Letters - New Zealand in the South African ('Boer') War

It would be interesting to know how many letters have been written on board since we left Lyttelton. There must have been a very large mail from Albany - as almost every man on board wrote several, some as many as eighteen letters; and no doubt they would be thoroughly appreciated by the recipients in New Zealand.

Extract from the Troop Ship newspaper The Gymeric Times, April 1900

First impressions

Durban, March 1902

'...the land is splendid. The banana groves cover miles. There are peach trees everywhere growing wild. There is no flat land it is all hills and gullys. We have not seen any poor land yet. There is a lot of building going on in Durban now. I saw about eight large brick buildings within a few hundred yards of the railway line. One is very much about the size of the Strand arcade. The houses are nearly all stone or brick. The stone is gray in colour and is a sort of limestone....

I might well sing now "I have been seeing some very funny things lately" for every day new things of every sort come our way. The birds are very pretty some of the small fry being a lovely colour. The parrots look very different from what they do in captivity. The paddocks are covered with anthills and here and there are murcat holes. Wherever there is long grass there are plenty of frogs of every sort. The wild flowers around Durban are lovely the railway banks being a mass of colour. Dahlias grow everywhere and in some of the stations up the line every sort may be found Grapes seem to grow wild and I have had some lovely feeds.'

Thomas McNab, Newcastle Camp, South Africa, to his mother, 18 March 1902. Courtesy Pat Palmer, Auckland

Equipment

'Unlike the various colonial contingents camped at Beria, we were not equipped and so when we formed a guard we were armed with sticks. By the way I may tell an amusing incident which occurred while we were thus armed. Cecil Rhodes and General Carrington paid a visit to our camp, unexpectedly, while we were thus armed, and as they came through the gate the Sentry noticing they were out of the ordinary, challenged the guard to turn out. To see the men of the guard looking about for their sticks and then fall in and salute the above-named gentlemen was extremely funny.'

'From New Zealand to Mafeking' (recollections of Hector W. P. Cox of his time in the Fifth Contingent)

Post-war options

'I am going down to Blomfontein as soon as I can get out of camp to see the Commissioner of Lands about a farm?. The terms offered by the board are very good and, stock and implements are supplied, and they only charge 4% on the money. There is any amount of money to be made raising stock and growing potatoes. Men who have been through the war are given the pick of farms, but there will be plenty of room for other later on.'

Percy Overton to his brother Roy, 29 May 1902. Courtesy Mrs Elizabeth Goodwin, Christchurch

'Lots of the chaps are stopping here and some are going to England. If one goes to England he gets a free passage there and paid for 30 days. He has to pay his own way back to New Zealand. There are some very good jobs about here. Captain Corfis is stopping for which I am very sorry for he is a really decent chap. So is the orderly serg. So I may get stripes coming home.'

Archibald Barker to his mother, 5 July 1902. Courtesy David P. H. Barker, Lower Hutt

Women

'I see by the papers that about 20 NZ teachers are coming over to the concentration camps. They will have fairly easy times but I do not think I would recommend a girl to leave home for it, unless she could look after herself pretty well.'

Health

'At Newcastle, unfortunately our regiment were infected with dysentery and we left about 50 in hospital, Newcastle Beans rather a bad name for the disease. The ck I regiment who passed Newcastle but camped at Volkurst instead fared much better as regards the health of their men. The joined us at Elandsfontein. The diseases we have had are colds, dysentery, jaundice, enteric, veldt sores, measles, and two cases of scarlet fever among the North Island regiment. I was a week in the Elandsfontein No. 16 General Hospital with 49 others suffering from dysentery, but am in splendid health again and am enjoying myself.'

Horses

'We pride ourselves on having had a record trip from NZ to Durban - as regards the least number of horses lost (six only out of 560).

We left Albany (after remaining 2 days) on the evening of March 25 - and hence the change in horse rations on Mar 27. As there were 36 horses in low condition in April an extra dietry of crushed oats 2lbs, linseed ? lb was allowed for these alone. The present rations for horses is 12lbs of oats daily in addition to grazing. Mules get 8 lbs of mealies and 4lbs of compressed fodder, while oxen have to graze and pick up what they can get except when on trek and then extra hay is given to them.'

Spies

'This afternoon I crossed the Vaal on horseback over a drift into Orange River Colony and had a look over Marks plantation. Marks is an old Jewish pro-Boer who has only recently taken the oath of allegiance. He is some relative (a brother I think) of the Marks whom the English sentenced to death as a spy in the early stages of the war. But as the Boers threatened to shoot British Officers who were then prisoners in Pretoria if the sentence were carried out, Marks was not executed. The property is about 60 square miles in area containing a large plantation and several coal mines. The plantation is 2000 acres in extent planted entirely with 3,000,000 young oaks and pinus insignius and worth 1,000,000 pounds. Marks is reputed to be worth 13,000,000 pounds. I hope the English will be able to take a big slice of this way from him. It seems a pity that Marks should get the ginger bread and Tommy Atkins the kicks. I understand an attempt will be made to assess the spy Marks as part owner, in which case some compensation will probably be deducted. But trust a few for guile. Johannesberg is full of them. They pass in scores in the returning refugee trams.'

From a letter to 'Jack' written by Alexander Robertson Falconer, a doctor who attended the last New Zealander wounded in the South African War. Courtesy Mary Cowan, Alexandra

'Clearing' the veldt

'We have come to the worst part of the war now as we pull down and burn all farm houses and destroy everything in the way of food and leave the women and children on the veldt without anything. It is horrible to the women and small children and old men left there to the mercy of the weather and us and practically to starve. I wont be sorry when my time is up as this is a very dangerous hard life.'

New Zealanders are the best soldiers

'The seventh contingent have done a lot of good work since they have been out and can show the crack English regiments of the cavalry the way to fight the wily Boer. They, the English cavalry, are too slow to catch worms. When we first met the 8th 14th Hussars and 6th Dragoons I thought they would show us points but the boot was on the other foot.'

James Alexander Fraser to his sister Elsie, 2 February 1902. Courtesy Anthony Fraser, Tauranga