FIRST CONTINGENT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6727, 23 February 1900, Page 4

FIRST CONTINGENT.

! LETTER FROM TROOPER HURFORD. Two recent cables have appeared, in the Columns of the local newspapers, concerning Trooper Hurford, of the first New Zealand Contingent. The first cable stated that Trooper Hurford had been invalided from the front, through heart disease. The second stated thafc the trooper reported to be suffering from heart disease was not Trooper Hurford of the New Zealand Contingent, but one of the same name belonging to the New South Wales Contingent. By the last mail, however, the parents of Trooper Hurford, afc Doyleston, received a letter from their son, confirming the news of the first cable. The. letter is from- No. 2 General Hospital, Wynburg, Capetown, under date Jan. 22, and states thafc the writer, though kept to his bed by the hospital authorities, feels well enough to be knocking about, and is exceedingly- anxious to rejoin his regiment at the frout. Trooper Hurford waxes enthusiastic in describing the kindness, skill and 'attention the sick and wounded receive from all who have access to them, and says that a galaxy of the mosfc skilful surgeons of the world is at present attending the wounded of both British and Boer armies in South Africa. Describing the gift of chocolate from her Majesty to every soldier in South Africa, the writer says, it is about six inches long, four broad and one deep, in a very handsome tin box, on which is embossed a portrait'of the Queen. The troops are keeping the boxes as loving souvenirs of the kindness and forethought* of Queen Victoria towards her troops fighting . the nations battle in South Africa. Trooper Hurford is sanguine that he will get to the front again before the relief of Ladysmith, which event, he considers, will be the beginning of the end. Describing the manner in * which he got placed hors de combat, the writer states that among others, he was guarding a kopje for forty-eight hours in an intolerable heat, and almost without rest, when he felt a faintness come over him, and on being sounded by the doctor, he was packed off to De Aar Hospital, and after staying there a week, was sent along in an hospital train, among about one hundred other sick and wounded, to, the Wynburg Hospitals at Capetown. The populace, of all the places within the fighting line give their almost undivided attention to the relief of the sick and wounded troops, and jellies, soups, fruit, etc., are sent to the hospitals in great quantities, while the ladies read to and comfort the wounded in every possible manner. The New Zealand lads, with the exception of those casualties which' are too well known already, are all well and keen for fighting.