The Bendigo RSL Memorial Military Museum has supported a call to uncover some hidden war treasures.New Zealand war historian Frank Glen wants to locate letters, documents and medals from the war fought by Bendigo volunteer soldiers between 1860 and 1872 across the Tasman against Maori tribesmen.Dr Glen regards as significant the involvement of Bendigo’s volunteers because of their number.Captain James Skene, after whom the Kennington Street was named, commanded 98 volunteers he enlisted.Of the 2400 enlisted volunteers from Australia, more than 120 were enlisted from Bendigo. Of the 22 killed in action, at least five were from Bendigo.“The Bendigo men ought to be recognised locally at the war memorial as being among the first Australian colonials to have died in a war of Empire keeping the peace and restoring political stability to New Zealand,” Dr Glen said.But he argues that remembering, and researching the war as he has done to write the book Australians at War in New Zealand, has been challenging because it is not part of the Gallipoli legend we have constructed in Australia.As a result, people might not appreciate the value of documents and medals related to the war, one of four fought before Federation, he said. “There is this huge vacuum. We need it here (in Bendigo) but the Australian Army History Unit also needs it (in Canberra).”Dr Glen, who lives in Christchurch, has offered to negotiate with New Zealand authorities for the possible installation of a uniform of the sort worn by the Bendigo volunteers to be installed in the Bendigo war museum.Curator Peter Ball said the uniform, if it came, would be of “very significant value” and the oldest item in the museum.“Boer War and World War I uniforms are not easy to come by, let alone one that is older,” he said.Mr Ball said documents from the period may belong to people who didn’t know what they were.“In the Maori wars as they were called, there were not many casualties. It paled into comparison with the Boer War, in which Australian casualties were tenfold, and in WWI Australian casualties were 60,000.”