THE OTAGO NURSING SISTERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11797, 28 July 1900, Page 7

THE OTAGO NURSING SISTERS

ENGAGED BY THE IMPERIAL

AUTHORITIES.

Mr T. W. Kempthorne, chairman* of the Organising Committee, yesterday received the following telegram from the Premier:—" Received cable from General of Communications asking me to inform you that the army is engaging nurses at the conclusion of their term under the committee's agreement. . He also nsks if he can retain passage moneys till army engagement is fulfilled. Pleasd inform relatives of Nurses Monson and Ross that both have recovered, and convoy my congratulations to them.—(Signed) B,'. J.'.Seddon."

Mr Kempthorne later in the day forwarded the following reply to the Premier: —

"Thanks for telegram. Have consulted committee. Will advise nurses' friends of recovery. Passage money can be retained till army engagement secured. —(Signed) T. W. Kempthorxk."

LETTERS FEQM CONTINGENTS.

Regimental Quartermaster-sergeant W. E. . Christie, of t!ie foiirtii contingent, writing from Marandellas to a friend in Dimedin, states that it had takeu them nearly a month to reach where they were, a distance of about 350 miles from .Beira, where the contingent lauded. He describes the inhabitants of Beira as a mixture of all nationalities. From Beira the contingent was ordered to Bamboo Creek, a distance of 60 miles, by rail. The country passed through was all flat and swampy, with a little bush hero and there, , and is only occupied by blacks, who make a living by cutting firewood for the railway engines. From Bamboo Creek the two companies went on in driblets of 20 to 30 men, and the'writer went through with the last of these. This lot left by rail at 10.30 a.m., and travelled all clay at the rate of about five miles ail hour, when.they were going; but th<> engine had to stop every quarter of an hour for wood or water, or to got up steam. At 11 p.m. they were shunted on to a siding at Maudegos,.and left to sleep in the trucks. At 7 o'clock next morning they were picked up by another engine, whie'h could go for half an hour without stopping, and took them to Umtali, this place being reached at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. They left Umtali after dinner, and, travelling all night, reached Marandellas at 7 o'clock in the morning, having gone a distance of 110 miles in 17 hours. The country, during the last two days' run, was very hilly, with great heaps of boulders all the way along, and several kopjes—little round hills.with steep sides and covered with boulders—were also seen. "Cayeraiiaai," writes the quartermaster-sergeant, is still to the fore, and is not looking at all bad, though we have lost a good many horses. Moore lost his on the trip across to Albany. We have had a good many men down with dysentery, and I have.had a touch of fever for a couple of days, but am in tip-ton form again. Quartermastersergeant Christie, after referring to his promotion, goes on to say that lie expected to leave in three or four days for Bulawayo, or, at any rate, in that direction. It would take about 20 days to do the journey, which was along an old coach road. Several of the contingent had joined the Rhodesian Horse. One whole company of the fifth, officers and all, joined. Ths men were getting broken i;a now to bully beef and hard biscuits, though there was a good deal of grumbling at first. The following were the rations per man: — lib bread or biscuit, lib compressed meat, 3oz sugar, l-3cz tea or 2-3oz of coffee, l-360z of pepper, |-oz salt. 2oz of rice or split peas or loz of compressed vegetables 6r joz of pre-. served potatoes, and of jam every third day. Although the rations did not seem much, it was a fairly liberal one, and was just as much as a man could eat. Towards the end of. his letter, Quartermaster-sergeant Christie says: "1 am doing very well/myself, but, like the rest of the fellows, I am getting tiro.d of this stopping so long at different

places without any excitement whatever," 'and adds that ho may bo home for Christmas, though it looked doubtful. We have received the following" exfeactsirpm a letter received by Mr R. B. jDyer, Port Chalmers, from Trooper John Salter, of' the fourth contingent, dated Beira,' May 11-:— Beira is a very'warm place, tlie thermometer registered 98 in the shade-the coolest day we have had. There are very few Britishers, the majority of the inhabitants being Kaffirs and Portuguese, and, like most other places, there are a few Chinamen, who get £1 a day wage*; as carpenters. Wages all round are very good, but a man would want to have a cast-iron akin to stand the heat. Firemen on the, trains get £25 per month, and drivers on the trains get £35 per month, but it costs about £15 per month for board and lodging. Every thing is very dear, and the inhabitants charge us colonials about double the ordinary price for everything; for instance, three sheets of writhing paper and three envelops cost Is; tin jam, 2s 6d; sugar, Is 3d per lb; ink, Is small bottle; and whisky or shandy cosi's 2s 6d a drink. There are a great many Boer spies about here, and it was only the other night one of them was caught interfering with the Queensland horses, which are about half a mile from here. He was taken prisoner, and would have been shot, but the Portuguese authorities would not allow that to be done on their territory. 'It is a crying shame to see how the Portuguese treat the poor Kaffirs; they are continually engaged dragging some great toff or Chinamen about in go: carts, and are driven just like hoi-ses. The Kaffirs are a very obliging race, and will carry water for miles for a paltry biscuit. There was a great shooting affray about a mile away from here a week ago, when two of the Queenslanders were drinking in a bar. They were shot from, behind by a Portuguese. One had his arm broken, and the other was badly wounded in the body. There are a great many snakes and monkeys, and in fact, all kind of wild beasts here. The mosquitos are a great pest. I am glad ,to say (hey do not trouble me much, but some of the chaps' faces . look like a rough metalled road. There was a great stampede in the Yeomanry camp the first night we landed. The cause of the stampede, it is understood, was through a lion getting through the fences. There was another stampede last night, and it was a great sight. Just fancy 1300 horses galloping over fences and ditches, and disappearing in the jungle. It was a sight I will never forget. We have had a little sport as well as work •since being on shore. Lieutenant Koddell took seven of us out deer stalking on Wednesday afternoon, and it was great fun. We roused a beautiful young buck when about two miles out, and chased him' for1 about a mile, when pue of the Quoonslanders, who was also hunting on the same ground, cut off the chase, and we had him just beaten when the four centre men came down in. a ditch, and of course the buck disappeared in the jungle. Wo saw three others that day, but our horses were all done up, and so we were riot fortunate to get' one. We arrived home at 6 o'clock, and it was then found that out of the eight of us only myself and Bessitt were lucky enough not to have had a spill. One chap, from Dunedin, had his arm broken, another was badly bruised, and all have been very sore since. The same afternoon Lieutenant Nicolson and his men succeeded in running a deer down, and we had fresh meat for dinner next day. On getting up in the morning it was fnund that Lieutenant Keddell's horse was dead, and four others on the .sick line, so that put a stop to any more hunting. We have great fun at nights teachingl the Kaffirs our war cry. They are very quick at learning, and can give our war cry better than the contingent' can. I believe I mentioned in my last letter that Captain Fulton was very strict on board ship. But it put fresh life in u« when he told us on the night of our arrival at Beira to stick to him and he would stick to us, and that we must regard his bark as worse than his bite; and since being on shore his words have come true, for ho is a toff to work for, and if there is any short allowance of food lie soon sees it righted. lam sure, though strict, he will he with us in any light corner wo may get into, and he has got us well up in manual exorcise and scouting work. Willie Porteous, of Sawders'" Bay, is at present in our lent, and is keeping well, and wishes to be remembered

to all. We have the best-managed tent and the most lively chaps, and whenever the others have finished '.their tea dozens of them cluster round our little lot to put in the evening. There are 12 in each tent. I forgot to tell you that the night before leaving the s.s. Monowai we invited the Imperial Yeomanry on board to a smoke concert, and I was called on to sing. ' I gave them the '' Briton and the Boer," which the Imperials said was never sung in England. They are all the toffs from the British Isles. One of them paid £2000 to join the force. "We were all overjoyed yesterday when we received an unexpected, though very welcome, present from the subscribers of the "More men fund" of the Weekly Press in the shape of a box containing three pairs socks, two' packets cigarette tobacco and papers, four sticks black tobacco, one tin soluble chocolate, 1 box Hudson's chocolate, one tin meat extract, writing paper, envelopes, pencil, and a Balaclava. It was very kind of them, and showed that the people are still thinking of "bur comforts. Instead of having bully beef and Crimea biscuits for dinner, we had beef tea, and dissolved the chocolate and had them with a loaf of bread we bought. I was told off by the chaps to write and thank the editor of the Press, and this I did.

Mr John Day. of East Gore, has handed a lengthy letter from his son, Trooper George Day, of the fourth contingent. The letter was dated May 29 from the camp at Marandellas. Trooper Day, in his letter,' mentions that Trooper W. Harris, of the Mataura, Valley Troop, had sustained a severe accident to his hip. and would most likely be a cripple for life. Harris was working in the Riversdale district prior to his inclusion in the fourth contingent. I '

In a letter received this week by Mr Joseph Tough, from Trooper John Gibb (Wyndham), of the fourth contingent, the latter mentions (says the Farmer) that he has been promoted to the position of chief staff orderly to Slajorgeneral Sir Frederick Carrington.

Referring to the list published on Tuesday containing the names of the. members of the New Zealand contingents who had joined the police in South Africa, the Olutha Leader says: —Trooper Wm. Renton is the only Qlutha man in the first ' contingent mentioned. Recent ' letters from' him do, not contain any indication of his intention to leave the contingent.' On the other hand, he mentioned that Lord Kitchener had been calling for 2000 volunteers to join him in an expedition through Africa to Cairo at the close of the war, and that he had handed in his" name. ' In the list no mention is made of Trooper Arnold, who has been in the police for some time.

Mr Cable, of Port Chalmers, in the course of a few remarks at the Oddfellows' anniversary at Balclutha, on Wednesday evening, mentioned that in the course of a conyersation he had with Lieutenant Canavan at Port Chalmers, on Sunday, that gentleman ?aid the New Zealanders. and more particularly those hailing from Otago, were very highly thought of by the Imperial officers for scouting and patrol work. They seemed to be particularly well adapted for that class of work, and were exceedingly reliable^ j As showing their prowess and the careful manner in which- they did their work it was pointed out that not one of them had been shot on patrol, though they were' constantly at that dangerous work, nor had any of them ever allowed themselves to fall into an ambush. Amongst thpse who were more than usually good at scouting. Lieutenant Canavan particularly mentioned' Troopers Mitchell (Balclutha) and M'Leod (Mosgiel). They were very keen, seemed to scent danger, could take cover, figuratively speaking, behind a blade of grass, and were so keen of eyesight that they could often detect an object in the dark before an officer could, do it with his night glass.—Leader.