Transvaal War

Feilding Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 120, 18 November 1901, Page 2

Transvaal War

CAPTURE OF BOERS. Telegraph. Press Association Copyright London, November 16. Reuter's correspondent reports that 24 Boers have been captured at Waterberg. Brigadier - General Plumer has made a number of captures in the South-eastern Transvaal. Major C. G. Pack-Beresford, of the Constabulary, attacked Commandant Dutoit's laager at Dootnhoek, and captured 13 of the enemy. BOER ATTACK REPELLED. Lord Kitchener reports that a force of fighting scouts forming Colonel Byng's rearguard, near Heilbron, after two hours' fighting, decisively repelled an attack by 400 Boers, who are believed to have been led by General De Wet. The Boers had eight men killed and the British four killed and nine wounded. YEOMANRY PATROL ENGAGED A force of 800 Boers surrounded a Yeomanry patrol at Brakspruit, in the Magaliesberg district, west of Pretoria. The Yeomanry lost six men killed and sixteen wounded. The others were captured, but released later. Reinforcements arrived and drove the enemy off. ORGANISED INTIMIDATION. Lord Kitchener's despatches for July and August show that he is confident of gradually crippling the enemy. He states that an organised system of intimidation prevents the surrender of many who would otherwise be eager to do so. MIDDLEBURG CAMP. Doctors and inspectors eulogise Nursing-sister McClay, an Australian, as an active and capable matron of Middelburg camp. EFFECTS OF LIGHTNING. Lightning killed four soldiers and injured two others at Vryheid. THE CAPE PARLIAMENT. The Cape Colony Parliament has been further prorogued to the 15th January. COLONIALS MENTIONED. Lord Kitchener mentions in despatches for good services Lieut. H. T. Heckler (formerly of the Fourth Contingent, Waikouaiti), SergeantMajor J. W. Callaway (Devenport, Auckland), and Corporal R. Vercoe (New Plymouth), all of the Seventh Contingent, for rescuing dismounted men under heavy fire at Witkoop. He also mentions a number of Australians for smart work and gallantry. QUERR TREATMENT OF THE SICK. The Blue Book shows that mothers refuse to obey the doctors and nurses, and administer their own remedies for measles. They refuse to wash the children, though they are as black as Kaffirs through dirt. They insist on administering Dutch quack remedies, which contain ether and opium. They feed tbe children on sardines instead of milk, and use horse-dung poultices, and refuse proper ones. The women abstain from entering the maternity hospital, believing they will be starved. They prefer the services of the untrained midwife. The occupants of the camps are extremely callous to each other's sufferings. BOER LEADERS BANISHED. A dozen more Boer leaders have been banished, including Landrost Zuitspanberg. MORE MEN WANTED. Sydney, November 17. Major the Hon Rupert Carrington, commanding the Third New South Wales Bushmen in South Africa, has cabled to the Government that men are urgently required for his regiment, and asking if the Government can induce pastoralists to raise 150 Bushmen for six months' service at 5s a day, to he paid by the Imperial Government, equipment being found and return passage allowed. REPORTED EIGHTH CONTINGENT. Wellington, November 17. I The Premiei was asked on Saturday if he had offered an eighth contingent to the War Office, as hinted at in the Australian cable news. The Hon Mr Seddon denied that Mr Deakin was correct in suggesting that New Zealand was the colony referred to in the recent speech of the Secretary of State for War, and he hazarded the opinion that it was Canada that had made the offer. HOMEWARD BOUND. This Day. A cablegram from Capetown states that Lieut. Joyce, and three of the New Zealand Mounted Infantry, sailed on the 14th November by the Wilcannia for Wellington, via Sydney.