LETTERS FROM CONTINGENTS

Otago Witness, Volume 02, Issue 2420, 2 August 1900, Page 29

LETTERS FROM CONTINGENTS

Regimental Quartermaster-isergeant W. E. Christie, of the fourth: contingent, writing •from Maraudellas to a fri«nd in Dunedin, states that* it' had taken them nearly a month 4a reach, where they wero, 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 JBaanboo Creek,, a distance of 60 miles by rail. The country passed through was all flat and swampy, with a little bush kere 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 iv 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., ancl travelled all day at the r.ate of about five miles an hour, when they w«re going; but the engine had to stop every quarter of an hour for wood or water, or to get up eteam. Aft 11 p.m. they, were shunted on to a eiding at -Mandegos, and left to sleep in the fcraeks. At 7 o'olock next morning they were picked Tip by another " engine, -which could go f or half ah hour without stopping, and took th«m to Umtali, - this place- being reached- at -3. '« r cloek 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. "Jflio- country, during the "last two days' run, was very hilly, with great heaps of bmildere j ,KJil the way' along; and several kopjeE — little ! ' round hills-ovith steep sides and covered with Iboulders— were also seen. "Caverabam," -writes j tn'e" quartermaster-sergeant, is still to the fore, j 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-top form again. Quartermastereefgeant 'Christie, after referring to his promotion, goes on to say' that he expected, to liyive ill three or foifr days for Bulawayo, or, Jit any rate, in that direction. . It would take ;Vb'out'2o days to do' the journey, which was «iong an old cpach road. Several of the contingent had joined the Rhodesian Horse. One whole compitny of the fifth, officers and all, -joined. " The men were getting broken in now to bully beef and hard biscuits, though I there was a good deal of grumbling at first. I The following were the rations per man: — j lib bread or biscuit, lib compressed meat, i 3oz- sugar, -l-3oz tea or 2-3oz of coffee, l-360z j of pepper, -^oz salt, 2oz of rico or oplit peas j or loz of compressed vegetables or 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 ;ould eat. Towards the ; end' - of- his letter, Quartermaster-sergeant Christie says: "I am doing very well myeelf, l>ut, like the rest of the fellows, I am getting tired of this stopping so long at different jplaces wdthdiit any excitement whatever," and adds that he. may be. home for . Christmas, ' though it looked 'doubtful. We have received the following extracts from ,a r letter received by Mr R. B. Dyer, Port Chalmers, from Trooper John S/alter, of the fourth .contingent, -dated Beira, May 14: — ißeira is a very warm place, the thermometer rSgis"tered"9B in the shade the coolest day we lhave had. There are iery 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 wages as carpenters. Wages all round are very good, 'but a man would want to have a cast-iron skin 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 ancl lodging. Every thing is very dear, and the inhabitants charge tis colonials about double the ordinary price for "everything ; for instance, three sheets of writing paper and three envelops cost Is; tin jam, 2s 6d; sugar, Is 3d pex'lb; ink, Is small bottle ; and wliisky or shandy costs, 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-caits, ancl are driven just like horses. 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, anct the other' was "badly wounded in the body. There are a great snakes and monkeys; and- in fact,- all kind of .wild beasts here. The mosquitos are a great pest. . I am glad to say they 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 fetting through the fences. TJ»«re was antiisr stampede last night, and it was" a great

sight. Just fanej r 1300 horses galloping over fences and ditches, ancl 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 Keddell took seven of us out deer stalking on Wednesday afternoon, and il was great fun. We roused a beautiful young buck when about two miles out, and- chased -him for about a mile, when one of the Queenslanclcre, who was also hunting on the same ground, cut off tho 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. We saw three others that day, but our horses were all done up, ancl so we were not fortunate to get one. We arrived home at 6 o'clock, ancl it was then found that out of the eight of us only myself ancl Bessitt wero 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 Nieolson ancl his men succeeded in running a deer down, and we had fresh meat for dinner next day. On getting tip in the morning it was found that Lieutenant Keddell's horse was dead, and four others on the eick line, so that ptifc a stop to any more hunting. We have great fun at nights teaching the Kafiirs 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 us when he told us on the night 'o'f Our arrival at Beii'a to stick to him, and he would stick to us, and that we must regard his bark as worse than his bite; and ein-ce being- on shore his words have come true, for he is a toff to work for, ar.d if there is aii3 r short allowance of food he soon sees it righted. lam sure, though strict, he will be with us in any tight corner we may get into, and he has got us well up in manual exercise and seotifcinf>- work). Willie Pbrteous, of Sawyers' Bay, is at present in otir 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 Imperial? said was never sung in England. They are all the toffs from the British Isles. One of them paid £2000 to join the force. J^e 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 to^ baoco 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 our comforts. Instead of having bully beef and Crimea biscuits' for 'dinner, we had beef tea, and dissolved the chocolate juid 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 ton, Trooper George Day, of the fourth aontingent. 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. ' In a letter received this week by Mr Joseph Tough, from Troojper 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 Majorgeneral Sir Frederick Oarrnigton.

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 Clutha Leader says: — Trooper Vm. "Renton is the only Clutha 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 meutioned that Lord Kitchener had been calling for 2000 volurteers 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, v/ho has been in the police for somo lime.

Mr Cable, of Port Chalmers, in the course of a few remarks at the Oddfellows' anniversary at Balclulhfi, on Wednesday evening, mentioned that in the course of a conversation he had with Lieutenant Canavan at Port Chalmers, on Sunday, that gentleman said 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. 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 those 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.

Mr "W. Henderson, solicitor. Gore, has just received a post card from his- son, Trooper D. H. Henderson, of the second contingent, dated from Kroonstad. June 13. The com-munication-runs: — "Five other New Zealanders and myself, under Sergeant Cassidy, of Dunedin, are attached to a column of Imperial troops as scouts and patrols. We are searching for a commando under De Wet which has clone considerable damage, ancl taken several prisoners. We expect to come up on him every day. Last Thursday a patrol of 14- men tinder Sergeant Cassidy came into contact with them whilst they were busily engaged bombarding Roodeval, where they had a great fight, and forced some 800 British to surrender. We had a very rough time of it, and lost three men out of our patrol. A Queenslander ancl I had our horses shot under us, ancl we had to ' foot it ' out of action, one covering the other's retreat. Eventually we got away safely, ancl had to walk 14 miles to get a train. The patrol had got into the Boer lines, and they didit't know we were there until two of their artillerymen had been shot." — Mataura Ensign.

ANOTHER LETTER FROM LIEUTENANT J. R. MACDONALD. Mr J. JVaddell Smith has received from

Lieutenant J. R. Macdonald, of the fourth contingent, a letter dated Marandellas, June 4, which is a few days later than those published yesterday. We are permitted to make the following extracts : — Monday Morning. — I arrived here a week ago after a 48 hours' journey by tram from Bamboo Creek, and have had rather a good week — an agreeable change after Beira and Bamboo Cieek. The days here are simply perfect, a little too warm perhaps for 2Tew Zealanders, "but I like the heat. The nights, however, aie jolly cold. The men are improving in health in this climate, but the horses are going off fast. Every morning the question is, " How many horses dead this morning ?" We are losing an average of about two a day in the fourth con'cinge/it. There seems to be no cure for " blue tongue,'' and no precautions avail against it. A horse is apparently quite well at evening stables, and at morning staLles you find him stretched out dead. Both my mounts ai-e gone, and each of the other officers has lost one, except Tubnmn, whose luck is beginning to become proverbial. I don't know what sort of remounts will be supplied to us, but I expect they will be the Hungarian ponies. We hope to get away in a few days on our 300-mile inarch to Bulawayo, but by the time this reaches you you will know by wire of our whereabouts. Our camp is situated on the top of a gentle slope, commanding an extensive view to the southward. Tho country far and wide is dotted over with huge heaps of rooks. On one of these heaps or mounds, about a mile from the camp, are the remains of the breastworks built by the natives in the war of 1896, I had a look over it the other day, and found it very interesting, their defences being remarkably well constructed. About half a mile fmther on is a little cemetery containing the giaves of women and children murdered by the Mashonas in June, 1896, and also the graves of those killed in action in August, 1896 — quite a. pathetic little group of tombstones, surrounded by a low wall built of rough slone3. Yesterdaybeing Sunday, we had three church parades and a race meeting. None of our horses were •entered, as we cannot run any risks with them. "We want to get to the front, and are chafing at the enforced delay. If we can't get horses we'll be content wiLh mules, and if we can't get mules we'll walk. Great quantities of military stores arrive daily by train, and are being sent on by bullock waggons. The bullocks have enormoiis horns, iiom 4ft to 6ft from tip to tip. We have had no mail since leaving New Zealand,. 10 weeks -ago, and once we leave here we don't expect to get a mail for weeks. Some of our mails will probably never overtake us. We see no papers, and hear no news. You know far more of the progress of the war in Uew Zealand to-day than we do. However, we don't mind that or anything else so long as we get to the front in time to take part in the " fair." Mr J. W. Smith has also received a chatty letter from Lieutenant Tubman, but as it- appears to have been delayed in tiansit, being dated Beira. May 13, most 'of his news has been forestalled by letters already published. Lieutenant Tubman had been laid up for a week -with dysentery, but had recovered. His two horses, he states, are both doing well. Lieutenant Tubman concludes: — "When at the next meeting of the branch at which you are present, would you convey my kind regards to all present. Telljbhem Dominie is in great form, and like myself, impatient, at the inactivity we are experiencing."