THE TRANSVAAL WAR.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 4595, 25 February 1902, Page 5

THE TRANSVAAL WAR.

COLONEL EVANS’S DEATH. (Received February 25 0.47 a.m.) LONDON, February 24. Details of tho death of Colonel Evans show that a hundred volunteers belonging to a composite regiment surrounded four Boors in a farm house at \ ryhoid. Colonel Evans approached tho door and demanded their surrender. Tho Boers opened fire, killing Colonel Evans and Major Blunt and wounding a third man. Three of tho Boers were captured. Tho fourth escaped. RECENT FIGHTING. (Received February 24, 10.13 p.m.) LONDON, February 24. Particulars which have como to hand of tho recent capture of 164 Boers at Nooitgedacht, by Colonel Paris’s mounted force and a body of National Burgher Scouts, show that the troops under Parks, Williams and Unnston, surprised three of Trichardt’s laagers, but the members of the Boor Government and the notorious train-wrecker Jack Hindou, escaped. Twenty of Trichardt’s force surrendered at Middlehurg, and Colonel Williams captured, 28 more on Saturday. Commandant Ross, with three hundred followers, attacked the FrankfortVrcdo blockhouse lino on tho night of the 19th inst. The Boers, who were on the south of the lino opened a heavy fire at 120yds. and Ross drove a herd of cattle against the wire fence connecting tho blockhouses. Many of the Boors travelled away northwards, but several were shot. A skirmish took place in Cape Colony westward of Beaufort West on the 18th, when Van a notorious reKfi, and Commandant Hugo, were wounded and captured. _ Hugo afterwards succumbed to his injuries. LATEST TIDINGS OF DE WET.

LONDON, February 23. The “Standard” says that General De Wet, with four hundred men, cut tho wire entanglements west of Bindley on tho 10th instant, losing eleven men, and then returned to the Liebenbergsvlei river, liorth of Reitz, in tho north-east of Orange River Colony. Do Wet is roughly treating those Transvaalers who are disposed to surrender. The Free Staters are more irreconcilable. Mr Steyn’s influence with the Free Stators exceeds that of General De Wet. Mr Steyn takes the greatest precautions against capture. He is always accompanied by a bodyguard. SLANDERS REFUTED, (Received February 25, 0.47 aim.) • LONDON, February 24. An Afrikander meeting at Graaff Roinot, which was attended by the Hon. Mr Maasdorp and many members of the Bond, protested against the slanders uttered against tho army, and passed a vote of confidence in Mr Chamberlain, Lord Milner • and Lord Kitchener. Similar meetings were held at Middleburg and Aliwal North. MISCELLANEOUS. (Received February 24, 10.13 p.m.) LONDON, February 24. Many Free Stators propose to cross into Natal to avoid the Oraugo Colony blockhouses. Van Dornwe, son of a member of the Bond, has been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for joining tho Boers. Mr J. Hay, American Secretary of State, has refused to ask for passports from the British authorities to enable 'Dr and Mrs Thomas, of Chicago, to distribute money at tho concentration camp#. Special to the “ Times.” DUNEDIN, February 24. There was some unpleasantness at the contingent camp yosterdayj when several members of returned contingents were brought before the officers in command for signing a memorial to the Defence Minister setting out that the opinion of the memorialists was that more commissions in tho Ninth Contingent should he given to .members of returned contingents who were qualified to act as officers. This 'broach of discipline was at once inquired into, but will be gone into more fully at a later stage. Residents of the Seacliff district, in conjunction with tho staff of tho asylum, gave a farewell “social” in honour of Dr Falconer, who has been appointed surgeon-captain of the Otago section of tho Ninth Contingent. Tho asylum staff presented him with a case of surgical instruments. Tho residents’ gift was a purse of sovereigns. Tho Premier last night received a cablegram from Colonel Davis, stating that tho troopships Surrey and Cornwall, left Albany for South Africa in company at daylight on Monday morning. An official advice has been received from Capetown, stating that Albert Davidson, recently reported to have died at Charleston, was a Victorian, and not a New Zealander. The Governor has received a.-cable-gram from the Casualty Department, Capetown, under date the 22nd instant, stating that 3665 Basil Stephens, of the Sixth Now Zealand Mounted Infantry, died of cntcrio fever at Charleston on the 19th instant, and that 4582 John H. Wright, of tho Seventh New Zealand Mounted Infantry, died of enteric fever at Heilbron.