LETTER FROM A JOHANNESBURG REFUGEE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIII, Issue 15000, 22 November 1899, Page 2

LETTER FROM A JOHANNESBURG REFUGEE.

Messrs Lucas Bros., engineers, of Christchurch, have received the following letter from their ' brother, Mr J. O. Lucas, dated from East London, Cape Colony, on Oct. 17th : —"I arrived here on Saturday night last, after a ride of twenty-four hours in a coal truck, and for a similar time in a' railway carriage. War was declared the day before I left Johannesburg. The Boers searched us thoroughly for bar gold. It is quite untrue about taking money from men in the Customs. They were taking all kinds of goods in Johannesburg, and raising £15 from each shopkeeper. 1 saved my horses, until the day I left, but I suppose they were seized then. After nailing, up the house, I had _to abandon my furniture, and dd not expect to see- any of it again. I brought my revolver right* through, as I lad, a Government permit to do so. On the Cape railway the officials did everything .they could to help the people, and did not worry much about their tickets. There are sufficient troops to hold the important positions until reinforcements arrive. ' Everything here is very dear, in fact, I could not get- a bed for the first night of my stay, and slept in the train. There are hundreds of women here living in tents."