THE FIFTH N.Z. REGIMENT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12427, 16 February 1901, Page 3

THE FIFTH N.Z. REGIMENT.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir;—l hope I am not trading too much, bu your .goodness in writing to you about the heedless way in which we are treated. After being serif down'to. -within twenty miles of Tull, owing to our Brigadier considering qur horses the best, we then had orders sent back by a B.S.A.P. man to return' to Buluwayo as soon as - possible. However, our O.C. considered eight miles per day fast enough, and this evidently did not suit headquarters, as we- had a despatch rider out to us forty miles from Buluwayo, to hurry us in. Wc trekked immediately, and did thirty miles before nightfall, being then only nine miles out of the town. Next morning we trekked at six o’clock three miles, when our O.C. ontspnnned for some reason or other, and net till another despatch-rider came out did we do the six miles into the town. \Ve. - then entrained for Mafeking to rejoin the regiment, but were stopped,at Crgchdile Pools, where we. had a good share oPpick and 1 shovel, mid Colonel Manners Wood took command 1 , the whitest man we have met out here. We saw nothing while the 'Other boys were fighting! We then went, by train to Palapye, and marched another 175 miles to Tub, where we remained for three months, and where for the first, time we had our allowance of rum, thanks'to the Colonel. None of the other boys were down there, but doing work under General Douglas clown south, and it soon became apparentto us that, cm- officers were considered incapable. I don’t think one cun say the men, were. The letter we received, and the speech Colonel Wood made us before taking his leave, in which no mention was made of .the officers, this has already been sent ,to you. He asked for our pay two or three times after we had three months’ due to us, and were told each time it had been sent for.

We were then ordered back to- Buluwayo, the first into Tub, and the last but one to leave, the others going to garrison Manzynynma. We got to Buluwayo all expecting to have’our pay then,' as' we had five months’ at the end of the month due to. us, and. intended, to .have a,, good Christmas din-, ner.. -Again ithe old yarn, We cant ge’t money,’’ was rung into us, and l yet all the other troops could, and had It, also men whose companies had gone away, when they came out of hospital. Wc are the only lot, I have met who cannot get.it, although six weeks ago. we were told -they had sent for il. So we had no money for Christmas to buy soap for a wash, or even any tobacco, wc stopped at Yr.yburg, where Lord Methuen was concentrating his forces, but he knew nothing about ns, and when our senior lieutenant, who is no®- in command', was asked who we were he first of all made Lord Methuen to understand we were the. Fifth Yeomanry, and then that we came from. New Zealand. To-day it is pouring with fain, and we are minus- some tents, which, through the carelessness of the 'officer, were left behind at Buluwayo, why,, we don’t know, and another beinggiven away at'Vvyburg, we had to borrow one from' the K.D.5.8., which we now have. 'The storm has been pretty severe, and some unfortunates who rigged-up a, tarpaulin are how soaking in the rain. I don’t know what you think about this, hut, you would, 1 feel sure, ff with us, be posi-tive-'there was someone at fault. Can you tell' hie what. point there is in being told by a superior that, he had 'only come out to see the country, to have a picnic, and did not want to see any fighting. I-call it coming out under false pretences, find that is.nothing but obtaining money under the same charge. I don’t want to grumble,, hut I should like red-tapeism and favouritism abolished in cases like these, of whatone might term life and death. We trust that this slight, sketch of our miserable experiences, through being placed undertwo utterly untrained an inexperienced officers, may prove of some use in influencing the authorities in the direction of securing the services of suitable men, should they be sending any more contingents. Wc are anxious, now we are near the front, to do credit to, our regiment abd country ; but the issue of any fighting, we may have if not easy t'o foretell, considering the: incompetence • of am, etc., A TROOPER. * •: Fourteen Streams, • Jan. 3, 1901.