TWO YOUTHFUL HEROES.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1026, 27 February 1869, Page 3

TWO YOUTHFUL HEROES.

(From the "Taranaki Herald.")' ' : We see by the Auckland journals that a subscription list has been opened, for the boy Charles James, sixteen years of age ;' who, according to the advertisement, " While the family of. the Wilsons, were being massacred on the one hand, and the family of the Walshes were being, consumed in their burning house on tho other hand, went out of the way of safety, to cross three paddocks to the house of the Bloomfields, seven in number (all women and children), to give them warning of the inevitable fate which awaited them, unless they could make an immediate escape. Ho waited also outside the fence not less than five minutes, until he could assist them by carrying one of their children, which ho did, guiding and accompanying them through their hairbreadth escapes until they all arrived in Turanganui in safety." The painful recollection of this massacre cannot be blotted from the memory in a few days, or even a few months, and we view with satisfaction the energy that is being exhibited by the good people of Auckland in collecting money to invest for the benefit of this courageous youth. But there is another boy, who, though younger, was equally courageous, and who seems to be forgotten altogether ; we refer to the heroic little " Jemmy," the son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, who were barbarously massacred on thatdreadful Monday night at Poverty Bay. We have not seen this little Jboy s name mentioned in public prints for some time ; and it looks as if, since his poor lamented mother has been removed from her sufferings to a better world, ho has been forgotten by the public at large. But we hope not ; we would wish to have a better opinion of the colonists than that; and we believe that there are many who only want reminding of the fact to be most energetic in carrying out any suggestionV-^ that may be thrown out. We do not imagine the friends of " little Jemmy" would care to see his name paraded before the public at the hend of a subscription list ; nor do we suppose anyone would think of suggesting such a thing; for. there are other ways of rewarding him than that. The General Assembly will shortly be in session, and no doubt the settlers who have been driven from their homes and have lost property on the East Coast, will be putting in petitions for compensation for the losses they have sustained; and perhaps these petitions will be considered and compensation awarded. But can the Colony compensate this poor little boy for the loss he has sustained in being deprived of his home and both his parents through the niggardliness of tho Stafford Ministry. We emphatically say, no ! Therefore the next best thing the members can do is to see that he is properly provided for and educated, till he is of a more mature age and his peculiar characteristics have developed themselves. It will then be their duty to have him placed in that way of life most fitted to his capabilities, so that he may not have cause to look back upon the land of his birth with repugnance.