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Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume II, Issue 70, 30 December 1863, Page 5

Volunteering in the North.—We hav e been favored with the following extract from a letter from one of the Waikato Volunteers:— '• Cainp Papatoitoi, St. John's Redoubt, Dec. 5. Here 1 am, drilling away night and day to fight the Maones, and already I have had one bit of a skirmish with them. There were only 300 of us and we pursued over 200 of them, killing for certain two of them, and wounding God knows how many. Several of our chaps were wounded slightly, and your humble servant had a flask of gin broken by a bullet. The very first night tuter our arrival we were placed on main guard for 24 hours, it raining heavily all the time; and after being relieved we had scarcely turned in when the drum and bugle sounded out again, and away we went on a twenty mile march through the most infernal scrub you ever saw, expecting every moment to be popped off by some Maori, and kept skirmishing about without one scrap of tucker except a few onions and unripe gooseberries, which we got from the deserted farms, and which gave me a touch of the collywobbles for days afterwards. So you see, my dear Bill, soldiering isn't the pleasantest life in the world. We have different reports every day of the Maories being near us, and we are now held in readiness to start at five minutes' notice to the front. This is about the finest looking country I ever saw, and if a fellow is only lucky enough to get a good fifty acres I will never regret coming. I would advise every one who can to come and settle here after the war is over, but not at present, for we are kept under strict military discipline, the country bein» under martial law—no lights allowed after nine o'clock; and the only difference between the regulars and us is that they won't flog us, and they do them for little or nothing. The uniform is a blue shirt, blue trousers with red stripe, blue cap with big peak, shoulder belts, crossbelts, Enfield rifle and bayonet. I am on rifle shooting drill now, but owing to the wet weather can do nothing to-day. We get two stiffeners of rum a day, and drink is very cheap here—3d a nobbier."—Daily Times,