REUNION OF VETERANS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 449, 16 January 1909, Page 3

REUNION OF VETERANS.

Pathetic Scene at the Cemetery.

New Plymouth, January 14,

There was a unique gathering at the Drill Hall last night, when a dinner and social gathering to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Taranaki Rifles took place. The function was largely attended, among those present being some who were members of the corps when it was originally formed, veterans who saw service in the militia during the Maori trouble, the members of the South African contingents, the Borough Council, and citizens interested in the volunteer movement. The Taranaki Rifles have a bistory of which any company might justly feel proud, and it was fitting that its jubilee should be marked by so memorable a gathering. The original members of the Rifles began their drill under Major Lloyd in 1858, but it was not until the following year that the company was actually proclaimed. By commencing drill in ’SB, Taranaki was the first province in New Zealand to move in the matter of raising a volunteer corps, but, in the intervening months to ’59, Auckland followed, and to the latter province belongs the distinction of having the first volunteer corps officially proclaimed.

Prior to the commencement of the toast list, Bugler Okey sounded the old bugle call 6f the company, after which Captain Bellringer read the original roll call, which was answered by the following: — Lieutenant M’Kellar, Corporal Bertrand, Drummer Lawrence, Privates Bayly, Black, Garrick, Kelly, Morshead, Messenger, and Webster. Apologies had been received from Sergeant Free, Privates G. N. Curtis, R. N. Greenwood, T. Veale, and Captain Slaudish. The veterans present were each greeted with hearty applause as they rose in answer to their names.

There was a large and representative gathering of military men, including Colonel Robin, C. 8., who, replying to the toast, “The Army and Navy,” said that the auxiliary forces and volunteers in New Zealand were a great deal more efficient than the general public gave them credit for being. Just as, 50 years ago, it was said that Taranaki was defenceless, they were often told that New Zealand was defenceless to-day, but should the call come again, as it might, and probably would, Taranaki volunteers and volunteer corps throughout the Empire, would prove, as the Taranaki volunteers did 50 years ago, that they were able to defend their country. The colours of the old corps, primus in armis, the Rifles, which had been the first volunteer company in the Empire engaged on active service, occupied a prominent position in decorations. One of the most pathetic ceremonies that ever had been witnessed in New Plymouth took place this afternoon, when the remains of twenty-one of Taranaki’s early settlers, militia and regulars—men who took part in Maori war and several of whom were killed in action—were removed from the old Catholic burial ground in the centre of the town, where they had reposed for the last half century, to Te Henui Cemetery for reinterment. The bodies were identified by the name-plates, etc., which were in a good state of preservation. Many of the bodies still showed tomahawk and bullet wounds received in battle at the Wairau massacre and at the battle of Walreka.