ARRIVAL OF THE "DIE HARDS" (57th)

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 18, 21 January 1921, Page 5

ARRIVAL OF THE "DIE HARDS" (57th)

TO TilE lOITOR.

Sir,—l trust you will kindly afford spaco for a, few remarks recalling our arrival .60 years ago;, there are but a few of us left, but our. offspring is fairly numerous. ' . . .' : '• The headquarters left wing, .under Major R. A. Logan, with nine officers, . 24 sergeants, 15 drummers, and 376 rank and file, sailed into Auckland on the21st January, 1861, from Bombay, in the ship Castilian (Captain Harrington). Tha right wing, under Major H. Butler, with 10 other Gffioe-rs, 16 sergeantß, 9 'drummers, p/ and 310 rank and file,, had already- '• arrived in tho Star Queen and had gono round ito New Plymouth. It is worthy of/note that,theio were five deaths on each ship during..the voyages. A very interesting visitor cume on board, a "Die Hard" of. the ."Die Hards,"- who was preaent at tho great battle which gained the regiment that. title .60 years before. . Ho had known our major's father, Captain Logan, who had served many yoars in the regiment, and met his death by blacks in Now South Wales in ( 1830. It took the authorities three' days to decide whether we should land or go. round, to the seat of war. We landed on tho 24th, and 150, under Major St. Clair (later Earl St. Clair, but now deceased) and. Lieutenant C. M. Clarke (now General ' Sir C. M. Clarke, Bt., G.C.8.), marched to Onehungsf and re-embarked on the Cordelia for- ' Waitara. After three weeks the. balanoe of us also marched to Onohunga and went on board the Niger, and landed next day at Waitara—a far different Waitara to that of to-day. We scon had an introduotion to our. foe, and became amused at tho chaff-pussirig, batween\ us. Trench duty days woro days of real joy, far different to tho trench duty our boys witnessed when "Over There." A man got out one day in full view of the enemy and performed a miniature war dance for them. Several shots' were fired at him:— he told them to go home and learn to shoot, for they were only wasting' their powder. (So were we.) One of our men called out, "Come in, Tom, you big fool; if you get kilt they will try you by a. court-martial for endangering your life." The days passed very , pleasantly. A happy thought seemed to have struck the enemy,: they considered we were making too much progress with sap, so one night —it must have beon a, largo party —they came down and filled in a long stretch of it, more than wo had made in several days, and; to add insult to injury, they aotually stole our sap roller. They did chafE us when we arrived in the morning, and were viewing their handiwork. One man called out: "If you wanted something to do, why didn'i you dig some of the trench?" We did not onjoy their .jokes, but wo did tho sequel: a middy of the Niger—now Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Arthur D. Fansha-w, G.C.8., G.C.V.O.,—attached a shell to the next sap. roller.. One night wo heard it go off,' and in the morning wo found the roller in fragments. There were other fragments, too, which told us that the party had .not all got. back safely; they did not appear to need any sap rollers after, that. I may remark that we all retired to our several campß at sunset. The end came on the 20th Maroh, and .soon we were all in New Plymouth, and enjoyed two years' peace. Then they ambushed'ten of our men, killing nine; then came three years of trouble. In 1867 tho old regiment went, leaving many behind, some legally discharged, but many took French leave but wore pensioned later. 'The total loss in New Zealand were seven officers and 86 n.c.o.'s and privates in the six years and two months. A monument to their memory is in New Plymouth; their names are also inscribed on a monument that was .placed in St. Paul's Cathedral in 1877, and surmounted by the colours v under which they fought and died. It would be interesting to get the facts of their loss in the late Great War —they were at the Marne, and suffered terribly., They had only landed in England on New Year's Day, 1914. After 18 years abroad, there were only five returned to England who had left there with the regiment.—l am, etc., • ■ E. BEZAR.