Honor to the Brave.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1826, 30 April 1886, Page 2

Honor to the Brave.

There is a generation growing up in this colony who know little or nothing of the hundreds of brave men who fought, and bled, and died (or this their adopted country in the troublous times of the past. We can well remember most of the stirring events of the native war on the West Coast, wlien day after day tue mails by steamer and overland brought tidings of skirmishes and battles ; of fights iu the lonely bush ; of desperate attempts to take Maori Pahs ; of brilliant victories and of brave men slain of our own blood and race. The bones of many a gallant fellow lie mouldering in the bush where he fell fighting bravely to the last. And it is only now after the lapse of some eighteen years that fitting honor has been accorded to the memory of those brave men. On Tuesday last the ceremony was performed of unveiling a monument erected ut Manaia to the memory of the officers and men who fell during the last war on the West Coast. The proceedings were conducted by Lieutenant-Colonel Roberts (New Zealand Constabulary), who, as Captain Roberts, led the forces out of Te Ngutu after the disaster there, when Von Tempskey fell Colonel Roberts, made a heart stirring and eloquent speech, in the course of which he said that as one of the surviving officers of all the engagements described on the monument, he should be neglecting the duty which lay upon him to show honor to his dead comrades, if he did not say a few words expressive of his admiration of the devoted conduct of the brave men whose names were there recorded. When ha looked at the sad long list, his memory rushed hack to within a few months of eighteen years ago at Te Ngutu o te Manu, There fell the gallant Major von Tempskey, whose name appeared first on the roll, and no wonder that it did so appear, as he was always first in danger and last to leave it, and never asked a man to do that which by example he was not prepared to do himself. They did well to honor such men. If he had a fault as a soldier, it was the characteristic one of always being in advance, sometimes mayhap too far in advance. The next one ou the list was Major Hunter, whoso bravery and courage w<-r<: always conspicuous, and who fell mortally wounded early in the light while showing Ins love and devotion to his country. Captain Ross was next on the list. Ho lost his life iu defending a post which he was commandiug. The next name was Captain Buck, a man of undoubted courage and cool, sound judgment. Colonel Roberts remembered well his firm unflinching courage at Te Ngutu and Te Mann. Having lost their leaders, they held a brief council together as to what should be done, and Colonel Robcits directed Captain Buck to hold a certain position and await his return from search tor Von Tempskey. He carried out the orders only too faithfully. Colonel Roberts returned to find him there at the assigned post, but dead with his face to the foe. Captain Palmer and Lieutenant Hastings were next ou the list, men who met their death while nobly doing their duty. People were too apt to forget what they owed to the brave men whose memory they warn there to honor, and the surrounding circumstances under winch they sacrificed their lives. All the pomps of war were wanting, but none of its hardships and dangers. There wore no brilliant uniforms, no flying banners to cheer the weary as they filed their way through tangled, gloomy, trackless forest, nor blast of trumpet nor heat of dm in to rouse them to the charge, yet nobly all did their duty ; and the last moments of some, perhaps of the majority, were nut eased by a coimade’s kindly touch, nor soothed by sympathetic looks or hopeful words, hut were often agonised by the fiendish yells of the savago, mutilating fee. He need say no more, and trusted that the monument would be kept in good preservation, that the names thereon written might he cheiished with pride by generations to come. Every word of Colonel Roberts’ spetch will he fully appiovcd by those who were acquainted with tho brave men to whose memories he did fitting honor. We knew them nearly all —Von Tempskey, Ross, Buck, Hastings, urn! Palmer—as genial, kindly, and warm hearted men, ami as soldieis, the bravest of Urn brave. It is wt'll that some maik of honor should ho paid to their memory now.