Men of Maoriland.

How They Lived and How They Died.

Colonel Hughes, D.S.O., of the Canterbury Battalion, who served four months in Egypt and five at Gallipoli, and was six months in hospital as the result of it, paid a high tribute, at the Auzac dinner on Saturday, to the prowess and good conduct of the men of the Now Zealand Expeditionary Forces. "I would like to tell you," he said, "what our men were like—how they lived and how they died. We knew that they could fight, but we aid not expect them to live all the time they were away in such a way that they were a credit to you all over the world." (Applause.) Commander Keily, of the Royal Naval Reserve, had just been telling him of how well he found the New Zealanders spoken of wherever he had been. At Colombo on their return he (Colonel Hughes) was in charge of 280 to 290 men. They were entertained by the leading citizens of that city, and their wives and daughters waited on them—he was "d proud of it." (Applause and laugher.) The Major of Albany also spoke most highly of their behaviour. On the Rhododendron Ridge, now called in their honour "the Canterbury Ridge," some [unclear: 100] of his men were hit in twenty minutes in a space not much bigger than the floor of the Town Hall, and he never heard a sound from one of then. A boy, just a few feet from him now, without a leg, was badly hit, but when asked how he was he said. "I'n all page 8 right sir." And that was the same with all the New Zealanders. They never heard a sound from them. They should be proud to think of their brave boys. (Applause.)

A voice; "We are proud of you, Jack." (Loud applause.)

At Quinn's Post the boys used to sing to pass the time. And they could sing, too. They would have made a good programme for the "halls," those boys. (Applause.) One, Corporal Wilson, used to sing that glorious song, "The Trumpeter." (Applause.) As it happened, a bugler of the First Canterburys was missing. They did not know where he was. But above them at Quinn's Post was "dead ground"; nobody could cross a ridge as high above them as, say, the roof of the Town Hall: and one day Sergeant McLaggen, afterwards badly wounded, one of their best non-coms., went up the ridge, and there he found the bugler. They had been there a week, living and singing within a few feet of him, and had not known it.