English are not trained for single combat, but to act in maises. It -would have been jtist the best sort of fighting for the Maoris, and the worst for the soldiers. The sailors might have done something if they had got in ; but altogether, as far as the art and science of war goes, the British in this lamentable affair were lower than, the savage. It is quite melancholy to think of the brave lives uselessly thrown away, particularly when one considers that, when the troops had captured the outworks and surrounded the place, the garrison must soon have capitulated for want of food, without the necessity of a single life boing lost.