REMINISCENCE OF WAR.

Observer, Volume 4, Issue 96, 15 July 1882, Page 275

REMINISCENCE OF WAR.

The scene depicting the explosion of a torpedo ■in the diorama of the Zulu War, recalls to mind .a very similar incident that occurred dui-ing the war in Taranaki in 1860-1. The slow and tortuous sap had been pushed up Hikurangi Valley towards the great fortified position of Pukerangiora at a ,great sacrifice of life and labour. At intervals a ■chain of redoubts was erected to render the communication secure. General Pratt, one of the •old smoothbore school of soldiers, adhered to purely Fabian tactics. Being an engineer he ■carried his faith in the spade and mattock to the point of enthusiasm. He persuaded himself into the delusion that he could conquer the Maoris by sheer engineering science instead of brute force, and lost more men than an assault ■would probably have cost him. One fine morning (the troops were astonished and disgusted at the discovery that the sap-roller had been stolen by the enemy under cover of the darkness and •tauntingly placed just outside their pa, surmounted by a Union- Jack, reversed. A sap-roller is a :Borfc of shield used by the workers in a zigzig vtrencb. to protect them from the enemy's fire.

Another sap-roller was prepared and placed in the same position. During the night* there was a terrific explosion, and a lurid flash lit up the scene. ■ A number of live shells had been buried around the sap-roller and connected with it by wires, so that the slightest pull would cause an explosion. A few scraps of blankets ■ and mats, mingled with clots of blood, human hair, and fragments of flesh, were evidences of the success of the ruse de guerre. The Maoris stole no more sap-rollers. They believed the machines were by some mysterious agency under the peculiar guardianship of Taipo.