THE SECOND NEW ZEALAND CONTINGENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 6, 8 January 1900, Page 2

THE SECOND NEW ZEALAND CONTINGENT.

Wellington', January 6. ; Dr. Fenwick, the medical officer , attached to tho contingent, has received word that he is to be attached to the troops throughout tho campaign, instead of fcr the voyage to Capetown only. Trooper Chapman is making good progress towards recovery. Speaking at tho llutt last night, the Premier said tho Governor had received a communication from tho Home authorities stating that they are short of medical men for tho Trafisvaal, and asking that tho colonics should, if possible, send men fully equipped with j the contingent. This, Mr. Seddon i stated, it was intended to do. As the contingent complement is uow full, the greatest activity prevails in the camp, the men being exeivised J morn, noon, and night in various drillsj and shooting. I Wellington, January 7. I Bishop Wallis held a service at tho Is cwtown camp this morning, but the steady rain which fell from early morning militated against the atteniiauce of local volunteers and public. During the afternoon tho weather cleared, and the camp was crowded with visitors. Wednesday is now mentioned as the likely date of the departure of the contingent. THE QUESTION OF A THlltD CONTINGENT. THE PKElllEli'rt VIEWS. CitiusTcuuttcn, January 6. The editor of the J'rass having acquainted tho Premier with the ellect of the replies received from members of Parliament and Mayors, regarding the question of despatching more men lo tho Transvaal, has received the following telegram from Mr. Soddon :

—''Am delighted to hoar that 'the friwe piea for the IVdtwvaal ]

is practical men to the Transvaal of than Fund. As 80111 contingent is tike initiative in reserves and enrolling to giving effect to the «■ lnentionod in your teley extra! strain on 4 Unauti -' sending the contingent proved stands in the way of venimcnt sending any more, Jm 1 cost of transport is provided by 1 tary contributions, there in sufficient H » voted by Parliament to meet the pay H t and equipment. In round numberi, ■ . every hundred men means £2,600 " ■ Further replies augment the 9 opinion that a third contingent ought ■ to be sent. 9 Fbildinq, January 6. ■ At a public meeting, last night, II ■ was decided to support the movement I for sending a third contingent to South M Africa. A strong representative com- ■ l " miUco was appointed to cany out the I proposals. Subscriptions, of money, ■ horses, and fodder are bang received. 1 chiefly for the "More Hen Fund.* fl

The amount already subseribed hear* 1 amounts to XISO. The local MO* I tioneers hold a special hone sale bet* J in a fortnight, their commissions fronyfl which will be handed over to the fua£^ MORE QUEER STORIES OF BOKB . INHUMANITY. Mr Henry Bagge, la the K«u> Ttfh '< Herald, declines to aeoept Miss di*l * Sclireiner's defence of too Boors. At Majuba Hill, he kits, he saw the Bon ' lire at our wounded men, sud shoal Corporal Fanner through the inn with ' which he was upholding the Bed Cross flag. He seized the lag with his Ml • ' hand and held it aloft; then they shot' i him through the left. arm. * ' managed to hold up the flag &y getting > the staff into his boot, and the BoSU shot him through the leg, and the flag of mercy fell with the gallant Farmer, t who was rewarded subsequently with 1 the Victoria Crow. 'Almost rimnl--1 taneously the Boers shot aod killed I Surgeon-Major Lanyon, who WM taking a wounded soldier a hypodermic injection of morphine. The same correspondent tells a stay df King " Mankoroane, of Bechuanaland, wm said: " I would rather see all Beohu* II analand taken away from me by th* English than to have the Boon settle " in it."

NATIVE BSFOQBS& Writing from Ladysmith on October j 11, Mr. Nevison, of toe CkronioU, givm I a graphic description of a train of " native refugees passing through froa the Transvaal. He gays:—"For the grotesque side of refuge uohapptn«« s \ one should see the Nairn traia which , comes down every night from New- j mtlo way, and disappears l tomdnbr Maritzburg and safety. Native work** of every kind—aervwta, laborer*, I miners—are throwing up (hair plani and rushing toward* the eea. THMb^ -vn .-TKtfe Englisheay boiu-ijomas sufficient expUoatioa tHH their T*twic. The Govarnnp&t now fitted opaa^aratfcft cross seats &mn for th«ir 'convenience, and so, hardly visible in the darkness, the bleat OMfll rolls up to the pfotfono. Ia» stoutly black hand* with pinHA , ' palms are thrust through the t>W / as in a monkey-hoote. Black liih4k ' jabber and click with excitementsj White teeth suddenly' appear boau nowhere. It is for bread aaa tin atw th*y clamor, and diagr «• pay. But a loaf cost* a thing costs a shilling bete, cojts half a crown, and on war. A shilling What is the good of the dusky hands are on. But if ancestry. Zulu's cries of fortunate man who and, gripping it his corner eyes to right and left

THE COST or XtnXBPRI

supposed to be reaping fortune* the war, but Fleet-street such is no the case.' Hm «Mt ' ning gool correspondents in Africa is prodigious. Mr. Harms worth has sent oat " specials " on acoount of • papers, at a cost, it is said, o £3OO a week, and this doe* not ilalnde i the Daily Mail resident oom«pondents in South Africa, or the great Mr. Steevens, who aiona oommands * I'iinio Minister's ralaij. What Mr. Harms worth felt when M read (1) that the wiios of LadysmitJi were out, and (2) that the Censor would henceforth allow no single newspaper to send , through more tban 250 words per diem 1 leave you to imagino. Then ther« is the JJaily Mail War Ex» press, at eighty miles an hour, to the Midlands. This was J&eant to he a record " boom," and so it would have been if "our contemporaries" had puffed it. But rival oewspapeni naturally did not incline to help a now departure of this kind, and both they J and the provincial Bras remained i bin ml Iy unconscious. Now the Daily' Mail Express (eighty miles an hour recollect) costs anything from at I—t £2OO per diem onwards, and up to tho present bookstall olerlci aver that 10,000 copies is the outside the paper gold jointly in LeioegtqM Slieilield, and Manchester. ■ jfif Tin: a::mvs shehlook holiohb Colonel Baden-Powel>, the defend* of Mafeking, is (says M.A.P ) the SI if*

Epc WntmMl of the British Army, for ■4 one hw employed the meti »-ds of the great detective of fiction t< more Mnpon. When he was in India, Baden-Fowfell used to make deductions ifro«n everyday incidents a regular practice, in order that he might complete his training as a successful cavalry scout. Here is an example of jpie Sherlock Holmes method which ■Oolonel Baden-Powell employs in ■Mooting. Riding one day across Iba open grass plain in Matabeleland, ■te suddenly noticed that the grass had Hbeen recently trodden down. Following jPp the track, he soon found that it was P» "spoor" of several women and boys, jpoing in the direction of the enemy. A tell-tale leaf, which he saw lying a law yards off the track—whereas there j Veto no trees for miles—convinced him | tbat the party had come from a village | ipse fifteen miles distant, where trees ,

with haves of this kind grew. The ktf tns damp, and smelt of native beer. Be guessed, therefore, that women and bay*, aeoording to their custom, had hint canying pots of native beer on heads, and that the mouths of the pots had been stopped with hanches of MM. That it was lying ten yards off the track showed to the military Sherlock Wnlmai that a wind had been Mowing at the time it fell. It was than nearly seven in the morning, and thete was no wind, but there had been a farecce about two hours before. . Powell read from these ra* trifling signs that during the ajpt a P®rty of women had taught beer from the village, fifteen m3tf distant, had taken it to the on the hills, arriving there abo«i six o'clock. He further guessed Muijheinen would probably start to I drink the beer at once, and that by the thw|«> mM reach them they would Tin gritting sleepy from it, and therefore iihlg liim a favorable chance of wwAiifapiiig their position. He accordingly followed the women's tracks, foandjthe enemy as he supposed, made Ids cfcervatians, and got away with valoaUe information without any diffi-