THE BLOCKHOUSES.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 11689, 24 February 1902, Page 3

THE BLOCKHOUSES.

I have lately made the journey from De 'Aar to Kimberley (writes the Pretoria correspondent of the " Daily Chronicle ), and it is very noticeable that the Tommies in charge of the blockhouses up the line in this direction have taken great interest in their temporary residences. They have turned them into exceedingly attractive little cottages. Each seems to have vied with the other in making them as neat and smart looking as possible. I noticed oae particularly, ifc is called " Nightingale Villa," picturesquely situated and artistically built; gardens growing vegetables of all kinds surround it; there are neatly gravelled paths, a tastefully arranged sum-mer-house a short distance away, where the men take their meals, the whole being surrounded by spotless white-washed stones, marking the limit of the camp ground, all being trim and clean and smart. Dogs, birds, and a few fowls gave animal life to the scene. The men, in their shirt-sleeves, watched the train passing • they looked the picture of health, brown as a berry and hard as nails. A few hundred yards away a man, shouldering a rifle, is visible, ever on the alert to give the alarm should the enemy be seen. Passing further up the line we notice others equally well cared for, the names of the regiments the ..inhabitants belong to being prominently displayed. The men "have settled down to this monotonous life, intending to make the best of it, and they seem as cheerful and happy as possible under the circumstances. Civilian life in Kimberley has resumed its normal state. The existence of a big war is not evident in the town, and business goes forward in its usual way. It is seldom that you hear any news concerning the continuation of hostilities beyond the fact that, should anything out of the way occur, you see it chronicled in the local papers a week or ten days afterwards, probably in a cable from London. But you cannot- go ten miles outside the town in any direction with safety, sniping being frequent. Looking eastward into the Orange River Colony from the northern outskirts of Kimberley, the ranges o! hills are visible, and are known to contain numerous small bands of the enemy hiding in almost inaccessible caves.