"LEST WE FORGET."

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LIII, Issue 9397, 24 July 1907, Page 5

" LEST WE FORGET."

AN INTERESTING MEMORIAL IN A 1 MILITARY CEMETERY. (By Our Tokaoia Correspondent.) " Lightly they wiM talk of the spirit that's gone, And o'er his cold ashes deride him." The above slightly altered quotation j came to my mind when recently visiting our local military cemetery, ,and overhearing some youths asking who and what were the "blokes" buried here? It may ; not be. generally known to the majority ! of your youthful readers and reccat arrivals, perhaps not to all who have been here iior some years, that there a<rje several military cemeteries along this coast wherein lie the remains of those brave fellows who fought and died to win this country from the Maoris. Many of diem are un- | known ttuless to the few. There, is one • such nca,r the mouth of the Manawapou j river. It is situated on a tongue of lamd j surrounded by a bend of the river, in which. { many costly headstones wer|a erected by i the comrades of the departed ones. At the timi© of my last visit tharo I was sup ; plied all necessary information by Mr R. j B. Hamilton, of Manutohi, an old die. fender of British arm&'. I wrote up an article on the siato of the place drawing attention to the neglected appearance of , "God's Acie." This article appeared in the Tlawera Stak of May 27, 1887. So • far as I can learn nothing has been done < by the authorities to preserve thle sacred spot from 'being overrun with cattle, and tho costly headstones 1 used for scratching posts. j Now this brings, me to the* subject of the military cemetery sitmated in Ohawci township, or what was originally intended ', for such. In the* trcubkus times with , tho Maoiis ihere was a very lajpg© encampi ment of Home and colonial troops stationed on this place, to the east side of 1 th© Waingongoro river. From this camp i and the Manawapoir bodies of the regulars ! wore sent inland to attack tibia Maori I strongholds. They bringing back their , dead and wounded, many of the lattetr ' succumbed to their wounds'. Headstones ! were erected and the place put straight sio far as the times would permit. Since tho 1 country has been subjected and tine taxwps ' withdrawn t!he place has become neglected and desecrated ; even two freestone headstones have been bcdaly caaied away, though the bases are still theme: Will tho reader examine his hearthstone and see if ! there is any lettering thereon? Even the , Government of the day thought "lightly ■ of the spirit t-hut's gone," for they acttu l ally sold the burial ground to a local • settler. I id ay ray he, too. was a de- , fender cf the Union Jack and is a well- i ' known pdiom'er ; I refer to Captain James j Livingston. When thie ground fd}. into j his hands he erected a substantial outside- j fence, of ditch and bank, and planted it with gorse, and inside v/Sith various trees and shrubs that were likely to grow near the sea. The goise flourished, tracs at tamed a height of twenty or more feet, the ' shrubs strove vonderfully, bai a. bad blizzard that /come along thiis coast several I years ago SAvept the gorse, trees snd pants out of existence. Since then Mr Laving#©n lias erected a tarbed wire fenda around the ground^ inside of this a. boxthoin one is planted, which is carefully attended to by the honorary and voluntary custodian. Mr Livingston has. also erected a largo cairn, and on the west s)ide, facing the setting sun is a marble slab with as n.any names inscribed thereon as he could remember. The cairn is constructed of Hough boulders well cemented together. At the base ib forms a triangle eleven feet away, and is seven feet, high. The marble slab measures 4ft 2in by 2ft 4in and there appears on it the following inscription :