EARLY DAYS IN MAUKU.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 646, 1 July 1921, Page 6

EARLY DAYS IN MAUKU.

The publication of our brief ac- m count of the late Major Lusk’s career has brought - -ah interesting letter from Mr R. W. Raithby, of Brushington, near Reefton. In 1863, Mr Raithby was a, member of Colonel Nixon’s regiment of irrt*gular cava!- - | ry, the type of our modern mounted infantry. While they were quartered;* 1/ in Drury news came through one night that the Mauku Volunteers had received a mauling- from a large body of natives and at 4 a.m- his squadron " set out across the Earaka. They arrived at the Mauku Church with the fig first streak of daylight, just as the. ' m Maoris at the Titi fh-ed a parting volley over the bodies of our They rode through a bush track the scene of the engagement found the first traces of warfare the body, of a sergeant' of the Waikatc militia, who had crept under a, * log to die. A little further on was a pole with a soldier’s haversack on the top, and below it were', ranged in a row, seven dead bodies* badly - mutilated, each with his left arilft - laid across the of the man beside him. The troopers followed the trail of the retreating Maoris to Rangipokia, on the bank of the Wai- v kato, imagining they had passed the enemy in the bosh, lay in ambush .' awaiting them for some hours, but ' seeing no signs of them concluded • they had escaped and returned to the - church. The next day the squadron returned to Drury, but left -Mr. Wi Raithby, in charge of two troopers, at >- Mauku, to act as orderlies if required.Mr Raithby says their guides on this ' occasion were a Mr Hill and, he thinks, aMr Wheeler. (These were Mr Henry Wilson Hill, then's ser- c geant in the Forest Rifles, who earned special mention in despatches for his gallantry at the Titi engagement, " and Mr John Wheeler, the then owner

of Titi farm.) Mr Raithby, it may be added, is 82 years of age.*

With the death of Major Lusk ••4 it appears likely, that the last survivor of the Titi engagement has gone, , ’t.. and it is of interest to get this first-hand account from one of the v relieving column, who must by now be thinned out to a painfully small •*■■■ number. Some years ago the writer ' visited the sceije of the fight with the, late Major William Muir,, who was also with the squadron of Nix- : on’s horse on that occasion, and who 31 gave substantially the same account, with the addition of one little inci- f? dent which Mr Raithby does not men- Av tion. While the troopers were halted L at a spot about three chains from’ P where Mr Dyke’s house now stands ftfe, a shot was fired from the top of Bald Hill, and the bullet struck the ground just in front of the men They then saw a Maori run over the crest of the hill into the bush. That was the only native seen that day.