OUR UNHONOURED DEAD

Otago Witness, Issue 2851, 4 November 1908, Page 88

OUR UNHONOURED DEAD

I. By C. A. Youxo.

A spectator and onlooker may find much to interest him in observing the development of this Dominion, especially if he may have had similar experience in other lands. It* may be said it is. given to few to be able to segregate themselves sufficiently from the ordinary interests of life which animate mankind to become impartial in their judgments ; but if any arrive at this position, it is surely the world-weary traveller. In this newcountry the vagaries of public opinion — ot what is supposed to represent public opinion: i.e., the extreme writings of the sensational part of the press of the Dominion — are always amusing, and sometimes pitiable. One week a. section of the press may be bumptious and vainglorious, swelling, the New Zealander's head with pride in the illimitable possibilities of his country, and picturing a. glorious future ; next- week we are quaking in abject fear of what will become of us when the " Yellow Peril" arrives on our shores; then s we become excited to a pitch of hysterical frenzy in-entertain-ing the American fleet, and a local (I hope) poet breaks forth into song to this effect :

O American fleet! if you please, Protect us. from the Japanese. When we recover from this state we say pleasant things to soothe the susceptibilities of the " Old Mother," who supplies us with pocket-money and maintains a number of marine bulldogs to frighten expectant robbers. This is all very amusing, but there are elements in the situation which ought to give us pause. Macaulay says somewhere " that a people that does not keep in memory the great deeds of it© ancestors is not likely to do anything worthy of being remembered by its descendants." What have we done or what are we doing to "keep in memory the great deeds" done for this and future generations by our unhonoured dead?

In the north, in the little graveyard of the village church of Waimate, have been collected the bones of a few of those who fell in attacking the Maori pas of Ohaeawai and Okaihau, in flic war which followed after Hone Heke'cut down the English flagstaff at Kororarika, Bay of Islands, in 1845 ; at Te Ngutu ote Manu, where Major Yon Tempsky fell ; and in the pretty little Anglican church of St. Mary's, New Plymouth, and its adjacent graveyard, generous efforts have been made :tb honour the deeds ' of a few_ of those who fell in ■ the -Taranaki wars of 1860-70. As haying instigated these humane and patriotic efforts to perpetuate, the memory of these honoured dead, it! is a pleasure to record here that at Waimate and in New Plymouth tho name of Archdeacon Walsh will always, be honourably associated.

| But around the pas stormed by ourtroops during the war in the north — at Waitara, Manawatu. Otapawa, Turutura, Ngatapu, and many other places from Waitotara. to White Cliffs, in Taranaki; at Rangiriri, OraUau, and the numerous battlefields of Waikato; at Pukehirtahina (Gate) Pa, Tauranga ; and along the Napier-Taupo road, — in the pursuit of Ta Kooti, lie the unhonoured remains of many of the Queen's troops and of tha organised bodies of the settlers who foughfo and fell — the one at the call of duty, the other in defence of the country of their adoption. Those of tho present generation do not know at what cost their forefathers won this country for them, or surely they would not neglect an obvious duty. The graves of the dead, lying unhonoured? where they fought and fell, call mutely, from the past. Nor is the present generation to be altogether blamed for this ignorance. In a country where neither the Bible nor history is taught in the public schools how can patriotism be inculcated? What is the use of the Government calling upon the able-bodied youth of the Dominion to join the defence forces when these have not been taught what patriotism means? ' " Among the many omissions of duty of the present and- past Governments none will have such faT-reaching consequencea as the neglect to ceach the history of the Dominion in the public schools, aa slso their neglect 'to appoint a commission to inquire into and report upon the scattered places of interment andl the 6tate of the little cemeteries lovingly formed and left by the Queen's tToops as a sacred legacy to the caTe of the Dominion. Such a commission might aleo to .well employed in collecting and recording the incidents of our little wars, for wiuchi purpose the published Tecords of the Queen^i regiments en-gaged in these ■wars -would probably be found of serviceCopies of these -retzimental recoTde ought surely to be provided in every public libraxy of the Dominion. Here are two incidents which might with advantage he illustrated and, with their stories hung on the walls of our pakeha and Maori schools: In May, 1846, owinig to disagreements as to the legal purchase of land, tho Maoris threatened to attack Wellington., A detachment of the 58th Regiment, undsr Lieutenant (afterwards General); Page, was billeted at Boulcott's farm 1 to guard the Hutt bridge, and near the bridge was mounted a non-commiesionedl officer's guard with a bugler, a little fellow of some 12 or J3 summers. Onthe morning of the 18th .of May, in .the dark hour 'before the dawn, the attacking Maoris stealthily approached the guard! tent, in which the soldiers were soundlyj sleeping trusting implicitly to the vigi--lance of the sentinel posted on an emfinenco commanding a view of the country; arounp, The sentry was not true to hie trust, and. instead of keeping e-vc*j sense alert, *" stood at ' ease," perhaps dreamiTia of the loved ones he 'had leftl in the Homeland over the eea. That ■wa.ft Us Jasi dream oft earths a tomahawk' S*9*s^ in*2, k> tram sileaiced him/ _xo£jsver. The Maoris therj. ei&clrelecl th«

guard tent, and when close rushed upon ifcj and with their tomahawks slashed at every movement under them. The little boy bugler crawled out from under the tent, and, springing to his feet, was sounding !' The alarm when a Maori cut off this bugle arm. Without hesitation the brave boy stooped and, seizing the bugle ■with is left hand, again essayed to do his duty, butf it was his own " Last post " he sounded, as the Maori's tomahawk descending upon his head despatched him to await the "Great Reveille."

The other incident occurred at Waitara. from which a chain of redoubts extended at intervals to the Pukerangiora pa, near "which the Maoris were strongly entrenched in Te Axei pa. The Queen's troops occupied these redoubts, and were patiently sapping the intervale between to seize Te Arei pa. Early one morning the Maoris attempted to take No. 3 redoubt by storm, and succeeded in surmounting the ramparts, whence they were shooting down the garrison within. The officer in command, realising his critical position, ordered his bugler to sound the regimental call of the regiment guarding the neighbouring-Tedoubt. The J call was •understood, and reinforcements came. Mean-while the Maoris pressed the attack, «nd rushed upon the t»ld»rs. " One of then£' received a^- bayonet thrust through liis breast, but, seizing the " soldier's musket with his other hand, he' forced the bayonet, further through his. chest in his fierce endeavour to reach "his enemy ■with his tomahawk. When the Maoris observed they were being surrounded by the reinforcements they endeavoured to retire, taking with them their dead and ■wounded, among them our brown hero ■with the soldier's bayonet sticking through him. Neither of the combatants -woHld .quit his hold of the musket, but the soldier finding himself beini* dragged away by the retreating Maoris at last )leb go. This Maori recovered from his wounds, and after the war was often eeen in New Plymouth, where he would laughingly and proudly show the cicatrice of his wound on chest and back. At this engagement and afc Mahoetahi the Maoris exhibited conspicuous bravery in the open, and lost heavily. \ *

Surely, with the lapse of time, the feel-in-gB excited then hare calmed to a deserved respect for a brave people, who, after all,, only fought after their native manner in defence , of thoir homeland. Would it .not, therefore, be a graceful and conciliatory policy, soothing to the feelings of a fine race, were we now to include them in whatever efforts we may undertake to perpetuate the -memory of 3th e dead?