RE NEW ZEALAND CROSS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1576, 21 October 1912, Page 5

RE NEW ZEALAND CROSS.

Sir,—Having perused with interest, in the. columns of your valuablo journal, the able advocacy of "N.Z. War Medallist" respecting the retention by Mr. Harry Wrigg of^the^New.. Zealand .Cruss,. will you kindly do me the favour of giving publicity to a further testimony ol appreciation respecting the merits of tho' case, as the opinion of one who also saw active service in the Maori War, and was cognisant of tho facts —based upon the evidence of friends, who were in the district at the time of the occurrence, but have long since passed away. The importance of the dispatch which gave mo to the' incident of this well-deserved recognition of Mr. Wrigg's services still remains unchallenged, and its delivery was attended with a risk of such a hazardous character as to induce the very general belief that neither of tho dis-patch-bearers—who carried their mission to a successful issue—would be spared to return, the blood of tho unfortunate men being still fresh upon the scene of tho murders. Tho eighty or ninety miles of road to be traversed were infested by a band of men intent upon wiping out the Europeans in further "deeds of bloodshed. In view, therefore, of these facts, is it not astonishing that any set of men could lend themselves, in a vindictive spirit, to further harass the feelings of a bravo man, in his declining years, who, had he been killed in this service, would havo undoubtedly handed down his name to posterity as a hero who sacrificed his life in the execution of a chivalrous deed in the service of his country. Should they not rather that their previous futile action should have been .permitted to have been effaced from the public mind, seeing that it hud already been decided by a committee of tho honourable House, after an exhaustive and impartial in.quiry, that "they had no recommendation to make." In view, therefore, of this, I think the present intended action in traversing the decision of such a committee, is, to say the least of it, scarcely creditable. Mr. Wrigg has, I think, worthily sustained the best traditions of his old regiment—fourth Hoyal Irish Dragoon Guards—and of the British service generally by his act of bravery, and I have every confidence in the belief that should the mater be made the subject of further inquiry by a committee of the House tho finding will result in honourably upholding the gallant gentlemen in his possession of this distinguished token of his Sovereign's favour, the the country can bestow. Let me conclude by a quotation of the motto assigned to Nelson, "Palinam qui meriiit ferat."—l am, etc., ARTHUR MOKROW, Lieut.-Oolonel, Staff N.Z. Defence Force (Retired). "Simla," Mount Eden. Auckland, October 12, 1912.