The British Empire has been largely built up by the same class of men, who have rolled out its frontiers farther and farther, and then held them against savage enemies in spite of deadly malaria, fever, starvation and horrible discomfort. Would it therefore be an impertinent question for me to ask if any one of the yapping gas-bags in the home or the colonial Houses of Parliament has ever given a thought to the welfare of these rolling stones after they have been worn out by their unrequited work? However, it’s no use asking silly questions, so let’s return to our mutton. The skirmish at Pokaikai put the fear of the Lord into the Hau Haus, the chiefs of whom were so fully cognisant of their narrow escape that for a long time they hardly dare sleep inside a whare, which the quick, continuous movements of McDonnell, who, unlike the regulars in the past, marched without pack-horses or impedimenta of any kind, did not allay. Our O.C. kept his own counsel, no one knowing when, where or how the next move was to be made, and many a night I have been roused out from under my blankets to start away on a bitter cold march for the purpose of beating up some congregation of Hau Haus. Scouting and patrolling was also reduced to a science little dreamt of in British armies of to-day, so that the Maoris were kept ever on the _qui vive_; in fact the Colonel employed their own tactics against them, and they did not like it, as village after village was attacked, stores of food were destroyed, till at last the Hau Haus became so harried that tribe after tribe weakened on it and gave in, until only two tribes remained in arms against us, and had the Government only had the sense to allow McDonnell a free hand, the war would have terminated in a few months. But it was not to be. The first set-back our gallant commandant received was engineered by a worm called Parris, a man whom Sir Trevor Chute had ordered out of his camp, and this thing saw fit to invent and promulgate charges against the Colonel and his men for committing outrages and murdering women at Pokaikai, and a commission, consisting of Sir Cracroft Wilson, Colonel Cargill and Mr Graham inquired into the whole matter. At this commission both Hau Haus and friendly natives were examined, and although Mr Graham did his best to help Parris to substantiate the latter’s lies, it was all without avail, as every charge was ignominiously dismissed, the only foundation on which the mountain of falsehood had been raised being as follows:-- You must remember that it was dark when our men entered the village, and that on the alarm being prematurely given there was a general stampede of the natives. In the rush and dim light it is hard to tell man from woman, so one of the latter received a bayonet-thrust by mistake.