MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Evening Post, Volume LVIII, Issue 140, 11 December 1899, Page 5

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

DURBAN, 9th December. A vessel arrived at Port Elizabeth lad on with 17,000 sacks of flour, intended

- for the Boers. Tho cargo was, however, s seized by the British authorities. 1 SYDNEY, 9th December. ' The thirty members of the New South " Wales Lancers who arrived by the Nineveh, after refusing to volunteer for ser- > vice, landed to-diiy from the steamer ' which has been in quarantino^ince 25th No- ■ vember. Someone c*lled for cheers for i the men, but hoota formed the only response. I A CHRISTCHURCH BOY FIGHTING AT LADYSMITH. Private Chivers, who is at present serv- < ing with the D Company, 2nd Battalion Gordon Highlanders in Natal, is a son of Mr. T. Chivers, of the General Post Office, Christchurch. Mr. Chivers has placl ed a letter from Ms son at the disposal of , the Lyttelton Times. The letter was writ- » ten from Ladysmith on 24th October, just » at the time of the fierce assaults by the , Boers on the Bj-itish position, and al- > though Private Chivers was not able to ; give a. connected review of the whole , fighting, his letter furnishes some very • interesting sidelights on the war : — * \ i "I write these few lines (he says) from the trenches, where I am now lying, waiti ing for the enemy's approach. A second , battle is at hand. We fought the first on • Saturday, and, thank the Lord, I was ■ spared. We lost about 150 men in my 1 battalion alone, to say nothing of the . other battalions. The Boers had heavy losses, but the number is, not known, as they carry their dead and wounded away • with tJiem. J.-VS for Saturday's fight, we were wait1 ing patiently in Ladysmith, which is the base of operations, when the scouts sig- ■ nailed to camp that the enemy were agproaching the town. We were ordered 1 away at once. My battalion was 4oj strong, and with us went the Devonshires, the Manchesters, and an artillery force; 1 We had not got far before the enemy fired ' on us with their artillery, and the fire was • returned with interest by our heavy guns. 1 We were lying behind the artillery, while 1 the two opposing forces engaged in a duel at long range, which lasted about an hour. 1 shall never forget the experience. The first man killed on our aide had his head taken clean off- by a shell. At the end of an hour we had silenced the enemy'sguns, but the worst was yet to come, for our battalion and two others had to finish the fight by facing about 5000 Boers armed with the Mauser rifle. "We received the order to advance and open fire. My comrades were falling all around me, and some of- the sights were * the most awful I have ever seen. We had jj four hours' hard fighting, and 1 fired about 3 260 rounds of ammunition during that 3 time. It seemed as if the enemy would ' never be driven back. Then we got the * order to fix bayonets and charge. When the Boers saw that line of charging troops, they retired down hill and across the plain ', Then the Lancers charged down on them * with the lanee — a very beautiful sight to us. The Boers were cut down in all J directions, some of them going down on * their knees and begging for mercy. j "At the end we had won the day. At s the roll call we found that we had lost almost eveiy officer, and a lot of men. It 9 was awful to sea the dead and wounded } lying on the field, the wounded crying for help, which we could not give them, because we. had to hold the position in case j the enemy should return. So they were . left there to bleed to death. I cannot tell you more now, as we do not know what . second we may be called upon to defend , the lines. While I am writing this, I can hear the reports of the guns of my comrades fighting -three miles away, where we have sent an advance party. "We are holding the main position at this present moment, protecting the inhabitants of Ladysmith. I have little time to write to friends, so you must tell them I am still- alive."