MISCELLANEOUS

New Zealand Mail, 15 February 1900, Page 33

MISCELLANEOUS

T i j , . LONDON, February 6. Included in the subscriptions announced here towards the Australian Bushmens Fund are the following: Messrs H. C. Wilson, B. W. Levy and George Cohen, £IOOO each j Mr J, H. Dangar, «500 ; _ Bank of Australasia, tTnlfo 1 Australia, Australian Uxiited s>team Navigation Company and British In dia Steamship Company, £250 each; ■ number of leading Australians ana others, £IOO each. A committee is niaking inquiries as to the position of affairs in each colony, with a view to the distribution of the fund. The total amount raised in Loudon in mdul the fund is over £IO,OOO. Thirteen thousand troops, with three thousand horses and six guns, will embark for South Atrica within the next week.

_ LONDON, February 7. Scarcity of transport is delaying the despatch to South Africa of the new lemnanry force raised in England. President Kruger has closed the J. B. Robinson Company’s bank at Johannesburg. In accordance with the arrangement announced some weeks ago, the Channel squadron has sailed for Gibraltar, in order to relieve the Particular Service squadron, and enable it to proceed to the Cane. LONDON, February 8. A concert promoted by the British Empire Trade League and held under the patronage of the Queen took place m the Albert Hall in aid of the fund to assist the widows and orphans of the members of the colonial forces killed in the war. The affair proved a great success. Madame Albani, the famous soprano, was one of the performers. Madame Melba and Miss Ada Crossley, the Australian soprano and contralto respectively, were unable to be present. A public meeting was held at Northampton, the purpose of which was to discuss the policy of the Salisbury Government in regard to the South African war, with a view to its condemnation. Mr Labouehere, who represents the town in the House of Commons, was to have been one of the principal speakers, bub the audience refused to hear him. The platform was stormed, and 1 supporters of the Government policy took control of the meeting, which then carried resclmions in favour of the prosecution of the war.

LONDON, February 10. Supplementary Estimates have been submitted to the House of Commons totalling £13,000,000. It is proposed to provide for an additional 120,000 men. A Reuter’s Agency message states that the foreign attaches have left Capetown for the front. [Vague though it is, the term “front” in this message probably means Modder river, whither Lord Roberts has journeyed.] LONDON, February 11. -The Capetown correspondent of “The Times” says that the more colonials sent to South Africa the better. The continual stream of troops into the country is producing an incalculable moral effecton the Dutch settlers. LONDON, February 11. The commando of Boers which was lately reported to he engaged upon a raid in Zululand has seized the office of the British Magistrate at Inkandhla.

Previous to the occupation of his premises by the enemy, the magistrate (Mr Knight) exploded the magazine in which his stock of ammunition was kept. Mr Knight has now arrived at Eshowe, nearer the coast, to the north-east of the mouth of the iugcla river, with the force of policemen who were under his charge. The 120,000 additional men provided for in the Supplementary War Estimates include all those now in the field and afloat, while the vote of £13,000,000 sterling covers the expense of the campaign up to the end of March. The “ Spectator ” proposes the erection in the heart of London of a conspicuous monument to the colonies in commemoration of the devotedness of the daughter States to the interests of the Motherland.

It is announced that by the end of the present month the British forces at the front will amount to 194,000 men, including .20,000 militia. Five thousand troops embarked for South Africa yesterday, including the first troop of a contingent of veterans •formed by Lord Loch, formerly Governor of Victoria and of Cape Colony, and in early life in the Indian army. LONDON, February 13. The Australian Bushmen’s Fund amounts to over £II,OOO. Towards the New Zealand fund £1034 has been subscribed. Mr Fred Duncan, of Napier, and Mr Purvis Russell, formerly of Hatuma, Hawke’s Hay, have each subscribed £IOO to the N x;\v Zealand fund. The British authorities have purchased five thousand horses in Hungary. DURBAN, February 10. Major-General Sir C. F. Ciery, who has been second in command to Sir Redvers Buffer in the Ladysmith relieving army, is returning to England invalided. CALCUTTA, February 7. The Maharajah of Jarpur has given a lakh of rupees (about 426600) to the war fund. CAPETOWN, February 6. In anticipation ot the expected attacks of General Buffer’s and Lord Methuen’s armies, the Boers have set fire to large tracts of grass north of the Tugela and Modder rivers. respectively, in order to

obtain Black backgrounds for the khaki uniforms of the advancing British troops. . Colonel Brabant, organiser of the tioop of Cape Mounted Volunteers, known as Brabant’s Horse, addressed a section of his men on the eve of their departure for the front, and assured « eD j , at Lord Roberts was likely to afford them enough fighting to satisfy the veriest glutton. CAPETOWN, February 7. If ivo Boer prisoners at Simonstown, alter seizing firearms, escaped from custody after wounding a warder. They were, however, recaptured after two of their number had been wounded. CAPETOWN, February 9. Bora Roberts has authorised the enrolment of Yeomanry throughout Cape Colony for the protection of loyal farmers.

Field-Marshall Lord Roberts has issued a pi oclamation wlierejn he invites the enemy to desert from the Republican army He promises that those who do so will receive generous treatment.

President Steyn, of the Orange Free State, has promised to release Lieuten-ant-Colonel H. A. Eager, of the second battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles, who was wounded at the battle of Stormberg, and has been in the enemy’s hands ever since. Colonel Eager, whose leg has had to he amputated, will be set at liberty as soon as he is able to travel.

In reference to the seizure of the J. B. Robinson Company’s Bank at Johannesburg, it transpires that President Kruger seized the bank offices, and transferred the accounts of all customers to the Transvaal National Bank. The New South Wales “A” Battery of Artillery left for the front cn Sunday. The Mayor witnessed the departure. The men’s smartness m handling their guns was favourably ceremented on. Lord -Lioberts has dispatched a second telegram to Presidents Kruger and Steyn, in which he complains of the wanton destruction of property by the Boers in Natal. A memorandum which was meant to he secret, but the contents of which have been disclosed, has been presented to the Transvaal Volksraad showing that previous to the outbreak of the war the Boers had secured no less than two hundred and thirty pieces of modern artillery.

CAPETOWN, February 12. The disloyal settlers who were lately captured at Sunnyside by LieutenantColonel Pilcher’s expedition to the northwest of Belmont have been committed for trial.

Sir Alfred Milner’s recent proclamation announcing that- Great Brita n would refuse to recognise the forfeiture of property in the Transvaal and Free btate after its heavy taxat on by the Republican Governments for w-ir purposes has had a reassuring effect throughout South Africa. MELBOURNE, February 9. Mr Miller, chairman of the Victorian Racing Club, has given £2OO towards tho proposed Patriotic Race Meeting. Several owners have intimated that any stakes won by their horses will be similarly donated. The Legislative Assembly has pass® a Bill indemnifying the Municipal Council for grants made to the War Fund. MELBOURNE, February 10. The Mayor of Melbourne has already forwarded £20,000 to tho London War Funds, , and expects to send another £IO,OOO, before the fund is closed. BRISBANE, February 12. Steps are being taken to send a fourth Queensland 'contingent to South Africa. . : OTTAWA, February i2. Major-General Hutton, Commandant of the Canadian Forces, has been ordered to South Africa. . SYDNEY, February 13. Lieutenant-Colonel Onslow, who was to have been second in command of the Bushmen’s .Contingent-, has resigned the post, having received an appointment, under Lieutenant-General Tucker, who commands the Seventh Division of the army in South Africa.