THE BOER WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11520, 3 November 1900, Page 5

THE BOER WAR.

DEPARTURE OP THE AUSTRALIANS. LORD KITCHENER'S. FARE.WELL. ADDRESS TO THE COLONIALS. By Telegraph.—Press Association.— London, November 2. One-fifth of the soldiers of the Australian contingents are return-, ing. ' Owing to pressing business, Lord Roberts was unable to take farewell of them, but Lord Kitchener, in doing so at Pretoria, made the following ( remarks: —

"Lord Roberts has seen your officers, but was unable personally to express his high appreciation of the splendid service you have rendered throughout the campaign, enduring great hardships, and making great sacrifices. It has been a source of the utmost satisfaction to Lord Roberts to- have heard from your commanders that you have invariably shown yourselves more than equal to the calls made upon you. "The magnificent spirit and fighting qualities you have displayed have called forth the admiration of all your associates in arms. " The war is lasting longer than was anticipated, but Lord Roberts has recognised the serious inconvenience which would l result from the further absence of those of you having important business. "We are sorry to lose you, but are glad Lord Roberts is able to allow you to go, though there is still much work to be done in the field before the task is completed. "In the name of Lord Roberts and on behalf of my comrades, I thank you and' wish you a hearty good-bye."

GENERAL PAGET ATTACKED ,THE ENEMY DEFEATED WITH: HEAVY LOSS. CAPTURE OF AN ENORMOUS HERD OF CATTLE. London, November 1. The Boeis, with a convoy, of cattle, attacked General Paget at Piennars River, west of Pretoria. General Paget vigorously responded, and inflicted considerable loss on the enemy. He captured 26 Boers and 25,000 head of cattle. THE ATTACK ON JACOBSDAL TREACHERY OF THE ' BURGHERS. ---' ;• - THE GARRISON SURPRISED. EIGHT SHOT DEAD WHILE ASLEEP. London, November 1. Details of the attack on Jacobsdal show that the inhabitants admitted a force of Boers during the night into houses commanding the square where the garrison, consisting of Capetown Volunteers and Highlanders, lay. At daybreak the Boers opened fire, killing eight who were alseep and 10 others with explosive bullets. The remainder, mainly Highlanders, abandoned the square, being unable>to reach their rifles.

They lay concealed till the afternoon, when six tried to recover their arms, but all were shot. Only five out of a total of 34 were unwounded. A large commando which was outside Jacobsdal retreated when the British reinforcements approached. This incident again demonstrates the treacherous character of the burghers, and how utterly lost upon them is the leniency with which they have bean treated hitherto. When Lord Roberts entered Jacobsdal he treated the inhabitants with the utmost kindness, protected their property, supplied them witti food, and allowed them the greatest liberty. They were then profuse in their expressions of gratefulness. But all was false and hollow. At the first opportunity they repay the kindness shown them by smuggling into their houses armed Boers, m order to murder sleeping soldiers. THE BRITISH CAPTURES OF, STOCK. London, November 1. The British captured stock in one? .week valued at £500,000. FORCING BURGHERS TO FIGHT. LoNDoy, November 1. I De Wet iB sjamboking burghers who show unwillingness to fight. <| "A CAPETOWN MAIL TRAIN STUCK UP. London, November 1. After capturing a British outpost numbering 90 near Geneva, a party of 150 Boers held up the Capetown mail, ejected the passengers, crammed their saddlebags with loot, burned the mails, and fired the train. An armoured train approaching, the Boers fled, relinquishing their 90 prisoners. Twelve Boers were captured. The fire on the train was extinguished. FARM-BURNING. London, November 1. General Hunter has burned more farms in the Bothawille district. Quantities of ammunition concealed in the roofs exploded. The cavalry captured 60 Boers in the vicinity. BOTHA NORTH OF PRETORIA. London, November 1. Botha has occupied Warm Baths, north of Pretoria. AN EMBARGO ON KRUGER'S PLUNDER. London, November 1. At the instance of Great Britain the High Conrt at gainfeMK kftj

placed an embargo on 80, chests oj ~..■■ Transvaal bar gold, valued at £100,000, aboard the German East Africa steamer Bundesrath. PRINCE CHRISTIAN VICTOR, •• London, November 1. Prince Christian Victor has beeri interred at Pretoria. THE BOER DEBACLE AT KOMATI POORT. SCENES OP DESTRUCTION. ' , ' ■ "-'•"■ ; : London - , September 26. "., The Daily Telegraph publishes the fol> lowing despatch, dated Lorenzo Marquez, September 25, from Mr. B<amett Burleigh, its special correspondent: — • The Boer debacle is complete.' By dint.' of hard riding from Barberton I managed! ; to overtake, first* General lan Hamilton's* division, then that of General Pole-CaFBW.I I finally entered Komati Poort with our; saouts. Not a shot was fired, nor www Boer seen during the march. Evidence o£| the enemy's monkeyish destruotiveness waai everywhere to be seen, however. Th*j . bridges had been dynamited, the storau buildings, and homesteads looted and burned,! as had been also the railway property, all]. the chief stations being mere masses : of) )' smoking ruins, among them Kaap Muiden.j Hector Spruit, and Komati Poort. , Si At tb«l last place there is an enormous. area over) j, i which the Boers have wrought destruction*,}J| The devastation includes hundreds of wag-l gons, trucks, and carriages, which have been} burned, together with all kinds of stores.oft clothing, ammunition, forage, and provi-i sions, such as sugar, coffee, rice, flour, and| • stationery. Thousands of tons, indeed, a,"* still burning. General Pole-Cferew has se« cured hundreds of locomotives. The whole! of the Selati; railway line is simply blocked, ; with rolling stock. j On my way from Barberton I saw ail , Hector Spruit the burst Boer guns and the( destroyed stores. In the Crocodile Rivert there were visible, literally acres of damaged) gun ammunition, waggons, limbers, dyna-j mite detonators, and war stores of every sort and description. When I passed! through Komati Poort I saw, besides thai burning stores, hundreds of tons of amrauni-j tion—all kinds of caps, gunpowder, and) other explosives, and ready-fused shells fori guns, from the pom-pom to the 6in, brokers rifles and cannon. The enemy had leflj standing many tents. The great waste in the effects of the Boers was evidentj Trunks, furniture, provisions, clothing, and} other articles, were lying about m every* direction. In the rocky bed of the tum-ii , bling, foaming river, were yet more enor< mous quantities of stores, ammunition, rifles* cannon, and foodstuffs. Any good policy foEceTr-say, one of 20,000 men—can do the rest of the work of pacific cation for security. If General Buller • and] the others move on to seize the passes neithen . Ben Viljoen, the new commandant-generaiJ with Steyn and Schalkburger, nor Koetzej . with the rest of the derelicts from Komati Poort, can escape through the mountains! , toward Lydenburg and Pietersburg, while to remain in the low veldt at this season, of the year spells death for men and cattle* The Portuguese have disarmed all , tha Boer refugees taken. Fifty truckloada, ] with nearly 300 tons, have been dumped! down on the island of Sheffeen, on* Lorenzo Marquez. The Irish-American mercenaries are clamouring for pay, and threatening the Boer officials. ; J The final collapse of the Boer army*may be summarised as follows: — When the Boers, numbering 2000, evacuf ; ated Komati Poort they took up positions! between the Lobombo Range and the rivers They had good positions, and could haya made a.-capital stand, but owing to the dis-( organisation and lack of discipline that were! prevalent they were only half-hearted*" Wishing to avoid a conflict and unnecessary bloodshed, the British Consul-Genera! consulted the Portuguese Governor-General, Senhor Machado, as to the best course to be pursued to attain this end. He asked that emissaries should be sent up with an ad* dress to. the Boers, pointing out the uselessness of continuing their resistance, and tho absolute needlessness of going on further.. Besides, if they continued to fight there was a fear of the natives rising. Owing to tho fact that the Portuguese had been most kind to the Boers, and as they had guaranteed their maintenance and repatriation, and promised to send them back to their country free of charge, the scheme succeeded beyond the wildest hopes of its originator. Instead of dozens coming down to Lorenzo Marquez, 2500 arrived in this wine. Diplomacy therefore, triumphed by bringing -the war to a speedy and bloodless close.

PATRIOTIC FUND COMMITTEE. POSITION OF THE FUND. , * RECOGNITION OF MR. PILCHER'S . SERVICES. The general committee of the patriotic" fund met at the Municipal Chambers yes* terday afternoon. His Worship the Mayor" (Mr. David Goldie) presided, and there were also present: The Rev. S. A. Goldstein (secretary), Mr. J. Kirker (treasurer), the Rev. George Mac Murray, Messrs. J. Burnsj L. D. Nathan, J. H. Upton, and J. Edson«j Mr. Kirker stated that he was leaving Auck-*, land for'aibout six months. The total! amount received towards the patriotic fundi was £6393 12s sd. The sum of £3002 13»! 4d had been remitted to the Lord Mayor oS London, and after deducting expenses, there? remained a balance in the National Bank of £3351 lis 2d. On behalf of the NewZealand contingent fund £1115 7s had been! received, and after disbursements to rela* tives of troopers and invalided troopers,} there remained a balance in bank of , £999 7s 4d. Mr. Kirker also stated that fh» had been informed the £1000 promised by tho Waihi Gold Mining Company would' probably be sent out to the committee from; Home, on condition that it would be available for the whole of the colony. It was' decided that the Mayor should act as treasurer during Mr. Kirker's absence. The. Chairman said the Mayor of Dunedin had' written suggesting that the people of the; colony should make some recognition of the' services rendered to the New Zealanders by Mr. Pilcher, at Capetown. It was agreed to reply stating that the Auckland committee were in accord with the suggestion," awl would co-operate with the Dunedin people in the matter. Mr. Upton said ,he had; noticed that in some place in Suffolk they had placed in the Town Hall the name oj every man who had gone to the war from - that district. He considered it would b« a very good thing if the name of every. Aucklander were placed upon record in the Municipal Buildings. It would be a per* manent memorial. The men had done something, which, when the history of the colony came to be written, would be considered a great deed. lb seemed to hira to be very appropriate to acknowledge what they had done in the way he had suggested.. It was agreed that the secretary should] make a note of the suggestion. The Rev. Mr. Mac Murray raised the question of placing the" fund moneys on fixed deposit, and the committee resolved to bank £3500 on fixed deposit for 12 months. In order to pave the way for united action by the committees in the colony when the time arrives, it was decided to write to the Mayors of the various towns asking what course they intended to pursue with regard to their funds*