LOST VOLUNTEERS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 8779, 5 April 1907, Page 2

LOST VOLUNTEERS.

Fortunately Not War Time. Per Pross'As'soeiation. Wjjli.vn.jtoh-, April 4, Though there was no Easter eucampnionf, here at Easter a company of .engineers, seventeen sbroag, under Ljeuts. Coady and Fitzgerald, essayed to march fyoiaWn.iiuu«c-);iatil. to Fea.therston, and hf;.d to contend, with njiiuy difficulties. They proc-eded to Wainui-o-mata on uv;,Uv aud after it brief camp resumed the march very early. In the trip the jneu had opportunities to study the art of finding the w?y out qf the difficulties. The'first f idgo' thoy mounted did'not help them oh their way, and a painful climb only recalled the fact that they had to go back and start afresh. They tackled another and later on found that they could not get through donse bush on to Orongorongo, and thoy were compelled to make their way along a creek and this passage occupiod five hours, getting into Orongorongo at 6 o'clock in the evening aud had to bivouack in the middle of the river bed for tho banks were too steep to bo climbed. They lit a fire, boiled a billy, and ten minutes after throwing sop to their appetites, which the arduous journey had highly magnified, all wero asleep. At "4.45 in the morning they continuod their march' and had to walk in the water till lijid-day when'they reached a road. The last four hours on the flat wero covered in a heavy hail storm. It is estimated that the men walked 40 miles of which 26 in rough bush country required 20 hours. Once tho men got into the open they stepped out briskly and did tho remaining fourteen miles in four hours. Every man c,ame in footsore. Most of them finished tho journey in bare feet, and only four pair of boots survived the buffeting that they received in tho beds of the rivers and creeks and other rough plaogs. The footwear of others was worn and torn right away. One man had to do fourteen miles with bare feet and others averaged .six miles in that condition.