A TARANAKI HEROINE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 4, 14 December 1911, Page 8

A TARANAKI HEROINE.

RESIDENT IN GISBORNE. If was my privilege lately to unearth a bit of unwritten history, says a eor-resp.-.rdcnt in the Gisborne “Herald”. Will you listen, gentlemen, while 1 toll \r.u a true story. “A guard of honour for Florence Nightingale!” That’s what one of the brave clergymen (■ailed for, sir, in Taranaki fifty years ago. Ami if there are any of that guard w honour bit. who have not ye t a ns-

wered the great roil cell, 1 ask them to step to the front while 1 tell this bit of unwritten history remain them of an incident of the Taranaki war of 1830, and get them to corroborate the siorv. For there is a rea-

son, gentlemen. It was tr.is way : Everv moment an attack Irom the enemy was expected. Typhoid lever had broken out in the family of one engaged in a military contract, and pm c of the family had to bo isolated about half a mile beyond the entrenchments, At the time my story opened, a. mother, two sons, and a daugh-

ter were lying in dire straits, tor weeks unattended, excepting what little help the breadwinner could give in the intervals of his work. A clergyman, seeking aid lor the sick, found at last a willing helper. ‘■Someone sick, and no one to look after them ? Surely!” And oil tiiis gill, of loss than twenty summers went to tne isolated house of lever, in all Taranaki there was not one other found who would venture out to nurse tne sick beyond the entrenchments but this girl’. The clergyman conducted her there. Is it any wonder Y Every moment expecting death, .set on the impulse of a moment of tear or fright was this bravery done. A f o ! Dav otter day, and week after

week, tiiis heroine field that Jort of fever and death alone. Arrived there, a hat a spectacle presented itself. Conscious but speechless, were the mother and daughter; too near the Borderland were they for this brave girl to oriitg them back. All that was possible was done, to soothe their passing nouns. The sons, raving in delirium, were her next care. Later the oldest daughter was brought in; then the falner. Think of it, ye nurses and patients of 1911, witn all your modern comforts; your antiseptics and your ..anesthetics; This was fifty years ago,

and perhaps you’ll wonder why i want to’toil such, an old-time story. A nms came when all that were left of lljc sick family were the father and two sons. The other, gentlemen, and gone on! Suddenly, a cart and noise came along at full gallop, in towards the fort, passing close to the ;ever-stricken house, which stood near the track. The girl, Poking out to see the cause of the commotion, instinctively’ guessed the reason, but no.icing that the cart had only one oc- . npant, called out, “Oh, take those poor sick people in your cart, will ,-ou? The fever has left them now, ,r.d it is quite safe to move them.” • hit the man never waited. Shouting ,a the girl, “Run for your life! Run! They’re coming! They're just behind .ne;” he drove on at a furious pace.

j. ho same tiling happened later in the day, when another cart passed, but ,im driver would not wait. The sick .nan, hearing plainly all that was .■aid, tried to persuade their kind nurse to leave them to their fate, md save -herself. But like a true .h i con she stuck to her post, declaring .hat she would cither take them with icr alive or stay with them and die. tiny were, let me add, strangers to aer when she went out to nurse them. •Turning into the house after the sec;r.d cart had driven by, this brave prl had given up all further hope ol Jetting her patients out of danger, v'hon she heard the sound of another vehicle approaching at quite as rapid i rate as the previous two. Saying o her helpless patients. I’ll try if . hey’ll take you.’' And as she looked out she found it was driving, not to .he entrenchments, hut from in ler direction, and], she called hack .o the man and two hoys, “Here’s someone coming for you ; they’re com.ng here, I’m sure.” So it proved. Two lergymen, Archdeacon - G ovett and the ~tev r . Brown, were driving in all .mate. They soon rolled rugs round die three patients and quickly had •diem in the very limited space the vonicle afforded. One clergyman drove .vliile the nurse and the other deliverer ran for dear life. Having placed die patient in willing: hands the driver -passed out, a gun to meet the two dying- refugees. It was then that mo words were heard which have icon quoted at the beginning of this recital, “A guard of honour for. Florence .Nightingale.” The soldiers formed two lines, -and through these lines passed the heroine of this incident, rduch confused and perplexed was this simple girl at all tlie compliments iliac were showered upon her ns she passed in to safety between two lines jf brave British hearts. The name of Florence Nightingale was even unknown to her at the time. A worker such as she had little time for reading in those troublous days, and so it was that for the lirst time siie heard a name that is destined to bo recorded for all time by British soldiers in every part of the globe. If ever a uravo soldier deserved uiie \ icioria Gross, so aid tins girl, w os sue remembered in the iusiory ■ol mew Zealand ! 11 not, 1 can only mink that tne historian must have u.,u the misfortune to mislay some or ms notes when lie was compiling the .joule. VVnat uo you ciuhk, gentlemen of Gisborne and soldiers oi laranaKi ! 1 tninit wo nad better roll •i.vay our ilags and stop calking about i:.e oiu very or our uauou “oa which me sun hover secs,” etc., unless we intend to do nonoar to tne Drove

~ nilo they are ncre. Not built niomiments to thorn wncu they are gone, am men say “now sorry we were,'' ,uiu ‘"it no iiad only known,” ana a ,ut of otner useless regrets ol that

a preacher—not a thousand miles front Gisbourne—once gave a sermon called “Opportunity.” it is rememuol etl by not a few.

IJoii't Jet us Jinvo to register tins rasa among our lost opportunities. 1 Know tliat (jisoorue omy needs to be cold of u hero to honor him or Tier, that is why 1 Jmvo brought this under your notice. Tnc illorence ol cue Taranaki war, gentlemen, is at r very doors. Como witli me, and 1 will show you the very street and house she lives in—in uisborne. Jiut remember gentlemen and soldiers, it was rifty tears ago when she nursed those two ooys and their father hack to illo. Mail a mile front the main camp in Taranaki. Those two hoys still survive. One ol them is a Constable foreman at Auckland.

But that is not the point. Arc we going to honor the heroine we have with ns. Now is the time and this is the opportunity. fobc has had no Victoria Cross; is there any other way to show our appreciation of her heroism “for gallant conduct and meritorious service!” A military pension would I think meet the case, as I hold with the majority that an old age. pension was never meant for military heroes. Bet ns not wait till the last milestone is passed, but help the declining days of a genuine heroine who is still in our midst.

(IciiLleiiK'ii, remember, it was fifty years ago! A brave sister of a brave clispatelibearer (whose headless body was brought ia during the time of this incident) surely we. will rise to ( the occasion, and see that the remaining heroine has some suitable recognition.