AN INCIDENT OF THE WAR. SPORTING.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 7 January 1901, Page 3

AN INCIDENT OF THE WAR.

SPORTING.

Mr. Hales, of the Daily News, relates a grim incident of Spionkop. As the Boors marched among their dead, I hey saw a sergeant lying at full length, shot through the brain. Even in death the man looked like some fighting machine suddenly gone out of order. His rifle was pressed against his shoulder, his left hand grasped the barrel on the under side, the forefinger of the right hand pressed the trigger lightly, the barrel rested upon a rock, and his death-dulled eye still glared along the sights, for dissolution had come to him just as he bent his head to fire at those who shot him, and now his hands had stiffened in the unbcndablc stiffness of eternal sleep. A Boer soldier saw (he sergeant as lie lay, and with rude hands grasped the rifle by the barrel and tried to jerk it from the dead man’s grip, but as he pulled he brought the rifle into line with his own breast, and the unyielding finger on the trigger did the rest, the rifle spoke from the dead man’s hand, and the bullet, passing through the Boer’s heart, laid him beside the Briton. “Sounds like a journalistic lie, does it not ? ” says Mr Hales. “ But it is eternal truth, all the same, for the comrades of the Boer who died that day, killed by a dead man, told mo the tale himself, and he was one of those who buried the dead Dutchman on the slope of Spionkop.”

The Hokitika Races —Second Day

(per press association.)

Hokitika, This Day. The following are the additional results for Saturday’s races: — Hurdles—Derry 1, Nayborn 2. Apremete was first past the post, but the horse was disqualified for the race, and Mitchell, the rider, for three years for boring. Div £1 13s. Westland Handicap—Bimetallist 1, Skirmisher 2, Hypnotist 3" Div £3l9s. Eimu Trot—Honduras 1, St James 2, Jenny 3. A protest for galloping was not sustained. Div £2 18sAuction Handicap—Sarah Jennings 1, Tukurangi 2. Div £4 ss. Final —Bimetallist 1, Petroline 2. Div £2 Bs.