MANAWATU EVENING STANDARD AND POHANGINA GAZETTE GARANTEED LARGEST CIRCULATION IN THE DISTRICT. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1900. THE INVASION OF NATAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 6626, 19 February 1900, Page 2

MANAWATU EVENING STANDARD AND POHANGINA GAZETTE UARANTEED LARGEST CIRCULATION IN THE DISTRICT. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1900. THE INVASION OF NATAL.

It is more than likely that the Boer invasion of Natal and inyestment of Lady smith is due to more than a mere desire to turn the tide of war in their favor, for that portion of South Africa was the scene of the greatest massacre the Boers suffered in 1837, at the hands of the Zulus after they had trekked away from civilization to form a new settlement for themselves, 56 women, 41 men, 185 children, and 250 colored servants being slaughtered where they were encamped by 10,000 Zulus, an effort to punish the latter resulting in great loss to a second party of Boers. After this, in 1838, Andries Pretorious. broke the Zulu power, killing over three thousand with a force of only 464 men. Unfortunately for themselves the Boers proyed poorer rulers than warriors, and after a period of internal dissension the ire of the British authorities was roused by an attempt of the Boers to expel all natives from Natal. British troops to the number of 263 were ordered to seize Durban. The British troops failed to defeat the farmers and the latter closed in on them at Durban, where they were besieged for twenty-six days. At the end of that time reinforcements arrived and the burgher force dispersed, most of them going to what is now the Transvaal. It is remarkable that the siege of Ladysmith should now be in progress, sixty years after an attempt to besiege a small British force in Natal had been defeated by the timely arrival of reinforcements.