NEW ZEALAND FOURTH CONTINGENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 36, 14 February 1900, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND FOURTH CONTINGENT.

Dunediu, February 13, Horses for the Ofcago section of the contingent are beginning to arrive from the country, where agents are buying them. There are 90 horses in sight, so that plenty are available as the men go into camp. TOMMY ATKINS TO MR. KIPLING. I The following reply to the " Absentminded Beggar" is now going the rounds of the Press:— You've done ns lots of kindness, Mr. Kipling, in the past; You've taught that we are human, any how. * But I do not like the things as you have said of ua the lastNo ! it's jolly hard of you to slate us ' now. lam a bloomin' Tommy, but I've saved a pound or two, -And I'm spliced to my old woman on the square; So I take my pen in Africa to write these lines to you For to say I do not think your words is fair. Our job! Your job! Yours may bring most praise; (Gets two-fifty down for a song and gives it all away 1) But whether one writes, or sings, or fights in these advertising days, To boom yer work is the way to make it pay—pay —pay 1 We're not all absent-minded, and our weaknesses is not Always those as you have pointed out so kind; For lots of us is steady chaps, and some of i us had got Good characters, d'ye see, to leave behind. There's some of us is rips, no doubt there's ! some what drink their pay, J And some what leaves their girls behind them, too, But most of us is fair and square whatever you may say, Not a bit like that darned' Tommy' drawn by you. Our job 1 Your job 1 Yours may bring most praise; (Gets a hundred quid a week, and gives it all away!) But whether one writes, or recites, or fights in these advertising days. To boom yer job is the way to make it pay—pay —pay! You're a kiudly-hcartod beggar, and your inllueiice is great, And there's thanks, I don't mind owning, due to you, 13ut it hurts a man who loves his shop when them wliose words lias weight Says things you know as well as him ain't true. We thank you all for giving—whilst we're getting nasty raps, It's well to know our wives and kids is right; But yeur giving, please remember, not to rips but honest chaps, I As is not a bit the worse because they fight. I Our job! Your job! Yours may bring most praise; (Get what you liko to ask for I a tune, and give all away !) But whether one writes, or paints, or fights in these advertising days. To boom yerself is the way to make it pay—pay—pay!

WAR ITEMS. Tlie Rev. JJugli Price Hughes, preaching at bt. James's liall, 011 a recent Sunday, entitled Lis address " Why there is War." The answer was found, he said, in Isaiah xxv., 7. which promises that God will destroy the covering i f ignorance cast over all peoples. At the present, he continue;!, nations failed to see that happiness •,vas only secured by promoting the happiness of other nations. But though war was inconsistent with both Christianity and common-sense, he could not at present accept the Quaker position. (Cries of approval and protest.) As the world was yet constituted, there were worse evils than war. (Loud applause, followed by some cries of dissent, and prolonged disturbance caused by a lady standing up, waving a book, and persistently wailing something which could not be distinguished near the platform.) If anybody present took the Quaker view—(cries of "We do," and " Order.") Very well, let those who took that view, whick he respected, be honest—(A Voice: " Are you honest ?") —and let them agitate for disbandnient of the Army and sale of the fleet (loud cheers.) He advocated international arbitration and all other means of preventing war long before the people who were now most conspicuous and vociferous in unjustly attacking their own country (renewed applause). How did th« Transvaal lioers treat the natives? According to Mi'. Kilner, one of their fundamental laws was that no native should ever own a foot of land ; whereas jnder the British flag he had the same rights as ourselves. Until last year the Boer Government did not oven recognise marriage among the natives— ( li Shame ") —but treated them like animals. (A voice: "So they do at Kimberley.") Then he would put it down at Kimberley and in the Transvaal, too (cheers). Had not our fellowcountrymen in the Transvaal a claim upon us, even though some of them i A'ere millionaires? There were quite [ as many millionaires on the Boer side, ( but they happened to be French, German, and Belgian. The people of our own race who petitioned for justice s were 38,000, of whom probably not 38 were inillippaires. During the last twenty years the Boer Government had violated every principle of civil and p religious freedom. There would be no hope of peace south of the Zambesi ; till this corrupt tyranny was destroyed for ever. It would, he trusted, be destroyed, but we would treat the Boers with the justice, honesty, and humanity that they had refused to us ■ (applause).

HOW GATACKE GOT KIB NICKNAME. An Indian correspondent of M.A.P. tells a little story in referenda to tho restless activity of General GatacreJ He was in command of a district in India, and there had been a field day. This, with Gutacre at the head of means I%'ood deal more than it dees with the ordinary general. Xuere was long marching, forced marching, and mimic hill warfare in full field order, and Tommy sweated for hours. How many miles had been covered I wiil not attempt to say. Some allege twenty, others 120, but anyhow tin 1 long day was at an end, and, dishevelled Mid f'jQtjjOiQj the Vwpn ipamM

e into camp. 'Twas tiien tnut j heard this delightful little dialogue " Tired, Bill ?" said a private to a com 1 rade. " No!" unblushingly came the 1 reply. " Well, Bill, .seeing as how it's all over, I thinks I shall just drop intc } the canteen and have a quart of ale! t What are you going to do, Bill?" , There was a pause. " Do, 'Enery ?" said the dust-begrimed Tommy, "Well, \ 'Enery, I cjhall just go and have a bit wash, and then I think I'll go for a walk." The tale went round many a table in the land of exile, and no one who knew Gatacre failed to laugh outright when they heard it, Tommy thinks the world of Sir William, however ; his only objection is that "he does make 'em work " —wherefore hath he been nicknamed -'Backacher" by his men. VICTIMS OF THE WAK. The signs and memories of this terrible wor (says M.A.P.) meet one everywhere. There is scarcely a family in the land that is not touched in its heart's core; there, isn't a circle in which you move that you do not find something to remind you of its horrors and its suflerings. The little speech in which Lord George Hamilton spoke of the number of relatives he had in the war has already gone the round of the Press, but it is worth giving again. He has a son and no fewer than thirteen nephews at the front. Lord Lansdowne has two sons and as many nephews as Lord George Hamilton. Two of Lord Lansdowne's sons, by the way, went to South Africa in the transport Nubia, and when one day somebody came to the Secretary of War with the report, happily proved immediately to be fable, that the Nubia had gone down, he was painfully and naturally agitated.

And it strikes me that the terrible business is affecting the spirits of everybody ; and the highest in station as well as the lowliest are for the moment joined together. I gave last week the statement, which came to me from excellent authority, that the visit of the German Emperor was profoundly welcomed by the relatives and Court, because they hoped that Her Majesty's thoughts migtitjbe diverted from painful broodings over the loss of her soldiers. My latest information is that, in spite of this visit, and of every precaution taken to divert the Queen from sad thought, she has frequent outbursts of sobs and tears.

Going along Pall Mall a few days ago, I saw two figures that again brought home the depths of the seriousness of the moment. First, I saw Lord Lansdowne, the Secretary for War, walking towards the War Office. He has, as I have already shown, grave private reasons for anxiety ; but, apart from this, he has the heavy responsibilities and the serious work of his great office, and the double strain of private sorrow and public responsibility has told. He has grown grayer and thinner, and, indeed, seemed aged by many years since I saw him in the House of Lords at the end of August. And scarcely had I passed the War Secretary when I saw another and still more familiar figure. In a lowcrowned soft-brown hat and in a thick overcoat I s iw Mr. Balfour approaching the War Oliice —doubtless to have a conference with the committee of the Cabinet, which is engaged in tin administration of the war. He Iwkvu strangely bent anil even holluw- [ cheekeu to me; and no also was greyer. And, finally, away in Hatfield, in his desolate home, Lord Salisbury is fighting with a depressing illness, an irreparable bereavement, and all the anxieties of his supreme position.

KOMAN CATHOLIC PRAYERS, j Cardinal Vaughan has issued a letter to the Roman Catholic clergy, directing the offering up of prayers for our Army and for speedy success to the British arms. The Cardinal says there can be no doubt that we have been forced into war, and that justice is on our side. The question now is whether the British Empire shall be allowed to fall to pieces by supineness/tnd a want of determination and self-denial. The Empire has made for peace, for liberty, for liw, and order. An Empire that has power to establish these conditions, which are preliminary to the spread of Christianity, is possessed of a great and sacred trust, not to be surrendered until God Himself shall demand the surrender.