CONDENSED CABLEGRAMS.

Manawatu Herald, 19 April 1900, Page 2

CONDENSED CABLEGRAMS.

The Transvaal.

"The Times" states, with reference to the recent over-running of the south-eastern part of the Free State by the Boers, that Lord

Roberts expected that rading would : commence the moment a halt was < made in his advance, such as the present temporary stay at Bloem- y fontein. But half the object of the enemy failed, Lord Roberts refusing, owing to complications in the vicinity to engage them. [ BOERS AT BRANDFORT. News has bon received that a patrol of Kitchener's horse reconnoitred to within six miles of i>nndfort, a town on the main line of i_ilway, about thirty-five miles north of Bloemfontein. President Kruger is said to be going to attend a conference of commandant's at Brandfort, where it is estimated that only two thousand Boers are in laager. It is reported that the Transvaalers have decided to withdraw to the Vet river, which crosses the railway about twenty miles north of Brandfort and to retire across the Vaal, if pressed, leaving the Free Staters to their fate. AT WEPENER. The latest information shows that during four days' fighting at Wepener on the Basutoland. border, in the south-east of the Free State, the British casualties numbered 150. They were eighteen of the garrison killed and 132 wounded. The besiegers are reported to be fatigued and despondent. They greatly fear that they will be surrounded. Several of their guns have been disabled, and four' of their commandants wounded. Brigadier-General E. Brabant's division started on Saturday from Aliwal north for Rouxville, and will thence proceed to Wepener, MajorGeneral Sir Herbert Chermside cooperating with the relieving column. BOMBARDMENT OF WARRENTON. Lieut.-General Lord Methuen sent a flying column east of Zwartzkopjesfontein. The enemy, however, retreated the moment they found themselves in danger of being outflanked. The British trenches at Warrenton forty-four miles north of Kimberley were heavily shelled by a Boer force on Friday.

The cannonade, however, did no serious damage. COLONEL KEKEWICH'S OPERATIONS. will be at Boshof, a town about thirty-five miles north-west of Kimberley, where a few foreign mercenarias were captured recently by a British force. BOER VINDICTIVENESS. Lord Roberts bas strongly remonstrated with President Kruger for treating the prisoners from South African volunteer forces as criminal? and not supplying them with medicine. ATTEMPTED ESCAPE. Colonel Schiel, who was wounded and taken prisoner at the battle of Elands Laagte, and was recently sent from Simon's Town to St. Helena, made a daring attempt, with two other Boer prisoners, to escape aboard a Dutch cruiser lying in Jameseown harbour , The three were however, captured and are now confined in the citadel at St. Helena. CAPTURE OF A MILLIONAIRE. The Boers haVe captured Mv Frank Smith, the well-know millionaire diamond mine-owner, at Barkly West, about twenty miles from Kimberly.

GENERAL WHITE. Lieutenant-General Sir George White, who commanded Ladyamitb during the siege, has arrived at Southampton. On landing, General White wa? given an enthusiastic ovation. H received upwards of a thousand telegrams of greeting and compliment, including one from the Queen. SPREAD OP BEDITION. The Capetown correspondent of the "Daily News" telegraphs that there are sensational indications of a rebellious spirit at Caledon, sixty miles south-east of Capetown and wellendam, 120 miles east of Capetown. The sympathisers with the Boers in these districts are, he states, awaiting a favourable opportunity for rising. THE RAND MINES. An Austrian named Epler, commanding the Rand mines police, has arrested fourteen men who, acting under the orders of Munnick, the >tate Mine Engineer, were preparing to dynamite the mines and machinery. Prior to taking this step Epler secured the Transvaal Government's cancellation of Munnick's authority. N TAL.

Native scouts report that the Boers have retired beyond the Biggarsberg Mountains in Natal after dynamiting three collieries at Wessell's Nek, about ten miles north of Elands Laagte, on the main line of railway. OFFER OF TROOP 3. The Governor of N.S. Wales has cabled to the Hon. J. Chamberlian j offering the services of 500 infantry- 1 men, who had been encamped since

the last bushmen's was despatched, at Imperial rates of pay, for service in .South Africa. LORD ROBERTS. A party of Australian troops ambushed and captured three Johannesburg policemen at Glen Siding, on the Modder river, about seventeen miles north of Bloemfontein. BRITISH PRISONERS. Lord Roberts complains that British prisoners are forced to bivouac on the open veldt. There are ninety cases of enteric among the prisoners now at Waterval, outside of Pretoria. Mr Adalbert Hay, American Consul at Pretoria, has received 6& tons of presents for the British prisoners. UNWELCOME VISITORS. Sir : lfred Miliner, British High Commissioner of South Africa, witb the assent of Lord Raberts, Com-mander-in-Chief, has complained that a great number of visitors come • to South Africa without special call or business. He specially refers to ladies, who, he says, are greatly hampering the military and civil officers in the execution of tbeir duties. BOER AMMUNITION. The •< Daily Mail" states that two German Maxim guns and a, quantity of ammunition, destined for Pretoria, have been detained at Delagoa Bay by the Portuguese authorities. AN EXTRAORDINARY RECOVERY. Lieutenant H. B. G. Macartney, of the Royal Fusiliers, formerly of Victoria, who was wounded at the battle of Pieter's Hill, fought in ' February last, during General Buller's advance to La_ysmith, is now convalescent, though a ballet had passed through his head from ear to ear. MISCELLANEOUS. It was found by the colonial troops who traversed the route that weUs along the road to Eenhardt had been poisoned by rebel settlers. It transpires that Colonel Schiel's scheme to escape from St Helena was discovered through the blunder of a boatman. Schiel had bribed '

the man to carry a letter to Dutch cruiser, but by mistake he delivered itonboardH.M.S. Niobe. v