NEWS BY MAIL.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 209, 4 September 1899, Page 5

NEWS BY MAIL.

KRUGER'S RESIGNATION,

BOER ESTIMATES OF ENGLAND'S

STRENGTH.

WHAT THE REFORM PARTY

WANTS

When the last mail left Capetown XAugust 2), the chief topic of conversation in British circles was Mr Merriman's Budget speech, with its famous gibe against the Progressive party.ln South Africa the Dutch ele..men't is mostly engaged in agricultural pursuits. The commercial and professional classes are generally British. Mr Mei-riman, true to the Dutch policy of his Government, proposed extraordinarily heavy income taxation, with special exemptions on incomes derived from agriculture. The new taxation, he was frank enough to explain, would fall chiefly on tjie big capitalists and the Progressives (that is, the Rhodes and pro-British party). The taxation proposal was looked upon in British circles as an attempt to impose on the British element an Cape Colony something of the tyrrany suffered by the Uitlanders in the Transvaal, and as such was strongly resented. With regard to affairs at Johannesburg, Britishers were more easy in mind. It had by this time been made quite plain that the Home Government would stand no further ■nonsense from President Kruger, and ;the assurance of that fact made their mind easy. KRUGER IN 1881. For the benefit of all concerned, as they say in salvage stock advertisements, tre Uitlanders' Council _at Johannesburg has lately been publishing some extracts from the "Staats Courant" (Transvaal "Hansard") of 1881. The following passages are specially interesting:— The President, speaking on 15th April, said: "I deem it my duty to clearly express before you, and before the whole world that our respect for Her Majesty the Queen of England, and for Her Majesty's Government, and for the whole English people has never been greater than now, when we have been enabled by this treaty, to give you proof of England's noble and mangnanimous love of right and justice." > > The following i 9 an extract from the minutes of the proceedings of the Royal Commission: — » The Chairman (Sir H. Robinson): Had British subjects complete free trade before the annexation? . Mr Kruger: Tney were on the same footing as burghers. There was not the slightest difference in compliance with the provisions of the Zand River Convention. The Chairman: I think you will have Bo objection to allowing that to continue so. Mr Kruger: No. There will be tequal protection to everyone. Sir E. Wood: And equal privileges/ Mr Kruger: We make no distinction in so far as burg-her rights are concerned. There might, perhaps, be some small difference in the case of a young person who has just come into the country.