MR. COMMISSARY-GENERAL STRICKLAND.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIII, Issue 3058, 15 May 1867, Page 5

MR. COMMISSARY- GENERAL STRICKLAND.

Ws are in a peculiar position as regards our Imperial friends now leaving this colony. As representatives of a system which has ruined this country, we can but rejoice at the prospect of a speedy release. As individuals, who have been co-labourers at the work of subduing the native inhabitants of this country, we cannot but feel that every new departure carries away from us stores of friendship and comradeship. Though we owe less than nothing to the Imperial system, yet each representative of that system is entitled to our warmest gratitude for whatever action he was individually engaged in. We need but glance in the direction of the graveyard, towards a cluster of Bilent witnesses once known as Mercer, Austin, Murphy, King, Phelps, and others, to feel how much of gratitude and sympathy we owe towards the men of England, who worked for us, day by day, with their lives in their hands, and left their bodies as a rampart between us and our foes. Thus much for the dead; the living now claim our attention. Within a day or two, Commissary-General Strickland will leave, and it may not be out of place to take note of the services performed in this country by that experienced officer, as we did in the case of Commissary-General Jones. In September, 1864, Mr. Strickland arrived iiere, having been especially appointed for field service with General Cameron. He proceeded at once to Wanganui, and organised the Commissariat for General Camerons Wanganui campaign. A great deal has been written for and against the conduct of that campaign, but, as regards the conduct of the Commissariat, the voice of the private soldier, heard from many letters, passed an incontrovertible verdict on the matter, by speaking invariably in that contented tone which results only from a wellfilled stomach. Yet the organisation of a line of Commissariat stations along that harbourless coast between Taranaki and Wanganui was no slight matter to put into and keep in working order. Few people who have not tried their own hand at work of this kind can form an idea what amount of personal labour and risk attaches itself to the duties of a Com-missary-General in a country like this. It is not the regimental officer alone who is exposed in the day of battle. At JSTukumaru and Kakaramea, Mr. Strickland was under fire with the rest of the Staff; later, in General Chute's cnmpaign, he was under a heavy fire at Okotuku. However, the quality most indispensable in a Commissary - General deserves now more of our attention, and that quality is financiering. As early as 1856 the financing capabilities of Mr. Strickland had attracted the attention of the Foreign Office, and he was sent to Greece as one of the Commissioners to settle the Greek question. Up to 1860 he remained in Greece, acquiring a name for himself in the Foreign Office. By General Camerons recommendation the Colonial Government selected Mr. Strickland to proceed to Southland to disentangle the financial imbroglio of that province. The West Coast campaign, however, employed his time more pressingly, and much of the success of that wonderful campaign is due to the perfect action of the Commissariat department. In the celebrated forest march at the back of Mount Egmont, where horse took the place of beef, Mr. Strickland, towards the end of the march, went ahead of the field force, to procure new rations. He had to go alone through the bush through mud up to his knees for sixteen miles. This energetic proceeding procured somewhat more savoury rations to the force than the equine diet of the last days, and probably prevented the breaking out of disease amongst the men. The results of General Chute's campaign have been often described as barren ; but the cause of that cannot be laid at General Chute's door, nor at that of the officers who were then, like Mr. Strickland, his executive. That campaign itself has put to rest for ever all the prejudices built up once, by unsuccessful officers, round Maori prestige. General Chute proved that a white man is not inferior to the Maori — even at his own trade ; and that lesson alone is an invaluable gift to us, now we shall have soon to be our own generals. Without drawing any invidious comparisons, this country owes a heavy debt to General Chute and his officers, for leaving to us, as a legacy, confidence in our own powers and our own means. The West Coast campaign was just such a campaign in its dimensions as we may have to undertake some day or another : and we could not have a better model, excepting, of course, its sudden conclusion, when further and immediate action is required. The gallant 57th will carry the name of Otapawa to England, and they may well be proud of that name. The 18th and 50th will long remember Putahi ; and the 14th, Okutuku and Waikoukou. In all those names there exists a bond of gratitude which has not always been recognised by the people of Auckland ; but on an occasion like the present, when one of General Chute's officers is leaving us, we should no longer withhold the long-deserved (praise. In Mr. Strickland we lose a head which would have been of inestimable value to onr financial organisation, could the colony have afforded to employ men of his stamp. We need not here speak of Mr. Strickland's services in the cause of field sports in Auckland, and in establishing a hunt in Wanganui. Those services are recognised to the full, and will long be remembered by our fellow-settlers. All that we can now wish is that the coming rewards for his New Zealand services may always leave a kindly remembrance to him of New Zealand itself.