THE TALE OF A TROOPER

Hokitika Guardian, 20 September 1921, Page 4

THE TALE OF A TROOPER

"In “Tlie Tale of a Trooper” Mr Clutlia- N. Mackenzie mentions tint shortly before the great war he and a friend* wore looking at some relies of the South African war. "Those times must have been great,” said his fr-end, and thev both regretted their had lurk. Why hadn’t the Boer w-nr come when they were of an age to fight? l.ittle did they guess that their time 'would come so soon. When the news vo noli oil the mountain sheep-run nr Mackenzie, who is a son of Sir Thus Mackenzie, formerly AgiMiUicip’ral of New Zealand, at once enlisted in the AVellilU’ton Mounted Hilles. Iks mc- : morv lingers pleasantly over the period of training. tl*‘ happy, arduous nays, the enthusiasm, the keen expectation. ■ Then the i.jiirnoy in the great Auntra- ■ lasi an Armada, and the sojourn in Egypt, Of which he gives a lively de- , eHptioii. Everyone is eager lor tt.o real tiling; no one has luiv very e.enr idea as to what the real thing is like. Kvorvono lives largely in the present, , careless of what the morrow will brng. ! U last the Light Horse has its ' Marne. ■Volunteers are asked to reinforce 'the sorclv-tricd infantry at Gahipoli. : Then the Veninsubt. the baptism of (ire the dirt and flies, and squalor and i everlasting vigilance, the eternal hom- | hardment, the fierce grapples will, t ie S Turks, the terrible fatigue that numb. ! „d body and brain, Mr Mackenzie s ae,.linnt of this desperate adventure is i singularly effective, and invites eom--1 narison with that of Air do l.ogne. ' On Cinllipnl'i Mr Mackenzie's military j career ended. In the hwy fi-Ht.in- of ; .\„,r„st lie was hit, ami at nine, knew j that his sight was ircrvocably gone j Vet no one could ever have guessed that his hook was written by a blind man. There is no trace of gloom or self-pitv: onlv humour and graplue ,I,■scription. and a fond dwelling on the si-cues and colours that the author can now only roconstrwt with his inind s eye. Here are his emotions as ho lies uncomfortably propped against a dead Turk waiting for aid: “He scarcely seemed to feel the burning heat of the. sun. the torturing thirst, nor the pain of his wound, for his spirit lay soothed in a strange rest fulness, in the satisfaction of peace ill n manner like the weary wishing, for nothing lmt sleep alter a day of honest work. l’"r Mae. the light was over, lie had done what |,a,l been asked ol him. and his spirit, serenely happy in t*’' s know--1,.,1g,.. ' seemed to rise above earthly „dis< omforts and to concern himself little with the shuttered state „f his hotly, nor yet with the. fact, that |,e was far from out of the wood.” The high courage which sustained him then is "the keynote of th<> whole honk. He ami his friend had longed for war; their longing had been satisfied with a vengeance. Charley was dead: he was blind. Tree, war had brought them u., good, lint it had many grand moments. and left many inspiring memories. Tragedy, crime, and disease had also followed in its train, hit! ‘for his part Mae. thought that, smile good must couie of it all."