THE SIXTH IN THE TRANSVAAL.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12533, 21 June 1901, Page 2

THE SIXTH IN THE TRANSVAAL.

The following are extracts from a lettnr received from Lieutenant Frank Ryan, of the Sixth New-Zealand Contingent:— ■ SILVERTON {Near Pretoria), May 6, 1901. Plumer's column has just returned- from Pietersburg, after a trek through, rough bush veldt, not 'hitherto traversed by a British column. On the whole, the opera- ( tions have been rather uneventful. WhiLe : holding a drift at Oliphant's River, we , trekked to the east, with despatches for ! Lord Kitchener's brother, .whose column we ; fell in with at Fort Weeber. He chat-tad | to us about New Zealand and his relatives, J etc. Am Australian officer did » piece of smart work. When on patroT ho .sighted the enemy, watched them all day, and creeping up under cover, of dai-kness, .surrounded them, with his small following, and captured a much stronger force than his own', som© waggons, and a 'Maxim gun. Our fellows have also effected various captures by means of flying columns. A Queensland Bicycle Corps, under aa ex-New Zealan.d'sr named Joss, while taking despatches ahead into C-erst© Fabricken, suddenly scorched, into a party of Boers, who . were making' a mid-day halt with their waggons. The wheelmen-darted" in between the enemy and .their stacked rifles, tumbled off their bikes and told up a party of the- most surprised and disgusted Dutohmei* on. record. Despite this good work, bicycles are a dead failure in this part of the country, or, I should think, any other country where they have to leave a good hard road. The Sixth Contingent's horses were taken off the boat, entrained straight into the veldt, with the usual result—that .hardly any of them are left alive now. The way horseflesh.' has been sacrificed and mismanaged is one of the most remarkable featu s of this campaign.