NOTE AND COMMENT.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 3735, 9 May 1899, Page 4

NOTE AND COMMENT.

The growing demand for gold, the result of the tendency to demoneixcnEASßD tizo silver, and of the inouxruT creasing consumpt of the or gold, yellow metal in. the arts, is being met by a large development of gold-production. In April last, New Zealand exported gold to tho value of £130,509, which is more than - double the quantity sent away in the corresponding month of last year. The output continues to be brisk, owing to the rapid growth of the dredging system and the full working of the Ziman mines at Eeefton. The latter concerns showed a return for last month of £7453, and probaoiy none of that amount tras included in the, export for April. In West Australia the increased output of gold for l-.c past year is even more remarkable. The value of the total export of gold was only £IO,OOO under four millions sterling, and showed an increase of £1,426,000 over that of the preceding year. This is the more remarkable when

it is noted that this represents £400,000 ] more than the increase for the year in the value of all the exports from West Australia. But for the spurt in gold, iu other words, the export trade of the colony would have shown a serious decline. Coincident with the increase of a million sterling in. the gross value ,of exports from West Australia, there -is a decline of £1,177,000 in that colony’s imports. This is, in the main, a healthy sign. The balance of trade is in favourof the colony to the extent that its exports exceed its imports in value. In another aspect of the matter, the figures show that West Australians have ceased to live on “booming” and arc devoting themselves to soud work. They 1 have for some years past been living cn borrowed money; they are now turning out largo quantities of the precious metal to pay interest on the loans anjl dividends to shareholders in the sounder mining ’ ventures. Tins people iaro of course 1 spending less, but the prosperity of-the. country is more assured than it was when tlie imports wore greater than the exports by two nnllions'itcrling. As re-. 1 gards ..w Zealand, the increased output of gold must also, add to the prosperity of tbo nation. Part of it will bo required to pay the interest on tho new loan, but there will remain a con- 1 widcrablo balance to swell the wealth and increase tho spending power of tho people, thus causing a revival in every department of commerce and industry.

Mr Kruger, the President of the Trahs.-

vaal Republic, is evidently I'he bent of pursuing the policy modern which was once described riiAKAOii. by a British; statesman., as one of “driving discontent under the surface.” His attempt to abolish the right of public meeting by the outlanders, so as to prevent their airing their grievances, was apparently made in the belief that, ho would thereby suppress the discontent that prevails. This is the policy of the hard-pressed ostrich that buries its head in the sand in the vain hope of hiding from its pursuers. President Kruger is saturated with old and narrow-minded notions of> government. Ho is as relentless as the Pharaoh of ancient Egypt, to whom ho has been frequently likened, who kept the Children of Israel in bondage. Oom Paul is grinding the outlanders down. They are treated like Kaffirs, although they contribute nine-tenths of the revenue of the Transvaal, and own threefourths of the entire value of the property in the Republic The South African Pharaoh wll not let the outlanders voice their grievances, nor will he give them tho privilege of citizenship. But these outlanders are for the most part Britishers, born in a free country with free institutions; and notwithstanding their interest in the land of their adoption, they are condemned to fourteen years’ servitude before their claim to bo citizens of tho Transvaal can be considered—and oven then the right to the franchise might bo vetoed by tho Presi- 1 dent and his Executive. The conditions under which tho outlanders live in tho Republic of tho Transvaal are outrageous in tins tho ehd of the nineteenth con-, tury. In carrying out their usual avocations they are exploited by tho methods of President Kruger; and the taxes extracted from them are spent in the building of forts, the guns of which are menacingly pointed towards', their habitations. ■" -

“Taxation without representation’’ is tho policy of the Transvaal

imiTisir Government notwith'standoiukvances. ing that the Republic is tinder the suzerainty of Great Britain, whence it is safe to say the great majority of the outlanders have emigrated. Having experienced tho freedom of British institutions, is it any wonder tha,t they should petition tho Queen to intqrposo on their behalf ? Is it matter for surprise that the Secretary of the Colonies,’ speaking in the. House of Commons, should declare that the British Government would receive and consider tho appeal ? Tho South African League, which held its congress in Capo Colony a week ago, despatched a cable message to tho Imperial African League, whoso membership includes fifty members of tho House of Commons, asking it to support tho outlanders’ petition to Her Majesty, praying that steps should bo taken to redress the grievances which they suffer at tho. hands of the Transvaal Governmoiit. Twenty thousand outlanders have signed that petition, but these do not represent more than one-fourth of the British subjects resident in tho Republic. It was alleged that a counter petition had been signed by nine thousand outlanders, expressing satisfaction with tho Boer Government, but it is not likely that this will prove to bo correct. It is true there have boon some divisions among the outlanders, but there has invariably been unity in regard to protestations against tho oppression and taxation of tho Boer Government. Especially has there been unity of action in tho matter of tho dynamite monopoly in tho hands of a French company, which has acted tho part of extortionate taxgatherer under the aegis of Mr Kruger. This has been deemed by tho Secretary of State for tho Colonics as a violation of the terms of tho Convention of 1888; and after twenty-live thousand troops had been sent by Great Britain to the Cape, Mr Kruger expressed his intention of taking over the dynamite monopoly from the company. .Yet, as if he had again repented, ho immediately afterwards declared, that no one would bo justified in arbitrarily upsetting vested rights and titles. In the same speech, President Kruger promised certain reforms. It now takes fourteen years’ residence in the Transvaal to become a burgess; blit Com Paul promised, in a fit of inexplicable generosity, that ho would reduce, the residential qualification to nine years—enfranchisement being still contingent upon aliens taking an oath of allegiance to the Republic.

But President Kruger has promised much before. His promises have broken been as fragile as piecrusts. pledges. Ho has made promise after promise, but he has done nothing. The Hon J. Chamberlain, speaking in the House of Commons on

.the matter of Mr Kruger’s pledges to introduce- reforms,, remarked: “that ’aot. one of the promises hacPbeen.fulfilled. He 'was afraidthaffh©.buttaniJers' grievances bad been rather .increased than7diminished: ■"-'■■ln r thb xnattfJ 4 of legislation np- : thing had been done’ tai'satisfy tho'‘natural ,demands- of the; fipglish-speaking people to allow their children. that education to which they had’a'proper right and claim. ■ - Nothing bad been done in tho way of giving a municipality to Johannesburg. Tho question of.the bowi age of, Johannesburg bad beenrtakeh put of the hands of tW people .‘and made a, monopoly, to-, their greats disadypntage, and probably to the danger- - of; their liffaftii',' Nothing ‘had'b’ehiT :dbno; a,<>- to the dynamite monopoly) and nothing had been, done in’regard 'to the 'franchise,? ’ :

i Mr Kruger has resorted ruses to, ; bhi-ivEii- '' latest; • as.'; oilr ’ cablegrams : I :,ance at . last Week us,- ,V a f ‘ iiand v ■an • attfinpi,^ ( ■ ■ '‘.io .‘n rllancl’capitalists'a£> the ex'porise of. the uutlandereb That, however,,’ i fulled ;, and now both parties ilemand'.the i franchise .as < first step towards the re-) form of their When'it is re- : i nuimbered ; that the 'enfranchisement! of ■ tho outlanders would swamp the Poors, and. in all probability: 'overthrowr, ;■ the Kruger rule and reconstruct the constitution, possibly transforming, the Republic 1 into a British colony and- annihilating the Boer influence for eyer, it ,is easy to understand that President Kruger de;sires to postpone the day rof- his political ■obliteration. But the: day of the enfranchisement of” the-' outlander cannot he milch ■longer’ delayed;''“'Thin petition ;of affairs in -the: Transvaal r is now as critical as it.was just,prior.to,the historic i jraid of yDr. JamesbiT. ■ It is Utterly- use- ( less tp; attempt to driyU tbe ’discontent ■and pbhtical oppression , benpdjth-the surface. That is but banking up the fired of ’ revolt, which may .some, .day. break out. Jin that hour the South African Pharaoh and all his host will be overthrown, and the..record ,pf T his rule,.will, be,-but -as -a Iblb't oiv the page; of lotion.'