MR A. B. PATERSONS LECTURES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2437, 28 November 1900, Page 52

MR A. B. PATERSONS LECTURES.

" THE TARTAN, THE SHAMROCK, AND TOMMY ATKINS."

Mr A. B. Paterson commenced his series of lectures at the Garrison Hall on Wednesday night in the presence of a largp audience, who accorded the popular writer and war correspondent a most cordial welcome. Mr Paterson needed no introduction to the assemblage. As a writer he had made his name familiar to ISfew Zealanders long before he gained the brilliant reputation he had amongst the war correspondents in the Boer struggle. What Mr Paterson had to say about the South African war carries weight with it in the minds of most people, for many reasons. First of all, he saw a lot of the campaign, not only in the sense of having had personal experience of it over an extended period of time, but he saw it m its multitude of vaiying aspects. Then Mr Patexson, having had his powers of observation educated and expanded in the Australian back-blocks, clearly possesses the knack of grasping details and incidents which strongly appeal to colonial audiences, and which would in all probability be overlooked by the average city man. The lecturer has an easy, fluent delivery, and although occasionally marked by flashes of descriptive oratorical passages, the address was delivered m simple colloquial language, which brought home to the hearts of the audience with all the niore force characteristic scenes and incidents of the war. In the early part of his remarks Mr Paterson referred to the request of the Home authorities for infantry and not mounted men when accepting the offer of assistance from the colonies, but as events proved it was exactly the reverse that was required. So badly werp mounted men needed in fact that 5000 Tommies were provided with Argentine ponies and new saddles, and their efforts to become initiated into the mysteries of controlling 'lihe noble animal — in this instance something between a mule and a pig, Mr Paterson humorously observed, — was detailed in a manner that evoked unrestrained merriment. A tribute was paid to a brave Boer, v/ho, in the face of a storm of leed, succoured a wounded Highlander, and the speaker then proceeded to idate how "cavalry tactics signally tailed thioughout the operations. The modern quickfiring, lifle, he said, as he held up a Mauser rifle and described its movements, had sounded the death knell of cavalry. The day has passed, he said, when a cavalry man could go about killing the enemy by plodding him with a, long stick, and the sword is of little more use. Referring to some of the letters received fiom troopers, the lectmcr observed, aniid<?t apisronng dsmon"Ctrjtions, that letteis had been W-Tiltci and published which both wiiters and jiev.-s,pppeis should be ashamed of. It had been stated by some of these that one colonial was equal to two Tommies. People who read this soit of thing forgot that all the liaid work of driving the Boers off the lulls fell upon the British infantiy. Our men might talk when thsy got a " cutting up " such as the Goidon Highlander, the liish, and the Welsh Regiments have tinie after time got in stoiming Boer. eatseaclunents — a sentiment; which elicited

the heartiest applause. Reference was made-to the disaster at Magersfontem, which Mr Pater- , son declared was due to the careless lack of ■ scouting on the part of the brigadier, and not to Lord Methuen, upon whom the blame fell. This < and a mishap to the Sussex who were suddenly exposed to a deadly fire from concealed Boer marksmen when their colonel was in the very act of making a speech to them, were the only two instances in which he knew the English infantry failing. The Boer gunnery was infinitely worse than the British gunnery the audience were informed, but the lyddite proved, in plain and unequivocal language, " a howling fraud — an absolute failure." Lyddite was supposed to kill everything within 25 yards of it, but if that were true not one Boer in. Cronje's laager would have lived to tell the tale. The Boers who fell there were killed with rifle fire. The bravery of the English gunrers was exemplified by an incident which happened within the personal experience of " Banjo." A battery of | artillery happened to get posted about 500 yards ; away from the Boer rifles, which poured in upon it a driving ram of hail. A doctor who was standing alongside the correspondent was shot through the body, and carrying him a little j distance away, Mr Paterson lay down alongside him. Mr Paterson dare not lift his head, but managed to get a side glimpse out of the corner of his eye, and saw the major of the battery walking up and down with his hands behind his back as calmly as if on parade, while the men with equal fearlessness worked iheir guns with splendid effect. It is generally conceded to be suicidal for -a batteiy to get &o near riflemen, but m tibris instance it had to be done,, anci it was done. If these guns had been taken, the i lecturer remarked, nothing would hay* saved French's column. The failure of the hospital Mr Paterson attributed to the over zeal of the generals, who, desiring to achieve something,- j monqpolised the transports in getting through their munitions ; and in speaking of the rnecli- j cal men he had met the lecturer paid a- high j tribute to Dr Thomas Burns. He said, '" I j saw him do a very brave thing. The men were j on the top of a high hill amongst the rocks, , and down the slopes were a couple of wounded j men. Burns, hearing of this, in the face cf a ! hot fire, and heedless of the cries of ' Come back,' went down the hill. He was in his shirt sleeves at the time, and was thus a better tr.r- i get. He reached the men, attended to them, ] and then came back amidst continuous firing. One of the bravest things done in. the v-ax, I think."— (Applause.) The troops who made the biggest reputation were the Gordon High- \ landers, who were always singled out for Vie ! tough- jobs ; and in this connection. Mr Pater- i son gave a particularly graphic description of the heroic feat of arms performed by Hector Macdonald's men at Ee'teif's Nek, where the | futility of lyddite fire was again exemplified. \ A very high tribute to the Irish regiments was I also paid, but, the lecturer said, they had one j fault, and that was they were always firing off their guns in camp. Their camp was never safe to be in. Once a shell dropped in amongst them, and one man, picking up his rifle, fired as haid as he could all round the horizon, and wound up by crying out to his comrade, " For the love of Hivin, Mick, where are they?" Of the English regiments, the Essex, the Northumberland Fusiliers (" The Fighting Fifth "), and the Welali Fusiliers were singled out. The marvellous tactical skill of Lord Roberts afforded a pleasant theme, and the manner in which he manoeuvred his great army 'of 200,000' men was described by many "highly interesting facts. The operations against De Wet were narrated 'with fine descriptive power, and the 3tory ofjiow a whole series of involved elaborate movements failed through- the simple-neg-lect of one, General P-aget, who instead of occupying a pass, camped by pome water and good grass near it, and thus gave the clever Boer leader ' his- o"hly chance of escape, was listened to -with the keenest interest. It had been said that when Loid Roberts came he found all the hard work accomplished, and his path made smooth. Mr Patsrson does not hold with this. • It is an incontestable fact, he said, that up to the time of Lord Eoberts taking over the control of the operations every movement of the British had proved unsuccessful, and one of the most disastrous took place just the day before Lord Roberts took over the command. Once he assumed command the failures ceased. His regime was marked by an unbroken series of successes, and it was only when his orders were not obeyed that his plans failed. This was an unanswerable argument, Mr Paterson added amidst applause, to those who would like to detract from the Commander-in-Chief's great achievements, At the close of the lecture, which was brimful of facts and information of signal interest, a very superior set of lantern views and cinematographic pictures was shown. They depicted characteristic incidents, which were shown with admirable clearness. A view of the Boer trenches was a particularly interesting picture, Mr Paterson having got it from one of tihe Boers, while the best of the ciiiematogra,phic pictures was without doubt an admirable lepresentation of the arrival of Lord Roberts at Capetown, a splendid view of the popular commander being a feature of it.