[209] General Alexander tells an interesting anecdote about the fighting in the Taranaki district in 1864. In a skirmish the son of a chief was made a prisoner, badly wounded in the leg. To save his life the surgeons amputated the limb, and when the young man was fit to be moved a message was sent to his father that he might take the lad back to his village. The chief was very grateful for the kindness his son had received at our hands; he presented the General with a cartload of potatoes, and assured him that in future he would not kill any wounded soldiers who fell into his hands, but would only cut off one of their legs and send the men back to camp!
[210] Fox, pp. 126, 139, 140.
[211] Hence the name “Hau-Haus,” by which these fanatics were generally known.
[212] The official description of the act of bravery for which Captain Shaw was awarded the Victoria Cross is as follows: “For his gallant conduct at the skirmish near Nukumaru in New Zealand, in proceeding under a heavy fire with four privates of the regiment who volunteered to accompany him to within thirty yards of the bush occupied by the rebels, in order to carry off a comrade who was badly wounded. On the afternoon of that day Captain Shaw was ordered to occupy a position about half a mile from the camp. He advanced in skirmishing order, and, when about thirty yards from the bush, he deemed it prudent to retire to a palisade about sixty yards from the bush, as two of his party had been wounded. Finding that one of them was unable to move, he called for volunteers to advance to the front to carry the man to the rear, and the four privates referred to accompanied him, under a heavy fire, to the place where the wounded man was lying, and they succeeded in bringing him to the rear.”
[213] See [Appendix 2 (K)].
[214] The only event recorded of the stay of the XVIIIth at Patea is the death of two young officers, Lieutenants Lawson and Jenkins, who, unable to swim, were carried by the tide out of their depth and drowned.
[215] The unavowed but well-understood object of this reduction in the regular forces in New Zealand was to throw upon the colonists the chief burden and expense of the war, of which the Home Government was thoroughly weary.
[216] Lieutenant-Colonel Chapman was invalided home in June. As Brevet-Colonel G. J. Carey was an acting Brigadier-General, Rocke, as the next senior officer, assumed the command of the battalion.
[217] Not to be confounded with the camp near Auckland.
[218] It was not till 1870 that the last embers of the rebellion were completely stamped out by the local forces of New Zealand.