THE LAST BOER WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11162, 7 September 1899, Page 6

THE LAST BOER WAR.

' WHY AND HOW WE FAILED. j I ITLAXDEH, 'in the Melbourne Argus, writes |of the last Boer war is follows:-It may i with justice Ire averred that the present diffiI cultic-s in South Africa ore the direct result ■ of the struggle which began with the meeting of the Boer-, held at I'aardekraal on Decemlier 13, 1880. On April 12, 18", Sir I Theophilus Shepstone issued a proclamation ; taking over the Transvaal from the Boers. . On August 14 of the same year the Queen, ! in her speech proroguing Parliament, was able to say:—"Tho proclamation of my : sovereignty in the Transvaal has been received i throughout the province with the utmost enI thusiasm." This enthusiasm was of short du- ! ration, as on March 4, 1879. Sir Owen Lan- . yon, who had succeeded Sir Theophilus Shc-p- ---' Stone, was obliged to ask Sir Barlle Frere. I then m Natal, to come to Pretoria to a«i--t . in arranging difficulties which were begin- : ning to be unpleasant. Sir Bartle Frere ar- ! rived in Pretoria on April 10, and almost I succeeded in reconciling tiro Boers to annex - j ation. Sir Garnet Wolselev (now Lord WolI soloyl, however, superseded Sir B. Frere as j High Commissioner, and arriving just too | late for Ulundi and the defeat of Cetewavo. camo to the Transvaal, and was sworn in j as Governor on September 29, 1879. Sir GarI net spoke just as strongly as Mr. Gladstone had written concerning the impossibility of retirement from the Transvaal. At Wak- | kern room, Standerton, and Pretoria he asj sured his hearers that the British flag would wave over the Transvor.l "'as long as the i 51,11 shone." Then Sir Garnet, went Home, I being succeeded in March, 1880, by Sir J Pomerov Colley. j Hie Boer rising was the consequence of j a trifl". A Hoer farmer at Potchefstroom, named Bezuidenhuit, was summoned to pay certain taxes amounting to only £27. Refusing to pay, his waggon was seized, and on the day appointed for its sale, Bezuidenhuit drove it away in face of the authorities. Commandant Haaf was sent to arrest him. but finding him well supported by his friends! was obliged to retire. On account of this a great mass meeting of the Boers was held at Paardckraal, and, curiously enough, this place (close to Krugersdorpl was afterwards the seeno of a portion of the Fghting in the Jameson raid. This meeting began on December 8, 1880, lasted until the I3th: and the resu't was that the Boers formed the solemn resolution to fight for their independence. A triumvirate, consisting of Paul Kruger, General Joubert, and Pretorius, was appointed to direct operations. No time was lost by the Biers in getting to work, A week after the conclusion of the Paardekraal meeting was fought THE BATTLE OF BROXKHORST. The 94th Regiment, under Colonel Anfstruther, numbering 257 men, was slowly wending its way from Heidelberg to relieve Pretoria, when, on approaching Bronkhorst Spruit, 84 miles from Pretoria, at half-past two o'clock on the afternoon of December 20, Boer scouts were seen galloping along the ridge of a hill. These men brought a message requesting Anstruther not to ad- : vance any further pending an answer from | Sir Owen Lanyon, to whom an ultimatum had I been sent. This he refused. Without furI ther parley the Boers, some 500 strong, opened at once a murderous fire upon the I 94th. Anstruthor was totally unprepared, | Down the bullets rained like hail, and our i men, who lay on the ground without a par- | tide of shelter, were picked off with deadly i precision. After but 20 minutes' fighting : Anstruther being mortally wounded, and | most of the officers being hors de combat, ! the gallant, but badly led, regiment was i obliged to surrender. Out of nine officers j five were killed, viz., Lieut.-Colonel C. P. Anstruther, Captain T. McSweeney, Captain X. McLeod-Xairne, Lieutenant H. A. C. Harrison, and E. T. Shaen, transport staff. The colours were saved by Conduotor Egerton, who had the good fortune to reach Pretoria in safety, with the regimental colours I wrapped round his waist, being allowed by I the Boers to proceed to Pretoria for medical | assistance. Such was the precision of the Boer fire that Dr. Crow, who went from Pre- | toria to attend to the wounded, found that I the bullet wounds averaged five per man; in this case every bullet bad its " billet." Tho Boers than closed in towards PreI toria, and formed a " laager" at. Zwart Kopj je, where the distillery owned by Lewis and ! Marks now stands. Our troops were here successful in dislodging the laager after a sharp fight, resulting in the loss of a number of men. The consequence of the Boer success at Bronkhorst Spruit was the SIEGE OF PRETORIA. As joon as Conductor Egerton brought into the city the account of the disaster a great meeting of the townspeople took place, and Sir Owen Lanyon placed Pretoria under martial law, all Dutch sympathisers being allowed but half an hour's grace to clear out, bag and baggage; the convent, the gaol close by, with its yard, were fortified, and to these places all the inhabitants were compelled to remove —about 3000 in all. Pretoria had a garrison of 2000 effective men, reckoning regulars and volunteers, a force at the most of 600 Boers kept them shut up for three months. The Boers occupied tho hills surrounding the town, and commanded all the approaches. One or two unsuccessful sorties were made. On January 16,1881, a fight took place at Elandsfontein, and another on February 12, at Red House Kraal, situated the other side of the Six'-mile Spruit, on the road to Natal. These disastrous fights caused the Boers to form a supreme contempt of the "Rooi Baatjes" (red coats), as they called the British troops. These exceptional instances in the long and glorious annals of British arms suffice in no way to tamish their brilliant lustre in the eyes of those better acquainted with European | history than the uneducated and ignorant ' Boer farmers.

POTCHEFSTROOM was also the scene of a prolonged siege. The Courthouse was defended by 3o men. wider Captain Falls, and this officer was Med on the verr first day of the siege. ColonelClark, afterwards Her Majesty's representative in Basutoland, then took command,and defended the building for three days, until the Boers fired the roof, and he was obliged to surrender on December 20. The Boers, elated to a degree, outraged every rule of war. The men who were captured were sentenced to hard labour, and made t~ work in the trenches, which were being dug by the Boers in front of the fort where some of our troop? had taken shelter. Thus exposed to shot and shell, several were killed by their own comrades, who did not know what the Boers had done. In a space but 25yds square were crammed 500 souls, of whom but 100 could bear arms, and here. men. women, and children were cooped up until the surrender on March 20. This is where Commander Cronje committed the base treachery of keeping poor miserable wretches in a state of starvation and suffering too horrible to record for eight days, after he knew that peace had been made. AT STANDERTON, on the Vaal River, a force of TOO Boers invested the town on December 24, IScC, and the siege lasted until the armistice, viz.. for two months and a-half. There were JOO regulars and 70 civilians shut up here, lhus it Will be seen that the Boers acted with marvellous rapidity, as within a few days all the available British troop, in the Transvaal were not only prevented from joint action of any description, but were completely hemmed in at places very distant from one another, the towns of Pretoria, Potchefstroom, and Standeiton being simultaneously besieged. Early in January the Boers determined to intercept, if possible, the British reinforcements on their wav from Natal, under General Sir George Coiley, to relieve Pretoria. The road from Natal ran through LAING'S NEK, a ridge 5500 ft above the sea. and about 16 miles within the Natal border. General .Toubert decided to send 1000 burghers to occupy a strong position on the ridge, and on January 27 they encamped, with their waggons, ."list behind its summit. The British force, about 1000 strong, with a few guns, arrived the same day at a point four miles to the south, and pitched their camp at Mount Prospect. Undervaluing the fighting qualities of the Boers. Colley a.tempted to dislodge them from their laager by a direct attack. His men. exnased to a ceaseles and well-directed fire, suffered so severely in their climb up the precipitous sides of the ridge that they had to halt and retire before they could reach the top or even see their antagonists. A monument, since erected to the memory of Colonel Dearie, who fell in leading his men up the slope, marks the spot of the halt. Three weeks later took place the sad and eventful battle of MAJI'BA. Colley kitted that I,a:ne'> Xek was too strong for a direct attack with his small fores to be successful, and noting that Mh.iuha Hill, lying to the west. overtopped the Nik by 1510 ft, he determined to occupy the higher position, and thence attempt once more to clear the road. On February 26 Coiley, late at night, (it was a Saturday), started from Prospect Camp, leaving two detachments on the way. At three o'clock cn Sunday mcrning the summit was reached. hi.- force numbering 400 men. At daybreak the Boers on the Nek were astonished to see the " Rooi Baatjes" on the hill above them. and. thinking their position turned, first of all prepared for a retreat. Presently, when no artillery played upon them, and no direct attack was made from Mount- Prospect, they took heart, and a small party moved out from the ridge toward Majuba Ilill. At last, finding themselves unopposed, they commenced to ascend the hill. A second party supported this forlorn hope, and kept tip a strong fire, under cover of which the Boers, like ants, steadily crept up the lull. The British had neglected to erect any proper earthworks, and were an easy mark to the Boer skirmishers, whilst the Boirs. availing themselves of the ample shelter afforded by the rocky nature of the hill, were safe from danger. A charge wi'h the bayonet might even then have saved the dav. but, thonga the crder was given to " fix bayonets,'' no order to charge followed. Then occurred a scene of indescribable confusion. General Coiley fell, shot through the head, while his forces broke and fled down the steep declivities to the south and west, where many were killed. The British loss was 92 killed, 15+ wounded, and 59 taken prisoners. A monument has been erected close to Majuba in memory of every man who fell, and thus was a day fatal to British arms and nrestiee in the Transvaal recorded. A v ; sit to Majuba is convinring proof of the want of precaution taken by the unfortunate Co'.lpv. Had I he but taken a (ratling gun with him, or ordered a diversion to be mad" from Prospect Camp, there is little doubt that the result would have been a very different one. The day would have been his own, Mr. Gladstone's fit of repentance, which led to the retrocession of the Tra.waul, would have been unnecessary, and the British flag would never have ceased to fly over the Transvaal. On March 6.1831, an armistice was arranged, and then occurred the greatest mistake ever made by an English statesman in this centurythe giving back of the Transvaal. Thus ended the Boer war, a history of error from start to finish, and it is no wonder the Boers ascribed their victory to a direct intervention of Providence on their behalf.