OUR WOUNDED IN BATTLE.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 355, 19 September 1868, Page 2

OUR WOUNDED IN BATTLE.

Under the above heading, the Wcmganui Chronicle has the subjoined remarks, which still further prove the disgraceful and even barbarous manner in which our miserable war is eonducted. Our contemporary says: — " It is known that three men were killed aud nine wounded in that engagement. It is creditable to our men —and more than creditable to several individual members of the force, who under a perfect storm of bullets carried off the dead and wounded from under the muzzles of the enemy —that none were left on the field of battle. Rude stretchers—the best procurable in the circumstances —were improvised and the retreat effectually covered. By the time the force reached Waihi, one of the wounded died, leaving eight for hospital. But at TVaihi there is no hospital accommodation, and, worse than that, there seems to have' 'been a want of proper medical atttendance . Will the public credit the assertion that all the wounded were not looked to on arrival? Strange and improbable as this sounds it is no less "the truth. Some were not attended to till twenty hours after dropping in their places in

the ranks. Three had not their wounds even washed till ten o'clock on Saturday morning—the fight having taken place about noon the day before —and then only on urgent entreaties of the comrades of the wounded men. This, too, while the Government pays for the services of three medical men to attend to the invalided. The coincidence is somewhat startling. One of these medical gentlemen has since been cashiered; but this while diminishing numerically the staff, cannot possibly add to its efficiency. It is but just to explain that the officer commanding was not in camp during this gross dereliction of duty, else (the men we are assured feel confident) the wounded would not have been so cruelly slighted. Col. M'Donnell and Dr Walker had proceeded on to Patea. From Waihi, where there is no hospital accommodation, the wounded were ordered to Wanganui. The last half of the journey was performed by steamer ; the first upon drays over a rough country. The mere mention of the fact aided by unlimited imaginagination must fall short of the agony upon wounded men that such a jolting cruel mode of transit entails. To the Government we earnestly urge the necessity of an ambulance being provided for the wounded—humanity demands it and although all the expensive appliances of modern warfare cannot be expected to, nor is it desirable that they should, be introduced in this campaign, an ambulance or some easier conveyance than a springless cart is absolutely required. All the wounded men despatched from Waihi have reached Wanganui alive, but how much the worse of their rough journey not even the doctors will agree, although all concede the inexpediency of rough measures. Lodged in the Wanganui hospital thev are about as well off as if they had stayed at Waihi. The hospital has been a standing reproach to the colony and does not seem to improve with time—indeed, shingles and weather-boarding, upon which no repairs are made, have a decided tendnecy the other way. But this is not all. No provision in the shape of dietary is made. _ Imagine j in a place, quiet from the agitations of militarv movements, a company of wounded men being supplied with black tea and a loaf of doughy bread for breakfast! Now, it so happens, that a number of the inhabitanLS of Wanganui and its neighbourhood have subscribed towards a " Patea Relief Fund;" one of the objects of which is to provide for the wounded. And how is this proposed to be done? By granting them small annuities, once they are better, or before, for that matter. If, instead of reserving a small annuity for these men when they are strong of arm and able to earn their own bread without a pittance of charity, the committee were to provide comforts —even necessaries—to these poor fellows, they would, we are certain, be carrying out the wishes of the subscribers as much as by any other means to a patriotic end.