LIFE IN THE TRANSVAAL.

Evening Star, Issue 11891, 20 May 1903, Page 7

LIFE IN THE TRANSVAAL.

AVe have been permitted to make the following extract from the letter of one of the Otago lady teachers who accepted service under tin Education Department of the Transvaal a little over a year ago. Writing from Witkof, Klip River, on April 4, she says: I am not returning just at present, but have signed for a further period of three years. I am at liberty to break my agreement, by giving the Education Department three months' notice. They give me a months' trip to New Zealand during the three years. Of course, there are no camps now, they being a thing of the past. I and my friend (Miss Jackson, of Invercargill) are teaching together on Mr —-'s farm. He is a Dutchman who gave up his arms to the British when they came in, 'and is styled a "hands-upper" by his fellows. He lias twenty-six houses and farms, and has them let, mostly to his own relations. There are 760 English people in the district. The family—the elders, I mean—have been all educated at a college in the colony, and can speak English fluently. Of course,, their poorer neighbors are just beginning to learn English. I have picked up a number of phrases, and can ask for milk, sugar, bread, butter, plates, and knives at table in their Taal, as the Boer Dutch is called. Milk is " melk," sugar " secre," bread " broodt," etc. We are living quite close to the railway, and look out every day of our lives upon imposing stone blockhouses built on the tops of commanding kopjes. The house we live in is of Dutch architecture, and has stoeps (verandahs) ail round it. There are twelve rooms, and each one opens on to a stoep, for the Dutch do not like to be sunburnt. The climate here is much more like New Zealand than Natal. It is very high and very dry. The Klip River runs right through this property for miles. The district is about 150 miles long. Lord Roberts passed this house with 53,000 troops, on his way to Johannesburg, which is eighteen miles distant. He commandeered 70,000 bundles of forage and all Mr 's cattle for his men. Several shots have been fired on this house from the blockhouse near. He took us out and showed us the marks of the bullets. The rough weather has set in just as I am writing. Forked lightning is lighting up all the hills, and the thunder is so loud that we can hardly hear each other speaking. I have never seen anything like the lightning—it is so vivid. We tried to photograph it the other night, but wore not very successful. I am going to buy a bicycle, as horses are very scarce, owing to horse sickness, which visits the district every year. Our English colonial neigh-

STATUTORY DECLABATION.-r-I, Frank I Raabe, Ironbark, Sandhurst, in the Colony ' of Victoria, 6V solemnly and sincerely declare j th«t on the 25th June, 1877, my son Alfred, lis years of age, was accidentally hurt with , an axe on the knee. lat once took all pains I to seoure medical attendant. However, in .spite of all efforts, on the 27th August, 1877, I the opinion was given by Dr MaegsUiyray that : an amputation of the injured limb had become i imperative in order to save life. At this i juncture I called upon Messrs SANDER AND SONS, procuring some of their PURE VOLATILE EUCALYPTI EXTRACT, and by the | application of the same I had the satisfaction . of seeing my son within a fortnight out of all I danger, and to-day he is recovtred. I may just add that it was when the crisis had been reached that SANDER'S EXTRACT was first applied. And I make this solemn declaration, etc.-Frank Raabe. • Declared at | Sandhurst, in the Colony of Victoria, Austra- i lia, this 17th October, A d 77, before me, Mont* Cohn, J.P.—To guard the hieh reputation our | manufacture has attained all over the globe, ( we state that care has to be exercised to , obtain the genuine article (Sander and Sons), j as the most appalling consequences have resulted from the application of spurious produets.—SANDEß AND SONS.

bor (Mr Page) lost forty out of forty-two horses, and Mr , although he owns three traps, has only one horse on the whole of bis premises. They will not buy any more till the frosts come, as they say j that is the only thing which will put an end to the disease. There was a great battle fought on the banks of the Klip near this house. One gentleman here, who was intelligence officer for the British, put a Red Cross on his sleeve and told the Boers he was a doctor, which they believed. He went out and brought in; forty-five wounded. Several of their graves are lying on the line side near the Klip j River station. Mrs Page was the only I English lady in the. district during the j war. She has been very kind to us, and i when we visit her, as we often do, she tells j us stories about the hardships she had to j bear before the British came in. One ; night eighty Boers came to her house while . she, her husbandj and her little, son were j asleep, and broke in. They took £464 in • money, all her jewellery and household linen, as well as her personal effects, and nearly tore the dress from her back. She . heard them coming, and had just time ; to put on her dress hurriedly before they ! entered. There was an English gentleman i sleeping in the house that night, and he . was so enraged at the Boers that he was I going to fire on them. She had great! difficulty in advising him not to, and main-! tains that if he had neither he nor they j would be alive to-day.