THE LOOTING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11396, 13 April 1899, Page 2

THE LOOTING.

During the stirring timeß tho rebels had been playing sad havoc-with European property. We went up .the Ifi Ifi road with a Nordenfeldt to somo of tho looted houses. Mr'Gurr's house was turned upside down, and many things smashed. • Mr Roid's comfortable residence was a scene of uttex ruins. The fragments of a shell had pierced it from side to side, tearing great holes iv the walls and smashing iron bedsteads, dosks, and cup boards into, matchwood. The rebels had completed the destruction by carrying away nearly everything portable, and by smashing what thoy could'hot t_,ke. The rooms were strewn with p_s>ers, and the fragments of the household goods. . One of the first; things I saw was the card of a Dunedin friend. Fitrther inland, the houses of'Mr Carruthers, barrister; of the Supreme Court, was also looted from floor to ceiling; Mr Parker, an _-merican, has likewise' suffered;: while'Mr Tattersall,. a young fellow who-has worked hard for years' to make a comfortable home for himself and family,' has lost pretty well everything. The title deeds to his land were found fluttering i;i the garden.' sThe rebels did not even reject tho houses of. their German friends, and at least"two'have been looted. The destruction was not confined to the houses, for horses arid cattle'we're -shot' dead. One American' had four of his horses killed by bullets. MacPoi.aid: a surveyor, has had his property very severely .dealt with. Two of his oo'ws-have been killed. ' One'was lying at the front door, the other hadbeon 'cut Up, and the rebels' had been using-his-buggy- as a butcher's- cart to distribute meat.