THE BOER WAR. THE FOURTH CONTINGENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2426, 12 September 1900, Page 11

THE BOER WAR. THE FOURTH CONTINGENT.

FROM MARENDELLAS TO BULAWAYO. SCARCITY OF HORSES. (From Our Special Coreespondext ■witii the Contingent.) Enheldorn, June 16. We left Marendellas, en route for Bulawayo, a distance of 290 miles, on June 7, and are steadily trekking over the plains, twelve bullock waggons accompany us to convey the necep&ary ammunition, forage, and rations. The road is sandy, so our progress is very slow. The order of march is as follows: — Reveille at 2 a.m., march at 3, until about 6.30. "We rest during the greater part of the day, and resiime march at 3.30 p.m., halting for the night at about 7. In this way we average about 15 miles a day. We do not pitch our tenta at night, so are compelled to sleep on the grass. A day or two after we started the weather broke, and we had two nights' rain, which made bivouacking very disagreeable. The days are warm, but the nights are very cold, and the dews very heavy. We felt' the cold very much at first, but are getting quite used to it now. Before leaving Marendellas the principal veterinary officer inspected our horse«, and decided that 46 of them were unfit to travel. These were left behind under ihe charge of two officers and 35 men, bub will be sent oji after us as soon as they are fit. Out of 220 hordes which \ve brought from New Zealand, we &et out with only 150. Forty-six Hungarian ponies were supplied to us as remounts, but when we ai rived at Fort Charter, a diotanee of 50 miles, we were ordeied to leave them in an isolated camp, owing to the fact that glanders had made its appearance among them. One officer and 10 men were detained in charge of them. The remainder of those men without horae^ ride on the waggons. On reaching a station called Range we were ordered to halt for two days, to await instructions from General Carrington. We thought we would be ordered to the northern part of the Transvaal, via Victoria and Fort Tuli, but Avere disappointed when we received orders to resume our march to Bulawayo. Our present marchiug state (exclusive of the staff officers) is 14-0 officers and men and 139 horses. Fifteen men were left in the hospitals at Umtali and Marendellas, and when wo readied Fort Charier i\e had to 'leave nine more. The majority are suffering from fever and dysentery, but the latest wires wo have received concerning them show \hat they are all progressing favourably. I regret to say that one of our men (Trooper M'lntosh), belonging to the Southland section of No. 10 Company, died of dysentery at Umtali Hos- ' pital, just before we left Marendellas. He took ill at Beira, and wa^ sent on to the hospital at Umtali, where he remained until he died. His death was keenly fell by all, and great sympathy i? felt for his parents, who reside at Otautau, in Southland. Sufficient money was raised among the officers and men to erect a tombstone over his grave. An old Dunedinite, Mr Hazlett, at present oil the Beira-Salisbury employ, kindly consented to purchase the stone, and see that it was erected. We had not time to attend to the matter ourselves, as we had received orders to march when the sad news reached us. From what we can learn, crar contingent was never intended for service with the Bhodesian Field Force, but was xjractically commandeered for the work M"c are doing. Had we gone to East London, and thence to Blofimfontein, we would have been in the fighting line soon after we arrived. It may be, of course, we shall see plenty of fighting, but the fact remains we feel disappointed in not being sent to the place originally intended. Beforo leaving New Zealand we understood that a large number of remounts were being sent by the transports that left after us. We have never seen them jet, and I expect we never shall, although fhe boats supposed to be bringing them arrived at Beira before we left. When we left that port we had not sufficient horses to mount all the men of our contingent. Colonel Gray, a Jameson raider, who is in command of the brigade to which we are attached, promised to send along sufficient Texas horses to provide us with remounts. Tf those do not arrive one company at least will have to be turned into a foot corps. So far as T can learn, none of the officers of the fourth or fifth contingents have applied for the commissions which were offered by the Imperial Government to colonial officers. The rate of pay in the Imperial army is not sufficient to induce them. It is impossiWe for an officer in the Imperial service to live on his pay except in a very few regiments. One requires a considerable private income, and as the majority of our offi* cers are not possessed thereof they could not avail them&elves of the commissions offered. Had the rate of pay been higher, I believe, several applications for commi&sions would have been made. It was currently reported in Marendellas that the batteries of artillery which were manned by the fourth and fifth contingents will be presented to the colonial Government when the war is over. If this proves true, at least one-half the Field Artillery Corj>s in New Zealand will be gratuitously supplied with new field guns. We got very little news as to how the war is going on. We never see any newspapers; indeed, there are none published in this part of the country. It is only when we come to a telegraph station on the line of march that we hear anything at all. No mail yet from New Zealand. We wonder what has become of it. Probably we shall get it at Bulawayo, which we will reach, under ordinary circumstances, in about a fortnight. THE PATRIOTIC FUND COMMITTEE. [ A meeting of the Patriotic Fund Commil- ' tee was held yesterday afternoon, Mr James Mills presiding. A number of cases were considered and dealt with. A letter was received from Mr J. B. Callan, enclosing a cheque for £11 lls lid, representing the balance of a sum subscribed on St. Patrick's Day to defray the expenses of a cable forwarded by the Irishmen of Dunedin to her Majesty the ijijeen. His Excellency th<? A how,-

ever, pent the message free of cost to the | subscribers. It was intended to purchase a j few field-glasses for the officers with the j amount, but as it was found insufficient for this purpose the subscribers consulted decided to pay the amount into the patriotic fund. The cheque was received with thank.", j In view of the departure for Melbourne of j \ Mr W. A. Shields, a motion was passed specially thanking him for the very energetic and active part he had taken In connection with the patriotic fund and other movements, and placing- on record appreciation of these services. THE HARVEY MEMORIAL FUND. A meeting of the committee appointed to carry out the details of the Harvey memorial ' fund met on the 4th. the followingbeing present : Messrs A . "Wil&on (president), i J. A. Johnstone, Dr Fulton, W. Guthrie, George Moodie, and L. R. Wilson (hon. treasurer). Mr A. Wilson stated that he was in ' communication with the Board of Governors j relative to placing the memorial in the school. It was resolved that circulars, enclosing a copy of the report of the preliminary meeting, be forwarded to every '"old boy" whose address was obtainable. Also, that ail ac- . count be opened with the Bank of New Zea- ■ land, Dunedin, in the name of the Otago ! High School War Memorial Committee, the ■ president and hon. treasurer to operate there- j on. A suggestion was made that'll prominent j " old boy " in each en^ throt.ghoxtt New Zea ] land should be communicated with, and asked j to comene meetings for the purpose of collecting subbcriptions from old boys resident thwe A loiter wai received from Mr C. W. Walden, and the hon, secretary was instructed to acknowledge same. PAYMENT us? PAY TO SOLDIERS' RELATIVES. His Worship the Mayor has received the following letter from the Premier: — Premier's Office, Wellington, September 1, 1900. Sir, — I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 21-th tilt., with refeience to a communication from you of the 9th ult., forwarding a complaint from Mrs M.. of Dunedin, that she had not re- i ceived any payment on account of an order left by her son, Sergeant M., of the fifth contingent. In reply, I have the honour to express my regret that your letter of the 9th ult., which was received in the Defence de- I partment on the 15th, should have so long | remained unanswered, and to state that I i have been informed by the Under-secretary j of Defence that he was causing inquiries to be made into the" matter. The letter in question did not reach me until the .30th j August, and had it not been for your letter j of the 24-th I should never probably have : known of the existence of your letter of the ' 9th ult., and thus, though innocent, I may have been thought by you to have been callous as to the necessities of the mother whose son was then at the .front fighting the battles -of our colony and Empire. With reference to the order left, I beg to inform yau that Sergeant M. did not leave any order on bis pay when quitting New Zealand, but that " he forwarded one from Bcira, which reached the Defence department on the 26th July, leaving Is 6d per diem to Mrs M. and Is 6d per diem to Mrs 8., both from May 1. The vouchers for the amounts due to the respective recipients were pass-ed by the Defence , department, and forwarded to the Audit department as f ollows : — From May 1 to July 31, on August 2, and from August 1 to August 31, on August 3. — I am, etc., R. J. Seddox, Premier. LETTERS FOR THE CONTINGENTS. WELLINGTON, September 6. The secretary of the General- Post Office, has received, through the Postmastergeneral, Capetown, a reply to representations which -were made in regard to the failure of correspondence for members of the New Zealand contingents to reach addressees, and to the alleged opening of letters. Major Treble, officer commanding the Army Post Office Corps in South Africa, says : "As regards a letter from Mr , 1 am satisfied that it was not opened in the course of transit throu^li the army post office. It is clear from ike slate of the cover that it has become oj,tn through friction with other letters. The cover is n%t sufficiently .strong for use on v active service, when letters are liable to' constant redirection. The contents, I regret, it is not possible to trace. In the case of a letter addressed to Mr , tlic entire absence of motive on the part of any member of the Army Pose Office Corps makes it, in my opinion, certain that it has not been opened in this department. The probable explanation is that it was opened by the sender and 'carelessly reseated. It is the case that bags for the New Zealand contingents are opened in the Army Popt Office, because, were this not done, it woi73d not be possible to conduct their postal service with the same regularity that is required by the army generally. The arrangement of sending sealed bags direct to the officers commanding contingents would indeed be an ideal one. and would save a very great deal of i rouble to our staff, but I fear would not c;!ve equal satisfaction to the troops. For instance, the contingents as originally formed are no longer intact. There arc details at the base, sick in hospitals, and detached parties in different parts who would be very much aggrieved if their letters were sent direct to the headquarters of their contingents. Thus a man in hospital at Capetown would object to having his letters delivered via Pretoria, knowing that they had been received in the first instance at Capetown. This question, however, does nob affect the case referred to, that of Mojor , as this officer's letters have never been vedirected here, but have been sent to" the headquarters of his contingent wherever stationed. The responsibility for any subsequent delay or loss, therefore, rests with the authorities of his own contingent, and not with the post office. It is no doubt true that Major 's letters have followed him about from time to time, because in the army here troops move faster than their mails can follow them, which is one of the greatest difficulties the Army Post Office has to contend against. lam afraid the secretary of the New Zealand Post Office does not realise that, with units and individuals moving daily from place to place, it is impossible to depl with correspondence on the same lines as in civil post offices, which sevve a stationary population living at fixed addresses. It will now be » arranged ilicu, as deshed. by the 11 ew Zea-

land Post Office, the bags will be foiv warded unopened to the headquarters-, of the various contingents."

PRINSLOO'S SURRENDER. Telegrams in the Cape Times of August 2 state: —

The Boers, after retreating from Fouriesburg up the Caledou River Valley, found i 6 was impossible to get their big guns, waggons, and oxen over the mountain. They had therefore either to abandon their guns and waggons, make a stand or surrender. They then agreed to ask for special terms of surrender. These were refused, and they were informed that unconditional surrender only would be accepted. However, an unconditional fcurrender of all the Boers in the Caledon Valley was shortly forthcoming. General Prin&lco, lately elected chief commandant, arrived, and tried to repudiate unconditional surrender. General Hunlei refused to grant any concessions except to allow each Boer a riding horse. Prinsloo surrendered unconditionally to General Hunter at 9 a.m. on the 30th, with three commandos. At the hill adjoining the scene of the last fight, Prinsloo met Generals Rundle and Hunter, surrendering formally to the Jailer opposite a temporary flagstaff, whence the British flag was then unfurled. General Rundle, with a full staff, was present -ftith a gu?rd of honour, which consisted of the 2nd Scots Guards, Imperial Yeomanry, Driscoll's Seotits, and Grenfell's Horse. The regiments lined the route for a couple of miles with a battery of the Eighth Division Artillery.

The scene of the surrender was most im"ressive. LI took place eight miles south-east of Fouriesburg, on a high hill, commanding a magnificent view, and encircled by tier after tier of lowering heights of almost alpine grandeur. _Tiie band of the Leinsiers, the pipers of the Scots Guards, and-'lbc drums and fifes of the Ministers alternately played selections. Several thousand troops were in attendance. General Prinsloo rode up unarmed, with an aide de camp carrying a white flag.* He saluted and* shook hands with our generals. He is a fine-looking man, of medium height, has a. grey beard, and was well dressed and mounted, looking every bit a, commander and a leader.

Two hours ]?ter the first commando of about 500 men, 'preceded by Commandant De "Villieri, came into sighi, winding round the hill*. On reaching Ihc bcene of ihe disai'ni£>iii"n.t De Villiers was escorted to General Rmidle, who heartily shook hands with him, and received personally the gun and bandolier of De Yilliers. Two Krupps were al~o surrendei-ed. The disarming and taking the names of the prisoners of war occupied the entire day. All the prisoners have two, and many throe, horses, mostly in splendid condition. The prisoners of war are proceeding under linpcrial STeomanry encore to Foui'ieaburg.

Those who surrendered are a very mixed lot, of all ages — old men and young boys included. All, however, lire looking well. They seemed cheerful, and several on handing over their rifles ejaculated -'" Thanks." The majority of the weapons are Mausers. The bandoliers worn were of the usual varied description.

The following definition of wounds as mentioned in tho official telegram from the front will no doubt be of interest: — "Slightly" means wound likely to heal rapidly, not mi-, pairing tho use of limbs or organs, not even entailing admission into hospital. "' Severe," (signifies a wuncl requiring eaieful treatment in hospital, but not necessarily dangerous, often involving a fracture of o bone and sometimes tho permanent impairment of limb. " Dangerous " means a wound such as might occur from the penetrating of ihc head, chest, abdomen, or any vital organ " Mortal " means no hope of recovery; cevtain death.

The Sydney Indian famine fund has reached a total of £11,539. Tho Rangitikei Advocate understands that a locomotive is to be at once conveyed to Llie railway line on the north side of the MakohJne viaduct for the purpose of carrying nr.cl laying the rails between the viaduct and Mango.weka. It is intended that the completion of the %iaduct and the opening of tin lino to Afangaweka shall be simultaneoiis, and that this most important section of the Mait 1 Trunk line will be available for traffic withis 12 months from the present date.