THE FOURTH NEW ZEALAND ROUGH RIDERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13594, 16 May 1906, Page 2

THE FOURTH NEW ZEALAND ROUGH RIDERS.

Quito a haze of indistinctness is • now already gathering round many of our recollections of those stirring, if anxious, times when, in ready response to the Empire's call, New Zealand was despatching contingent after contingent of her sons to South Africa. Much has bteii written on tho subject, but. the succipct account of the doings of any one contingent from the time that it left our shores till its welccnie homo again is a difforent matter and could hardly fail to afford a very interesting record. Such a record has Mr J. G. H. Moore successfully so"out in a heat volume of somo 200 pages entitled "With thq Fourth Now Zealand Rough Riders." The volume conies a little belated, it is true, but when it is remembered how intimately Otago and Dunedin were associated with the Fourth Contingent- it is easy to- imagine that its contents will bo read with interest by very many. In- the light .of tho present-day quietness of our city it is exceedingly stimulating to hark back to a day of such enthusiasm in Dunedin as that upon which the. send-off of the Fourth Contingent took place. It is good to' remember that such enthusiasm has been possible. To the many now scattered members of tho Fourth, tho unassuming narrative of tho doings of their old company will no doubt be a \spccial soured of pleasure mixed with regret where untoward incidents attendant, on the campaign are touched upon. The writer of the book was, of course, himself a member-of the contingent, and benco is well qualified to deal with the subject. The doinps of the contingent from the camp at Fqrbury Park and (ho departure of tho Monowai from Port Chalmers to tho return of Iho troopship 'J'agus are treated in a very lucid end readable manner, and one of tho most pleasing features of an unassuming littlo volume is the absence of any high-flown oulogism of colonial troops as compared with the Imperial forces. One or two of Lieutenant J. R. Macdonald's breezy letters from the front arc reproduced .aptly. Some excellent photographic illustrations constitute a feature of the volume which is itself well got up and its contents well arranged. "W;tl\ the Fourth Now Zealand Rough Ridsrs" should cniiimend itself widely to all in whom that .spirit in -which our contingents wore sent to Africa still to anv extent survives.

— The area under deer now in Scotland amounts to nearly 3.000,000 acres.