NEW ZEALAND CROSS

Taupo Times, Volume II, Issue 84, 26 August 1953, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND CROSS

LINK WITH TAUPO The New Zealand Cross, one of the rarest military decorations of the Empire, has an interesting link with Taupo, for one of the twenty-three men who won this award for gallantry was Dr Samuel Walker, Surgeon, Armed Constabulary Force, whose grave is to be seen in the Old Military and Early Settlers Cemetery, near the junction of Ruapehu Street with Waiariki Road (Spa Road). During the later Maori Wars in New Zealand it was found that the Victoria Cross could not, under the regulations then in force, be Jawarded to men serving in the yolunteer New Zealand forces. The New "Zealand Cross was then instituted to be an award for gallantry equivalent with the Victoria Cross, and is the only decoration so regarded. The dies from which the Crosses were made were recently found in the course of a spring cleaning in New Zealand House* London, having been taken over in 1907 by the N.Z. AgentGeneral in London after being traced through three successors of the origin'al London goldsmith who made them. They have now reached New Zealand, and will be preserved in the archives of the Dominion Museum, Wellington. Dr Walker's grave, which is just inside the gate of the Cemetery, has a headstone which is inscribed to the memory of "Dr Samuel Walker, N.Z.C., Surgeon, A.C._Force. Died 25th December,'" 1889;'''' Aged 38 years." He joined the Armed Constabulary soon after the. outbreak of hostilities, served for upwards of eight years, and was awarded the Cross for conspicuous gallantry on many occasion^ during the campaign of 1868-69, notably at the attack upon Titokowaru's position at Otauto on March 13, 1869, where he was exposed to a very heavy fire and bore himself with great courage. Roberts - Street, . Taupo, is named after Col. JC M. Roberts, another holder of the New Zealand Cross. ; Still another Hnk with Taupo is provided by the fact that the late Capt. H. W. Northcroft, a winner of the cross, and the fatheV of Mr Awhi Northcroft, ~a well-known resident of Waitahanui, is commemorated in the naming ol^Norf^croft Street, Taupo.