THE BURGHERS AND THE WAR.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4764, 23 June 1900, Page 4

THE BURGHERS AND THE WAR.

""The Boers now fully realise that they are beaten, and that the advent oi British" rule is but a matter of time." Such id the emphatic* statement made in the course of a very interesting narrative by Mr H. Michael, the engineer of the Pretoria Waterworks Company, who lately arrived' at : Capetown from the Transvaal. ' "In that case, why do they still 'figtft ? " was the" very natuVal inquiry. 1 " Because the idea has Been 'drumnVed" into them by their leaders that British rule to them will mean 1 th 6 6'6Mfi9eation of their p*ope*tyV the deprivation of their political rights, and their eventual reduction to the. status of white Kaffirs " • Mr Michael "proceeded, " These Lydenb'urg preparations have been proceeding for about a couple of months. The Government has , at its disposal the | Z.A.S.M. Workshops, with its fine plant, Delfos Brothers' factory, and the dynamite factory, besides Begbie's, at Johannesburg. M. Gurnburg has a large skilled staff at his disposal, comprising chiefly Hollanders, Frenchmen, Germans, and other nationalities. They are in a position to turn out, so they claim, 20 Maxim-Nor-denfeldts —what are called " pompoms " here — in a month. Tests are conducted outside Pretoria, and the weapons carry all right, apparently up to 5000 yds. Then shells are also manufactured. For cartridges they still have a very large stock of percussion caps, and use up the old cases, for which they pay Is 6d per 100 They can make plenty of powder, but not percussion caps or cartridge cases, and once either of these latter gave out they would be done for, as far as rifle rmmunition is concerned. A wonderful change is coming over the Boer. The war has taught him much. He has little feeling against tbe Britisher, and were it not for his wife and little daughter and his other female relation?, things might go very well immediately hostilities cease, j Bat tbe said relations a^e often very j (litter) especially choso who have auf~ i fered bereavement, and many have suffered sadly. It is to be feared that tKey will prove tbe greater stumblingblock in the way of fusing the races. The British victories have bad an unexpected effect. At first they were a Bevete shock, Paardeberg especially. Tbat people declined to believe for some time. Now, strange to say, they are causing some of the official section, at all events, to adopt a more favorable attitude towards things English."