THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXVI, Issue 3575, 9 October 1916, Page 5

THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

A -GLOWING TRIBUTE TO OUR ' - MEN.

NO BETTER FIGHTERS ON THE SOMME. ,

WELLINGTON, October- 9. - A special message from the official war correspondent on the Somme battlefield, under date October 4, states:— _ On the authority <ff competent judges outside our own force, it may now bo stated that no troops have done better in tho Somme fighting than New Zealanders. Their valour, dash, initiative, ?vnd endurance have bean unoxcellod. Under depressing weather conditions and in critical situa- i .tions, they more than fulfilled expectations. Much was asked of them, and they did more. As one watched them, tired and sleepy, with torn and inudcaked clothing, coming out of the., trenches into sodden bivouacs, one could not bu'. wonder at their undaunted spirit. Tho acknowledgement by the High Command of their undoubted achievements has given the greatest satisfaction to all ranks. A. Volume might be written about great deeds bravely done by them, and there are scores of such acts that must for ever remain unrecorded. Their dash and deeis Lave not been excelled m any previous fighting. There are instancestof men cheerfully giving their lives ito save others y o£ : dash of '■■, sex-.| gearite arid' even privates ■ in;'.' taking} command and loadingvtheir.; men with" initiative and devotion to .duty when every other officer in their- company or: platoon was killed 6r trounded. some, though wounded and wounded again; continued to lead their men under furious shelling and machine gun #hd rifle .fire. Onb, with his hand almost fihot sway, stayed with his men 'till killed in a charge; his body was found in a shell crater. The work of the supply and other sections, including the Pioneers, who arc, mainly Maoris, has earned tie greatest comn-.ondation from fch>3 fighting unite. Tho slopes leading down from the ridge of crest between Dclville and Highwood into and beyond Flers, are strewn with tho graves of heroes. These hillsides will forever be sacred to the memory of great and successful achievements. It is a bit of France to which present and future generations may make "pilgrimage to pay homage jat the shrine of New Zealand's honoured dead. '

The New Zealanders, on their part, axo marvelling more tha,n ever at the spirit and organisation of the British armies.