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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3020, 1 March 1881, Page 2

Another disaster has occurred to the British forces operating against the Boers, and another proof is afforded, to use a colonial expression, of the folly of " sending a boy to do a man's work." The strength at the disposal of the Natal colony was quite insufficient to quell the uprising of the Boers, yet, with pigheaded courage, characteristic of British authorities, a war was entered upon without any preparation and with no adequate force. The Boers are united and determined to regain their independence, and every adult is both a horseman and a soldier. It is the story of the American war of independence repeated on a small scale. Accustomed to the saddle, uud trained from their youth in the hunting of wild beasts to the use of the rifle, naturally brave, and knowing every inch of the country, the Boers are more than a match for the semblance of an army that has been despatched against them. In the face of large masses of troops the Boers would offer no front for attack, but on two occasions recently we have learnt to our cost that they are not afraid of a pitched battle when forces are nearly equal, and that in bravery on the field they are every bit as good as we are. Into some of the causes of this miserable disaster we shall enter upon another occasion ; suffice it now to say that both the Boers and the English Government have gone too far for either to recede from a false position by the honorable means thix, it was hoped would be adopted. 'The defeat—the annihilation— of Sir George. Colley's little army, in the ethics of nations, calls for further efforts on both sides, for more bloodshed, for more useless waste of human life. It is impossible for England to withdraw, or to acknowledge inability to crush a mere handful of sheep and cattle farmers; while the successes of the Boers will promr.t tbem to follow up their victory and to inflict furthor losses on the British before reinforcements arrive. In the meantime England has again to mourn the loss of another batch of brave men whose lives have been sacrificed in the petty warfare that has for years been the feature of the colonisation of Southern Africa.