NOTES ON THE WAR.

Patea Mail, Volume III, Issue 219, 16 May 1877, Page 2

NOTES ON THE WAR.

“ Hospodah,” writing in tiie Wellington Argus , says • —“ Tbo liucuiano have been twice repulsed at Kars and compelled to fall back. Heavy loss is said to have been inflicted on them, which we can well imagine when we remember how they look to victory by force of numbers, and liow terrible the means arc for effecting slaughter amongst largo bodies of troops in modern warfare. This is the speedy but scarcely glorious return contemplated by the Czar in his address to his troops at the declaration of war. Those delays must tax Russia to the utmost, and it scarcely seems possible that she can carry out her enterprise so successfully as she hoped at the commencement. The order for the Mediterranean Squadron to rendezvous at Crete, is also significant. England is fortunate in having a Conservative Government in power at a crisis like the present. Much as the Liberals have done in domestic legislation, long experience lias shown that the Conservative party arc usually bettor prepared for outside danger than their opponents. Apart from this, wo may note the reported annexation of the Transvaal Republic, in /Southern Africa. The Transvaal Republic is an inland State, between the Vaal on the south (hence called Transvaal, the meaning of which is across the Vaal) and the Limpopo River on the north, founded by Dutch boeus emigrating from the* Cape Colony after the conquest and acquisition of the Cape Colony by England from the Dutch, Its surface is an elevated plateau, thinly wooded in some parts, but generally affording excellent pasture. There lias for some time been a fend between the Dutch hows and the aboriginal inhabitants of the adjoining district of Kaffraria, and the former being in the habit of getting the worst of it, have sought the assistance of the British Power. The Kaffirs, as England has before now found to her cost, aie no mean foes, and may yet prove troublesome. The situation may very aptly be compared to that of the King’s territory and the Waikato district in the North Island of New Zealand, except that the Maoris are becoming more peacefully disposed than the African Kaffirs.”