SOUTH AFRICAN AFFAIRS

Otago Witness, Issue 1851, 30 March 1904, Page 19

SOUTH AFRICAN AFFAIRS

CAPETOWN, March 28. Lord Milner, in a speech at Johannesburg, said ho had been subjected to attacks in England for five years. It might b& grots narrow-min<3edness and inability to look beyond the most obvious things, but so long as he washn possession of the confidence of' the people cf the Transvaal he did not care twopence what people 6000" miles away thought.

DISASTROUS CYCLONE

LONDON, March 27. A cyclone devastated the Island of Reunion.

ThousaucU are without food and shelter. -

The crops and bridges were destroyed. It is estimated that £4 0,000 are required to relieve the immediate distress. Twenty-four residents were killed.

Reunion, an isiand in the Indian Ocean, is a French colon} 7 , with an area of 970 square miles, and a population o?T~~ 170,000 Indians, Chinese, negroes," and mix«ts races. The island is of volcanic origin, aut£ -the capital is Saint Denis. The principal 1 exports are stigar, coffee, cloves, dye-woods, and saltpetre ; import. — wheat, oil, wine, cattle, timber, salt, glass, and manufactured goods. The island was discovered in 1545 by the Portuguese, who called, the group Mascarenhas.