CHAPTER X.
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CHAPTER X.
BEFORE the Auckland Militia were fully formed, Colonel Moule had resigned his command, and was with the General at the front. The Militia, however, were fortunate in having, as Colonel Moule's successor, Major-General Galloway, who had lately been gazetted from the colonelcy of the 70th Regiment, and who, instead of returning to England, at the request of General Cameron, accepted the command of the Militia and Volunteer forces in the Auckland district. Two days after the arrival of the Auckland Rifle Volunteers at Otahuhu they, together with the Onehunga Volunteers--in all, about 400 men-- were moved on towards Drury, under command of Major Lyons. The column that night encamped at Papakura, and the next day General Galloway arrived, and forwarded Major Lyons with a strong detachment of Rifles and Militia Volunteers over to the Wairoa for the purpose of taking up a position there and throwing up a redoubt. Building redoubts was now the order of the day. An officer of the Royal Engineers marked out the position of the earth works to be thrown up, and the citizens of Auckland had no help for it but to set to with pick and shovel. The majority of the men, unused to laborious work, made but slow progress in building redoubts; their hands blistered, and their backs ached not a little, and many glances of envy were cast at their more fortunate; comrades with corporal's or sergeant's stripes, who had nothing to do but look on, and give, now and again, the back-aching, hand-blistered diggers and delvers a gentle hint, that they were awfully slow, and if they did not look out they would have the natives upon them before they were finished; and this was not altogether a jest, for numbers of the enemy were prowling about in the dense fern and bush with which the country was covered. At night time the sentinels could see the fires of the enemy all along the ranges, and the wonder is that the natives did not make a dash at the Rifles whilst throwing up their earthworks. Major Campbell, at this time, was in charge of the camp at Papakura, and pushed the works forward as fast as he could; hut it was impossible for him to transform, even on an emergency, men and lads who had never done two days work in their lives with pick and shovel, into navvies.
Colonel Wyatt, of the 65th, having arrived to inspect the redoubt, severely lectured the men for the slow progress they had made, and they duly felt the enormity of their crime in not being able to handle such ancient and well-known instruments as the pick and the shovel. After a great deal of grumbling and growling, the redoubt was at length finished, to the satisfaction of all parties, and the na-
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tives had then lost the opportunity of making a dash.
Not accustomed to anything approaching strict discipline, and used to the great freedom and independence of colonial life, it was some time before the Militia and Volunteers could be made to understand their true position, which event only took place when many of them got into serious trouble for disobedience of orders, and found themselves in the military cells minus their thick crop of curly black or brown hair, as one well-known citizen soldier sadly remarked, looking more like convicts than gentlemen Volunteers.
