West Coast Times SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 1900. THE PROGRESS OF THE WAR

West Coast Times, Issue 11565, 31 March 1900, Page 2

West Coast Times SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 1900. THE PROGRESS OF THE WAR

For the laat fortnight or so there has been very little movement in either the central or the eastern lines of advance. The British forces south of Blcemfontein have been busily engaged clearing the country and intercepting the scitterad bodies of Boer troops moving north. Notwithstanding all the precautions taken these latter seem to have

be°n si • :essful in making for their objective at Winburg by skirting the Bas utoland border, occasionally entering upon it. It is difficult to arrive at a correct estimate of the number who have thus got past the British lines but they must be very considerable, probably from six to eight thousand men. It is disappointing to find that they should have thus been able to elude General French and his mobile mounted forces, but they have contrived to do.it, somehow. In the south west of the Free State General Clements is engaged clearing the country before him but there are still bands of Boers in chat locality sufficiently strong to threaten the western railway and to cut off any small parties of British troftops that may expose themselves. This, it may^be remarked, is in Southern Free State, whose people, we are told, hailed the British as deliverers and rushed to the various centres bo that they might surrender. We may expect a good deal of this sort of thing for some time; a partial guerilla warfare which will result

in many British befog shot before thd disturbing tlsments have been disposed of '" " Th re have been sevei al risings amongst the Dutch people in Uape Colony, those in We?t Griqualand being the worst and necessitating the presence of General Loid Kitchener. A number of Piieska and Sunnyside rebels are already in Cape 1 own undergoing trial an.l the reaont Expedition" in Griquafand will add to that number. Tbe third New Zealand Contingent have landed at Eest London, from which it may' be inferred tlut they will find employment amongst the disaffected in Enat Griqualand, doing the same class of work that devolves upon the S«conds in the West. Patrolling a disaffected country is attended with a considerable amount of danger but the Colonials are better adapted for it than the British troops and hence their employment?. In the East General Buller 16 preparing f&r an advance, bub whether that advance will be with thb object of forcing an en • trance into tho Free State through Van Reenan'g P?ss or to give an acconnt of General Louis Botha, to the north, is not made clear. We still think it would be suicidal to attempt an advance iv force by the railway line, aB tho cost in lives would be too heavy, and strongly favor a flank movement on the extreme east, with the view, if possible, of intersepting the Boer forces at Yolksrust. General Buller may not consider his enemy sufficiently mobile for this purpose but if such is the case there would be nothing to prevent his masking both railway lines and then deploying past Pomeroy in the direction of De Jaager's drift, pushing his mounted troops across the Buffalo past Utrecht and towards Yoltrrust, and, if possible, destroying the railway line at (hat point so as to prevent the Boers from takiug their heavy guns baok to Pretoria. The movements we have indicated would not only render Louis Botha's position at Biggarsberg valueless, but would lead to the evacuation of the whole of Na'-al and facilitate the occupation of south-east Transvaal. As well aa making a flank attack to the north of the Yaal river, it would furnish one of the great wings of the British army, presently to converge on Pretoria. On the western line General Methuenhas been rapidly pushing his advance towards Mafeking. Already the Vaal has been crossed and considerable progress ahead been made whilst reinforcements rapidly coming up are secunug the positions already gained. We would not be surprised to find the next attack oE maguitude made from this quarter. Whilst Lord Roberts is at Eloemfontein arranging matters of administration and pacify ing the southern portion of the Free State, he could be rapidly accumulating troops on tho western line and across the Vaal so as to spring upon Klerksdorp. With thfc whole of their communications thus threatened the Boers would be com pelled to abandon northern Free State and proceed with all has'tt to secure their connection at Yiljoen's drift. Such tac : tics would be easy of fulQaoent and effect much more than direct attacks p^st Winburg and Kroonstad. A cable received this morning says Methuan's force has been recalled to Kimberley We question the accuracy of this stite'ment. Surli a retrograde movement wruld be most up wise. The cable tells us Maf eking was sif c on the 26th. As it has taken eight day,s. s in the pat>t before news from Mafekins could reach us we are inclined to think the date should have been the 16th. If the 26*;h was the correct date it would indicate that the couutry ia comparatively clea' 1 ' and Lord Meihuon's troops were making rapid progress north. The latest news from Colonel Plainer wis some what omir.ois, unless his o!\jeofc waa to draw the Boer Commandant Snyjran norih in orC.er to give Co'onel Baden Powell a breathing space pending Me thuen's advance. From latest accounts the condition of the gallant defenders of Mafekinghid greatly improved.

Everything is khaki nowadays, writes; the London correspondent of the Sydney £ Morning Herald. There is not a haber- ' dasher's shop in London that has not got a fine supply of khaki tie.3 and khaki I waistcoats on show.' You can 6ven e;et a J khaki colored bowler has, while' slouch • hats of the colonial type for country wear j seem to be coming into fashion. The 1( ladies, it is hardly necessary to say, are making the moat of the prevailing craze, and one hears of whole khaki costumes worn by ladies, with hats of the New South Wales Lancer type to match. Among the varied thronsr which visits the War Office daily, in order to read the latest announcements from the seat of war, are *o be seen a number of ladies in khaki coloured dresses, trimmed with the colors of the iegimeots to which their husbands, fathers, or brothers belong. I am afraid even very distant relatives are turned to account in this connection, where the colours and the costume happen to be becoming. I have heard, too, of Buller ties, and Kitchener pocket handkerchiefs, and Baden-Powell bats, though as I cannoc claim to be a fashionable expert I can only retail these facts at second Hand. .1 have certainly seen gloves marked up in some of the shops under various fancy names supposed to enable tbe fair sex to do honor to the Colonial troops who are serving in South Africa. There has been an increase in the number of dishes going by Australian or Janadian designations at the restaurants. j 1 , . 1 • i > ' 1 1 • • j i

A very funny incident was witnessed the other day by a good many people in front of the Hotel de l'Furope (says the Singapore Free Press). A British blue jacket was coming along the road, quietly smoking his pipe, when two big foreigners talked past him, turning their heads as they did so and spitting repeatedly in his direction, in order to exhibit their opinion of Britain in general and that blue jacket in particular. Jack halted, puzzled, but only for a moment. Be swiftly went at one of them and floored him on the road with a good knock out stinger under the chin, the other foreigner taking to his heel* • Jack then, planting one foot with deliberation on the chest of his prostrate msulter, took off his hat, and sang in a loud voice a stave of "Rule Britannia." After •which, putting his hands together in an attitude of prayer, and looking devoutly upwards, he ejaculated solemnly *'God save the Queen." TheD, removing his foot from the foreign gentleman's tummy, he "stood clear", looking down at him for a moment, and, pulling out a box of matches, carefully relit his pipe and leisurely sauntered off, puffing away contentedly without once looking back. Mr D. W. Virtue writes to the New Zealand Times :—Your very kind insertion of my shoit note in your issue of Thursday morning emboldens me to ask you to publish the following particulars. Some years ago, scarlet fever of a very severe type visited Hokitika ; it was in nearly every house where there were children, and mauy died. There was no respect of persona. Indeed, so fatal and alarming did the plague become, that the late Mayor (Mr Jack) was waited upon and asked to set apart a day for hpmjliatton aud prayer. He at ouce complied, and a close holiday wus kept; every place of business was closed, and all the churches were opened. I may saythat, at least formally, the day was more strictly kept than Sunday. Well, what was tho result ? From that day not another cose occurred, and those who were ill of the disease recovered. So remarkable was thectse thac a short ac count of it appeared in some London journah Dr Mayberly, on his way from England to Sydney, called upon me at Hokitika to get fuller particulars. Yet how alow we are to publicly acknowledge God when his judgments are abroad m the earth. Why do we wait? Ido not suppose we are anxious to think it neccs sary to have the plague more in cvi U.noe than it is at present. " A Recent Arrival," writing to tho Natal Mercury about the condition of Johannesburg, say 3 that in that city there is very little disorder and nsfc much drunkenness. At the present tim°, beyond mait'al law, th -re ara not n aiy actual signs of tbe war, but the number of women and children wlio go about in bV.sk clothing shows that many a husband and father will return no more. The opinion of those best able to ju ge (says the writer iv tho Durban newspaper) is that Johannesburg will not be a scene of battle, although warlike preparations have been made. Toe Boer Imny will most probably fall back on Pretoria and leave Johannesburg to its fate, but whether the people will endeavour to gratify their vengeancj before leaving it is not easy to predict. That they look upon upon Johannesburg as the cause of all the trouble is a fad. It ia believed by men who ought to know that the fort and the public buildings will be destroyed. The Boers certainly are prepared to injure the shafts and head-geai3 at the mines, and the threat, that the town should be set on fire, is one that i 3 continually uttered, even by the women, who assert that they will carry i t out themselves.

A Wellington correspondent fcelejrapbs:—There are 10,000 crates of cbe.ese low awaiting shipment from the North [stand. An. expert' tells me it has been a good year for cheese' shippers, and that a lemfcmtl is riow. springing up in Australia; j Thd^atibiial'Dairy Association arid/the, Tarauaki freezing Company are now endeavoring to charter the Ran >atira fr->m the Shaw, Savill and Albioa Company The Hon W. C. Walker, Minister of Education, had a narrow escape from a serioas accident recently. At the invitation of the Ishburton County Council he cime from Wellington to be present at the opening of the Ruapuna water race. The party drove out to the head woiks, 32 miles from Ashburton, and had just started on the return journey, when the waggonette containing the Minister and four other gentlemen was driven over a small rock and capsized! The wagonette was smashed, and the party penned inside, but they gut out none the worse for the mishap. The interest token in New Zealand by our '' American cousins " is not confined to the adult popu ation. The school children of various parts of the States have for some time past been sending communications to schools in New Zealand giving information about America, and asking similar information respecting this colony. By the lasb San Francisco mail the Education Department in Wellington received a letter from Mr D. G. llurlburt, 83rd. Street School, Chicago, enclosing for the pupils of the same grade cf one of the Wellington schools a letter from the ten to thirteen year old pupils of his school. The epistle commences : — " Dear Friends,— We, the pupils of 83rd Street School, Chicago, have been studying in our geography about your city and the country of New Zealand . We would i like to know more about the City of Wellington than our geography tells us, and we thought we would write you and tell you something about Chicago and ask you to write about your city." The letter, which is a long and interesting one. is, cays the Post, to be forwarded to the headmaster '•? the Clyde quay State School, to be lead to the pupils there. A peculiarly pathetic feature in the ta c of Margaret Ueffennan, the servant girl now lying under sentence of death for drowning her infant in Melbourne, was the accidental loss, by burning, of the letter addressed by her to her people. When the unfortunate g'.rl was loft in the city almost penniless, and with a baby in her arms, in her 'desperation Bhe wrote a letter to the country township -where her father and mother resided, By an extraordit.ary piece of ill .fortune, the very day that the letter arrived, the local post office caught' fire and the whole ot the" mail bags were deUtoyei. Thus fa'ling to heir from her parents, the unfortunate girl concluded that they had declined to help her, in the same way as did afterwards the Y.W.C. A. and the W.O.T.U. -*and stung to frenzy, committed the fatal deed.