IN THE EARLY DAYS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 67, 15 April 1909, Page 4

IN THE EARLY DAYS

CAMPAIGNING. 'itf TAIiANAKI,

MEMORIES OF A CIVIL SERVANT,

Among tlie chief departmental officers who retired from the service at the end of the financial year is Air Thomas Humphries, Surveyor-General, who nas an unbroken service of 52 years if tne regime of Provincial and General Governments be taken as one public employment. He was born in London m io4l, and came to the colony with his parents when quite a lad, entering the Survey Department in Tarauaki as a cadet ill 1857. In the same oniee, Mr \j. VV. liurstliouse, late Chief Engineer for ltoads, had begun his career two years previously. Jiotii fought in tile troublous times of ISUO, uud later, when tne township of New Plymouth was a pallisaded settlement, with forts here and there around a semi-circle, the two points of which ended at low-water mark on the beach. Since then the two men, who have retained a warm trienusnip for each other, have run neck and neck through the long term of public service, and each ended at the head of his Department. Strenuous indeed must have been the early days of Tarauaki, when none strayed out of sight of the pallisa'des that walled in the little pioneering settlement of New Plymouth, straggling along the hillside not far from the edge of the primeval forests peopled by a savage and wily foe. It was compulsory military training in real earnest, as all night long sentries were posted to cover the ground between the forts that surrounded the place.

AFTER " BIG JACK." Some of the earliest recollections ot Messrs Humphries and Hursthouse are associated with the year laoo, wucn tn ■ Maoris were really formidable. One dusky knight of the mere and the club had carried an English officer's heat through the country, preaching war is he went, and his calls to arms led on willing ears. This was a Maori named Big Jack. He was badly " wanted," this huge savage, and Atkinson's Bush Party were particularly kcci» on putting an en 1 to his inflammatory ana u.uigerous career. So on u day appointed a parly of live scouts went ahead oi Hie main body—a hundred picked men—to locate the pa where Big Jac«: was assumed to be "at home." As the country was rough, and the scouts' knowledge of it very limited, they dragged with them a Maori prisoner, who they hoped would show the way. The Native resisted until forcing hiiu along became too cruel a proceeding, and he was sent to the rear.

AN AMBUSCADE. The advance party went oil quietly feeling its way through the dense bush, until suddenly something was heard moving in the gully ahead. An ambush "was at once formed, and rifles were cocked. All was dead still—save the sound of advancing footsteps. Could it be Big Jack '! They all hoped so, with a suspense that pained. Nearer and nearer came the steps, until the panting breath could be heard, and then—an old Maori woman ambled into sight! They pounced upon her quickly, and took means to prevent her calling out. They knew that the pa could not be far away, and they asked her where it was. She answered that it was up the hill through tlie bush in a certain direction. The party wen' carefully ahead up the hill, and autre enough, across a clearing, the pallisades of a Maori work presently rose into view. TEMPTING DEATH IN A PA.

Duty in its strictest sense told them to retire, ami report the location ot the pa, but these young hot-bloods had views of their own ou this matter. They crept round tlie clearing, well out of sight, and approached the pa from behind, where, finding a hole in the earth, evidently made in ease a sudden retreat became necessary, they gained admittance to the space between the pallisades and the parapet—the inner and outer protections of the pa, and there—clear before their eyes was Big Jack, declaiming fiercely to a'ring of squatting Natives. Slowly one of the. scouts raised his barrel until Jack stood between the sights. As he drew drew trigger, his shoulder was pushed by one of the others, over anxious to fill

Jack with lead, and the shot missed. Pell-mell out of the pa rushed the alarmed Natives, only to be met by the main body of Atkinson's Bush Party, who did some execution before the incident closed. Such were the incidents of the bush which gave a piquancy to life in Tarauaki in 1800. THE MIDNIGHT ALARM,

.Mr Humphries gave the outlines of the above stories among others. Jle tell* another, in which his friend -Mr Hursthouse figured prominently. They were sentries between two of the forts that ringed New Plymouth in 1800. Thc'r duty was to pace through the fern aul underserub to see that no hostile Maori came too close. Oil this particular night young Hursthouse told young Humphries that he intended to have a shot at something, but the latter thought nothing of the remark at the time. Both went o:i duly, ami were keeping a watchful eye on the dim, billowy fern, when Hursthouse was heard barking the sharp challenge : " Who goes there 1" No uuswer. Then again through the night : " Who goes there—speak, or 1 lire !" A silent moment, then a Hash and a crack. A shot at midnight I It was real cause for alarm, and soon every window was alight in the township, as the order was, that, on an alarm, all windows should be illuminated to light tile roads in order that the troops could be assembled. The military turned out, and the "Staff" came galloping along the line. " Who fired that shot '!" he asked Humphries. " Hursthouse, sir!" Hursthouse obstinately stuck to the statement that he had seen something suspicious moving in the fern. A picket was turned out to skirmish through the fern, and eject all intruders—if any were still alive. Amidst excitement the search was made, and it was -gloriously successful—they found a dead horse. Hursthouse said that it must have been the rise and fall of the horse's head us he was teeding that lead him into firing. The storv passed.

THE MAORI'S LITTLE JOKE. Taking the Te Arci Pah at the Waitara was not child's play. It had to be done systematically, and the troops had to sap up to it laboriously, digging trenches that overlapped one another behind a sap-roller, a huge hullct-proot bundle of supplejacks. In this manner the approach had been pushed to within 200 yards of the pa, and still the Natives stood firm. It was the practice for the sappers to return alter the day's work to the main redoubt. One morning they approached their work to find the precious roller that was to afford them protection missing, and looking up, saw that (he Maoris had come down during the night rolled it up the slope, and there it was exhibited contemptuously in a prominent place. There was nothing for it but to make another roller, which was quickly done, but this time the officer of the engineers resolved not to be outwitted again. He planted a shell each night with a lanyard contrivance, which ensured that if anyone stumbled across the line the shell would explode. Not fur three or four night did the Maoris venture out, then their sense of humour overcame them, and (hey made a dash for the roller. Mr Humphries was afterwards told that the Maori who went behind to push tripped over the line, (here was a blinding crash, and he was neve seen again. Six Maoris paid the penally for their temerity that night. OLD SOLDIERS. " I was going into old soldiers' claims for land in Auckland once," said .Mr Humphries, ''when a man came before inc. and when asked handed over his discharge. X glanced over it, looked at theman, and said, 'Now you gel out of this as fast as you caul'' ile fled incontinently, Hinging out as he went—' You know too much, you do '.' "The description on the discharge - height, complexion, colour of eyes and hair—did uol tally in one particular with the applicant, lie 'had probably been working on the gum-fields, and had stolen the document or taken it from a dead man, imagining that the 'examining officer would not know too much. HOW THE FORTIETH FLED.

''Another applicant had bi'i'ii :i member of the Fortieth, and was more honest, ile handed in his discharge, and commenced to retail the actions lie hud taken part in. "this and that and so-and-so,' lie began, 'l'cacli lirove'l supplenicnted. Tile man looked up at me amazed, and was even more astounded when 1 said : MVliv ilid von leave IMmsav to die 1 ' Taking pity on his embarrassment. I told him Unit I was in the militia that lay in skirmishing order in the grass and fern about a ipiarter of a mile behind the line of utUck. A section of Ihe Fortieth hud been detailed to make a. reconnaisaiice, and the. advance hud stepped into an ainbnsli. The. (troops became panic-stricken, and just turned and bolted, leaving their Rims and everything, which we got hold of later. I don't know how true it is, hut 1 was told afterwards that there were only fifteen I Maoris. We had about fifteen thousand I I roops about there. So you cm see why a fortieth man did not care to be reminded of Pence drove. It was a line regiment all the same."—Dominion.