AN INCIDENT OF THE WAS.

Southland Times, Issue 1025, 21 September 1868, Page 3

AN INCIDENT OF THE WAS.

) (From the ' Daily Times.') | Those who have not yet heard of » Father Eoland, will be charmed to make his acquaintance. Here is a sketch of him in the field 5 , glve'n by a soldier of the Protestant faith:— "On" that grey and rainy morning, when the " snoring waters" of the Waingongora, were muttering of floods and fury to come, when our "three lmndred" mustered silently in column oh the parade ground, one man made his appearance, who at once drew all eyes upon him with silent wonder. His garb was most peculiar, scanty but long skirts shrouded his nether garments, an old waterproof sheet hung loosely over his shoulders. Weapons he had none, but there was a warlike cock in the position of his broad-brimmed old felt, and a self-confidence in the attitude in which he leaned on his walking stick, that said : here stands a man without fear. Who is it ? Look underneath the flap of that clerical hat, and the frank, good humored, brave countenance of ' Father Roland' will meet %you. There he was lightly arrayed for a march of which no one could say what the ending would be. With a good humored smile he answered my question as to what on earth brought him there. Ho said, that on holding evening service he had told his flock that he would accompany them on the morrow, and there he was ! Truly there stood ' a good shepherd.' Through the rapid : river waist-deep, along the weary forest track, across ominous-looking clearings, where at any moment a volley from an ambush ! would have swept our ranks, Father Eoland marched cheerfully and manfully, ever ready with a kind word, a playful sentence to any man who passed him. And when at last in the clearings of Te-Ngutu-o-te-Manu the storm of bullets burst upon us, he did not wait in the rear for men to be brought to him, but ran with the rest of us forward to the enemy's position. So soon as any man dropped, he was by his side ; he did not ask are you Catholic or Protestant, but, kneeling, prayed for his ' last words.' Thrice noble conduct, in a century of utilitarian tendencies. What Catholic ;on that expedition could have felt' fear when he saw Father Eoland by his side smiling at death, -a living personification, a fulfilment of many a text preached.