THE TRANSVAAL WAR.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4260, 21 January 1901, Page 7

THE TRANSVAAL WAR.

CABLE NEWS.

UNVt’KD PRESS ASSOCIATION. —BY XXECTBtO TEXiEGItAPH. COPYRIGHT.

FIGHTING IN THE NORTHERN DISTRICTS. NEW ZEALANDERS IN ACTION. (Received January 111, 7..‘il p.m.) LONDON. .January IK. The New Zealanders defeated eight li u>i< I rctl I Jour:-, to tin- west ward cl' VriiI ei-shin-g, thirty-live miles smith ol Kroouslad. ( Keeeived .iiitniniy ltd, -1.3 H p.m.) LONDON, .January Id. The A n--l ralian Bushmen part icipal ed 1. 1 ihu victory of i lie Highlanders under Colonel Grey at Venterslmrg. One Urii isher was dangerously wound<'il, l'’oui- dead Uoers and two wounded were found, together with many riderless ho-se-.. land .Methuen attacked General lie la Key with a. finee of a thousand men In the westward of Taunt's (eighty-five miles norl.h of Kimberley) and drove them southward, losing two killed and live wounded, iKeeeived January 20. 1.52 p.m.) I .ON I JON, .January 10. 'rhe liners surrounded Danielskuil, in Griquahind- West, (fifty miles south ol K urumaii), on the -it It inst. The attack on the place lasted for live days, the liners threatening that unless it. ’ surrendered they would destroy Jl the houses, including Ihe shelters Outlie women and children which were (Ivin}' the while Hag. Tin- Uoers ultimately retired to Reitloiilelii, twenty miles to (lie westward. (Keeeived January 10, 7..’if p.m.) I.ONIJO.N, January IK. Details of (.’ euera 1 Colville’s engagement til Van I ondershnek hist week show that, during the man'll from New Denmark 111 Valaklaaele, on I he Slanderlon.Joha liiieshn-re- road, a loree of seven hundred Um r- attacked the baggage guard, colluding of three hundred men of the Kille Brigade ami fifty of the Slanderton police. Simultaneously three hundred fleet's charged the cavalry forming the 1 rearguard, and forced I in-in hack, hut the enemy lied on seeing the bayonets of the riflemen hidden in a. hollow. A Urilish hat tcry did good execut ion. Oeneral Colville had cue mao hilled and fifteen wounded. THE INVASION OK CAKE COLON V. (Received January KJ. 7.11 V p.m.) LONDON. January IS. Only a hundred'colonials have joined Commandant Kruit/anger’s invading omimiamlo, which was recently reported at .Richmond, about thirty miles east of Victoria Went, on the main line of eo-in-munications.

i Received. January 20, 4.38 p.m.) LONDON, January 10. The advance of the raiders in Hie weslern districts of Cape Colony has been checked, and the Boers are retirin'' on Calvinia, where the main commando remained. The situation in the midland sectionof (kit).' Colony is grave. Tin* announcement of the disarmament of civilians came as a, thunderbolt. In llu* disloyalists. The penalty for cmil ravditioli.-ari' the order has been fixed al seven years' imprisonment, or a fine „f Colli) w'itli two years’ hard labour.

DE WET’S FOLLOWERS. • (Received January 20, 4.138 p.m.) LONDON, January 10. ■ A rtdensed trooper status that. General De Wet’s commando is composed chiefly nl' foreigners. Their clothes and boots are worn out, but they have splendid burses. Natives are. supplying them with mealies and. frti.it. GENERAL COLVILLE'S RETIREMENT. (Received January 20, 4.02 p.m.) LONDON, January 19. LieuL-General Sir H’enry Colville, «ho was deprived of his command in South Africa, by Lord 1 Roberts after the surrender of Colonel Spragge’s Irish Yeomanry at Lindley, has been placed on the retired list from, yesterday. HI INTER. I N V ALIDED. (Received January 20, 4.52 p.m.) LONDON, January 19. Lieut.-General Tueker has been appointed to the command at Bloemfontein vice Lieut.-General Sir Archibald Hunter, invalided. Major - General Clements succeeds General Tucker in command of the Seventh Division. MISCELLANEOUS. LONDON, January 18. The British prisoners hold at Helvetia and Belfast, on the Delagoa railwary, have been released. Sir Alfred (Milner's departure from Capetown for Pretoria, has been indeiiniiely postponed. Pretoria is now full of troops. (Received January 19, 7.31 p.m.) LONDON, January 18. Twenty Boers jumped from a, transport on arriving at Ceylon, and tool? refuge ou a Russian steamer hound for Odessa. No effort was made to detain the vessel. Members of Yeomanry, Volunteer and Militia Corps are eagerly responding in supplying their proportion of volunteers and artillery required for the Cape. (Received January 20, 4.52 p.m.) LONDON, January 19. The Portuguese authorities are transporting to Lisbon nine hundred Boer refugees now at. Delagoa Bay. DUNEDIN, January 20. Most complete arrangements have now been made for the reception of the returning troopers by the Orient on Wednesday. 'THE MAGNIFICENCE OF WAR. Corporal James Thompson, who went to South Africa, with the Queensland Impi rial Bushmen, writing from Rust onburg on November 11. iSOO, to his mother, at Barrier, says:—“Wo had two engagements out towards Matching. I was sent with two other men to scout, a kopjo, and when we galloped up on top and looked down the other side there were two Boers riding about 20C yards away. We thought, they were our men until they started to run away, and then we dealt it out to them, but

did not stop them. For the next hoar or so we wore pretty busy, and then most of the Boers cleared. But there was one fellow who came riding, towards a farm house, and Lieutenant Veitterworth gave the order for a volley just when the Boer was about twenty 'yards from the house (the range was 2000 yards), and just as we Jired a woman ran out to meet the Boor, and a bullet, hit, her on the back of the Lead, and came out of her forehead. Wo h. been hunting all the farm hensc-t, and every farm lias women and children o: it. Wo are heartily side of the. work, for when we do find any Doer.-, enr generals won’t let u.s go in and wipe them out. Nearly all the men out this way are colonials, and rhe generals will get a shock if we have to keep on burning houses over women and children. We don’t mind burning a bouse if the Boers do any sniping out of it ; but. v/hen it comes to burning where no t'lipitig has taken place, we will mutiny some of th 'se days, and refuse (o do it.’' 'inwards the close of the letter In. say-:—“There is not much fun hero cow; too much farm burning for roe. And the ncn-c-omniissioned officers aii. have to do the actual setting fire to the houses. f told yon about the shooting of that woman , Well, her fitther was taken prisoner, and two days ago, while coining along, lie tried in escape, and was shot dead.”

WITH ROBERTS’S HORSE. 'fhe Following extracts are from a recent letter from the young Fealhersteniaii who stowed away on a ship to South Africa and afterwards enlisted in the Irish squadron of Roberts’s Dorse. Writing from Krugersclorp, he says;- - ■'Nine days ago I was on the extreme flank, and had Just eonie up a rise when I saw a fellow on a black lior.se going slowly along, and' lie was dressed in black and had a black hat with a while puggaree and carried a gun on his hack. I galloped down the rise, and as soon as ho saw me and four others behind me lit' made off for the kopjes, hut I gained on him, and he halted and dismounted to nnsling bis ride. I levelled mine first, and he very quickly held tip Ids bands, and I took his riite and bandoliers. He carried a -Martini with fifty murderous-locking cartridges and he told one of our fellows, who speaks Dutch, that he did not think he would he oatight as his Field Coronet had told him that all (lie English had been captured in their laager. "Well, we gave him a .surprise when he saw our camp that night, and since then he has had a taste of walking the country under tlie charge of Die Fighting Fit it New Zealand.'’ The writer also recounts an engagement at Kotchefstroom. “The Irish Squadron," ho says, "had only ten men, including myself, tinder Lieutenant Montgomery and the Brigade was under General Clements. 'Well, at 3 a.m. the Uoers opened, the day hy shelling at 3000 yards with fifteen pounders and one pompom. Immediately all the Mew Zealanders were ordered out, our regiment taking the left flank. We opened fire on the Boers with rifle at 500 yards, and after about fifteen minutes’ ' firing Lieutenant Montgomery saw cue Boers leaving their position for another knopje, and with ten of us lie charged alter them. The Boers tried to hold low-lying ridges, but unsuccessfully, for we closed right on them, getting so near as to capture five mounted men and one on foot. The Boers fled and their right flank was turned; and after a general advance, the whole body, numbering on,) with five, guns, under Dp La Rev, fled General Clements sent For Lieutenant Montgomery, and told him that for Ins gallantry he would he recommended for the D. 5.0.”

A Press Association cablegram from London confirms the death announced on Saturday of Trooper P. (). Martin, at PHe to riii., and states that lie was a victim of enteric.