TROOPERS' LETTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 179, 30 July 1900, Page 2

TROOPERS' LETTERS.

LETTER FROM A TROOPER.

A letter has arrived in Auckland from South Africa from Trooper G. W. McEwin, of Auckland, son of Mr T. McEwin, the well-known licensee of the Papakura Hotel. Trooper McEwin, before his departure as a member of the Fourth Contingent, was presented by his Papakura friends with a horse, to which the name of "Orphan" was given. In his letter he says that on the arrival of the troopship at Beira his horse died. In the1 course of his letter h,e says, writing from Beira: —"Twenty men left our company yesterday and went up country to join the Koyal Horse Artillery. I saw Cecil Ehodes the other day, and although the Boers have a price of £ 10,000 on him he walks about the place with impunity. He passed through our camp yesterday, and said the war would soon be over, and we would be disbanded about November. We never hear any news whatever from the front; in fact, we seem more isolated than when we were in New Zealand. • . i Now that our new commander has found out where we are I do not suppose it will be long before we get a move on. . . . Jim Brown, of Newmarket, is with us. There was a great stampede of horses the other night. It was a sight—to see about 1500 horses galloping around a 30racre paddock as hard as they could go. Some of them came slick through the barbed wire into our camp, but, beyond a few tent pegs being pulled up, no damage was done. The stampede lasted two hours, and in the morning there were twelve dead horses and about eight with legs broken."