FROM A COLONIAL SCOUT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6717, 13 February 1900, Page 4

FROM A COLONIAL SCOUT.

Trooper Hale, Writing from J_stcour. on Dec. 28, says that at that towhship every shot fired by the belligerent forces could be heard. When the troops tried to cross the Tugela oh the preceding Friday, the hoise wn- terrible, and when General Buller found that he had a repulse, he cried like a child. Sir Charles Warren arrived at Estcourt the day before Trooper Hale wrote, and Trooper Hale, with the colonial scouts, was to be at- ' tached to that officer's brigade. At the time of writing, they were patrolling the railway line, between __$t_ourt and Chieveley. Christmas festivities at Estcourt do '. hot seem to have been very brilliant. The ! inhabitants of Durban and Maritaburg sent ' up a Christmas dinner, and the scouts en- ' joyed it all together, spread on the veldt. L Trooper Hale had been over several of the looted farms. Even the doars had been ! taken off ahd broken, be Says, and all the . cattle had been taken. Unless they were granted compehsation, many of the farthers ■ Would be ruined. The Writer concludes by expressing the opinion that once the Boers ', are forced oub of Natal, they Will not be able to make such a good stand agaihst the 1 British, as the hills in which the fighting is s taking place on the eastern side, just suit i the enemy's tactics.