MAORI WAR VETERAN

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 29, 3 January 1929, Page 6

MAORI WAR VETERAN

SERVICE WITH VON TEMPSKY.

EARLY DAYS RECALLED

(By Telegraph—Special to Standard.)

AUCKLAND, Jan. 2.

A very old resident of Auckland and a veteran of the Maori War, Air John (inlanders, of Devonport, to-day celebrated his 81st birthday. Bom in No,a Scotia, of Scottish parentage in 18-±o, he arrived in the Dominion in 185(5, landing in Auckland. Air Gillanders enlisted in “Piett’s Four Hundred,” a body of militia raised tor service in the Waikato. On his discharge Mr Gillanders joined Von Tempsky’s Fore.yt Rangers, who formed part of the force under General Sir Trevor Chute in his famous march round Alt. Egmont through heavy and and trackless bush. Several actions were fought on the inarch, an important one being that at Otapawa. A temporary cessation of hostilities occurring, the troops returned to Wanganui, while the Forest Rangers were transferred to the Waikato as military at Harapipi, being given land grants of 50 acres and one town lot per man. Air Gillanders, however, sold out, and, hostilities having again broken out- in Taranaki under the noted Titokowarir, he re-enlisted at Wellington in .a division of armed constabulary under his old leader, Yon Tempsky, whose orderly he became. They proceeded to the YY aihi redoubt in the Taranaki district ami wer© very soon involved, in the heavyfighting that ensued both at the rebel of the little garrison of Turituri, Mokau, and subsequently in the second attack on the bush stronghold of Te Ngutu o te Manu where Y’on Tempsky was killed. In the retreat which followed Air Gillanders was one ofi, the rearguard desperately fighting to cover the withdrawal of the wounded through the dense forest during the night. The survivors eventually reached the YVaihi redoubt at daylight ill an exhausted condition. Mr Gillanders shortly afterwards retired- from military life, settling in AuckLand.