“I’ll give you one more instance of incapacity, or call it what you like. Sir George Grey asked the General to attack Weraroa pah. The General insisted it was impregnable to the force he had at his disposal, and that he should require at least six thousand men to do so. After a lot of blarney he sanctioned an attack to be made by Sir George, who, with less than five hundred Colonials and friendly Maoris, took the place. “Now look here, we settlers are sick of the war, and want to get back to our farms and businesses. We are paying the British Government forty pounds sterling per annum for every regular, and when it takes an army fifty-seven days to march along an open beach fifty-four miles we don’t think we are getting our money’s worth. Besides we can tackle the natives better ourselves. We men you see here are on our way back from the east coast, where, without the help of a single regular, we have smashed the Hau Haus, taking their pah Waerenga-a-Hika, and, with only twenty-three casualties, have killed one hundred and fifty of the enemy, and forced four hundred more of them to surrender, two hundred of whom have been transported to the Chatham Islands, so that they are out of the way. “Now the reason I have told you all this is, you say you have come out here to see fighting. That being so, my straight tip to you is to join a colonial corps; all the fighting during the coming campaign will be done by them. Don’t bother about a commission; join the ranks under Von Tempsky or McDonnell and learn your work; then, after you have done that, you may take a commission if you like, and your men will think all the more of you. Now then I’m dry with talking, come and have a drink, and I’ll walk with you as far as the Defence Minister’s; he is an old pal of mine. What, you don’t drink? Well so much the better for you, so let’s get.” With my new friend discoursing on things in general we strolled along to the Government Buildings, where we had not to wait many minutes before we were shown into the minister’s office. This is a funny country, I thought, where a trooper in uniform, if such a garb can be called uniform, can call unasked on an important minister; but new countries, new customs, so I made no remark but accompanied my companion into the presence of the big man, who greeted him with much cordiality.