'WAY UP THE WANGANUI RIVER

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, Volume 1, Issue 6, 1 March 1900, Page 38

'WAY UP THE WANGANUI RIVER

The next exploit of Hill aud bis fellowRangers under their beloved chief ' Yon,' was the relief of Pipiriki, a military station

some sixty miles up the Wanganui River, dui'ing the year 1865. At Pipiriki, the garrison under Major Brassey, who had occupied and fortified the two hills known as Rangiahua and Koanga-o-Rehua, on the right bank of the Wanganui at Pipiriki, was hemmed in in July, '65, by the Hauhaus of the Upper Wanganui, and the European force was for a time in a serious position. The relief force sent up under Colonel Rookes, with stores and ammunition for the garrison, included

the No. 2 Forest Rangers, under Von Tempsky. Hill and his comrades went up the swift-flowing Wanganui in the steamer " Gundagai," as far as she could get, and the rest of the way in canoes with Maori crews, who had to do a good deal of poling on the up trip. The relief force only just arrived at Pipiriki in time, for there had been continuous fighting, and Major Brassey's force had had an anxious time. " There was a bit of a skirmish when we landed,"

says " Rowley," as he meditatively rolls his quid of " backer " in his cheek. "We lost Jack Duggan, one of our chaps, there." Canoeing down the beautiful Wanganui again, after the Hauhaus had been dispersed from around Pipiriki, the Forest Rangers landed at Wanganui town, and then went on to Wellington in the s.s. " Stormbird."