DescriptionNew Zealand Contingent in Karori, Wellington 1899 (9779231445).jpg
On 28 September 1899, the New Zealand government offered the Imperial Government (London) a contingent of mounted rifles to serve in South Africa in the event of war. The offer was accepted within days, causing the Premier of the day, 'King Dick' Seddon, to proclaim proudly that New Zealand had been the first legislature in the Empire to offer assistance to the Boer War (overlooking the fact that five other colonies had offered forces in July). According to Seddon, the ‘crimson tie’ of Empire bound New Zealand to the ‘Mother-country’, and the majority of the public agreed. When war finally broke out on 11 October 1899, New Zealand was swept up in a wave of patriotic fervour.
Hundreds of New Zealand men applied to serve, and by the time war began men from regular and Volunteer Forces were already in training at Karori, Wellington. This 1899 photograph by John James Lewis is from the Patents Office collection, and shows the New Zealand Contingent in marching order at Karori, 10 minutes before leaving to board their troopship. They arrived in South Africa on 23 November, and what began as a grand venture soon became an arduous campaign. Some 6500 men and 8000 horses were eventually sent from New Zealand (exceeded only by Great Britain and Rhodesia), with 69 killed, 190 wounded, and 136 dying from disease.
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