RESOURCEFULNESS OF THE AUSTRALIANS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2402, 15 March 1900, Page 11

RESOURCEFULNESS OF THE AUSTRALIANS.

The war correspondent of the London Daily Mail, in a despatch to his paper, speaks of the splendid work done by the Australians in reconnoitring in the Free State. Referring to an expedition sent out by Colonel Tilcuer from Honey Nest Kloof, he remarks: "The picturesque figures of the expedition were Ihe Australians, whose easy posture's and loose costumes reminded iis of the cowboys brought to London by Buffalo Bill. All of them wore wide-brimmed hats. In some cases the brims of the hats were turned up, in some not ; in some instances the crowns were ixinchet'l in, in others they were shaped like sugar-loaves. ]So two of the men carried their carbines in the same manner. The British soldiers speak in wonder of the amazing quickness of the Australians in mastering the country. The colonials can find their way in the blackest night out of any district into which they have gone by day; and every man can fight on his own account without needing to be officered. Already, as I have been told, they know the Boer country as well as Rimington's Scouts. They had previously been all over the country invaded by this week's expedition, and much farther. They are very eager for the hardest of the work. At Gras Pan, on our way back, we found the camp in a waterless district abundantly supplied with cry&tal water, and learned that miners among the Australians had dug out a well. The engineers had'been ordered to join them in the work, but the Australians asked to be permitted to do it alone."