THE ARRIVAL OF THE MAORIS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 4 September 1915, Page 5

THE ARRIVAL OF THE MAORIS

A UNIQUE SCENE

IMjBROS, July 6. At an early hour on the morning of Saturday, 3rd July, the Maoris arrived from Maltar, and landed in the dark on the little pier at Anzac. It was rough, and disembarkation was difficult, but the Maoris took it all very quietly, and there was no mishap. That afternoon the General paid them a formal visit. After a mile walk we came upon +hem digging their bivouac in an ampitheatre, surrounded by steep fantastic cliffs of marl and water-worn stone —the' debris of some

■■■■ ■>■-■•■•■"..•" ■■ v . ~ .J*'l^ ancient river or kko bed." Hundred* :t were busy with pick and shovel, wort't* nig. amidst the scrub-covered knolls toget their dug-outs ready befort night- •'. tall. Close beside us two ewarthv ? young warriors, who thought they had mt upon a good spot for their habita- 1 tion <iug mto a wrpse—a ghastly reminder of the eevere fighting that went •: on m this place when our men, after >v tne hrst lanamg, were--getting their v y;np on this bit of the PenmsuJa It > was the Maoris' first experience of the gnm realities of war, and, needless to say, there was a sudden cessation of * digging in that particular quarter l>unng the forenoon the Maoris "had - their first experience of shells being nred over them; but these were aimed ' at Anzac beach, and burst half a mile fiway.

.Ihe General called a halt in the digging, and the bronzed warriors crowd?li rO? nd,, him ' while he st°od on a little knoll amidst the olive trees and tfte iiope I expressed to you when I ' last saw xou m Cairo, that you should come and serve with us in the field, has been realised. I promised you then , W%£ \u™ a d d? all * °°ul<* to 6^ you > on in L?^1810^ 80 that JwA S« iv W T^yo". comrades of ti \t W Z^ la»<* Infantry Brigade and the New Zealand Mounted fcif antry lour comrades, who have for some weeks now been fighting O n the Penin- - n»™ <V£. oovl red aW the * name of New Zealand, with glory. They have fought most valiantly In. the facJ of very heavy casualties, and in eve^ way have proved themselves efficient - and brave soldiers. And now upon you Maoris a very great responsibility rests. * Not only have you to prove 1 yourselves - worthy to fight with ,your Brltishcom^ B nch noble deeds, but you have also to prove yourselves worthy descendants of your ancestors, and worthy, also,, ,of the glorious military traditions of your race. You have to follow in the foot-" steps of your great chiefs whose names we in JSew Zealand know so well. Your race has always been distinguished for lts, b™very and for its martial' ardor, and the people of New Zealand will . look to you to prove that those qualities have m no way diminished/ In a very short time you will be called upon to meet the enemy, and when you do so l believe you will prove yourselves absolutely as brave and valiant as your forefathers before you and as your comrades whom you have now joined. I am very proud to have you under my , command, and I wish you all the best or fortune in the fight that lies before * you.' =. ■■ ■ ■

At tne conclusion of this stirring address, the whole assemblage of Maoris ' responded with their war dance. It was indeed a strange scene. As the -weird ' ' cries and the rhythmic beating iof the feet upon the Turkish soil ceased, the l mmd ranged back a few thousand years ' and conjured up vision* of the Armadas that have sailed these seas and the armies that have traversed these lands. The ghosts of the great dead seemed to rise again and march along before us—Xerxes,' Alexander, Hector and Helen, Achilles and Lysander, with. many more famous in song and story. And now the coming of the Maori! Behind us, just beyond the Peninsula, is the narrow strait across which the Persian general built, hi® bridge of boats so that his army might cross " from t>ne Continent to another. There, too.; the Greek fleet, with infinite patience, lay for nine yearn, a bulwark to the hust ashore. Where__ Xerxes built his bridge of boats to cross an army, our enemies are contemplating the spreading of a net of steel to stop our And now this new Armada, with its great battleships,1 its thundering , gums, -its submarines - and waterp'lanes,l 'and its balloon ship, comes upon the scene. And with it an army from the- greatest Empire the world has known. .

Across the narrow Strait the other day we saw Chanak, atop of the buried ■AbyJos,. in. flames—lit by a ship's shell which traversed the whole Peninsula and the straits as well! Quite close are the now i desolate plains and the ruined cities' of Troy, with.five thousand years of history behind them. Westward the sun was placing a band of jewelled silver across the Sarcs Sea. The long promontory •and pointed peaks of Imbros broke the straight horizon on the left, while nearer the bolder and steeper heights of Samothrace, recalling other scenes and the wonderful "winged victory". in the Louvre, stood boldly out against a background of splendid rolling cloud. In the foreground the sandy beach of the Peninsula swept round to where "the boat of death" lay stranded at a little promontory. Beyond that again, the masts and funnel of a sunken steamer, and, quite close, a buoy where, in face of the impotent rage of these on shore, the Triumph found her grave. Here m the shallows one saw foi the first time the winecolored sea of Homer, as if tinted with the blood of the victims of war; and m the midst of all the New Zealand General, like some Trojan leader, inciting his Antipodean soldiers to heroic deeds. As the final cadences of the haka were echoed back from the fantastic cliffs, one pondered over' this Strange coming of the Maori,.and wondered whether his deeds would be worthy of the new Iliad.

m, ." ~ July 9, lius day the enemy used a sling for bomb-throwing. The Australians and the New Zeaknders are much better throwers than the Turks. They caa t^ow farther and their aim is surer. 1 his is no doubt because they are nearly all men who have played the come of cricket. Between 5* and 6 p.m; the garrison-at Quinn's Post succeeded, br bombing, m setting fire to the enemy's overhead cover in front of No. 3 subsection. To this the enomy replied, and a severe and continuous bombing engagement ensued. Some damage w.i.s done to one of our fire trenches, but this was soon repaired. Later in tba evening the bomb-throwers at Quinn's were successful in setting fire to somo fifteen yards of Turkish trenches with bombs. The Turks., however, manage^ to keep this fire down to a certain extent, but it burned till 4.15 nest morning. .

At noon on July 10 a 601b mine was fired by the engineers at Quinn'6, and at 1.30 p.m. a second mine was exploded. Each explosion was followed after a few seconds by another explosion, as if a Turkish mine had been detonated in each case. After tha second explosion fire was seen rising from the Turkish fire trench. The rest, of the day passed quietly. At 9.30 p.m. a lieutenant and three men proceeded tip a valley in front of Pope's and exploded seven bombs among- a working party of Turks on the crest of Dead Man's Ridge.* The Turks replied with a burst of fire ; which was taken up all along the line to the'ridge opposite Courtenay's, and a Turkish, machine gun on our left kept up bursts of fire for a considerable tirn.o. At 3 a.m. there was again a shcrt burst of rifle fire in front of Courtenay's and Quinn's, «nd at* 3.45 a.m. a few Turks were seen in front of No. 2 sub-post crawling towards our trench. They were driven off by a" bomb. For some time past a place known as Sniper's Nest lios been greatly strengthened and improved by the Turks', who could he seen engaged upon a large earthwork on our !nft | flank .north of Walker's' Ridge. In tho evening H.M.S. Chelm^r did some good shelling in this direction. At night

we endeavored by machine gun fire to get i;h© Turks to 'waste some more ammunition, but our ruse did not succeed. The Turk is getting more vary.' I went to the trenches to witness a oombardment of one of the Turkish positions, known as-'Johnston's Jolly/ How the position came to receive its name does not seem to be> definitely-, known. Some say it was because! Johnston—an Austraian orfieer —used j to get "jollied" by his brother officers because he could not get his shells into the position. Another story is' that when-Johnston got a bit depressed he used to plank a few shells into this Turkish position, just to cheer himself and his battery up a bit. " Anyhow, the gunners this afternoon macle no mistake about it. The shelling ..started at 5 p.m., the New Zealanders working hi conjunction with the Australian batteries with the object of destroying the enemy's overhead coyer and trench parapets. With this object percussion shrapnel and lyddite were used. From our point of view it was most interesting to witness the great bursts of high explosive sending clouds of dirt and smoke high above the trenches. The Turks replied with a small gun, firing shrapnel, and with some larger guns, firing high explosive. We saw a number of shells fall in a gully just below us where there were numbers of our men, but apparently no one was hit. There were bursts of rifle fir© during the night, but nothing came of it all. Thus we are at present somewhat monotonously holding our ground on Gallipoli, yet never knowing what a day may bring forth in the way of added interest or fresh adventure.