LATEST WAR NEWS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4748, 28 April 1900, Page 3

LATEST WAR NEWS.

(Fbom oub own Co-respondent.) i UNEDiN, Last Night. The Boers are fleeing before the British troops. General French is in hot pursuit, and hopes to intercept the enemy. Brigadier lan Hamilton's division, of which the Colonial Brigade, under General Hutton, forms a part, advanced eastward from Bloemfontein, and occupied the waterworks. As the Boers hold the neighboring hills, Majorgenerals Smith-Dorrien, and Hector Macdonald have been despatched to the support of Brigadier lan Hamilton. Brigadier Maxwell's 14th Brigade, belonging to General Tucker's division, have marched eastward from Glen Siding, eight miles north of Bloemfontein, and. seized the hills covering Kranz Kraal and the waggon bridge over the Modder River. This movement cuts off both lines of the enemy's retreat northward of that point. When Brigadier lan Hamilton decided to advance on Sannas Post he ordered a detachment of 140 New South Wales Lancers to occupy a square kopje situated a mile from and overlooking Water Yaal Drift. The New South Wales men accomplished their task after some sniping. Only one casualty happened to the column, the capture of Private Braun, of the New South Wales Mounted Rifles. In connection with Brigadier Hamilton's advance to the eastward, Lieu-tenant-colonel Alderson, commanding the first corps of General Hutton's brigade, advanced southward to Leeuw Kop, whilst Brigadier Dickson, with the Fourth Cavalry Brigade, a battery of the Royal Horse Artillery and the New South Wales ambulance moved fiorn Springfield against the Boers in the neighboring hills. The battery shelled the Boer force which held the kopje to the south-west of the Bloemfontein waterworks, and the enemy were dislodged. Brigadier Dickson's column also participated in the operations further South.

As a result of Brigadier Hamilton's advance to the eastward the enemy have been everywhere defeated, and they retreated still further J;o the east, towards the Basutoland frontier. Brigadier lan Hamilton cleared all the kopjes in the neighborhood of Bloemfontein waterworks. He is now nearing Thabanohu.

The London " Standard's" correspondent estimates that a force of 3000 Boers is entrenched among the hills to the south-east of Bloemfontein.

Under cover of a heavy shrapnel fire from four, guns, the Boer forces were engaged in besieging Wepener throughout Tuesday. The enemy made a determined attempt to storm Colonel Dalgety's northern position. The Cape Mounted Rifles and other South African troops successfully repelled the Boer attack. When the Boers were foiled in their desperate attempt to storm the garrison's northern position they recoiled, and extending in open order across the flat country, kept up a heavy rifle fire at long range, the fusilade lasting some hours. Colonel Dalgety's loss was 33 killed 132 wounded.

General Hart's brigade forms the advance portion of General Brabant's division. The latter is immediately confronted with a force of 8000 Boers, in addition to which there are 13,000 Boers elsewhere in the WepeEer district. A later message states that the Boers at Wepener and the surrounding district are so numerous that it took them two days to cross the Caledon River. General Brabant has lost 25 in wounded during his advance towards Wepener.

Lord Roberts reports that General Pole-Oarew has occupied Roode Kopje. The enemy's loss is heavy.

General French has compelled the Boers to evacuate their position at Dewetsdorp.

General French, in pursuance of Lord Roberta's instructions to sit astride the enemy's line' of retreat, crossed the Modder at Yaalsbank. The Boers, meanwhile having been alarmed, quitted Dewetsdorp, General Oherraside occupying the town unopposed. The Boers round Wepener, numbering 4500, fled by the Ladybrand road to the north-eastward with ox waggons, General French racing to intercept them.

A mysterious attempt to destroy the railway bridge at Komatipoort has scared the Boers, who are strongly guarding the neighborhood.

Forty thousand British are now enveloping the forces under Commandants De Wet and Olivier t

The New Zealand third contingent, under Major Jowsey, received their baptismal fire while making a clever flanking movement on Sunday at Boesman Kop, The colonials expressed great delight at participating in an engagement. General Hart has issued a strenuouslyworded proclamation to the inhabitants of Bouxville warning them against aiding, abetting, screening, or committing hostile acts under pain of the severest penalties.

In the districts of the Free State held by the British the authorities hold lists containing the names of 12,000 Cape Colony and Natal rebels.

Commandant Snyman, the besieger ef Mafeking, is said to have been reinforced by Boers from Natal and also from districts to the south of the besieged town.

The residents of Mafeking are reported to be in a despondent condition. They are now dependent upon oaten bread made from husks. Their total casualties to the end of March were 368. Three hundred native women who were shut up in Mafeking made good their escape through the enemy's lines. The Boers treacherously lured a number of Fin go cattle raiders out of Mafeking and killed 26 of them.

President Kruger imagined Lord Roberts would be stationary for another month, awaiting the arrival of remounts.

Mr Mitchell, engineer of the Pretoria waterworks, has been expelled from thß Transvaal, and has arrived at Durban. He declared that the water ward waß unfit for habitation. The majority of the prisoners sleep in the open. There is a tin hospital, which has no flooring. There are 180 sick, but no resident doctor is in attendance on them. Disease is rampant. The water used is black and muddy. The Transvaal refused a free gift of water, declining, to furnish tanks for the purpose.

Sympathisers at Pretoria have subscribed £3,000 to be spent on bedding, comforts, and food for the British wounded.

Lord Roberts has prohibited the circulation of the Dutch Afrikander organ " Onßland," which is controlled by Mr Jan Hofmeyer, the Leader of the Bond.

The "Natal Times" states that a Boer plot was frustrated at the beginning of the war to explode a transport conveying 2000 troops. The policeman Jones, who gained notoriety over the murder of Mr Edgar at Johannesburg before the war, wai killed in the battle at Modder Spruit. The Afrikander Bond are angry at the result of the Sunnyside trial. Mr Hofmeyer declares that Mr Solomon, the Attorney-general, is a traitor for prosecuting the cases.

The Imperial Bushmen sailed from Hobart by the Manhattan, and received an enthusiastic send-off.

Recently the Victorian Government informed the Agent-general that they had a couple of hundred surplus bushmen if their services were required; Mr Chamberlain has now replied that he is unable to accept additional offers.

The Eastern .Extension Cable Company having agreed to transmit cables to members of the various contingents serving in South Africa at the rate of 2s per word, all the Australian colonies except New South Wales have agreed to forgo their local charges.

The Otago Patriotic Fund has now reached £10,000, of which £6,000 has been remitted to the Lord Mayor's Fund, London.

The Kumara " Times " states that there is on view in Kumara a magnificent double greenstone and gold albert chain, to which a greenstone and gold locket is attached, bearing the following inscription : " From Kumara, N.Z., to General Buller, 1900." For presentation to General French there is a very neat greenstone peudant, a scarfpin, a greenstone set in gold, and a set of gold and greenstone studs and sleeve links, the lot being neatly and suitably engraved.

A visitor to the Wanganui Museum says of it : "Itisto be regretted that its curios should be disfigured by a looted Boer Bible. Trooper Powell should be asked to restore it, if possible, to the family whose birth registers it contains."

' The Premier has received a cablegram from Major Oradock at Victoria Road, Cape Colony, in which he says he has returned from Kenhardfc— soo miles march. Dysentery was prevalent. He was proceeding to Bloemfontein that day, leaving 44 cases of sickness behind—No. 522 (Private T. Gr. Anderson) very bad.

The latest advices respecting the surrender of Bloemfontein show that the approach of the British caused a stampede. Thirteen trains each composed of 40 cars, and all crammed with Boers, hurried northward just before the line was cut. Mr Steyn would have been compelled to surrender, but he pretended to be going to visit one of the outposts, and at midnight took a carriage which was waiting for him outside the town and thus escaped. The Boers got the bulk of their waggons and military stores away.

A Renter's telegram from Naauwpoort says : I have a gallant deed to chronicle. Sir John Milbanke went oat with four of the 10th Hussars across the plain fco the north of the enemy's position to reconnoitre certain hills. After proceeding a couple of miles the party was fired on by a Boer outpost on their left, occupying a portion of the same hill which afterwards proved snch a trap for the Suffolks. The patrol immediately turned, Sir John being wounded in the thigh with a Martini-Henri bullet. They galloped towards camp, and a party of Boers rode out to intercept them. A race ensued, in the course of which one trooper fell from his horse, and Sir John, though wounded, pluckily rode back to the rescue and took the man up behind him. The Boers hastily dismounted, and dropping on one knee fired at them, Sir John receiving another bullet, but only through his haversack. His good horse carried the two riders bravely, and before long they were out of rifla shot, after which the trooper dismounted and ran alongside, holding Sir John's stirrup, and so they arrived in camp. Sir John was brought to the base in an ambulance, and on the following day was sent by train to Capetown. Needless to say, he received every attention, and everyone is glad to hear that his wound is not considered dangerous.