MEMORIES OF THE PAST.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 20 May 1915, Page 4

MEMORIES OF THE PAST.

THE LATE JAMES HAMBLYN". (By "Fifty-One.") The; death of any old Taranaki settjer always affords an opportunity to those who are iniiinate with the early day* of thjs pro vino to review the past, and there are few, if any, of those who lande^in the forties and fought in the sixties* that are not worthy of more thantjaiere casual reference when the grave'claims them. James Hamfc Jyn, whose death was chronicled in the btar on Tuesday, was the son of old laranaki parents, the father and mother bearing the brunt of the vicissitudes of aH pioneer settlers, the former also having to relinquish the plough for the musket at the outbreak off the war in 1860. James followed in th« footsteps «ff Ms father., and joined the militia or volunteers at an early age r and as afr&ady stated was badly wounded during Trtokowaru's war in 186 S. losing (I Beffeve) his right arm in consetfaence. - Now. a man figfeting for his country, and being, disabled va the manner Hamblyn was, should" have been provided with a reasonable pension; yet, would • you believe it, he1 recwired merely the miserable -pittance of Is 6d a day! Nos long after losing nis arm the Defence Minister (Sir Donald 1 McLean) happened to be in New Plymouth, and John Flynn and James Hamßlyn interviewed hi™—the. one to get Bis pension increased and i the1 other to endeavor to secure ,» pension. The Minister was raosfcsym- / pathetic, and -promised' to do all he could when be, got baf k^toWelli^gtoia. Besuit: H^mblyn TAoefveff ;an advance i o!2d <ls Ba)V:and; Flyim^got nothing. 'There were some wen Jess severely wounded in "the TarairaM vkr that were better, treated fch'sir Hamblyn, because "h0,., in losing Ws- right -arm.' -wag practically prevented from engpging in •those pursuits he ha^l Keen +rained to. In no case were oepskras paid" in excess of the. .petnig of .tl>ose who T^ceived them.; but in some they were disgracefrtllyi insijifficieht; . Others; again, who should have been cared for were allcvM +o pass away, or eventually (in 1913^ conic in fon the pension granted to Maori war veterans" who were fortunate enough to have secured a medal.