TITOKOWARU'S WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14336, 5 April 1910, Page 3

TITOKOWARU'S WAR.

Sir, —My corps, No. 6 A.C., were not . supposed to march - out of camp '• to V Moturoa's fateful fight; but at the last moment Colonel Whitmore ordered U3 ; out ~ to act merely, as ] a rearguard. We were the •« rearguard going out,; and acted•> in the same capacity coming back to ; Wairoa.' ,On the temporary repulse of No. 3 Division ' A.C., when gallant: Hunter; their commander, was : 1 ; knocked over, No. 6 was . ordered, to ad- J' vance, and we did so. When • were wit-bin > 30 paces of the position, the bugles in the* rear sounded " the retire." Our fellows, all';, old drilled men, 1 had tltfir glorious charge; broken, and the horrors, of the retreat, from this disastrous battle, but which ought to have been a splendid victory, for us,;'began; ) My corps lost -21 in ' killed and ( wounded out of a i total strength- :■of 74 men who marched out of Wairoathrec hours previously. James Mcintosh Roberts, «v $ New Zealand hero whom nothing is now heard pf,'had the ; glorious privilege of commanding the ■ rearguard at;i this fight, ,as> Jie did 'at ■ V "Te Beak of the Bird" (Te Ngutu-o-Xe Manu). No. 6 can also boast of not leaving ; one of their dead or wounded behind on .the t. field, as, alas! .other Corps did. I have been in some 32 engagements in Maoriland, and this fight at Papatiakiekie (miscalled Okotuku, • f and p sometimes ' Moturoaj was the _ • toughest ever, I was in, for, hampered hs we • were "with our "dead' and 'wouridfed comrades', i and with the brave and triumphant foe ; madly pressing ,on us with tomahawk and*|j clubbed rifle, we had literally to fight every -, foot of our way, from near .the palisades of the pa out and . through the deadly '.'avenue" -to ihe-fcrn-coniitry outside:™'f-camiut agree with , Mr. '.Kenah's.'■ contention e; that ! but for the Armstrong; guns opening out the > Euro* peans would have been annihilated. Armstrong guns, or any other sort of shell' fire, would be of no use in a' bush fight such :as the one under review, for the reason; that big guns could not act with advantage. General r. Chute had three Armstrongs at; Gtapawa, and two; of > the shells, passing ' harmlessly ;? over the pa, almost; exploded ; amongst us rangers in the rear. It's true that on seeing ;? us of the rearguard so hard pressed bj; the Hauhaus, as we ' retired ? from Papatiakieki««'i fight, Colonel Whitmore ordered ; out the r couple of Armstrong guns, and from{ the;' fern ridge just beyond- the Wairoa : Redoubt ' he opened fire, on the Hauhaus,l who, mad at our escape, from thpm when tbev thought they had us in "the avenue,'.' kept volleying into us all along our retreat, to.within a short mile of "Wairoa. ' I often . wonder . why ■ someone with the ability, leisure, and means,. does not set : himself to gather all - the; oral evidence possible on these _ old campaigns from the handful of survivors. I make bold to say that if such descriptions were -. carefully collected, as carvfully collated; and ; edited by a competent officer, and' printed, little, if anything, would be of more interest to our present-day. - generation.. and future & generations, .'' Who knew not -Joseph in the * days of his travail." K John Wabd, * Late Yon Tempsky's_ Forest Rangers, and No. 6 Division ■ A.C. i -"V*".