POROTI BY MOONLIGHT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9124, 4 August 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

POROTI BY MOONLIGHT.

... . -ly _ A NIGHT RIDE TO THE BATTLE

FIELD.

ATTENDING TO THE WOUNDED. Thk descriptive "great guns" have gone off! The war correspondent has "shown how fields were worn," and naught remains for me but to tag on a bit of fringe to the battle flag.

Tantara ! Tantara ! Tantara ! Mount, and gallop ! Forwards ! The bugler was my faithful collie, tied up; and he "let out" as never mortal bugler did when he saw himself left behind. We splattered away at four p.m., '20th ultimo, and the we consisted of Mr. Clendon (our worthy Magistrate), the two local constabulary, and my surgical self.

The distant Tangihua Ranges stood out in the declining rays darkly purple, edged with burning gold ; and the far-off Sugar Loaf, seated in forests primeval, by the shores of the silent-flowing VVairoa. Sweeping round green-mantled Maunu, and keeping on our left the towering form of Maunfjatapere, we straightened up on our course. " Westward Ho!" Belike we did not seem a weighty contingent, as the little conclaves of gumdiggers by the line of road kindly suggested the propriety of looking out for our 41 cokernuts," as bullets were flying. 1 have seen the track worse—very much worse; but after all it was only canter along a hard strip—hang on to the slope of a cutting—slush ! slush ! slump ! slump ! as per favour of the Road Boards. Nathless, " when the moon had climbed the mountains," we arrived, soldierly pipeclayed, in front of that oasis of the Foroti— the hospitable abode of Mr. Rawnsley. Mr. and Mrs. Rawnsley are liked by everybody— brown, white, and whitey-brown —and good reason too; for the hungry wayfarer, barrin' he be a rank sundowner," is never sent empty away. In a twinkling, extemporised feed-boxes were spread over the green, and our faithful brutes busy in them ; we meantime demolishing a substantial tea in the keeping-room. Mr. Clendon decided to visit each camp with the " olive branch," but first. tQ interview a belligerent lady living some distance from either. She, it seems, is a woman possessed of much force of character, plenty of grit, a powerful determination of words to the mouth, and throughout the day of the combat had from an eminence acted as fugle-mare to her party, signalling to them where to creep for a good pot-shot, and so forth. We were now passing over the scene of action, and so far as I could see by the light of a good three-quarter moon, the tea-tree is short and meagre, and the longsweep of gently-sloping moorland i;- free from gullies. At length the gleam of lights appears, and simultaneously

the outcry of a legion of curs. We were guided by Mr. Fred North, who knows the country like a book, and ho in the advance scoured our peaceful reception. A square weather-boarded shed gave forth a motley assemblage of burly warrior and frowsy dame, but oh ! the fugleman ! Before wo could hitch up and step over the low palisading running round this abode of the "dire sister," she was at it hammer-and-tongs with the Resident Magistrate; and though he reels off the patter without a comma, she could ride rings round him. An under-sized woman, without an atom of native dignity, a good large forehead and cranium, the usual shock of black tousie hair, bound, round with a fillet of white stuff, a cotton gown of undistingulshable colour and pattern, and serviceable bare feet! Not a ''taking" figure certainly. Still when she rose to a climax, and with glowing eyes and passionate gesticulation advanced a pace or two and poured the wordy torrent down our throats at close quarters, there was some explanation of her iniluence with the tribe, and some hope also that they would keep her. I did riot see the " Watty" belonging to this dusky "Meg," so conclude he's stone-deaf, anil does not show. But everything has an end, and a black pudding lias two. Hecate ! farewell ! Ticking our steps back through the smouldering tires dotted here and there round the wigwam, we were soon again in the saddle, and heading north-west for " the tented Held."

It was a lovely night in June ; High rode in cloudless blue, the moon.

Yes, it looked tine travelling up there, and the trouble was all with us "landlubbers lying down below." Roads, be hanged ! Gruesome slums of the ichthyosaurus ! making a man wish he had never been born! Scramble and slump for about two miles, brought distant lights in view, and the chorus of curs came along on the faint breeze. Quite a number ot good, large tents covered the ground near the top of a long slope of hill, and there was some stir on our arrival; but I was quickly shunted off by our guide down the hill to where work was waiting. Here one was wounded, while two lay (load. The bullet had struck one in tho mouth, slanting upward and passing out at the occiput; the other was shot through the heart. SYe found a good-sized whare, with a tent} or two, peopled by both sexes and all ages. Entering the former, just within the doorway, there burned a hot fire of embers on the ground. On either hand, blanketed figures fay stretched on the mat-strewn floor, while a few sat or sprawled round the fire. A goodly show of rifles and smooth-bores stood up along the back wall of the whare, but there was no time for more than a glance, for here by the fireside lay " the case." A strong man, of middle age, greeted me by name in a faint voice. A very weak, compressible pulse, clammy skin, and every sign of extreme depletion. The right arm lay helpless by bis side, done up in many a rough and read}' convolution, and bedded in everything absorbent that could be scraped together. But all was soaked through and through. Kneeling down by him the scissors revealed that ho had been hit. about the middLe of the upper arm, just missing the main artery. The bullet—of large size, say a Snider—had passed in front of the chcvst, and struck the arm at an obtuse angle, while in extended position. Smashing the bone into fragments, and being deflected thereby, it had gone down through the muscular substance of the forearm, tearing its way out at the wrist. The limb was a huge one, and the wound a gulch of maf?hed-up muscle and bloody ooze. Active hemorrhage had ceased, as the man was almost in a state of syncope. Operative interference was inadmissible for the time. But very likely the amputating knife is tapu to Maoridom. Splinting the upper arm, pad, strapping, bandage, and raised pillow made the poor fellow more comfortable, and wit h an opiate inside he would do far the nonce. Surgery on one's knees, over a puriri fire, is not Elysium. It has a peculiar lumbar effect, and when in " delaissement" one sits back on one's own spur, the effect is greatly enhanced.

Returning to Canvas Town on the hill— the west-end of this bizarre community we found quire a jolly company before the tents, seated round an open-air fire. The Resident Magistrate was in full swing with our old friend Taurau, Pomare Kingi, and others splicing the pake! 1 a and Maori moral laws, but all in good humour. The old chief looked quite regal, done up in manycoloured shawls and blankets, and seated with his wife beside him, at the opening of a snowy, well-lit tent. The palaver was prat,by well over before my return, so we were soon off again, this time to the opposite camp. We were well warned to " sing out" before going near, as from what one could gather they were rather a wild mob, ami, like the Jeddart folks, had a way of shooting you first and examining your credentials afterwards. A very rough ride of two to three miles brought us to an affluent of the Wairua, which we forded. On the further bank, and crowning a rise, stood the remains of the pa lately burnt down. Much of the palisading yet remains, and it seems to have been an extensive affair. Away down before us, and close to the banks of the Wairua, we saw the camp tires, and we heard, of course, the inevitable dogs'-ology. Here we were at fault, as there was no apparent, opening through the palisading. The arrival of a youngster from the camp in answer to our hail removed the difficulty, and we were soon trooping down the hill to the nest of hornets. Talk of them as uncivilised ? Nothing of the sort ! Why, our " open sesame " sported the remains of a jacket made by a pakeha tailor long gone to rest, and he was whistling "Tramp, tramp !" in not bad style. Shouldn't wonder if he knew Volapuk. Hitching up, scattering the army of dogs, and making for the larger of two largo whare?, we were ushered into quite a weird scene. Tattooed faces everywhere, all very serious —even glum. The usual fire burned 011 the grot within the entrance, bordered off from the mat-covered floor by an oblong square of rounded logs. On these roosted the "fathers of the tribe," no doubt "fighting their battles o'er again," and conning their course for the morrow. To the left many recumbent figures showed the young braves had " turned in." To the right, and in the extreme corner, burned a single tallow dip, presiding over a sus-piciously-quiet form covered over with a blanket. A long row of firearms along the back-wall. Near the fire on one side lay a young lad wounded. On the other sat an ancient warrior, nude to the waist, leaning in the attitude of the "dying gladiator," also wounde 1. The lad had evidently been shot when lying down, the bullet striking him in the thigh, a few inches below the groin. Passing upwards, it had escaped into the basin of the pelvis, where it was lost. The old man was hit in the left breast near the heart. The bullet, likely a round one, out of a smooth-bore, had struck obliquely, glancing off' a rib, and passing round the body downward, making exit over the left kidney. It was a near thing for old Matu. The figure in the corner with a candle to itself, drew me thither. This was Nuha, shot dead. Unwinding some rude bandaging round the head, there lay a stern-visaged man of thirty, shot through the head. The bullet had entered the left temple slightly above the level of the eye, and slanting upward, passed clean through the brain and right temple, making sad havoc of this half of the cranium. He had been a bit of a pickle in his time, and short indeed had been his shrift.

Looking at the weapons along the wall, I found them mostly double-barrel smoothbores of various gauges; a few cheap singlebarrels, and two venerable flints t hat: may have done duty at Bunker's Hill. All were loaded, ready to snatch up. Saw no rides, but was told they had some. The whare was a large and very tine one. Would hold quite "250 people. The round totara studs, nicely-plaited nikau roof, and thick walls of unbroken raupo, spoke of a dexterity lingering now only with the remoter sections of the race. And, altogether, this community was much more primitive than the other—more of Maoridom and natural resources, and but little of Bradford, Manchester, and the slop tailor. This was very noticeable also in their deference to " tapu." Wanting to give Matu a soothing draught, a young wanine fetched a pannikin filled with water. I handed it back, motioning to empty it outside. It went, but no amount of hollering could bring it back. My touching it consigned it to the limbo of "tapu." Same way with a lot of "off-duty" blankets I began to grub together to cushion up the old chap, and was advised to drop them. The probability is the staining of the hands with their own or their opponents' blood enabled me to manufacture " tapu" articles so rapidly. But it's embarrassing nonsense anyway. I noticed also that neither here

nor in the other hapu was a Maori hand put forth to aid. All my help came from the constables and Mr. North. " " Tapu " again, likely. 1 All this time Mr. Clendon, seated amongst the fathers, was endeavouring to talk them into a law-abiding frame of mind. The toughest subject was pointed out as a tohunga, or prophet, squatted at his left hand. He did not look the ideal prophet— tall, wasted figure, befird like a colt's tail, and a far-away look in his sunken eyes. Oh, dear no ! This v/as a well-fed, dumpy little man, that lookfd liker toting along a big pikau than weaving prophecies. He had a voluble delivery, black, beady eyes, and was terribly 'in earnest with things present. A taller man on the right bore something of aCa ssias' look. He sat but little, and kept) mostly a pace or two in the shade. Now and then, when the talk gave him a slant, or the Resident Magistrate yawed a little, he would luff up a step into the light., sling a shot into his cabin windows, and fall away into his old cruising ground. He was always at white heat, always clutching a blanket at his throat, as if lie d strangle himself, and his eyes literally blazed. I -did not half like the look of thatnoble Roi'nan. The Dutch-built prophet worked the broadside batteries, and earned my respect for standing to them. But it got monotonous. Strolling out into the moonlight and exploring a bit, I found the camp was just on the bunk of the river, here a good gunshot, broad, and sending down a heavy volume of water. The banks of hard clay were steep and water-worn into little gullies. The bush on either side came right up. Underfoot a large canoe swung to the current, moored stem and stern. The faint breeze had gone to re.st, and nothing answered the listening silence but the call of the weka in the distant brake. How still and peaceful ! What a reproach to the wild tumult of turbulent, man ! Returning towards the camp, behold ! there hung my errant pannikin, doing penance on a punga stump ! The prophet had talked old Matu asleep, and everybody else deaf and blind,-so we took our leave and made for the "oasis." Though inidnightMr. and Mr. Rawnsley were on the look-out, rightly conjecturing that if not eaten, we should want to eat. Hot coffee and a keen night go well together, and we worked out the theorem. Three a.m. brought the glimmer of the Pacific, and the "Hen" sitting out on the moonlit waters, while the " bugler " proclaimed we had "got home from the wars."

Aye, so far, so good, but what of Pollex ? A " star " of the Auckland first magnitude declared last week that the wounded were only dressed, not completely cured, and yet he is not on the rampage. Sleepeth Giant Blunderbore? Snoreth the mighty? "Imbecile ! Why not administer ' the perfume,' yank out the bullets, give them a slap, and turn them out bounding gazelles, as Madam Dot helot. V" "Ah, why not indeed ! I did my level best. The perfume was there before me, and we all had it; the only bullet to yank had gone to ' the never, never.' I did pat them a little, but. they wouldn't bound? But consider, mysterious enemy of my tribe! I'm only a legalised murderer-a medico of the common pattern, not having attained unto a' golden chariot and brass band. I quite agree that every enlightened practitioner should have these scientific aids, but woe is me ! I'm badly placed for taking advantage of them. My golden chariot would soon be a mud-waggon ; my struggling brass band would have given its dying tootle miles from making the sick man's whare; and in the tea-tree I'd be awfully sorry for the big drum ! No, no, my cloud will not lift ! The inexorable presses me into the pitiful, silent, mud of ' the Ancient Way,' and Bluebeard will surely look for 'fresh meat' in some other cupboard 1"

" Wee], weol!" quo' I, "a bargain bo't, Come, nies yer haun, and sat; we're gvee't!"