1901 - Gorton, E. Some Home Truths re the Maori War 1863 to 1869 on the West Coast of New Zealand [Capper reprint] - CHAPTER XII. NEW SYSTEM OF FEEDING TROOPS IN FIELD SUCCESSFULLY TRIED, p 94-103

       
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  1901 - Gorton, E. Some Home Truths re the Maori War 1863 to 1869 on the West Coast of New Zealand [Capper reprint] - CHAPTER XII. NEW SYSTEM OF FEEDING TROOPS IN FIELD SUCCESSFULLY TRIED, p 94-103
 
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CHAPTER XII. NEW SYSTEM OF FEEDING TROOPS IN FIELD SUCCESSFULLY TRIED

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CHAPTER XII

NEW SYSTEM OP FEEDING TROOPS IN FIELD SUCCESSFULLY TRIED

IN 1868 I was ordered to undertake, in addition to my duties as Commander of the Wanganui Militia district, the equipping and feeding of the Colonial troops on the west coast, in other words; to establish a commissariat department.

This was at the time of the withdrawal of the Imperial troops, and just before the commencement of the war with Titokowaru. Though the system adopted by the Imperial commissariat for feeding troops in the field was successful so far as the actual rationing of the men was concerned, yet from what I heard and saw, I found sufficient to satisfy myself that there was a wanton and disgraceful waste of stores,

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GOVERNMENT STORES

the loss of which fell upon the country, and that the cost of the rations--one shilling and eightpence per man--was a great deal more than it would be under a system of contract, which, moreover, would entail on the Government no risk of loss, or of this waste, and would, besides, do away with the opportunity for bribery and corruption, of which, I am afraid, advantage was taken.

My experience is that, in all countries, the Government stores are treated with feeling, 'they only belong to the Government,' and what becomes of them is a matter of little moment to any one. In some cases, the check over them is a little more stringent than others; in many, the losses are covered by Courts of Inquiry. Cash, very properly, must always be accounted for to the uttermost farthing, and an audit department is always maintained to see that this is carried out; and yet, curiously enough, the moment cash leaves the right hand and is converted into stores in the left, that severe and proper

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check ceases, and what becomes of the stores in many cases is left to chance; and hence, great loss.

No one could have had better means of ascertaining this than I had from my experience as Inspector of Stores of the Colony, first military only, then civil and military, from 1869 to 1878, when I instituted a system, whereby every article of stores both civil and military, purchased with public money was traced to a store account, and thereafter accounted for to me as Inspector of Stores. I could give very substantial proofs of my assertion, but that is going away from the subject of this book. I shall not say more than that, on one occasion, when making my first inspection of a store, I found about 150,000 feet of timber in a yard, not a foot of which was kept account of, nor had been for years previous. The timber was in charge of a carpenter, whose pay was twelve shillings per diem. Curiously enough, not far from the timber yard this carpenter owned some land, on

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THE COMMISSARIAT

which he had erected two good wooden dwelling houses--a wonderful saving out of twelve shillings per diem. I need hardly say the expenditure after this was strictly accounted for.

The Imperial commissariat purchased in bulk, and issued rations therefrom in detail, therefore ran the risk of all damage to stores in transit, and had to keep up a large transport service; further, being Government stores, they were not treated with the care that would have been employed if they had belonged to a private individual. In consequence of this, I determined to try the following system:--

I called for tenders for supplying a full ration to the troops in the field, wherever they were, within a radius of twenty miles from a given centre; that centre to be the head-quarters of the contractor, at which he had to keep a month's supply of rations for the whole force, subject to my inspection at any time; failure in maintaining this amount to entail a fine of a thousand pounds, and two capable sureties had to

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enter into a bond for that amount. I had to find the escort for the contractor's men, when I considered such was required.

In January, 1869 Colonel Whitmore took the field with a force of 1200 men, which were at times subdivided into five or six different camps, according to the nature of his operations. I accompanied the field force for nearly three months, performing the duties of Acting Quartermaster-General, and rationed the force under this new system. Nothing could have answered better; the troops were always well fed, they were never a day short of rations, and whenever the force was detained more than a couple of days, the contractor had to put up ovens and bake bread for the men; and more than once I had baker's bread packed to the men while they were fighting in the bush. All the staff I had for this force, was a quartermaster, an assistant-quartermaster, and an issuer for each camp.

The issuers' duties were to receive from the contractor the rations for their respective

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RATION CONTRACT

camps (three days' supply at a time), and issue them daily to the men, and to take charge of ammunition and other stores required for the use of the force in their camps. By this system the transport was greatly reduced, and I was able with seventeen two-horse teams to carry all the ammunition and camp equipage for this force. The contract price paid for that was fifteen shillings per diem, for each two-horse team, driver included, they finding themselves in rations and forage; and I had the right of using these transport horses, when required, for packing the rations to the men in the bush. The ration contractor by this system bore all the burden and expense of carting the rations, and driving the live stock with the army; and any loss or waste fell upon him. The cost of this ration to the Government, was in the first district, one shilling and four pence per man, as compared with one shilling and eight pence, the cost of the ration under the Imperial commissariat.

The contract in the second district was

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even lower, being, if I remember rightly, only tenpence per ration; but this was on account of the contractor in that district being given the sole right of keeping the canteens at the different camps, when stationary. The men at that time were charged one shilling and sixpence per day for their rations, so the real cost to the country was less than the rates just quoted. When, however, later on, the force went into the interior of the island, the cost of feeding the troops was much more expensive, but the men were only charged the same rate. Another great advantage of this system was that I was enabled, four days after the end of each month, to send to the audit office, complete returns of the receipt and expenditure of the rations of the whole force; and no rations were ever lost.

Of course, this system can only be carried out advantageously when in fairly settled districts. In the interior, where no settlers resided, the system in use by the Imperial commissariat had to be resorted to.

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CHECK ON CONTRACTORS

I had to be most particular that the contractors always kept the full amount of reserve at the head-quarters of each district. In one instance I found such was not done, and I gave twelve hours' notice to have the stock complete, under a penalty of one thousand pounds. The stock was completed, and I had no trouble ever after. All contractors want thoroughly looking after, never mind who they are. I remember, before starting this system, when stores were procured in bulk, that, among other stores, I had to send seven hogsheads of rum to the front, five per cent, under proof. I had previously received a complaint that the rum supplied appeared weak. On this occasion, when these seven hogsheads were ready for shipment, I tested every one and found them twelve per cent, under proof; I ordered all to be rectified before being shipped, which it took the contractor five hours to do, and I tested them again. This contractor had supplied thousands of gallons to the Imperial troops, and the man in

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charge said, never before had he had his liquor tested. If such was the case (which I doubt), and if he treated the Imperial department as he tried to treat me, the contractor made a nice cheque by selling water as rum.

Below, I give an extract from the dispatch sent by Colonel Whitmore to the Government, after the attack on Taurangaika on February 3rd, 1869. Though the pah was abandoned during the night, still, the difficulties of feeding the army were the same; and it will be seen that Colonel Whitmore's dispatch gives exceptional credit to the department in that respect, proving in his opinion that the system of rationing the troops by contract, was a decided success.

Extract from letter from Colonel Whitmore to the Honourable Colonel Haultain, dated Titokowaru's Pah, Taurangaika.


February 3rd, 1869.

As there has been no real or, rather, serious fighting, I think it out of place to mention individuals, and therefore confine myself to ac-

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LETTER OF COL. WHITMORE

knowledging the cheerful co-operation I have met with from all ranks and corps throughout my operations. Lieutenant-Colonel Gorton, however, whose particular duties are not altered by the resistance of the enemy, does deserve that I should specially record the great assistance I have derived from his zealous personal exertions and excellent arrangements.


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