INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A JOURNALIST.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 161, 13 October 1883, Page 11

INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A JOURNALIST.

By Nemo

Ho. XXII. — Lining in Clover : the Amenities of War — Foraging Parties — An- Ambuscade — A Baptism of Fire Running the Gauntlet for Water — A Dangerous Pillaging Expedition — Maori Barbarities. DOWN on the right front of the Waireka 1 , six or seven hundred yards distant,, were grass paddocks, reaching down to a bush gully, and on the edge of this gully there had <beea a settler's homestead. I think the house had been burnt down, but the cow-yard and milking-bails were still standing. On the other side of the gully stood the friendly pa spoken of in the last chapter. As the grass was rather abundant in the paddocks, the sheep left behind by the settlers in the hurry of flight used to come there to pasture, and they were too tempting to hungry soldiers living on salt rations to be permitted to escape. By this time the enemy were known to be hovering about in the vicinity of the camp. Sometimes, when a group of them could be seen in the distance, a shell would be fired from one of the 24 pr. howitzers, and on these occasions the natives would retaliate by burning down one of the houses in the adjacent village. Strict orders had been issued to the garrison by the Commanding Officer, Major Hutchins, against straying Tbeyond bugle-call, or molesting the property of the settlera, but this did uot deter the men' from stealing out of camp on foraging expeditions. The sheep would be driven down into the low. ground out of view of the camp, surrounded, slaughtered, and carried into the redoubt enclosed in bundles of fern, ostensibly required for bedding for the tents. The frequency with which clean fern was wanted was very singular, but probably the officers, who received the tit-bits of the mutton, winked at the foraging. At any rate, I don't remember that anyone was punished for it. We also fount I potatoes, arid, having an abundance of meat, lived in clover. As many as two freshlyalaughtered sheep were concealed in the fern in some of the tents every day. Once or twice poultry were brought in and promptly confiscated by the officers for their own mess. We got so luxurious that we had milk with our tea, a thing which a soldier seldom enjoys, even in barracks in time of peace. Small parties would .steal down to the flat at dawn, bail up the cows, and milk them, and of this also the officers pretended to be ignorant. It did not, however, escape the vigilant enemy. I was on guard one morning, and being off sentry was lying down in the guard-tent, when the stillness was suddenly broken by the sound of firing on the flat, near the milking place. We knew at once that the firing came from Maoris. One could always distinguish the difference between the sharp crack of the Enfield rifle and the- loud boom of the fowling-piece or old Tower muaket. The natives used a big charge of coarse powder, often common blasting powder. The men on guard instantly le'a^/o their feet, seized their rifles, and rushed dowll the hill. We knew at once that the Blinking party had fallen into an ambuscade. Beaching the brow of the hill, we could see our men running .for their, lives with, the Maoris in hot pursuit.. To kneel down and fire over the heads of the fugitives was the work of an instant, and this had the effect of checking the enemy's advance. A minute or two later the men were > rushing pell-mell out of the redoubt, and about a score of us ran down the hill and opened a sharp fire on the natives from under cover, of a gorse hedge. Oue or. two of the enemy seeraed in no hurry to retire, back to the bush, and some of us found an opening in- the hedge, fixed bayonets, and went forward at the charge, but got between two fires..: ;By.thi« time, too* the bugles were sounding the Retire, and the Maoris were firing out of the bush. I- must say I felt rather confused when the bullets began to plough up the ground close to my feet, and knock the dust into my eyes. It was my first time under fire, and I ■was so unused to Maori warfare that I was stupid enough to remain standing in the open grass paddock instead of taking cover. But after a while the fire slackened, a reinforcement came down from the. camp and entered the bush, where they found a blood-stained mat, showing that at least one of the enemy had been either killed or wounded and carried off. ... It appeared |that one of our men, a private named Ash, was missing, and that he had been Been running towards a gully on the right flank of the redoubt. A sergeant of the Royal Engineers, or Sappers and Miners as they were then called, and myself went in search of the missing man. Beaching the head of the shallow ravine, we came upon traces of blood, and following them up heard groans proceeding from a flax bush where poor Ash- had concealed himself, dreading that he would be tomahawked by his pursuers. He had been badly , wounded in two places in the legs, and was faint from loss of blood, but we carried him up, -and, waited until a stretcher was brought from the redoubt. The milkers' version of the attack was that they were in the act of bailing up the cows when one , of them saw the gleam of a tomahawk, and immediately afterwards the Maoris rushed out of the bush. ■ One of our men left his greatcoat behind, and sometime afterwards, when the Ngatiruahuis came down in great force and built a line of riflepits along our front, one of the enemy used to walfeitip J and down dressed in that identical coat out 9i sheer bravado. •It was subaeq'flently that he was killed, by a shell. Our chief, difficulty was to obtain, a. supply, of freW%ater; L As the redoubt was situated on a hill, well-sinking was out of the question, but close on the left was a gully through which ran a beautiful stream. Our plan was . this : —A number of men carrying oamp-kettle&and wooden cababashesi doubled down the-hill under coive'r of , aHixeoTskir^ utensils again ran the 'gauntlet' of the enemy's fire from the opposite hill. It, was gijeajb, f iin^nd we never h»d";»^askalty. Bufr such/ was the reojgiessnesg,; and :;i^n k e«ince Of the soldiers that even" though the eneniy. were known to be lurking about on- all /'iide^O^'tbe^^mpi^the foraging stillwent on. 7 One" -tfaTr some; 1 of; m who were going out for f waiei " f tifrrifed^a:^ a grand foraging «x!^aiH^r|g|it ! --;feefiijitt;^H^^M^6ri lines, v We

had noticed that the guliy where we obtained the water was below the line of observation of both the redoubt and the opposite hill, and that it ran up into the forest. We handed over the calabashes to our comrades, and hid in the flax until they had withdrawn to the redoubt and all was quiet, and then we stole up the ravine, and entered the bush, actually passing within a few rods of the Maori fires, and hearing the enemy talking. Continuing through the bush we came to clearings in the midst of vvhich were settlers' homesteads, and here the game of pillage began. One of the rollicking spirits of the party upset a row of bee-hives, and was severely stung for his pains. Entering one of the best of the house, we found the breakfast-table laid, with the stagnant tea still in the cups, the mouldy bread on the table, and other evidences which showed that the family had fled in a panic while at the evening or morning meal. One man found a silver watch, another a concertina, while in a backroom, evidently used sometimes as a workshop, I came upon a number of books on rough shelves suspended to the wali. I sat down on a stool, examined the books, resolved to carry a small kit-full- into camp, and began to make a selection. More than once I filled the basket, but finding from a cursory glance at other books that 1 liked their contents, began repacking my load. Whilst thus engaged I heard two or three shots outside, and ran to one of the small windows to reconnoitre. Half-a-dozen Maoris were running across the paridocks, apparently in pursuit of someone. We were unarmed, and "it was a case of smtve gui petit, as we dashed out of the other day, and scrambled into the low ground buluw the line of fire, then rolled down a bank into a creek fringed by willows and ran into the bush, making a detour back to camp. Two of us remaiued together, and my companion was for climbing a> tree, but I had no inclination to be scented out by Maori dogs and shot like a coon, so we kept on, reaching the camp in safety, where we were placed under arrest and interrogated. Two Artillerymen were missing, and next day a party, under the guidance of the friendly natives, who strangely enough, knew whore the missing men had fallow, went out and brought them in. The two Artillerymen were horribly mutilated, but a thirl man, a settler, had been merely shot through the heart. The spot where they were found was close to the house my friends and I hud been pillaging when we heard the firing. It was a narrow escape Our men came out of the redoubt and crowded round the bullock-drays in which the dead had boon brought in. Men would push their way through, take one rapid glance at the sickening sight, and come away with flashing eyes and clenched hands, muttering vows of vengeance and curses on the barbarous foe. It would have been a scene for a great painter. (To ho continued.)