THE BOER WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11430, 21 July 1900, Page 5

THE BOER WAR.

THE HIGH TREASON BILL. SIR J. G. SPRIGG'S PROPOSALS. By Telegraph,—Press Association.-Copyright. Capetown, July 19. Sir J. G. Sprigg's High Treason Bill provides for compensation for losses, creates a special Court consisting of two judges and one advocate to try cases of treason; if the accused is convicted, he is to be disfranchised for five years, and disqualified ,for sitting in Parliament and for all public offices.

ATTEMPT TO WRECK A TRAIN. Capetown, July 19. A young Boer has been sentenced to five years' penal servitude for trying to wreck a troop train at Paarl. A VICTORIA CROSS CANDIDATE SERIOUSLY ILL. Sydney, July 20. Tom Morris, the Victoria Crops candidate, recently invalided home, has had a relapse, and is now seriously ill. HOW THE VAAL WAS CROSSED. A correspondent with General French's force thus describes the crossing of the Vaal: —It was Queen's Birthday, and everyone was anxious to enter the Transvaal on that day; but when we at last oamo to tho " drift" we thought it impossible to got over it. The Vaal River hero is about a quarter of a mile wide, very shallow, and rapid running; tho banks are nearly precipitous, and tho bed of the river is one mass of huge boulders, over which the guns, baggage-waggons, and carts had to bump as best they could. Still, it was Queen's Birthday, and wo were desperately anxious to bo over tho Vaal, so clown the steep bank they went, guns, carts, waggons, and all, and sot to bumping and splashing their stores across the river. Tho guns got across all tight, but numbers of the carts capsized or broke down, and for a whilo there were no less than four carts at once upside down in the middlo of the river, while the half drowned horses splashed and floundered like grampuses. There semed very little hopo of all (retting over; but, still, it was Queen's Birthday, and we had to gpt over, and the British army, though it hasn't much sagacity, has an awful lot of brute strength; so at last all tho guns, waggons, etc., were got safely over. We landed on a little piece of green flat, enclosed by a semi-circle of huge, bare, rugved hills, and on Queen's Birthright we slept on Transvaal soil, having got over without firing a shot. Rum was issued to the troops in honour of the event, and our men, as usual, oe'ebrated tho occasion by singing. And what do you think they sang, gentle reader? Not "Tommy Atkins," nor "Tirmp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys Are Marching," nor any such low-class stuff, but " The Holy Oity." " Ora Pro Nobis," and similar soni*s. At " lights out" cheers wero given for the Queen, and at dawn next day all were ready for tho march up the river.

BOER TREACHERY. The- official report of tho successful frustration of the Boer attempt to recapture •Kroonstad is welcome news (says the Cape Times). The destruction of communication north of that point had led to gloomy foreboilings as to the recrudescence, of trouble in the Free Slate. It. is unpleasant to observe that tho renewal of trouble at that point is duo to nn act of Boor treachery. It appears that the Boer general, Do Wet, against whom Lord Mntlvuen was operating, asked for a two days' Armistice. The request was granted by Lord Mcthucn, who appears to have given tho Boer general credit for a chivalry which, unhappily, he cannot bo said to possess. No sooner had Do Wet obtained his armistice than ho proceeded to avail himself of its benefits, just, ft a Mr. Knnrcr availed himself of tho nrmistico with the Reform Committee on the occasion of the Jameson raid. Instead of loyally olwerving the condition' lai>' down, he rent his artillery forward to a spot commanding (lie railway, and when the interval expired he was in a position to cut Hie line and riptnre trains that were-procecl inn to the Transvaal with supp'ies. It is (polo evident that the Boer cannot lie treated with tho c'lurtf-y and consideration of a eiviliicd antagonist, and tlie outcry that tool; '>Wo in Eng'.»nd less than a week ago when Sir Dedvers Bnl'er granted a throe, days' armistice to the Boer commander in Northern Natal b'iows that the people of England have taken the real measure of the Boer officers. Hsnpily. Lord Roberts was able to detach sufficient troops to deal with the forces of tho treacherous Boer officer, and the result is all that could have boon hoped Ifor. It is strange that after all his experience Lord Methuen should have been so easily gulled.

THE FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE GOLDEN RAND. The special war correspondent of a Sydney contemporary, describing the first glimpse of tho golden Rind obtained by tlio troops, says:— "At dawn next day, from the hilltops, we looked down on a fertile valley, and beyond it. rose a long lino of hills, running across our front. On the top of this long lino of hill for miles and miles there ran a vista of huge mine buildings—great chimneys towering in the air, hoists for lifting ore, enormous sheds for stores, and so on. For months we hadn't seen any large building of any sort, and wo seemed to have come on scfmo series of giants' castles. The galvanised iron gleamed in (ho sun, and tho little puffs of white smoke from ono or two mines that were working drifted out on the cool air; but there wasn't a sound to be heard nor any human being of any kind to bo seen about the buildings, and they looked unreal, as though the) might vanish away at any moment. All the same, thoy wore real enough, and we were actually looking on the famous Rand goldfiold of Johannesburg.