KIMBALL BENT, THE DESERTER.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1498, 4 December 1878, Page 3

KIMBALL BENT, THE DESERTER.

[By Telegraph.] Auckland, December 3. The following information has been received from Mr McCornish, formerly bandmaster of the 57th Regiment, which is corroborated by Mr Short, who also served in the band, and were both well acquainted with Kimball Bent, who deserted to the Maoris, and fought with them against the troops throughout the war. He deserted in_ 1864 from a military post called Manahupo, in the Wanganui district, after he had been Hogged for some flagrant breach of discipline. He was a recruit of English extraction. Had travelled America, and was between twentyfour and twenty-six years of age. He stood about sft. 7in., was of slight-build and swarthy complexion. Bent had been repeatedly punished for acts of petty theft and drunkenness, and at the time of his desertion was a defaulter, undergoing “pack drill.” He walked coolly out of the camp with all his accoutrements and arms, crossed the ground intervening between the camp and the Maoris by going down a gully, and was soon lost to sight. There was a potato field distant some two miles from the camp, and thither a corporal and three or four men often went to supplement their rations. One day a party of three men of the 57th went out for this purpose, when they were suddenly pounced upon by a party of natives, amongst whom was the deserter Kimball Bent. Two soldiers escaped, but the third man, named Hennessey, was taken, and kept prisoner for two or three months, when he effected his escape. He informed his comrades that Kimball Bent had frequently endeavored to induce the Maoris to kill him, which would have been done but for the intervention of another deserter, named O’Connor. Kimball Bent lived exactly in Maori style, having taken a solemn oath to abandon every remnant of European habits. McCornish doubts the truth of the report that Bent killed Colonel Hazard, but believes that officer was shot by a Maori whom he was in the act of pursuing. Bent was the best shot in the regiment, having learnt the trade of a gunsmith. _ This will account for some excellent shooting at long ranges which the Maoris sometimes made with Enfield rifles, taken from parties by surprise and ambuscades. The offence for which Bent was undergoing punishment at the time of his desertion, was that of stealing from a grocer’s shop kept by a person named Menzies.