KAFFIR TELEGRAPHY

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11499, 4 February 1903, Page 7

KAFFIR TELEGRAPHY

Mr Douglas Blackburn, writing from Natal to the "Spectator," mentions the two following cases of Kaffir telegraphy, for the accuracy of which he vouchee: —

Case I.—At 9 a.m. on a Monday a Kaffir herd-boy was attacked by a bull. He defended himself -with a crowbar. Kaffir and bull were de"ad by 10 a.m. At 12 tlie same day B, a -tanner residing 42 miles from the scene of the tragedy, wrote to A a business letter, appending this poetscript:—"My Kaffirs are saying your herdboy stabbed your red Devon bull with a* long knife and that both are dead. Hope it is only a Kaffir yarn." That letter was despatched by mounted messenger before half-past 12 the same day. Case 2.—A Kaffir was being tried for manslaupjhter at Johannesburg. At Am the , afternoon an old Knffir woman on r> Boer's farm 38 miles from Johannesburg told me and others that the boy had been acquitted, and that the principal witness against him had been taken to prison. As the Kaffir had pleaded guilty at the preliminary hearing and was to be undefended, this resu'.t seemed extremely improbable. Later we learned that the Kaffir was given counsel at the last, moment, the plea of guilty withdrawn, and he was acquitted nt a quartei , past 3 p.m. At 4 o'clock that afternoon the principal witness was knocked down by a cab in th-e etreet <md taken to the gaol hospital, where he died. In each of these cases the accurate news travelled in less than half the time that would have been required by the fastest horse, bearing in mind the broken, almost virgin, and roadless country that would have to be traversed. There are many such cases known to South Africans.