CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 203, 16 January 1913, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

♦ ; RAILWAY CROSSINGS. The fatality Hint occurred in the, Auckland district the day before yesterday again illustrates the need for action nn the part of the Railway Department ' to render raihv.iv crossings safer for the ■ general public. Hardly a week goes by without an accident a railway crossing being recorded, with the intimation generally that the of the motor car or vehicle was unable to see the approaching train on account of obstructions. These obstructions should be removed wherever possible, and it is a • work in which the local bodies might well assist the railway authorities. There are some bad crossings in Taranaki. and the one on the main road near Waitara West is amongst the most dangerous. Loss of life will happen at this spot before long if something is not done to reduce the neighboring high banks which obscure the view. The preservation of life and limb is of paramount importance, and the Railway De- , partment, with so many fatal accidents , fresh in its mind, should not delay a • systematic inspection of the whole of the railway crossings of the country with a view to rendering them safer for the travelling public. THE OLV FOLKS' CHRISTMAS. Thanks to the generosity of our citizens. the inmates of the Old People's Home and the Hospital patients had a merry Christmas in the true sense of the word. At the Home the old folks speak very highly of the good time tliey had. and are delighted, according to the secretary of the Hospital Board, Mr. C. M. Lepper, with the kindnesssi,own to tlicm. Tii addition to the oilier good fare, a number of gallons of beer put the old men in great heart, and the effect was heightened by ttte gift of a number of pipes—enough to go • all round—and a quantity of tobacco from Messrs. Burgess, Fraaer & Co. As one inmate put. it, it was his first Christmas in the Home, and he hoped it would not be his last! Tn thanking all those persons who remembered the old folks, the Board desire to specially mention the Empire Picture Proprietary, and , the "Gay Follies" Company, who, by means of benefit entertainments, contributed £ll Os Gd and £(? 13s respectively, and Mr. TT. Brooks, whose decorations , lent a very festive air to the interior of 3 the buildings. In all, cash donations amounted to i'3B Os fid. and there were many seasonable gifts in kind. Truly - this is a case in which it is almost as much a pleasure to give as it is to receive. i ■ A VISITOR'S VIEWS. '"lt astonishes us in the OKI Country." remarked a London business man who . was in New Plymouth this week, "how it is that a country with such a small population as New Zealand can consume such enormous quantities of merchandise in every shape and form. H coin--1 plotelv passes our comprehension." The s speaker went on to say that New Zea- , land butter was finding an increasingly good name, and was becoming more and more popular every day. The prices we - were getting showed that, and, in his 1 opinion, it would not be very long before it would command the same price as the DanUh product. Touching on the complain! a! present being given voice to in New Zealand regarding the handling of frozen meat at the ship's side in the , London docks, our informant (who is the head of a London firm of merchants) ill 111;11 (here was really yew little. - i." any, room for dissatisfaction 'on this - score. The meat was scarcely handled . at all in unloading operation-'. To his mind (he pivsenf svsicm was both eili-cii-nt. ami clean. The mutton was discharged from the sliip's hold by means [ of "haver slocks"—an endless chain—- . and slid down from (here into lighters and al-o into the railway waggons ' which were right alongside. The only • handling it received was when it was unpacked in the ship's hold and placed

on thv haver slocks. Where the handling took place was probably alter it had been sold at 111.: market, Creat complaint was being made in New Zealand, lie added, about i.De stuff being left lying ill the lighters, but, as far as he had seen, everything possible was done to expedite its transit. TAI'MARUNITS KX.M.'P. .Mr. W. T. marunui, lias been on a vinit to Auckland lately, and has been heating New Plymouth's big drum in vigorous fashion. He was waylaid by an Observer pressman, who writes as follows.—"Bill" probably moved by the rejuvenation of Ww Plymouth, where lie lives when he is at home, lias sacrificed the beard he carried into both Legislative Council and ilouse of Representatives for so many years, lie litis lately made his periodical tour of the King Country, where at various time be has walked, ridden, motored and scrambled, for increasing weight is no handicap to Mr. Jennings' tremendous enthusiasm for his old territory, where, by the way. an increasing number of glad hands, are held out to him. He, speaks with !!."» horse-power enthusiasm about re-awakened Xew Plymouth, where the oil bubbletli and where the Yanks arc boring holes as they have never been bored before. He mentions that the frisky cow has made up her mind to give Cowland a record pat of butter this year, and infers that the old order of moneybags in New Plymouth is fast losing ground with the introduction of young warm blood. 11TH TARANAKI' REGIMENT. Fifty or sixty years ago the men of Taranaki. of all ages and sizes, in defending their homes ;,nel families, took up arms against, tlia militant Maoris. The Imperial Government sent troops to New Zealand, and among these was the 57th Regiment, known as " The Die Hards.'' of whom it is recorded that on the morning after one sanguinary fight the loss was found to be so heavy that the orderly drawing rations for his company was able to bear them off in his forage chp. The men of the 57th and the Taranaki militia and volunteers fraternised. To-day the 11th Regiment. of Taranaki Rifles has incorporated in it the old Taranaki Rifles, who were the first volunteer'corps in the British Empire under fire, and who were, although not officially gazetted, the first volunteer corps formed in the colony. The district area officer is Captain F. H. Lainpen, who is as proud of the traditions of the Taranaki Rifles a. s he is of the old DieHarda, in which regiment he formerly served. And the 11th Taranaki Regiment is now affiliated with the 57th. • Yesterday morning Captain Lam pen re- • eeived a card bearing the greetings of , the Ist Battalion. The card bears the photograph of the senior officer, a hero of Inkerman and the storming of the ! Redan; and also bears a picture of the . medals awarded to Sergeant-Major John . Bergin, who is reported to have killed eleven Russians in his defence of the ' severely wounded Captain Bland. AS OTHERS SEE US. Mr. William Willis, managing director , of Willis, Lindall & Co., Ltd., a bi£ ' .firm of merchants, was a visitor to New ! Plymouth this week. Air. Willis, ai- ; though on a visit to New Zealand, has s been associated with the formation of the harbor at Moturoa, in that in 1881 he placed an order for the first consignment of plant used in connection x with the construction of the breakwater, Mr. Willis expressed himself as agreeably surprised with the state of the 'harbor before which there lies, he considers, a big future. Questioned by a representative of the News, he said that without , the least doubt as soon as the harboi improvement scheme at present beinj 1 undertaken by the Harbor Board was t nil accomplished, fact. New Plymouth p could depend upon the British shipping t companies establishing a direct service with the port. New Plymouth was. he j proceeded, very favorably situated as a r shipping port. Taranaki was the centre of the dairying industry of the Do minion, and, to his mind, the whole o _ the produce of the port should find it' natural outlet at New Plymouth. Tli< t possibility of important developments at . the oil fields at Moturoa did not escape the observation of the visitor, wlio saic I that there were immense possibilities t before the port if it became a petroleum centre. The modern trend was for oi to supplant coal, and the fact of Xew I Plymouth being an oil-producing centre would in itself be an inducement fen oversea vessels to call at the port foi ' fuel, quite apart from oil cargoes. Ii behoved the district to realise to the • full the potentialities of its port. PUKETAKUERE. p < 'Sergt.-Major Bezar's interesting rem in iscence s of the fighting before Te Arei published in yesterday's issue, recall the disastrous engagement at Puketakueri that took place, on June 27, 1860. Thi chief Hapurojna had for some time beei • strengthening his pa on an elevatioi : overlooking the basin of the Wai tar;' river and not tar from Devon line, am ' obtaining strong reinforcements from tin n Waikato. The Maoris had fired on reconnoitring party of the 40th Regi ' "'ent, and it was. determined to make ai attack on the pa. which was protectee ' by two stockades. These stood upon i ridge formed by two small gullies, whicl '' met a little below the pa, and openet ® on to the swampy ground in the Wai tara Valley, forming a kind of Ion; "y", with the stalk towards the rive; iiiul the stockades in the river, Th< ' Imperial forces were under the comma ne of Major Nelson, who marched the ' troops in three divisions. Wells, in lib [l History of Taranaki. tells what happen 1 eel in these words:--"The main body c consisting of the grenadier and li»1i 7 company of the 40th Regiment, undc Captain Richards, and 60 bluejackets un • eler Kirst Lieutenant I hi ttiscombe, of tin ® Pelorus, with the Artillery, approach™ the pa by the direct road from the camp 5 and at 7 a.m. the guns were brought te ® hear and the men exfended on the sea I ward side of the pa, the smaller gully s behind them and it. With this divisioi 0 were .Major Nelson and Captain Sey mour, of the Pelorus. A second divisioi of about 50 men, under Captain Messcn ger, was posted on the fiat of the Wai " tara to eut off the retreat on that side r> and a third, under Captain Rowdier v passed along the river bank and attempt 1 eel to take the pa in the rear. The nae tives, from the position on the ed<*e oi . the plateau, could observe every move- . went of the troops, while the' British p could see little but. (he palisading of tin . pan and seeking the shelter of the go I i- lies in order to pour from thence volfe-vs 1 of musketry em our men. Shortly aflei e the commencement of the engagement s large reinforcements of 'Maoris poured ii: [, from the inland villages of the rebels s who, creeping in the 'fern, fired unseen. but at close quarters to the British , and the main body of the latter overr lapping a dangerous gully, was exposed ~ to a terrific lire Irom numerous rifle pit.. s within it." ! WHAT' Mini IT HAVE BEEN, s "Wlieu t he - at f aek was planned it w,i- ---] arranged thai Colonel Cold, with a larsrc force and two 1-poiiudor liowit/.ei'c - slioiibl eo-tipcnie with the Wai tara force . by proceeding from town and attacking $ the rebels from the plateau on the «lg't _ of which these works were situat'-d s Had he done" so the fortune of the da\ 3 wenild have been the reverse of what it ,r proved to be; but the Colonel after s reaching the Mamrornka considered thr 1 river too high for ihc troops to. cross.

and marched back In town, leaving Major Nelson in iln tin' Inst lie could. The lire at this engagement was said by veterans to have been hotter than that at l'Yrosze,-liaii ami Sabraou, and a soldier of the Crimea declared it to be hotter than the attack on the Redan. The natives, as was their custom, used dou-ble-barrelled gnus and loosely fitting halls, end in loading jerked the charge down I lie barrel-- bv striking the butt of their pieces on the ground. So much pressed were the Itritixlr at last that it was only by a, timely discharge of canister shot that a retreat was effected. J'hiding that his expected reinforcements diil not appear. Major Nelson ordered the retreat to be sounded, and the men withdrew, sadly harassed by the enemy, and by the swampy nature of the ground. So hasty was the retreat that many of the dead and wounded were left, on the field, and ijuantities pf ammunition were shot out of the earts into the fern to facilitate Die iliglif. Captain Seymour had his leg broken by a bullet, and Lieutenant Brooke, of the 40th ' Regiment, was barbarously lolled in a swamp after surrendering' hi.- sword to the enemy. I lrree o)' four of the wounded men crept through the tern to the camp during the afternoon, and another was brought, in after dark, after having crawled on one knee for four hours through the fern, the other knee' ha ving been shattered by a shot. One man escaped by swimming the river, and two others were drowned in at.tempting to do so." ft was stated that the Maoris had 7110 men engaged, foremost among' them being a white man, who was shot dead. The forces lost over 30 men killed and 33 men wounded. The Maori losses were considerable. Mahoeiahi soon followed. The tables were there turned upon Mr. Maori, who in an arrogant note to the forces invited the forces to attack him. The latter accepted the invitation, with disastrous effects to th n natives. That, however, is another story.