SOUTH AFRICA.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1664, 20 January 1904, Page 23

SOUTH AFRICA.

ME3H3OURNE, January 13. The federal- Cabinet lias considered Mir Seddon’s request for 00-operation in protesting against Chinese labour on the Rand. The Premier, Mr A. Deakin r etated that a reply had been, forwarded, but until further communications had passed nothing would be published. LONDON. January 12. Referring to Mr Seddon’a action regarding the importation of Chinese labour. to the Transvaal, ‘The Timesi” eulogises Mr Seddiou/s services to the Empire, but hopes his proposed protest will not receive much support. The Transvaal, says “The Times,” ' though provisionally a Crown colony, is-treated as self-governing, and knows- its own mind best. “The “Pall Mall Gazette” says Mr Soddon and the other Premiers are entitled to their own opinion, but that opinion cannot have a compulsory effect on the Transvaal, which must settle its own affairs, LONDON January 14. The “St. James’s Gazette” says Mr Sodd-on has no ground for interfering in the Transvaal question, which is purely an internal one. The “Pall Mall Gazette” declares that Mr Seddbn has received a double set-back. He forgot in his laudable zeal for solidarity that local liberty is a necessary correlative of Imperial unity. ; LONDON, January 13. News' from Pretoria authoritatively foreshadows an early electoral redistribution, with a view to the introduction of representative government. OTTAWA, January 14. Sir Wilfrirl LauvhSr, Premier of the Canadian Dominion, refuses to support Mr Seddon’s proposal that the colonies should protest to the Imperial Government against the importation of Chii n ose to work in the mines of the Transyaal # The Premier of British Columbia, Mr Richard Mcßride, supports Mr Sodden hi hils protest against the importation of Chinese labour to the Transvaal.

CAPETOWN, January 14. The Natal Legislative Assembly, by a majority of thirty-two votes, has rejected a motion opposing the introduction of Chinese into the Transvaal.