THE BOER WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11195, 16 October 1899, Page 5

THE BOER WAR.

AMMUNITION TRAIN CAPTURED. BRITISH PARTY_TAKEN PRISONERS. A LIEUTENANT WOUNDED. THE BOERS TWICE REPULSED. RAILWAY BRIDGE DESTROYED. MAFEKING ISOLATED. DEPARTURE OF GENERAL BULLER. BRITISH PROCLAMATION. OPERATIONS IN NATAL. . REPORTED ADVANCE OF FREE-STATERS. RECONNAISSANCE BY GENERAL WHITE.

By Telegraph.—Press Association.— Capetown, October 15. The first engagement in the war has taken place on the Cape-Buluwayo railway line, and has resulted in a small British party being taken prisoners. It appears that a train conveying ammunition and two seven-pounders, to Colonel Baden-Powell's forces at Mafeking, was derailed at Kraafa, where the line had been destroyed by the Boers. The guns and ammunition were in charge of a small party of 15 troopers and a few workmen, under the command of Lieutenant Nesbitt. After the engine left the line, and the train was brought to a standstill, the Boers made an attack upon Nesbitt' force, but were twice repulsed. They then shelled the little band, and eventually succeeded in taking them all prisoners. Lieutenant Nesbitt and the driver of the train were slightly wounded, but the others were unharmed. The Boer forces in the Maurice River and Rustenburg districts, who are strongly laagered at Mariboga, a little to the north of Mafeking, have destroyed the railway bridge over the Molopo River, a few miles from Mafeking, and have also destroyed a train laden with dynamite. Mafeking is isolated. GERMAN AND BRITISH PROCLAMATIONS. Capetown, October 15. The' German Consul at Pretoria has issued a proclamation declaring that all Germans in the Transvaal who do not maintain strict neutrality, will forfeit the protection of the German Consulate. Capetown, October 15. Sir Alfred Milner, British High Commissioner and Governor of Cape Colony, has issued a proclamation to all British colonists to observe loyalty. The proclamation was countersigned by Mr. Schreiner, the Premier.