SOUTH AFRICA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2811, 26 August 1908, Page 19

SOUTH AFRICA.

JOHANNESBURG, August 17. At a meeting of 3000 Asiatics at Johannesburg • 400 certificates that had been granted to Indians and Chinese were publicly burnt. Mr Gandhi declared that he preferred to spend a lifetime in gaol to seeing British-Indians treated as serfs. PRETORIA, August 20. Following the Asiatic leaders' interview with Mr Botha and Mr Smuts, the Voluntary Registration Validation Bill has been withdrawn, and the registration question has been referred to a select committee of the Assembly. August 24. The Assembly at Pretoria has agreed to a bill which meets the Indian Association's original objections, but has rejected a demand for the admission of new Asiatic immigrants on the basis of the same educational test as is required in the case of Europeans. DURBAN, Angust 19. A national convention to consider the question of closer union will be held at Durban in October. The Natal Taxation Bill imposes a graduated tax, with a maximum of one shilling in the pound, on all incomes exceeding £1000 a year, and l^d in the pound on the lands of absentee owners August 20. Dinizulu has burst a blood-vessel. His condition, though serious, is not critical. August 24. There is fresh native unrest in Zululand. The Premier of Natal has e-ent troops and guns to Melmoth. BLOEMFONTEIN, August 20. The Legislative Council read a second time a bill placing the English and Dutch languages on an equal footing as media of instruction. LONDON, August 21. The South African colonies unitedly invite mail tenders, one for a thirteen and a-half days' service from Southampton to Capetown. The subsidy is increased, and the Admiralty is entitled to purchase or hire the liners.