I JOIN THE TROOPERS
I was very kindly received by my brother officers on joining, all of
whom were fine fellows, but sadly deficient in their knowledge of
drill, so I had to turn to at once and knock them into shape.
Our duties chiefly consisted in patrolling, escorting strings of
pack-horses or drays, where practicable, loaded with rations, etc., and
despatch-riding, the latter a very arduous and dangerous work indeed,
of which I shall say more anon, though of course we had to do our share
of bush-whacking, when we discarded the breeches and boots for shawls.
The troopers were the perfection of irregular mounted men, being taken
mostly from young colonial fellows who had been stock-riders, but
there was a good leaven of broken-down gentlemen and remittance men,
so, taking them altogether, they were a hard-riding, hard-fighting,
hard-swearing and hard-drinking crowd.
You may have some difficulty in understanding why troopers should of
necessity be hard swearers. Let me explain. The bad habit comes from
driving pack-horses, most of which beasts of burden are mules, and
pack-mules, like transport oxen, will not do their work without being
comforted and encouraged by the most awful language, stock whips by
themselves being useless; so even the most religiously brought-up
young men acquire this habit and stick to it.
It was in the beginning of July that Colonel McDonnell assumed supreme
command and it was officially announced that the regular troops were
to render no further service in the field, but were to evacuate the
country at their earliest convenience.
We now therefore began to look out for sharp work, as our O.C. was not
the man to let the fern sprout without doing something, and although
it was winter, and bitterly cold, we knew that his theory of native
warfare was to fight winter and summer, wet or fine, cold or hot, day
or night, until the resistance of the Hau Haus should be overcome.
In this he was quite right, for although it entailed great hardships on
us, with probably a heavy loss of men, still it would cause more loss
to the enemy, as the fighting would be in their country. Their pahs
and villages would be burnt, their food-supplies would be looted and
destroyed, their women and children would have to starve in the bush,
and they would also lose a lot of men. This they could not afford to do
and we could; for, should we lose a hundred men in an engagement, we
could enlist a hundred more, but should they lose a hundred they had no
surplus stock from which to replace them.
[Illustration: FIELDING UNDER DIFFICULTIES--LOST BALL]
The Colonel knew the Hau Haus well. He knew it must be war to the knife
and that no peace was possible with mad fanatics whose one belief was
to slay every white man and even all their own countrymen who refused
to accept the absurd Pai Marire faith.
There is no doubt that had the Colonel been allowed to carry out
this policy the colony would have been spared at least two years of
bloodshed and expense, but in every country where the Union Jack flies
there is always a gang of rotters, peace-at-any-price men, nigger
lovers, pro-Boers, pro anything, so long as it is against their own
flag, and New Zealand, like all others, was cursed with such a mob.
However I had nothing to do with politics and was delighted when the
Colonel, a few days after he had taken over the command, moved his
headquarters and the bulk of the forces to Manawapou, some fifteen
miles nearer our old battle-grounds.
Towards the end of the month the Colonel, escorted by a small party of
troopers, rode to the Waingangora River, to interview We Hukanui, a
neutral chief, so that he could ascertain through his medium whether
the Hau Hau tribes wanted peace or war.
Of course we all knew peace was the last thing they desired, but
according to Maori etiquette it was the correct thing to do, and the
interview was both novel and entertaining.
As it was by no means certain what sort of a reception we were going
to receive we advanced to the trysting-place, a kainga (open village),
taking every precaution, and found some thirty Maoris squatting down in
a semicircle, waiting for us. My first move was to leave two troopers,
who were to remain mounted, as videttes, some hundred and fifty yards
to our rear, so as to prevent any attempt to surprise us from that
quarter, and this act received great praise from the Colonel, who rode
straight up to the squatting natives and dismounted.
After the customary salutations had been gone through many speeches
were made and various proposals suggested, among them one, moved by
We Hukanui, that the Colonel, alone and unarmed, should accompany him
and call on the Hau Hau chiefs, was declined without discussion, as it
was too risky even for our gallant O.C., the fate of the last Peace
Commissioner who had called on them being of far too recent a date
to make him risk the same end. (_Note._--Mr Broughton, Chief Native
Commissioner, had a few months previously, at their own request,
visited the Hau Haus alone and unarmed for the purpose of discussing
peace and had been foully murdered in the presence of the chiefs
without being allowed to say a word.)
So the Colonel, as an amendment, handed the Rt.-Hon. We Hukanui a
cartridge and a white handkerchief, directing him to convey them to the
Hau Haus as symbols of war and peace. The chiefs were to choose which
symbol they preferred, returning the other to the Colonel, who also
sent them the polite message that should they choose the cartridge they
would at once advise him when and where they would like the fight to
take place. This ended the runanga and we rode back to camp.
On the following day a letter was brought in from the Hau Hau chiefs,
requesting an interview, so again we rode out to meet them, taking
this time only twelve troopers, though we left fifty Rangers in a very
strong position on the bank of the Waingangora River.
At the rendezvous we met several chiefs and a large number of their
followers, whose absurd gesticulations, together with the gibberish
they talked, pretending it was English, for they declared that the
angel Gabriel had served them out with the gift of all tongues, excited
the risibility of our men to such an extent we could scarcely restrain
bursts of laughter, which would have been highly indecorous on such a
grave occasion.
After the chiefs had made many speeches, in which they declared they
wanted peace, the Colonel replied: “It is good. Bring all the chiefs to
the Waingangora to-morrow; we will ratify peace there. If you do not
come, I shall know you want war.”
The following day we waited at the Waingangora, but no Hau Haus came;
we were not disappointed, as none of us expected they would, and at
nightfall we returned to camp.
Our O.C. now determined, as there was no chance of peace, to strike a
rapid blow, so on the evening of the 1st of August he moved out of camp
with a strong force to surprise the village of Pokaikai.
The night was a fine one, though the cold was so intense that it numbed
our thin-clad men to the bone, while the stirrups and scabbards of
us mounted men were quite thick with frost. Cold as it was we had to
face it, and before daylight had reached our positions, halted and
dismounted.
Shortly after we had halted Pierre and George came in with wonderful
information, which was that they had crawled so close up to the Hau Hau
pickets as to be able to overhear their conversation, the tenor of
which was that they, the Hau Haus, considering there was no possibility
of being attacked on such a dreadfully cold night, had decided that bed
was the best place for them, and so had taken themselves off to their
virtuous, or otherwise, couches; also that the village was an open
one, that they had penetrated into the middle of it, and that all the
natives were asleep in the arms of Morpheus or their own various ladies.
This was a piece of unprecedented luck, nor was our O.C. the man to let
such a chance slip, and the new orders he gave were excellent. He had
at his disposal one company of military settlers armed with rifles and
bayonets, the remainder of the outfit carrying carbines and revolvers,
so this company he ordered to silently fix bayonets, enter the village
and post themselves at the doors of the various whares (huts) so as to
imprison the inmates. He also gave orders that on no account was a shot
to be fired, as he now had great hopes of being able to surprise an
adjacent village, hive its inhabitants in the same way, and so kill two
birds with the one stone.
The movement was a plain and straightforward one, so simple, in fact,
that no one doubted its successful termination, but, as Bobby Burns
asserts, “The best-laid plans of mice and men often run crooked,” and
it was to be so on this occasion.
It has often been the lot of an unfortunate commander, after a long and
harassing night’s march, to have his well-thought-out plans utterly
ruined by some crass idiot discharging his rifle, lighting his pipe,
or committing some other wicked act of folly or culpable clumsiness,
and unfortunately the military settlers had in their ranks a half-baked
rotter, whose nerves, getting overwound, let go a cheer just as the
company was about to enter the village. The cheer was taken up by his
comrades, which gave the alarm to the sleeping enemy, who rushed out of
their huts and took to headlong flight.
As the whole show was now spoilt, the military settlers opened fire and
charged, knocking over some of the fugitives, and bayoneting a few of
the late starters, but the O.C. had to content himself with the meagre
spoil of some dozen women, while, had it not been for the misconduct
of the aforesaid infernal idiot, he would have scooped up all the
principal Hau Hau chiefs and probably have ended the war: which shows
what a tremendous lot of harm one fool can cause.
We had, however, made a valuable capture, and one that entailed great
loss to the enemy--namely, some forty stand of rifles, together with
a large supply of ammunition and other arms that fell into our hands.
During this affair we lost only one man, and he was killed in rather a
queer way.
At the end of the engagement one of the military settlers entered a
whare for the purpose of bringing out a dead Hau Hau, and was still
inside when a party of Rangers, who were searching the huts for any of
the enemy possibly concealed, came up to it. Hearing someone inside the
hut they demanded who was there, and received the answer: “A white man.”
Now it was believed that the infamous deserter, Kimball Bent, was with
this gang of Hau Haus, and the men had all previously been cautioned
to this effect, so that the Rangers fancied they had at last hived the
scoundrel that every man had sworn should receive no quarter. Had poor
Spain (the military settler) answered: “Friend,” more questions would
have been asked; but as he simply replied to the challenge, “A white
man,” the Rangers, convinced they had the villain in their clutches,
fired on him, thereby shooting their own comrade.
By this time the loot had been collected and all the huts, with the
exception of one, had been destroyed. (_Note._--The principal reason
for burning huts was to destroy the large quantities of powder or
ammunition concealed in the thatch.) It was broad daylight, and as,
thanks to the aforementioned fool, there was no further chance of
doing anything, we returned to the camp at Manawapou where, I regret
to state, Colonel McDonnell could not see his way clear to hanging the
nervous ass who had spoilt our day’s work.
I am not writing a history of the New Zealand wars, and it would
be only wearisome for people nowadays to read of the forgotten,
innumerable skirmishes, night marches and encounters, with their
attendant hardships, the colonial irregulars went through.
For many years the district over which we then marched and fought has
been the most fruitful one in New Zealand, where thousands of smiling
homesteads now stand on the sites of our old bivouacs on which we
shivered and starved, and I often wonder if a single individual of
the happy and peaceful population who now occupy them ever give a
thought to the bands of reckless ne’er-do-wells who, by the expenditure
of their blood and health, rendered that land safe for their present
occupants.
The British Empire has been largely built up by the same class of
men, who have rolled out its frontiers farther and farther, and then
held them against savage enemies in spite of deadly malaria, fever,
starvation and horrible discomfort.
Would it therefore be an impertinent question for me to ask if any
one of the yapping gas-bags in the home or the colonial Houses of
Parliament has ever given a thought to the welfare of these rolling
stones after they have been worn out by their unrequited work? However,
it’s no use asking silly questions, so let’s return to our mutton.
The skirmish at Pokaikai put the fear of the Lord into the Hau Haus,
the chiefs of whom were so fully cognisant of their narrow escape that
for a long time they hardly dare sleep inside a whare, which the quick,
continuous movements of McDonnell, who, unlike the regulars in the
past, marched without pack-horses or impedimenta of any kind, did not
allay. Our O.C. kept his own counsel, no one knowing when, where or how
the next move was to be made, and many a night I have been roused out
from under my blankets to start away on a bitter cold march for the
purpose of beating up some congregation of Hau Haus.
Scouting and patrolling was also reduced to a science little dreamt of
in British armies of to-day, so that the Maoris were kept ever on the
_qui vive_; in fact the Colonel employed their own tactics against
them, and they did not like it, as village after village was attacked,
stores of food were destroyed, till at last the Hau Haus became so
harried that tribe after tribe weakened on it and gave in, until only
two tribes remained in arms against us, and had the Government only had
the sense to allow McDonnell a free hand, the war would have terminated
in a few months. But it was not to be.
The first set-back our gallant commandant received was engineered by a
worm called Parris, a man whom Sir Trevor Chute had ordered out of his
camp, and this thing saw fit to invent and promulgate charges against
the Colonel and his men for committing outrages and murdering women at
Pokaikai, and a commission, consisting of Sir Cracroft Wilson, Colonel
Cargill and Mr Graham inquired into the whole matter.
At this commission both Hau Haus and friendly natives were examined,
and although Mr Graham did his best to help Parris to substantiate
the latter’s lies, it was all without avail, as every charge was
ignominiously dismissed, the only foundation on which the mountain of
falsehood had been raised being as follows:--
You must remember that it was dark when our men entered the village,
and that on the alarm being prematurely given there was a general
stampede of the natives. In the rush and dim light it is hard to tell
man from woman, so one of the latter received a bayonet-thrust by
mistake.
The wound was not a bad one, and after it had been dressed the Colonel
interviewed her, offering to have her carried on a stretcher to
hospital. To this she objected, requesting instead to be left in a
hut, asserting her friends would soon find her. This was done. She was
made comfortable in a hut that was not burnt on her account, and we had
not left the place an hour when her relations returned, so that at the
time of the inquiry she was well and hearty.
History of course repeats itself, and the British House of Parliament
is, at the present time, still disgraced by some of the foul liars who
invented charges against the British troops in the Transvaal, and these
treacherous hounds, posing as religious, honourable men, still have a
big following in the country.
The same was the case in New Zealand, as Parris, who was commissioner
for the district, was allowed still to retain his post, and did all
in his power to thwart and hamper the Colonel, declaring the natives
wished for peace, recommending the disbandment of the field force--in
fact, played the part of a Little Englander with a Nonconformist
conscience to perfection; and this man, owing to the criminal folly of
the Government, was the cause of the discomfiture and defeat of the
colonial forces.
To give you some idea of the folly the New Zealand Government
perpetrated I must again digress.
In the House was a very strong peace party, mostly composed of members
representing the Middle Island, in which there had been no war, and
whose inhabitants begrudged paying the cost of the prolonged struggle,
and whose desire to develop the resources of the colony made them
ardently long for peace, so much so that they gave ready credence to
the reports of Parris, while they ignored those of McDonnell; and
bitterly they were to rue it in the near future.
At the time the Colonel assumed command he had at his disposal an
adequate field force of splendidly trained bush fighters who by
continual warfare had not only learned their work but also to place the
utmost confidence in their officers, their comrades and themselves.
Alas, this was to end!
The major part of this force were military settlers who had contracted
with the Government to serve for three years, their remuneration to
be a grant of land, and it so fell out that at the very moment their
services were most needed the time expired of one hundred and fifty of
the very best men.
This placed the Government somewhat in a dilemma, as the Hau Haus were
still in possession of the land that should have been surveyed, ready
to parcel out to these fellows, and as this had not been done they
could not keep their part of the contract. Still the men were quite
willing to re-engage, provided the Government would guarantee ten more
acres of land per annum for each year they continued to serve. This was
the most modest demand, and the Colonel permitted one of their officers
to proceed to Wellington to lay the matter before the ministry, who
not only refused to accede to it but treated the officer with quite
undeserved insolence, going so far as to return the message that if the
military settlers did not care to serve without another grant of land
they could leave the service, which they promptly did, in disgust,
the majority of them making off to the southern goldfields, and the
district, thanks to the insolent ignorance of a pack of lawyers and
counter skippers, lost for ever the services of its best defenders.
Other corps had also been disbanded, and one fine day the Colonel,
thanks to the besotted stupidity of the Government, found himself with
only one hundred and sixty men, including officers, to hold a district
and carry out a campaign--duties that a few months previous had found
ample occupation for nearly four thousand men. Yet our gallant O.C. was
not the man to be daunted. True he had not enough men to garrison the
posts which the Hau Haus, now emboldened by our paucity of numbers,
not only threatened with attack, but also they ambushed every road,
attempting to cut off, and if successful cut up, our despatch-riders
and ration convoys. No; he would hit back, as he knew that passive
resistance was no use in savage warfare, and although he had to
withdraw nearly every man from all the posts to obtain a striking
force, even then by no means an adequate one, still he did so.
Just previous to this headquarters had been moved forward to Waihe,
where an old pah had been reconstructed into a small but strong fort,
the building of which had been begun, carried on and completed under
fire, so that we continually had to drop tools and take up arms to
resist attacks.
At this time you might say we lived under fire, as all day long the
natives fired at us from the bush, and it was now I played in the most
extraordinary cricket match that I think ever took place.
The game was inaugurated in honour of the completion of the work, and
was Pigskin Polishers (troopers) _v._ Footsloggers (rangers), and was
looked forward to with much excitement by both corps. Naturally the
players were all out of practice, their dress far from accurate, and
the pitch, well, damnable; but we turned to with _élan_, though to bat,
bowl, or even field, belted as each man was with his revolver and fifty
rounds of carbine ammunition, was very trying.
Moreover the side in the field had to pick up their carbines when
they changed places at the call of “Over!” and the umpires held the
batsmen’s guns as in this country they sometimes hold their coats. In
fact the whole get-up was _outré_ in the extreme, and I fear ordinary
spectators of English cricket would not have been highly gratified
unless they had regarded it as a charity burlesque.
Now the main bush, in which the gay and festive Hau Hau lived and
gambolled, was about one thousand yards away from the fort, but there
were big patches of bush up to within four hundred yards of it, and
any amount of manuka and fern scrub, that afforded good cover to an
enemy wishing to pass from one to the other of these patches, so that,
notwithstanding all our vigilance, scouts, or even considerable numbers
of Hau Haus, could get quite close up to the stockade.
Well, the game commenced, and of course attracted the attention of the
gentle savage. Word was quickly passed into the recesses of the bush
that the white man was up to some new and inexplicable devilment, so
before long we had a highly interested if not appreciative gallery,
who, emerging from the bush, squatted down, and for a time behaved
itself with decorum.
To this we did not object, and had they continued to behave they might
have remained there to the end, but perhaps they were over-critical,
and the play, as I have already stated, not being first class, they may
have considered they were entitled to show their disapproval of it.
Now we could have made allowances for their ignorance or their want
of appreciation, although they were self-invited and had paid no gate
money, even should they have gone so far as to hiss, but I maintain
that paying spectators should restrain themselves from heaving at the
players such things as dead cats, antiquated eggs, or ginger-beer
bottles, but when it comes to expressing dissatisfaction with tuparas
(double-barrelled guns) and Enfield rifles it is high time for the
performers to skip or clear the ground.
Now the play was not good, that I allow, and also it is very doubtful
what the Hau Haus thought had occasioned this entertainment and
extravagant display of energy on the part of the hated white man. As
most of them had been Christians they knew it was not a religious
ceremony, neither was it a war-dance, white men not being civilised up
to the merits of the war-dance. Perhaps they put it down to witchcraft,
or some sort of an extra insulting challenge issued by men who had just
built a pah in spite of the lavish expenditure of powder they had seen
fit to waste in their attempts to obstruct its completion.
Anyhow it was something important, or wherefore those cheers and
hand-clapping from the other white men who lined the parapet or
reclined on the ground, and as such must be counteracted.
First of all they danced a war-dance, and as no attention was paid to
that they proceeded to take more active measures.
In the meantime the game had been progressing steadily. The troopers
had had their first innings and had scored one hundred runs and the
rangers had scored ninety with the loss of nine wickets.
The excitement was intense, “Well bowled,” “Well hit,” “Oh, well
fielded” being howled by the enraptured lookers-on after every
delivery, while ribald chaff, banter and badinage were being exchanged
by troopers and rangers that would have shocked the spectators of a
modern test match.
The last hope of the Footsloggers was a leviathan sergeant, an old
Varsity blue, but his partner was a very fragile reed, who only
required one straight ball to finish.
Could the sergeant keep the bowling to himself? That was the question,
and men hugged themselves with excitement. He has it now, and the
fielders retire farther out. By gad! he gets a loose one, and opening
his shoulders he smacks it over Long-on’s head. Big as the hit is he
will only get three or perhaps four for it, as on that tussocky ground
where a ball pitches there it stops, and Long-on is far out. Still
the hit is a big one and is cheered by his delighted friends. “Well
hit,” “Oh, well hit,” “Run it out,” “Oh, run it out.” Nor are the
troopers behindhand with their shouts. “Double up, oh, double up,”
“Sling it in, oh, sling it in,” as Long-on has turned and, weighed
down by revolver and ammunition pouches, darts after the leather
sphere. Yes, there it is lying on that bit of open ground less than a
hundred yards from that patch of scrub. Spurred on by the wild turmoil
of shouts--“Oh, hurry up; for God’s sake hurry up,” “Chuck her in
now--smart,” “There, run three, run it out; allow one for the throw,”
etc., etc.--he rushes at the ball.
But what’s the matter? Of a sudden the wild yells terminate into the
pious ejaculation of “Oh, hell!” while the eager fielder throws himself
on his nose, hunting cover, and drawing his revolver lets go the
agonising shout of “_Lost ball!_”
Well this is what the matter was. As the questing fielder rushes to
secure the ball that lies in full view in front of him and throw it
in, out of that patch of manuka scrub darts several spurts of flame
and smoke, and a number of balls of a different nature whistle round
his head, and I ask you present-day cricketers which of you would
have cared to have fielded that ball and slung it in to the expectant
wicket-keeper? Or would you have hunted cover and howled, “_Lost
ball!_” as that Pigskin Polisher did?
“Damn such interruptions,” shouts the umpire, who was the Colonel at
that; “drive the beggars off the field.” And in a moment batsmen,
fielders, umpires, scorers and onlookers grab their weapons and charge
that patch of manuka scrub. We reach and tear through it just in time
to see a party of Hau Haus disappear into a clump of bush some way
farther off, then, laughing and cussing, return to our game as the
friendly natives good-naturedly offer to keep the ground for us.
The continuation of the game evidently mortified the Hau Haus, for they
lined the four-hundred-yard bush and fired volleys at us. Did we allow
them to stop the game? Not a bit of it. It was far too important a one
to allow a gang of measly Hau Haus to interfere with, for was not that
night grog night? And had not every trooper wagered his tot in backing
his side? And had not every ranger done the same? Stop play; indeed no!
They would play it out to the bitter end. So the game went on.
Now it is rather trying to most men to stand up against fast, erratic
bowling on a more than bumpy pitch, but should the batsman’s attention
be distracted while watching the ball by the whistle of an Enfield
bullet past his nose, or by seeing the pitch torn up by a similar
missile, it becomes too exciting for anyone.
Again, it is rather conducive to wild bowling for a bowler to have to
submit to the same ordeal preparatory to his delivering a ball, nor can
even an umpire give the amount of attention the game requires to his
important functions when half his time has to be devoted to dodging
ricochets. So that the Colonel, a sportsman to his finger-tips, ordered
all the available men not playing to assist the friendly natives in
keeping order in the free seats. This they did, though not without a
smart skirmish, which ended in the rowdy interrupters being driven off
the field with the loss of several men, which served them right for
trying to interfere with sport.
This well-merited chastisement did not, however, satisfy the
contumacious bounders, for they took post in the big bush and continued
to lob bullets at us from the distance of a thousand yards, but of
these we took no notice, for although now and again a bullet would
announce itself with an angry hum, or drop nearly plump into the
ground, yet they afforded a man a good excuse should he butter a catch
or make a duck. Anyhow we played the match out, and I am delighted to
say the troopers won by the narrow margin of seven runs, although I
regret to add I contributed but little towards the winning score.