The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 7, Issue 5 (September 1, 1932)
Praise for the Shawl-kilt
Praise for the Shawl-kilt.
Lieut.-Colonel St. John, in his book, “Pakeha Rambles Through Maori Lands,” thus describes the kilt undress worn by nine-tenths of the bush fighters in New Zealand in the later wars:
“A flannel shirt, sleeves rolled up, a shawl worn kilt fashion, shoes and long stockings. To this dandies added a blue serge jumper. Such a dress is at first rather uncomfortable for the knees when going through a bush full of ‘lawyers,’ or, a trifle worse if possible, through high burned fern, with the charred stalks, now sharp-pointed, preserving inclinations acquired when green, under the influence of constant winds, and bent down in opposition to one's progress. But then, in river work its advantages are palpable. You have to cross a river, say, sixty times in one day's march, and that is not an out-of-the-way number. The trousers-wearing warrior finds a baggy weight gradually increasing about his ankles as sand imperceptibly invades his nether garments, well tucked into the socks as they are. There is a drag about the waist, and perpetual are the hitchings up and halts to wring out the part flopping about his ankles. Not so with him of the kilt; on entering the stream he simply lifts up his garment, wades through, and ten minutes after is as dry as ever.”
St. John well knew the convenience of this costume, for it was in that garb that he led his kilted A.C.'s and Maoris up the Whakatane Valley in the invasion of the Urewera Country in 1869.