The Star. MONDAY, AUGUST 6, 1888. Rewarding Heroism.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6309, 6 August 1888, Page 3

The Star. MONDAY, AUGUST 6, 1888. Rewarding Heroism.

Ms Geobgb Didbbury is not a publisher of romances, and it ia not among the pages of the Government Gazette that one seeks by choice for reading matter of thrilling interest. For all that, the last number of that-often-deapised publication contains a chapter of romance and heroism of which any New Zealander may well be proud. It 3b the list of awards granted by the Humane Society of Australasia for courageous acts in saving life in thia Colony during 1887 and down to the end of February of this year. Out of the score of brave men and boys whose bright deeds of pluck and daring are here recorded, nineteen have gained~the bronze medal and one a silver medal* Some of the most prominent instances of swift, courageous action, on a list where all are worthy of record, are Bet against the names of members of the Police Force, and the silver medal goes to Martin Dudley Stagpole, a sergeant in the Force. It wa3 at Tolago Bay, in the wild country north of Gisborne, at the month of the little barbound river, close to where Captain Cook's crew landed to get water, and where come of their names are still to be seen carved in the papa rock, that Stagpole showed himself a hero and a swimmer who might almost have challenged Captain Webb. A boat from a steamer in the offing capsized on the bar, throwing her passengers into the tumbling water. Stagpole and others went to the rescue, and their boat met the like fate. But there, battling with the rollers, Stagpole not only managed to get hold of a drowning Maori, Haare Hautapu, but to lift him on to the boat, to navigate her clear of the breakers, to right her, and lash the Maori safely with the painter. Night then came down on them, but Stagpole swam about, keeping the boat head to sea, for two whole hours, till a boat from the steamer eventually picked them up. It is a record of resource, cold resolution and endurance, that stirs every fibre as we read. Many of the others fall little short ef it. The bronze medalliat Toneycliffe, for instance, whose rescue of young Harry Pillow at New Brighton was a conspicuous act of bravery ; or old Merema Konui, the Maori chief who plunged into a dangerous waterhole, full of snags, to rescue little Mary Twohill, need feel no shame to be mentioned and rewarded after such a man as Stagpole. Their deeds pale before his, but iheir brightness is not dimmed ; nor that of the sailors and shoremen at the wreck of the Northumberland, nor of young Cannon, who re3cued rash Miss Jeffreys from a watery grave at Ocean Beach last Febrnary. No ; they are all splendid stories of what Miss Yonge has wull called "golden deeds." There are brave men still in quantity in New Zealand. We can produce the courage to perform dcedti of derring-do, but not the SocUty to reward them. It is not tho Now Zenland Humane Society's medal thut S'a-'-poltt and Cannon wear. We have pointed out the anomaly often and often, aid rcf-jr to ifc onco again. The country that produces tue hero should provide the lioro'a reward ; it should feel to that extmfc * sottish pridtf in him. And when his ,i.,..ti:c pies beyond his strength, as <i .i -thub of M'Cutcheon, who also jumped into the breakers to save

Mies Jeffreys, and he pays for his heroism •with hi 3 life, it is not on the archives of a stranger Association that his name should 6tand. Surely we might cherish the memory of our brave better than in publishing their names once in the papera and once again iv a dry-as-dust Gazette. If they are worthy to be placed on the bead-roll of a Society whose headquarters are in Australia, bow much more are they hot worthy of a place in our public records, amongst friends and admirers, as examples of the spirit that should reign over the rising generation of New Zealanderß,