NEW ZEALAND CROSS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 161, 7 January 1914, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND CROSS.

SMALL BAND OF HOLDERS. The military roll of honor in the Year Rook just issued shows that the holders of the New Zealand Cross now. make a very small band. There were not many of the greatly-valued decorations issued; it was indeed more difficult to win a New Zealand Cross than to win a Victoria Cross, and of course this fact made the distinction all the more valuable, though it pressed rather hard on several colonial settler-soldiers who fairly won the highest military reward. The Year Book list for 1013 is not quite correct, as it includes the names of at least two Cross winners who have been dead some considerable time, while on the other hand the compiler seems to have been under the impression that Mr. T. Adamson, one of ! the most celebrated holders of the honor, had died earlier than the past week. < The correct list, therefore, is oven smaller than the official roll. Tliere are only eight men living who are entitled to wear the Cross, and to draw the small pension, £lO a year, which it carries. Of the eight veterans who are entitled to write "N.Z.C." after their names, the first and youngest to be awarded the Cross is living in Wellington. This is Mr. William Lingard, who was a youthful cavalryman under the late Mr. John Brycc in tho West Coast Hauhau wars. Mr. lingard was given the Cross, on ", Colonel Whitmoro's recommendation, for cutting a horse loose in front of a rebel' stockade, under heavy firo, and assisting a. dismounted comrade to mount and escape. Colonel J. M. Roberts, formerly Magistrate at Tauranga, another of the decorated heroes; 'has now retired from his official position. He won liib Cross by good work in commanding the rearguard after the bush disaster at Te Ngutu-o-te-Manu, whero Von Tempsky wag killed. Captain 11. W. Northcroft, who earned his decoration several times over and who was one of the popular heroes of the armed constabulary, is now New Zealand Government Resident in the Cook Islands.

Captain Gilbert Mair. another of the heroic band, who distinguished himself in tho command of Native contingents against Tc Kooti in the Hot lakes Country, is now in his active old age successfully farming near Waiotapu, in the scenes of some of 'His fighting exploits. He lias, so to speak, beaten his carbine into a reaper and binder. His old comradev Captain George Preeee, who won his decoration at the siege of Ngatapa in 1869, is now, after many years' service as a Magistrate in Hawke'a Bay, in business in Palmcrston North. Trooper George Hill, a hardy little veteran of the Crimea and Baltio wars, and tho Indian mutiny, as well as of tho Maori wars, and who helped a garrison of Maori women and children and old men to drive off Te Kooti at Mohaku, is living in Auckland.' One of the hardest lighters of them all, and one who is tho hero of ma»y bush adventures, Mr. Christopher Maling, chief of Scouts under Colonel Wliitmore, is spending hii autumn days, after a strenuous frontier life in many lands, in a peaceful little village in tho English Midlands. Then there is.Captain .?. J.' Mace, of Oakura, who gained the coveted medal for bravery jn the field in this district, »»iil is still in the enjoyment of the best of health and spirits.