NEW ZEALAND WAR MEDALS.
Sir,—lt is pleasant reading to see how nobly His Majesty the King has responded to Lord Roberts' call to rescue the Crimean and Indian Mutiny veterans from the workhouses at Home. "As the story goes: — .
"When war is on and danger nigh, ; God and the soldier is the country's cry. When the war is over, and the wrongs ar* righted, _ _ God is forgotten, and tho soldier flighted."
But it is never too late to mend. Alx>ufc two rears ago I noticed iu one of the Home papers a soldier who had only then received hi* Crimean war medal. I would that some powerful and influential elder of the pen would take up the cause of the nondecorating of the soldiers of the Waikato regiment# who went through the whole of the Waikato campaign in 1865-65, but who happened to miss the general engagements, and simply on the score of economy the thoa Government did not issue medals to all. Those who joined the transport corps fro a* the Waikato regiments all received this medal on account of their drawing Is per ! day extra Imperial pay. It would surely be ati act of grace for the present Government, to grant, the medal to the. very few who are now alive, especially to 'he men of the. Second Waikato Regiment, who he'ped to takv? the Waikato and hold it until all the panics ceased and the country was safe for settlement. Nos. 2. 4. 5, 7, and 9 companies of the Second Waikato-, did all the frontier work: in fact, for a considerable period were ahead of the line troops, arjtj went through all the hardships of the earnpaign, and sure!v deserved the war medal. I hop* this will meet th« eye of Sir Joseph ! Ward, who lias righted many wrongs just lately, and who. it is almost certain, would | take" a favourable view of the matter it properly explained. 'Pbe late Colonel Piti'i! opinion waa that all those Waikato men should have received the mooa), and also that the well-planned, though bk>odi<*s, expedition to i'arihaka to worthy of some recognition. O.ye of the old fei.lows
TO CORRESPONDENTS. WAIKATO Shake Yon should writ# to the liquidator.
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New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13649, 17 January 1908, Page 3
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368NEW ZEALAND WAR MEDALS. New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13649, 17 January 1908, Page 3
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