A REMARKABLE SERMON.

Evening Post, Volume LX, Issue 64, 13 September 1900, Page 5

A REMARKABLE SERMON.

When tho British officers were confined in Pretoria Gaol, some very interesting devices were adopted by sympathisers to let them know how the war was progressing. On Sunday, 20th May, a Congregational clergyman appeared in the 2)rison, and preached a remarkable sermon. His text was — "As cool waters to the thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country." His whole discourse was a kind of cryptogram, for there was the usual Boer sentry present, listening. In a very clever manner he worked into his sermon all sorts of news — that the British at Waterval had been given clothes, that there was to be no American intervention, that everything was going right; and that the prisoners might expect to be free very soon. He finished his discourse by saying — "My last words to you are that all obstacles are removed from your home-going." r ______ Mr. and Mrs. Fowler, of Shannon, have received letters from England that their son, W. S. Fowler, of the first Yorkshires, and a well known Scarborough Reservist, who went to South Africa, and hud the bone of one of his legs smashed in an engagement, has been invalided back to England, and received a most flattering welcome at his own town. Private Fowler took part in the relief of. Kimberley, and then participated in the cornering of General Cronje at Paardeburg. After a week's fighting in this quarter Private Fowler, while advancing to the doomed laager, was hit in the calf of the leg, the bone being smashed below the knee. Being incapacitated, he was conveyed to Wynburg Hospital. His leg was amputated and he was then invalided home. This is an extract from a private letter from South Africa that has been placed at our disposal (says the Duuedin Star), the writer (not a member of any of the JS'ew Zealand Contingents) being in a position to verify his statement, extraordinary though it be: — "I have never seen a lot of men who are worse hands with horses than the Imperial Yeomanry. I was in camp with 1200 men, of whom bjv had never handled a rifle, and could neither ride nor shoot. No wonder that we have losses and surprises, but British pluck and endurance ieH in tho end. The war will fizzle gradually out without any fircworKs."

Continued enquiries have failed to throw any light as to thjß whereabouts of Mr. J. W. Swainson, a well-known resident of Manukau, who was missed from Wellington about a fortnight ago.