AN INTERLUDE IN WAR

Nelson Evening Mail, 24 July 1916, Page 2

AN INTERLUDE IN WAR

(Malcolm. Ross.) NORTHERN FRAXCE. May 21st. In the mythology of the .Maori there are chromclVd man strange -incidents the romantic happenings of love and peace and war. Handed down from the mists of antiquity by means of the wonderful memories of the Tohungas or high priest —for the Maori had no written language—these adventures of tiler forefathers \still live, and both the actualities and the myths of byegone generations ha\e still an influence uroii Maori character. It would require no great stretch of the M:!ori imagination to feci that tile spilit of Heke, the old warrior who defied the British, and time after time cut clown the pole from which fluttered the- English flag n Northern Neiv Zealand had winded its way from the legendary Hawaiki—whither the spirits of the departed are borne —and was hovering over this forest in Northern France where worthy descendants' of the tribes had come to engage in a friendly contest with men from those tw-O great overseas dominions—-Canada and Austra- ' lia. Heke was of our time, yet he l'emembered the day when the Maori felled his tree by fire and fashioned his long canoe with the implements of the ctouo age. And now what a. change. The Maori whose fathers only a few generations ago used the stone adze, and whose ancestors could not be eouquerod by British soldiers, is here helping his loniser foes in the grea.tesf, war of ail the ages, and in the interlude, meeting them and beating them in the fore.-t a.t their own game. As young Raw>i and his men —stripped to fhe sing'et. their groat brown bice- s showing", and pleasant smiles revealing fine teeth—stood axe in hand, each be«'de his trees awaiting the signal to begi;:. one on Id not but re- , member the splendid spirit of their noble ancestors. The scene was one in which, the old warriors would have delighted, the .«pae'eusness of the forest, "the songs of birds, the scent of wild flowers, and. better still, the scent of baKle in the air —for were we riot within sound of the cannon, and even as we matched down the woodland path the spiteful tat-Uf-Save monev on cough and cold ned;cines. Get a- bottle of "XAZOL"—the most economical specific. Sixty fi:ll doses for Is 6d. Every drop soothes andrelieves.

I tatting of a machiire-gun ranging, assailed the ear. And there were many soldiers from generals to non.-coms., and ••Tommies"—all eager and interested in tlie coming contest. There was also an Australian' band that played good music, though as someone remarked they were no bandsmen but miners. There were Eng-r.sh. Scottish, Irish, and Welsh. French 'Canadians talked to each other in French, and in the middle of tlie conversation would switch off into English* A French ••bucheron" seated beside a [ famous English war correspondent on a I fallen tree was saying to him —no doubt with memories of his own recent defeat by the Maoris in these same woods—'•'Ah! these Colonials they are not good axemen; they waste too much timber." A Canadian with a Yankee drawl ?nd \ somo swagged was asking for "real ,trees." These trees he said were only saplings! That was 'before the contest, and he had iperhaps never heard of the giant kauri 'in. the forests of Northern New Zealand. Could he but see those forests he would no doubt have to admit that a- kauri is "some tree." Later a critical Australian watch ng this same swaggering -axeman- hacking not too skilfully at a- hard elm was heard to reoiark with caustic humour that he could do better with a knife and fork ! liesides me a verv young English officer seemed to be interested in the New Zealanders. "I hear .-there are a lot of awful blackguards amongst them," he said. I in.ide a non-committal reply. He had evidently mistaken me for an Englishman. Ho wondered if the Mantis talked English. 1 assured him that they did, better possibly than- lie or T, and that (inile likely' there were aaioug them several with. University degrees. Tie presumed they were good at games. I told him they had earned some "nine at "Rii"-'cr." and thev played cricket fa'rlv well, and that a Maori had carried >■■(( the New Zealand golf "Are von with the New Zealanders?" he asked, looking me up and down.' 'Yes, 1 replied. am a New Zealander." Then the conversation languished somewhat, and with all due modesty I assumed that my friend was thinkii.g that after all -he might have been misinformed about my countrymen. After all he was a very young- officer, and, no doubt, as ibra-ve as his forefathers who ventured forth in the crusades, or who fought at Blenheim and Almanz?.. And one" felt certain that he would be justas ready to die in a ditch in. Flanders, •maintaining to the last gasn. the honour of the family name. AH the same one could not help recalling the lines of our English Poet-seer: — "What do they know of England Who only England know'?" But this war and these meetings under al : eni sides are doing us all .good, and are giving us a 'better <under.stand-i.n..g of each other, with the inevitable- result that in government and commerce, and even in the arts of peace and war, the Motherland and her loyal Dominions w.ll i be drawn yet closer together for mutual | ■welfare and protection. . Meantime tire axemen are wanting beside their trees, a shrill whistle g.ves the signal to commence, and immediately the chips begin to flv. Canada, has throe team's Australia two, and New Zealand one—the latter selected from- the few hundred Maoris who are with the Pioneer Battalion. There are three men n -a. teami and three trees have to be telle d by each team. Any one man. in the .rr'oup mn.v help to fell any of the three trees Thus when one man has felled his tree he rushes to the assistance of one of Ivs. comrades, till towards- the finish there are. usually three rnen- hacxin<r away at the last tree. The lot* of three trees average in circumference 5 metres 50 centimeters, and the wood, is hard. The Maoris have drawn a, set ot trees the average of which- is above a-* 4 the others., but the difference vs Jot Vrreat It is only fair to add that the Maoris, having been at work in the forest, for some time are in- slightly, tetter condit : on than the other axemen One of the Canadian teams chopped first and it was clear to experienced ■bushmen that they would have no show against the dusky warriors from, the -Vntipodes. The Australians were an imk, own quantity, and their first teams £f well. They heat the CW J™ easily The crowd were evidently vei> interested in the Maori axemen. Unperturbed bv the interest they were exciting the three young men remained silentlv. hand, each HeWe his the Wins*te s o,n,d»d thev went If work with fne Hm, on the exact- spot, send his „..:,,„ w „n ,n n d truly from the tee. llu. .- "rfe" left. as the *riT» '" «"> tree J, P was nlmn=. as ;f it had b-" r«t -til a <=aw-*ntb such nernvnev d:d n ,l D Ws from the kcen-swin«rintr axa foil. The first tree cam- crn-hm- t« Wip ,r,nvnr] to an .omnmnanimpnt of dice's . • ' • i .. Tt wis a tr&°i one m 0 ™ 1 " ;n SIV . nnniite*. »t visa ■ «■ T] 'fnrt.v-fi<-o mot-, in crcum lho UnH i,-or Tel' ;„■ mantes. At V I(l<sff u-ee-lhe K<r<ro«. in auv ot th<- „,. 0 „.„ s _ t .h» three Mann* were now »1 nivi,,, their :.xo« in trre.t stvle. In ,„•„„ mi-M,te. fortv seco-ds it. too. Ka-fnlU-n th« thl-e fv«o ß thus having be-1 WM down in ™- minutes *0 ,-condTHs ~„ n voomvl that, evidentlywonM be difficult to excel, and. as -\ ™V r of f P , t , r-, e of the.other team* approached it. Jne le . i Se „ n-^"-'« j •■■'£ 4 S £™S ,a ::: ::: « * , Following this contest there was a log-chopping contest, won b y> an Australian, with a Maori seconc It wd* almost'a dead-heat. In * cross-cut sawin- competition ,a Canadian pan jus managed to'heat a Maori team by about a second. The prize for the. best axemanship was won by a Maon. Thus ended a competition that wi perhaps he memorable in the annals of warfare. Just about this time, m a villasre only a few mil-s away, an Australian General was wounded/and an- Mtralinn doctor blown to man high explosive shell. \et lieie afw^e. with competitors from our widely scattered Dominions, calmly carr ont in the midst of idyllic surroimdjngs this strange contest. Under the ciicumstances it was an event such as perhaps only the British could, have conceived. One of my latest 'mpressione of it was a glimnse. of the Mam, grouped for a photograph by the birnime from a, neighbouring Chateau. She will have an interesting picture. Thousands of miles from their aiicestral home, here thev were readv and willing, in forest or tren'ch, to strike n blow for the honourV.f their native laud and of Mother England. of a surety, the spirit of Heke. who time and .i,r fl in" cut down the flagpole, and of Old TCewi who when asked to surrender said he would fight on for ever and ever, remains with young Rawini and his men as. smiling, ' sweating, and victorious, thev lean upon their axes beside Hit fallpp <dm—;, pifrmv mm oared with then o-.-n Han* kauri—in a forert in Northern France.