CONDENSED CABLEGRAMS.

Manawatu Herald, 21 October 1899, Page 2

CONDENSED CABLEGRAMS.

The Transvaal.

A report received from a native source states that an attack on Mafeking has been made by the Boers, who, however, were badly defeated. News has been received of an attack made by Boers upon an armoured repairing train on a portion of the trunk line which runs along the Transvaal border to the north of Mafeking.

In the fighting that ensued two of the assailants were killed and three wounded. On the British side nine men were wounded.

The 3rd battalion of the Grenadier Guards and the Ist battalion of the Coldstream Guards will embark at Gibraltar for South Africa on the 25th inst.

The British have destroyed the highway bridge at Hopetown, on the Capetown-Kunberley railway, close, to the south-western border of the Free State.

An outlander mounted corps, a thousand strong, has been formed at Durban.

The Boers have looted Ingogo and

Ingagane, towns in North Natal, near the border, and they are also robbing refugees, including Kaffirs. On the Natal side the Boers are subdividing their forces, and entrenching themselves in the various mountain passes.

Colonel Sir W. P. Symons, commanding at Ladysmith, reports that the Boer horses are in wretched condition, and that the men themselves are worn out.

A Reuter's message states that the German steamer Kaiser, was chased by the British second-class cruiser Thetis.

Fearing capture, the Kaiser unloaded 4000 cases of ammunition at Port Said.

The ammunition was re-shipped for Hamburg.

me Kaiser had a number of passengers, who icluded some German officers bound for the Transvaal.

In view of threats made by the Boers that they would murder any English remaining in the Transvaal,^ Mr Chamberlain, Secretary of Sate for the Colonies, has warned President Kruger that he will be held responsible for acts which are contray to the usages of civilisation.

The " Globe" states that the Boers . ' have offered a reward of £5000 for Mr " Cecil Rhodes, dead or alive.

Nine thousand Kaffir miners, in charge of two Englishmen, walked from Johannesburg to Lady smith, a distance of about two hundred miles.