The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, APRIL 12, 1901.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 80, 12 April 1901, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, APRIL 12, 1901.

MILITARY RESOURCE. The admiration that was expressed for the resourcefulness of General BadenPowoll is increased as further infor'ination comes to hand. A writer in the Christchurch Press has been dealing with the matter in an able manner, and we take the privilege of quoting fully from that journal. The writer states : The heights to which the iuvontive ingenuity of man can attain under stress of necessity is told, “ a plain, unvarnished ,talo,” in the despatches of General Baden-Powell, relating to the memorable siege of Mafeking.' Iu the most matter-of-fact way, the chief of the band of heroes who so gallantly held the little town for so long a period, tells of the straits to which the garrison was put in order to provide means of offence and defence in the grim struggle. Ammunition was one of the things which soon began to require replenishing, and powder and bullets were manufactured without very much difficulty. The supply of rifle cartridge caps, however, was quickly exhausted, and without caps the cartridges were useless. A quantity of ordinary gun caps was available, but these wore too small for the rifle cartridges. The gunsmith of the place, however, conceived the idea of fixing in the caps with plaster of Paris, and the experiment served so well that the supply of cartridges was well maintained throughout the siege. Tho enemy were so daring, and on occasion pressed the defenders so hard, that it was felt that a stock of hand grenades would prove a valuable addition to the weapons of the defenders. Thereupon dynamite bombs were made up, in small potted meat and milk tins, slow match fuses being attached. It happened that the champion bait-thrower of Port Elizabeth, Sergeant Page, was among the garrison, and his skill with rod and line proved of groat assistance in the use of the bombs. With the aid of a whip stock and a short line, he was able to throw the Mafeking made bombs a distance of 100 yards, and with such accuracy that the Boers must have soon learned to dread his skill. But the ingenuity of the gallant little band produced a still greater triumph in the way of a warlike weapon. This was no less than a Gin. howitzer The barrel was a tube of steel, with iron rings sunk on in two tiers. The breach was a block of cast bronze, and the trunnions and rings were a similar solid casting. This gun throw a eighteen pound shell (also home made) a distance of 4000 yards. A simple but useful percussion fuse was made for the shells, tho butt end of a Lee-Metford cartridge being used as a detonator. A portable acetylene gas searchlight, made out of an engine light and a theodolite stand, proved a most useful invention, and a portable signalling lamp, readable at fifteen miles, was another valuable product of tire siege. Finding that the enemy fired through ordinary loopholes at short range, a special design of loophole was made out of steel plate, and proved most effective ; as also did a steel sap roller—a shield mounted on wheels, to be pushed in front of a party making a sap under fire. But it was not only in the matter j of providing munitions of war that necessity proved the mother of invention with the garrison, General Baden-Powell records that :—“Brawn was made from ox and horse hides and feet, and was much appreciated as meat.” Forage oats wero made into what is described as “ a good form of bread,” while a form of porridge known as “ sowens ” was made from the fermented bran o' oats, after the flour had been extracted for bread making. One hundred pounds of bran mixed with thirty-seven gallons of water, gave thirty-three gallons of “ sowens/’ and on tbig unsatisfying mixture both whites and natiyes were fed. The horses used for meat were, as a rule, so poor that it was found best to cut the flesh from the bones and mince it. The mince was then flavored with spice and saltpetre, and converted into sausages, the intestines of the animal serving for sausage skins. On such unappetising diet as this the residents and garrison of Mafeking kept high their spirits, and so resolutely and heroically kept tho British flag flying over tho little towli. Small wonder it is that among the many deeds of valour performed by British soldiers during the deadly struggle in South Africa, the gallant' defence of Mafeking takes a place in the foremost rank