LYDDITE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 11738, 3 February 1900, Page 2

LYDDITE.

The Army and NaA'y Gazette, speaking of lyddite, says : "Its usa in action began with the battle of Omdurman, when Major Elmslie's six guns of the 37 th Ilowitzor B.ittery spread destruction in the toAvn, bloAving the Mahdi's tomb and the Khalifa's quarters into pieces. Those liOAvitzer.-s were of sin calibre, tiring 001 b shells. In tho siege train uoav to be sent out there Avill be 6in and 4in pieces as Avell. The larger howitzer throAVS a shell of 1101 b with a lyddite bursting charge of 191 b, the propellant used is cordite, the charge being 111 b 12oz. It is said that lyddite Avill kill at a distance of 150 yards from the point 'of the explosion by mere concussion. The havoc such a shell Avould work betAveen.the decks of a ship Avould be terrible, but a comparatively slight thickness of armour is sufficient to keep it out. In the open, hoAveA r er, or in the hidingplaces around kopjes which the Boer marksmen affect, the effect that the explosion of a shell thus charged Avould have Avould be tremendous, and one can quite understand the dislike which the enemy has to being experimented upon Avith these missiles." To-day (Saturday) Aye received tho folloAving wire from Mr C. E. Major, Mayor of Hawera, respecting a meeting it is proposed to hold at Stratford on Mondify :—": — " Would like the press i throughout the province to call attention in a paragraph to a meeting of delegates from centres in Taranaki, to discuss sending a i contingent of rough-riders, at Stratford : Town Hall on Monday next, sth instant, at 3 o'clock. — C. E. Major, Mayor, HaAver.i." it is a pity Mr Major did not move a week or more ago, for time is so short noAV that little good can result from the meeting. It is understood that the candidates selected by local committees must be in camp at Wanganui on' Tuesday. HoAvever, something might be done ■ to provide men for the fourth contingent, i A large number of men are offering their services at Dunedin, and the Premier has been approached on the question of sending a fourth contingent. In his reply, Mr Seddon said that Otago and Southland guaranteed 100 men and horses to go as scouts. It Avas his duty to accept the offer. The men and horses Avould be delivered on shipboard, after Avhich the Committee's responsibility ceased. The [ matter of transport Avould be betAveen the G overnment and the Imperial authorities. Tho Lord Mayor of London's War Fund has reached £661,300. Tho Otago Cricket Association has '• offered to present a horse on behalf of the cricketers of Dunedin. The Otago Stock Exchange has voted £105, Murray. Roberts & Co. £50, and Donaghy & Co. a horss. It has iioav been decided that the Canterbury troop shall consist of a full company of 106 officers and men, and that they shall leave Lyttelton by the Knight \ Templar on February 17th. | A. Payne, W. Larking, W. Knott, and Murdoch have also applied for enrolment in the Taranaki section of the Roughriders Contingent. The local members of tho contingent ; Avere put through their shooting tests • to-day. The selection Avill take place at j 11 o'clock on Wednesday morning. The " Temps " congratulated ISir RedA - ers Buller. on tho moral courage it says he displayed in Avaiting for the right : moment for his advance and keeping the correspondents quiet. There is, nevertheless, evidence that no time is to be ) lost, and that unless a blow is struck 3 Aery roon the opportunity will be gone, and Ladysmith and Mafeking forced to capitulate. A young Yorkshiremeu Avho Avas driA r en from Johannesburg at the declaration of the Avar, and who, after failing to get into tho Imperial or Kaffrarian Light Horse, • sailed for England until the Avar trouble 1 is over, says :—": — " There is no doubt the 1 Cape House of Assembly have been helping the Boers secretly. Thousands 1 of young men in Cape Colony Avere anxious to enlist in order to repel 5 the inA'asion of the colony by the Boers, but the Government refused to enlist a 1 single man until a feAV days before he sailed. When he reached England he 1 Avas aghast to find the British thought ? there Avere only 25,000 armed Boers. : Everybody in Johannesburg kneAv that - 70,000 Boers could be put into the field, > and that thsre Avas sufficient arms in the , Transvaal to equip 200,"000 men. He adds that Aye have been shamefully be--k trayed both in our South African colonies \ and our Intelligence Department abroad." i Tho censorship in South Africa is (says 1 the London Daily Mail) occasionally unreasonably savers. When the two regiments were captured at Nicholson's Nek, » Maritzburg gathered from Her Majesty's } message that the press comment in England had been adverse to General White. All the actual news that Avas allowed to filter through the censor Avas : ' " English papers defer criticising White's 5 action." Among the Englishmen Avho . -have recently arrived at Durban from the 1 Transvaal is Mi 5 Hess, of the Critic, Avho ! was expelled the Rand. He says (accord- ' ing to a Standard telegram) that there are '> no burghers left in Johannesburg ; that they have all gone to the front. Nor L ara thsre any horses remaining, all haA'ing ' been taken on serA'ice Avithou^ shoes. The French guns, Avhich have been so prominent in the recent fighting, are running short of ammunition, and the Govern- ' ment are manufacturing shells for the artillery captured from tho British. ] Tho Berlin correspondent of the 1 London Daily Mail telegraphed to that journal on December 20 : — A neAvspaper published at Essen says that the Krupp foundries there are working 'feverishly day and night, turning out 25,000 six and seven inch steel shrapnel shells, ordered during tho second half of November by the British War Office. Lyddite cannot (says tho London Daily ! Mail) be fired from any less ■ calibre than the 4-7 in ?6-poilnder gun. It 1 has its own special fuse, and Avhile the ■ first shell is striking nine other shells are already following m the air. The full 1 range is eight miles. The guns landed at 1 Durban for the Berea Avere 4-7 in guns, and therefore capable of discharging 1 lyddite shells. The naval guns at Ladysmith are also, in all probability, U3hi<* ' lyddite.