Though he was generally known as ''Buffalo Bill'', it is not so well known how he gained the title. He contracted to furnish the Kansas Pacific Railway Company with all the buffalo meat required to feed the labourers engaged in the construction of the line and in 18 months of 1867-8 killed 1290 buffalos.
From 1868 to 1872 he acted as Government scout and guide, serving in operations against the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians, and in the battle of Indian Creek killed Yellow Hand, the Cheyenne chief, in a hand-to-hand fight.
He participated in more Indian battles than any other living man. Since 1883 Colonel Cody had been at the head of a sort of circus company known as the ''Wild West Show'', in which exhibitions of lassooing and shooting from horseback were given. The show visited Australia nearly 20 years ago.
•A settler with many years of farming experience, in conversation with a Daily Times representative, mentioned that he knew of several farmers not many miles from Milton who have wheat stacks on their farms dating back from 1914, and although they have been offered up to 7s per bushel for this wheat they have refused to sell.
He said further that this sort of thing was calculated to confirm the impression formed in some quarters that the farmers generally were doing their best to make as much money as they could out of the war, but he was in a position to say that while there were to be found instances of certain farmers acting in what might be called an unpatriotic way, the large proportion of the farming community were as keen to do their ''bit'' as any other citizen of the Empire.
In the circumstances it was deplorable that men existed whose only interest in this war was to make as much money as they could out of it.
•A remarkable story of exchange of identities has just been brought to the notice of the secretary of the Auckland Returned Soldiers' Association (writes our Auckland correspondent).
When the Sixth Reinforcement draft was being filled two men offered their services in Auckland, one of whom was passed by the doctors, while the other was declared medically unfit. The unfit man was particularly anxious to go to the front. The other was not so enthusiastic.
The two men arranged to exchange identities, one going forward with his companion's military papers, and the other remaining quietly at home.
The ''unfit'' volunteer went through his training in Trentham unchallenged, and sailed with his reinforcement. He fought in Gallipoli, and afterwards proceeded to France, where he was killed in September. In allotting his pay the soldier directed that it should be paid into an account in the Post Office Savings Bank, giving his assumed name.
Now that he is dead his mother apprehends trouble in arranging his affairs. The man's dual identity apparently became known in his unit, for the priest who read the burial service wrote to his mother and evidenced knowledge of the circumstance.
Meanwhile, the secretary of the Returned Soldiers' Association is prosecuting inquiries among the returned members of the Sixth Reinforcements in an endeavour to establish proof of the real identity of the dead soldier.
- ODT, 12.1.1917.
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