VON TEMPSKY'S FORCE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 675, 30 October 1933, Page 3

VON TEMPSKY'S FORCE

iPASSING OF VETERAN RECALLS EXPLOITS OF FAMOUS BAND. IN MAORI WARS. The death in the Hubt Valley recently of a veteran of Von Tempsky's Forest Rangers in the Mlaori Wars hrirugis to mjind the exploits of th'e famous force as related in The New Zealand Wars and the Pioneering' 'iPeriod, by James Cowan. In the first week in August, 1863, ' the f ollowing attractive invitation to ' arms appeared in the Southern Cross newspaper, Auckland: "Active young inuen having some experience of New ' Zealand forests inay now confer a benefit upon the colony, and also ensure a comparatively free and exciting life for themselves, hy joining a ■corps of forest volunteers now Jxing enrolled in this province to act as the Taranaki Yolunteers have aoted in ■Striking terror into the marauding (Natives ■ by operations not in the ' power of ordinary troops. By joining the corps the routine of militia life may be got rid of and a body of active and pleasant comrades ensured. Only men of good character wamted." The first corps of Forest Ranigers to take the field in New Zealand was the ! No. 2 Company, Taranaki Rifles, formed in June, 1863. The force, as the war went on, was increased to two companies, and was styled the Taranaki Bush Rangers. The appeal in the Southern Gross soon filled the ranks of company of Forest Rangers, sixty sitrong, under the command of Lieutenant William Jackson. Towards the end of the year a second ' company was formed under the command of Captain Von Tempsky. The pay -at first was 10s day, but it was later reduced to 4s 6d a day and rations, and a double ration of rumi, on account of the rough character of the work. The Rangers' arms were a breech-loading Calisher and Terry caribine, a five-shot revolver, and, in Von Tempsky's company, a bowie knife with a blade ten inches or twelve in ches long. A Polish Aristocrat. Of the Rangers' two* commanders, Gustavus Von Tempsky, captain of ' No. 2 company, was by far the more experienced bush fighter, Of aristocratic Polish blood, he began his military life in the Prussian army in the early forties, but quickly sought ia. career more to his taste.. In Central Amer-ica he commanded at one time an irregular force of Mosquito Coast Indians aigainst the Spanish, and he guided British naval piarties against Spanish stoekades in one of ' the lititle wars in those parts. He tried his fortune in California in "the days of forty-nine,". and travelled advenl^urously through Mexico. The news of the gold find at Coromandel brought him. to New Zealand from Australia. Th§ first shots of the Waikato War exciited the old war-fever, and iaifter trying unsuccessfully to form a diggers' corps at Coromandel captained by himself — there was some prejudiee against him on account of his nationality — Ihe joined the South- ' trn Cross newspaper at Auckland as a temporary war correspondent. He •accompanied Jackson as correspondent on one of the early expeditions into the Wairoa Ranges. Von Tempsky was invited to join the rangers as subaltern and military advis r, and th'e Government gave him a commission as ensign. Wben he was -commissioned to enlist a company of his own he was able to pick a little body of first-class men from the many recruits (offering. The first body of Rangers was disbanded after three months' service, and to-wards the end of the year 1863, two companies were formed, each of fifty men. A Hard Life. The .men in the Forest Rangers were la varied set of adventurers. The The bush-trained settlers of Papakura, Hunua, and the Wiairoa were the dependable nucleus of the corps, and to their ranks were added saiiors, gold ' diggers, and others who had s. en much of the rough end of life. Von Tempsky, describing his. company of fifty men at the end of 1863, wrote: — • "Like Jackson, I had two black men, former men-u'-war'smen; one had alsc been a prize fighter. I had men of splendid education, and men as ignorant as the soil on which they stood." All the nationalities were in the ranks — English, Scots, Welsh, Irish, Germans and Italians. Some of Von Tempsky's best volunteers had bten members iof the 1st Waikato Regiment of Miilitia. The Rangers' field equipment was simple. On the warpiath in the Wairoa and Hunua bush their bed was a bundle of fern, and the forest was their tent. In the campaigning in the ' Waikato blue-blanket tents were used. There were Army blankets, with fastenings for use as bivouac shelters ' In fording rivers, those who could not swim had large bundles of dry fern cut and placed under their chin and ibreast as they took the water, and they iwere hauled across with hastilyimade flax ropes. Always in crossing a, river in the enemy country the best swimaner&went over first — (holding their earbines over their heads. 'Space dogs not permit of mention of the various engagements in which Von Tempsky's Forest Rangers fought. Von Tempsky, promoted to major, was

killed at Te Ngutu-o-te-manu, in the Taranaki district, on September 7, 1868. It was in this fight that Mr. Dia.vid Taylor, the Hutt Valley veteran, whose death occurred recently, was wounded.