OBITUARY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 500, 6 May 1909, Page 4

OBITUARY.

■:;•■.;.■, ■•CQtqpfc rqokes.' ;. ' - : lJ?Tj_T*tfteßiPß— . 'fi .'■'•'i"' D '■•?"'" ; , '""■'AqcKlaind, May 6. •• uolone] Iwokes, whose adventurous career is; told a,t considerable length in If'jhe Dβ-fenders/of'-iN6>..Jsealend..,., diod lasfc.night. Soon, after his -arrival' in\ A'ncklarid, the Maori rebellion! of IB6o' broke out, and Colonel llookfs was ouiployed by tho Colonial Govornment'.in organising tho war branch.(now the Defence Office), and in recognition of the able manner'in whioh this duty iwas pprformed, the JPox (Ministry; placed him, by thojr: rccouiinendation. jn command of the Wabgauui district as tho. deputy of the Goypfnor. ;■, While holdjrig, this ': command, he raised, organised, and personally drilled seven separate troops of cavalry jn, the Rangitikei, Turakina,, and Wangaehu 'distnete so; successfully tb,at these .forces• wore repeatedly thanked:on the lipid and in/general orders by Gonerais Cameron and.'.'-waddy.-Clblonel ltookes, iu 18GS, fnrihor received tho thanks of, the Colonjal Government of Now Zeakind for the slippess.ful manner in which, under that distinguished Governor and statesman, Sir Gfeprgo Grey, led 'the colonial forces at the capture of wo pa, completely i nullifying the assertion made in General Cameron's dispatches, it would require a large addition of Imperial i troops to reduce that stronghold of tte N»- • tives." It was'the,fall of this 'Wereroft pa which first gavo rise to the policy of selfreliance soon after inaugurated by the \ Woid Governniont, and which.; enpbled General Chute so successfully to mareh (with rear and .flank free) through tho forest at the , back ,of Moμnt JSgmont. to New Ply-. . mouth, reduoing on his routo tho'.-rariopi pas in tho neighbourhood, Colonel Rookos, . wlio was one' of tho bravest and most oxperiencod officers, was superseded before tho end of the \ynr, tho authorities his-outspoken ndvico' on miliary, matters ae somewhat dictatorial,."' . .. !.•,■.'■'■':