NEWS FROM THE CAPE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LIII, Issue 5948, 19 March 1880, Page 5

NEWS FROM THE CAPE.

The John Elder, on her last trip, brought; files of Capetown paperstoFeb. 7, from! "which we obtain the following :—The vaal Argus oonoludeisia leading article on the > constitution which har been granted the • Transvaal, with' the following sentences When sedition and lawlessness cease, when ' education has taught the inhabitants of' the! country to despise' instead of' following l ' the; advice ofdemagoguea, adventurers, and die* appointsdplaoe-hunters—when prosperity and peace ? reign within our borders, then l this \ journal wilhnever.cease to agitate for those | •representative- institutions which’ England'has promised to grant. -At present we are willing i tot ‘"pestHandiheJthankfttlih for theformotj govemment which- Her - Majesty hast'iwjenl pleased* bo']ppanl. ,, « -tm'ni.ho Wib-ts I 1 T- The' Caps " Argus ; observe* •— M Mr ; Mv ’ W. \ •jjt'.-'.U od.; '.“h; rar: HK' . v > I irfi.fiine&f ->s .>cot •»»{« f.i iibV.is s'-Im',; rf I

Pretorius mutt have hod his fill of; the cares attendant upon publio life. As President of the Transvaal upon tbe first occasion his was no enviable lot. Nor had he much peace when filling the same position in the Free State. ! Still less did he participate in comfort and honour when serving the Transvaal a second time. After the annexation; he seemed at first not unwilling to acquiesce in the new order of things.- At any rate He made efforts to raise a body of men for service against the Zulus. - Next we find him president of the Boer meeting; then a prisoner , charged with high treason to the Queenj shortly afterwards the honoured guest and chosen mediator of the Queed’a representative; and, finally, the rejected and suspected of his own people. We have a sincere respect for Mr Pretorius, and .aw more, than willing tobelieve that bis desire is not ‘to serve two masters,’ at his compatriots appear to think, but to serve his country in the best way he can.” . .

The Durban correspondent of the Cape Argue writes under date Jan. 26: —The mott noticeable event of the week is the visit to Durban of Dabulamanzi, the half-brother of Cetewayo, whose name was, so often on onr lips daring (be war as that of a. fierce and dangerone foe, but whose actual presence did not certainly favour that idea of him. H* looked decidedly good natured, though serious and thoughtful. He expressed an earnest wish to draw near to the white men, -to be taken by the hand, as he said, by them, and that they should 'know him, and know also that he was not a wolf. He does not wisi hie tons to grow up as he has done, but expresses, a strong wish that they should be something better than barbarians. He seemed quite overcome on seeing the portrait of Ottowayo, hanging his bead and saying in a loir voice, “ The King j” but he declined to hpirg a photo, the associations being too painful, . Telegrams from Natal state that good new* with regard to gold prospects, has been ceived from Sekukuni’s country. Mr Eokerailey, the Resident, has brought a nugget and eomp gold-dust fiom one of Sekukoni’a people, and Was doing all he could to assist prospectors, who are swarming at Lydenburg. The om fields are now said to be paying wen, and the . Spitz»op . diggers are sending, a quantity of gold back. Sekukuni’s Kaffirs assert that large quantities of; gold are to be found on tbe hills between the Steelpoort and Olipfaant Rivers. ! The farmers are 'reE>rted to be returning to their farms inth* toly unsettled districts. Tne Cape Post correspondent at Aliwat North telegranhs that Mr Griffith is using his utmost efforts to persuade Letsea and other Basuto chiefs to give up their guns, the result being a flat refusal. They complain that faith is not being kept with them ' in. resptot of the implied promise that, when leave Was given to petition Parliament against disarmament, further action would be suspended, No more guns have been bronghtin, and ho more, according to our correspondent, will be brought in except under compulsion. These proceedings on the part of Mr Griffith are said to bo causing a revival of the agitation which had previously been allayed. It is said that natives in the employ of Government, who have been called upon to surrender their arms, refuse to do so.