GENERAL ITEMS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2389, 14 December 1899, Page 24

GENERAL ITEMS.

CAPETOWN, December 6.

! Earl Delaware, who is acting as the London Globe correspondent, w,as nearly shot while assisting the wounded at Mtfilder River. The steamer Kent arrived at Capetown on Friday. - > /• . ' ■ Pretoria is said to have six months--' s'toro of provisions. December 7. Mr J. B. Robinson, the South African millionaire, considers the Boers are weakening, and that the war will soon be over. It has transpired . that last spring General Joubert surveyed all the Natal border,- and as far into the colony as the vicinity of Pietermaritzburg. The Pretoria Mint is coining money at the rate of £100,000 monthly from" the crushings of the Bonanza, - Robinson, and; Ferreira deep mines. December 8. Mr Robertson, a friend of Mr Cecil Rhodes, who was arrested at Pretoria in October last on a charge of recruiting men for the British and w resist the Transvaal Government, has been acquitted. The Aberdeen comes on to Capetown tQ land her tvoQjp,,

December 9.

'A vessel arrived at Port Elizabeth with 17,000 sacks of flour intended for the Boers. The British authorities seized the

Lady Sarah Wilson, who went to Mafeking to join her husband, and also to act as * the London Daily Mail's war correspondent," left for Mafeking on the outbreak of the war, and rode to Kuruman, in Bechuanaland. Thence via the Setlagoli River she reached the Boer camp at Mafeking, and applied for a pass to enter the town. This was refused, and she was sent to Pretoria. General Joubert has offered to exchange Lady Sarah for a Boer lady held by the British at Mafeking.

December 10.

Trains are now passing over the Frere bridge in Natal, and the Modder bridge on tHe Bechuanaland frontier.

• General Buller has requisitioned the services of 2200 stretcher-bearers to ga to the front. - , ' Major Umphelly, of the Victorian forces, has been appointed to the staff at Capetown. He goes to the front later on. ! , The Aberdeen's contingent of the New South Wales troops has proceeded to the Modder River. —

BLOEMFONTEIN, December 8.

President Steyn, of the Orange Free State, has arrived at Spytfontein, where he was received with enthusiasm. DURBAN, December 5. The recent British victories have had a reassuring effect upon the Basutos.

The British prisoners at Pretoria are allowed to purchase the Boer newspapers.

LONDON, December 6.

The Queen -welcomed the nurses proceeding to 1 South Africa at Windsor Castle, and remarked : " How sweet of you to care for my men."

Mr Septimus Stephen read a paper before the Colonial Institute on New South .Wales. The Earl of Jersey presided. Sir J. Salomons, Agent-general for New South Wales, read the Queen's telegram thanking the colonists for sharing the responsibilities of the Empire. All the speeches •were strongly Imperialistic and laudatory of the colonial military patriotism. j

Brigadier-general Yule, who succeeded General Symons after the battle of Glencoe, and subsequently effected a masterly retreat from an untenable position, rejoining General White at Ladysmith, is returning to England owing to broken health.

A seventh division of the British army ■will shortly be formed and got ready for prompt despatch if needed.

The British fund for the relief of the ■widows and children of those serving in the war amounts to £375,000.

December 7,

Mr Long, speaking at the Mercers' Hall, said the Government were determined that blood and treasure should not be spent in vain in the Transvaal.

v December 8. The Queen has presented a Union Jack to the American hospital ship Maine.

A heavy siege train and an enormous quantity of ammunition have been despatched to South Africa by the steamer Tantallon Castle.

Another brigade of cavalry is being organised. The Hon. Joseph. Powell Williams, Financial Secretary to the War Office, states that the local South African forces and the Imperial troops that have gone t3 the seat of war, will, with those now being organised for service, make a grand total of 105,770 men operating in South. Africa.

Lord Loch, in the course of a speech at the Imperial Institute, said that President Kruger had often desired the absolute independence for the Transvaal, and that he as-pired to the possession of a navy. The future settlement of the question must mean the absorption by Britain of the Transvaal and the Free State. December 10.

'A number of pro-Boer magistrates in Ireland, in addition ito those previously removed, -have been struck off the roll. December 11.

Tho Queen has authorised^collections in the church to aid and comfort soldiers and sailors and their families. Her Majesty attended a performance of the oratorio "Elijah." at St. George's on behalf of the soldiers and their families. Ada Crossley, the Australian singer, took part. SYDNEY, December 8.

The Aberdeen, with the New South iWales troops, arrived at Pork Elizabeth on the 3rd insfc.

December 10.

The Lancers were landed when they Irft quarantine. Someone called for cheers, but lioots were the outcome. MELBOURNE, December 10,

With regard to the outbreak of sickness V.t Ladysmith, the special correspondent of .the Natal Times recently wrote: — "It is We Jft prophecy that they will be sub-

jected to fever — a scourge a mighty sight more dire and troublesome" than the Boei shells. Ths bodies of dead horses have been left decomposing, and with vegetable liiatter decomposing Ladysmith is dirty under ordinary circumstances, but with the water supply cut off, and 15,000 to 20,000 men couped up the result may be appalling."

WELLINGTON, December 6. Mes_srs Levin and Co. have received advice that the Waiwera was to have left Capetown on her return journey yesterday.