H.M.S. "CALLIOPE," & 99th REGIMENT.

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 151, 10 November 1847, Page 3

H. M.S. " CALLIOPE," & 99th REGIMENT.

In transferring to our columns the following well earned tribute to the distinguished merits of the gallant Captain, Officers, and men of the Calliope, and the officers and men of the 99th Regiment, we have purposely omitted fiom our Sydney contemporary's very eloquent article, certain passages reflecting invidiously upon Captain Graham ofthejCasfor, because we are sure that those reflections are not well founded, and supposing they were, the Calliope's services can derive no additional value from disparaging the Castor's. The most we think that can be urged in the way of contrast ib, that Captain Graham, with aC. 8., and bis Lieutenants, Messis. Otway and Falcon, by promotion each to the rank of Commander, have been rewarded ; and that Captain Stanley and bis officers have not, As for the Admiralty* complimentary missive to the latter, it is too absurdly insignificant to be treated seriously as an adequate requital for their valuable services,— but 'it would have heen pronounced equally so,, had Capt. Graham not been made a Companion of the Bath, nor his Lieutenants both Commanders. If justice has not yet quite taken her flight from the Admiralty Board, we trust that some more substantial reward than empty praise awaits the Calliope. (AJ/rvlged from the Australian of the 19th ult.J In the Wellington Spectator, of the Ist September, we find the following : "We understand that letters have been written to Captain ' Stanley by the Lords of the Admirality, and the Admiral on the station, publicly thanking him and the officers and men of the Calliope for their gallant conduct during the late disturbances. We have always had sincere pleasure in recording the services rendered by Captain Stanley, and those under his command, to the settlers, on ail occasions of danger and difficulty, and the remembrance of these gallant men will hereafter become inseparably connected with the history of the early struggles of this Province." We too, rejoice, at .being able to record even this petty acknowledgment $ but however gracious the terms in which .their lordships and Rear ' Admiral Inglefield convey the intimation " of their satisfaction at the .conduct of Captain Stanley and the officers serving under him in New Zealand," we cannot restraiu the expression of our opinion, that, the captain of the Calliope, her galhmt officers, and dauntless crew, have the strongest claims upon their Queen and country for some meed of approbation more substantial than a cold scrape of a not over eloquent official pen. * i * * * Since the hour of arrival on her cruising grounds, through fair weather and through foul, she (the Calliope) has safely maintained her station, and that in bights and bends which Captain Graham pronounced to be extremely hazardous for any man of war to risk. She has volunteered where she might have most consistently declined. She has performed duties more properly pertaining to mere coasting sloops, — (duties, or rather generous kindnesses, which nineteen Captains out of twenty would have superciliou&i} spurned) — and has done her work when coastets were afraid to show out of harbour, — proving, at once, the fighting ship, the guard ship, the troop ship, and the store ship of the Southern Province. Her services have been perilous and incessant. Afloat and ashore, — v\ itli boats or with baggage, her officers and men have been as indefatigable as brave. Yet has any one of them j experienced a tangible mark of royal consideration r • • • • For unwearied and harassing service, in a dangerous sea, and on an extremely hazardous coast, — for hi« personal presence and example, in every boat affair, and on every possible occasion, Captain Edward Stanley, (a worthy scion of a chivalrous race), and his gallant fellows, have received but a commonplace letter of cold and common place thanks. If a badge were due, surely it was due to him who was ever on the alert, ever in the thick of danger,— who bled at Algiers, and whose heroism in the Malacca Straits procured him a ttiumphal sword, a public din iier,' and a letter of public approbation. Why should not this officer have been complimented with the C. B. f Why, upon the departure of the Castor should he not have been honoured with the senior command of a station where his courage was unquestioned, his conduct the theme of official and well merited commendation t Why should not his first lieutenant, (Thorpe, invalided; have experienced a consideration similar to that of Messrs. Otway and Falcon ? With respect to Mr. Edward Holmes, now the Calliope's first lieutenant, it would be impossible to say too much in praise of hismany and meritorious services. Shortly after the establishment of a camp at Paramatta Point, be held onerous command of the gun boat in Porrirua river, which river he slaked up to the Maorie's pah. Again, at Wanganui, he was materially instrumental in expediting the building of the stockade 4 for the troops, by constructing a tram road r on the sides of the steep acclivity, upon the brow of which it' is situated, and up which the immense pieces of timber forming the stockade were dragged by means of three and four fold blocks, made on the spot, by one of the seamen. These ponderouslraasses of timber were procured from the opposite bank of the Wanganui, and transported by the gun-boat, and her indefatigable crew, to the elevated position the stockade commands. When the settlement and stockades were attacked, the gun-boat lay for six hours exposed to the enemy's fire, in the centre of the river 3 and by the prompt alacrity with which the carronade was plied\ she was mainly instrumental iiuaving the troops^/rom the vigorous fire of the assailants. On the wrriage becoming disabled,

Lieut. Holme* gallantly transferred bis 12 pounder to the little schooner Governor Grey, from whose unbarricaded decks he continued the fight until the enemy retired. Yet services arduous as these, performed against one of the most artful and warlike of people, and in a clime where angry elements, as well as a vengeful population, must be braved, obtain no promotion, — achieve no decoration ; and that too, almost in the same breath that rank and ribands are profusely lavished for frightening a parcel of dastardly, pig-tailed Chinese, — a battalion of whom would be annihilated by a score of New Zealand warriors,— the best natural skirmishers in the world. The Nation, so niggard in this instance, to its naval worthies, is no lest unjust to its soldiery. We trust that the gallant officers of the 99th regiment, of whom we are about to speak, will | pardon the liberty we take in citing them as examples of this, injustice. We allude to Majoi Macpherson, twice severely and dangerously wounded, when field officer of the day on which Heki's pah was so dauntlessly assailed. Though bis person has been seamed, his breast remains undocorated. So also Major Last, whose long and fagging •ervices,— mental and manual, — in the camp and the council, — with Ihe sword and with the pen, — are nototiously familiar to the Southern Province. This gallant soldier too, every way deserving a Lieutenant-Colonelcy and aC. 8., has been permitted to retire from the fields of his toil with no greater encouragement tlian what may be extracted from the complimentary order of the day issued by Lieut -Col. M'Cleverty, on the return of bis detachment to this colony. There be persons ignorant of the character of New Zealand warfare, and are apt to undervalue it, as a mere savage strife: but they who are conversant with its many hardships and its scanty honours, are well awaie that there is scarcely any military duty calculated to draw so largely upon every soldierly quality of nerve and endurance, of mind and body, as the wearing and worrying bush tactics of the astute New Zealander. It was in the power of the Horse Guards to have revvaided,in some degree, the officers who bore the brunt of this vexatious content, and that was, by giving them a step, and offering them appointments in the New Zealand Pensioners Corps, — a dut>, for which experience of the country, and a knowledge of the Maori, rendered them more eligible, and should have ensured them a preference rather than officers drawn from other home serving battalions. Kissing, however, invariably goes by favour, and never did Nelson utter a more conclusive truth than when he declared, that a petty advantage in the Channel would command a far greater triumph "At Home," than the most dashing general action* if achieved in a remote sea.