NEW ZEALANDERS AT THE FRONT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 6709, 30 May 1900, Page 4

NEW ZEALANDERS AT THE FRONT.

' Mr B. Esfcall, of NfHJJeri has received " a letter from his liniifiifc^'' "^ Estall (formerly olTfieDßaftw^k.Wellington), wl>o is now a Corporal in\he 13th Field Battery, Ladysmith, Natlb" Under date, March 29th, he writes :%, 4 Just fancy, six weeks on horse flesh), , with a quarter pound mealie bread, Mjr word, I have often been hungry, and would have given the world for a square teed. Well, 1 daresay, you thought we wouJa have to surrender to the Boers. -It djua look black now and then, especially when we were starving, but »*" raon't think we would have given in till they had killed the lot of us, They had two or three good tries, but to no purpose. The fight on the 6th January was the worst we had, some 21 hours' hard slogging, and the gun at which I was on duty fired over 100 shrapnel shells. . . , We saw a lot of Boers crossing our front, and let fly at them with two guns, the shells bursting right amongst them, which must have had a S good effect. The next minute the Boer artillery engaged us with eight guns. We soon got the small guns of the Boers under control, but they turned a 'Long Tom 'on to us. His fh-Bt shell went over us with a scream, and the next one burst in die ground three feet over me. \ Then a shrapnel shell burst close by my head, the concussion knocking me down. The chaps say that how I escaped was a wonder. We fought in that place for about six hours, and tnen we had to shift over to help the 42nd Battalion, and together we slogged away till 10 o'clock at night; in many places we fought hand to hand. . . , I think we will have one more big fight in .Natal, and then it won't be long before the war is finished."