LETTER FROM A NEW ZEALANDER.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 30, 5 February 1900, Page 2

LETTER FROM A NEW ZEALANDER.

THE. FARM INCIDENT

Mr T. T. Shaw, son of Mr Shaw, of Paeroa, writing to his brother under date of Aruudel, December 19, gives an interesting account of the stirring affair in which the New Zealauders took part the previous clay. He says:

Yesterday we escorted the Royal Horse out to a Boer farm, where there was supposed to be about 500 of the enemy. We arrived there at three in the morning, after a. ride of twenty miles. The contingent was in the front to hide the guns. When within 2000 yards of the farm the order was divisions right and left; we split in two and galloped to the rear. Then the cannons commenced as pretty a piece of work as you would wish to see. The ten guns kept shelling for haf. an hour, then lire ceased. Our men galloped up, araout 40 strong, to take the farm. We had to cross a dam full of water, hemmed, in en one side by a wire fence, on the other a stone wall. We arrived at the farm safe, seeing no sign of the enemy after searching everywhere. The table was laid for breakfast by the Boers. When the shells came they had to clear out and leave it. Lucky for them, as a shell exploded and blew the side out of the house, tearing the furniture to pieces. After-having a good look around \vs retired to the guns, when General French galloped up and asked us to hold the place for a while. When .we got back we were met by a fusilade by the Boers. Our fighting is clone on foot, so we dismounted, passed our horses over to Xo. 3 of section (a section consists of 4 men, Xo. 3 always holds the horses), and taking cover returned the fire, which was kept up for an hour. The Boers numbered about 250, armed with magazine rifles and accompanied by their "long Tom," a gun that throws a shell of 591bs 10,000 yards. They made it so hot for us that the General gave the order for us to retire. Up to this no one had been hit. As soon as we were mounted and got clear of the clam poor old Bradford received a ball in the hip, fell backwards off his horse, and was left for dead. One of the horses was shot dead under his rider, but a sergeant stopped and took him up behind him. He afterwards caught Bradford's horse and rode out of danger. Strange to say all who were in the thickest of it were Auckland boys. The General came and complimented us, saying the way we fought was a credit to the British army. The ambulance waggon went out in the afternoon, accompanied by four Paeroa boys, to get Bradford's body, They were met by a Boer leader, who told"' them he was not dead, but had a bullet through the thigh. The Boer doctor dressed his wound and sent him on to their second camp, where he will be kept prisoner until he is either released or exchanged. W 7e are now to have three days' holiday to rest our horses. We have been riding on an average 50 to 75 miles a. clay. The day of the fight I left my own horse at camp, and was given a fiery black mare, so that I could < act as 'right flanking scout, which is_ a dangerous position. We seem to live under a lucky star to escape such a storm of bullets. The worst of the lot is the shells from "Long Tom." You can see a puff of smoke, then hear a screeching sound, then the roar of the gun, and lastly you wait to see who the poor devil is to go under. The suspense is trying. A black who escaped from Colesberg says there is 25 tons of dynamite under a bridge at the entrance to the town, ready to blow it up at the approach of the British. We have only one thing to complain of, and that is the tucker. Our ration for a day is a pound of tinned beef and a pound of bread or biscuit; lately we have had mutton. The New Zealanders commandeered 1000 sheep and 50 head of cattle.