SOUTH AFRICA.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4427, 6 August 1901, Page 2

SOUTH AFRICA.

THE QUEENSLAND PREMIER'S VIEWS. Mr Rennet Burleigh, the "Daily Tele, graph” war correspondent, writes:—l had tor travelling companion with me the other day the Eight Hon. Robert Philp, Premier of Queensland. ’He has journeyed hither to see one of his sons, an Australian volunteer, who, 1 regret to say, la down with enteric in one of the hospitals. The lad, happily, is convalescent, and it is hoped that with care he may now recover, although still very weak. (Mr Philp -and his son have returned to Aus. tralia.) Mr Philp’s next duty is, in fulfilment of a'promise, to go upon the trek for a short-time with the Queensland contingent. As they are with General Flumer, 1 hope to have the pleasure of ms com. nanionsmp and drive him from railuoad into the Australian camp, .being fellow townsmen, we have found a goon deal to taut over besides the war. Mr J Philp is impressed with the possibilities for development in the new colonies, more particularly tno -Transvaal. I own that at this season, thanks to the superabundance of rains—it seems to rain more or less every other day this- country looks charming, luxuriantly green and restful. Even the Orange Elver Colony, hard by the railroad, is no longer brown and arid, hut is speckled with herbage and mapped out with ponds and fields: The formerly rare fountains, otherwise -horse ponds, or little dams, are now frequent and very big dams. No longer is the' air filled and thg noonday -sun obscured as by a veritable snowstorm, with interminable flights of termites, winged ants and all-devouring locusts. Cold and wet have told their tale in the destruction, no -doubt, of un. told billions of these insect posts. But green as tne verdure is, the grass upon the high vejdt ground Bloemfontein is at patchy and scraggy us a, worn out piece of bondon public park turf. “jMe,” says Mr Philp, "it is no-use offering men, Australians anyway-, 170 acres of laming land in either of these colonies to come and settle. They can do quite as Well, perhaps twice as well, 'at homo in Queensland. But - there is gold around Pretoria and olaen ere in the Transvaal in the quantities hear, and it is found upon further pros oting to be so, Australians will rush hith They know a good deal about min - g and gold_ getting, probably quite a.' ’oh as the people know here, and gold w ampt mpn into any country, and to a cl , „ Ac far hotter than I ever-hope to ex. ’.£ nee. Five or seven thousand Aus. *' ans would swoop down within a year - v this neighbourhood if gold is found. I. they will rotbe an undesirable popula >n, like so many of those I have 'seen in is country, oven in Johannesburg and P, jria. The hope i» that the laws will be -amed so as to givejGio average man a fair chance of acqufruig'property. -If the thing is thrown into the hands of big syndicates the country cannot benefit to the same extent. Personally, lam in favour of a tax upon "the mines, making them helf to pay for the £200,000,000 the war is going to cost England. Why should her people be forced to pay that vast sum, largely expended in the interest of the mines ? In Queensland dynamite is free, but we im. pos* a 5 per cent, tax upon mines and get it without difficulty. The vast incomes derived from South African mining could we” afford to'be taxed, for the war hag re. suited in an enormous addition to the value and security of all these properties.”