PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8424, 24 January 1899, Page 2

PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING.

aiSBORNE, TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1899.

TRANSVAAL TROUBLES. Sooner or later the Imperial Government will have to step in and put an end to the intolerable burdens which are placed upon Britishers by the Government of the Transvaal. Latest news from South Africa states that that Republic is again the centre of seething discontent. The Boer Government, despite the heavy imposts they have placed upon foreign capital, the gold and diamond industries, and imports, are in ii condition bordering upon bankruptcy, and though most strenuous efforts have been made in all the capitals of Europe, they are utterly unable to raise a. loan. In default of borrowed millions, more taxation is; inevitable, and it i.s now proposed to greatly increase taxation upon every company, excepting those engaged in the exploitation of concessions granted by Mr Kruger. A graduated income tax is also included in Ooni Paul's fiscal programme as n further means ol raising the wind and harassing the capitalist class. The Government have just spent £50,000 in a campaign against the rebel M'Pefu, who, though he ultimately surrendered, succeeded for several months in completely outmanoeuvring the Transvaal forces, and strongly entrenched himself in a splendidly, fortified bushy mountain. Unable to get at the actual rebels, Kruger's soldiers revenged themselves on their helpless people, and well-authenticated reports

which have reached England slate that there has been a wholesale butchery of women and children and unarmed natives by the Transvaal native forces. Another cause of grave discontent h:is been the treatment meted out to Cape colored people resident in Johannesburg. These people, who are respectable British subjects and have been

taken to work at the mines and at other occupations, have by Government order been deprived of the liberty of ordinary citizens and ordered into locations. Apart from the inherent folly of this persecuting law, its injustice, and the defiance it fillers to the British Empire, it is a distinct violation ef the Fourteenth Article of the Convention— a point tn which Mr Chamberlain drew Mr Kruger's attention in February last, but without influencing him in the slightest. In every way possible the President is said to he pursuing a policy of pin-pricks that is most annoying to the Britishers. The Cape Times, in its review of the year, declares t li.it. the cup of iniquity of the Boer Government is full to overflowing. The Timi-s dwells upon the seriously depressed condition of the Rand, and points out that landed property values have decreased during the past few years to an almost incredible degree. The sole redeeming feature of Air Kruger's present policy is that it is not aimed directly against the mass of the population ; il is class legislation pure and simple. The capitalist and compiny olasts are now being put under the harrow, but the result will be the same as though the taxes had been directly imposed upon the wutking classes. The Times concludes that no matter upon what section of the community the burden of the new taxation falls Mr Kruger's satisfaction will lie the same, provided the result be that the Uitlander population on the Witwatersrand fields be reduced to the Kruger maximum of .'{o,ooo souls. From another source, the letter of a Johannesburg resident, we get some particulars of the state of lawlessness and depression at present existing in the country. It seems barely creditable, the writer says, though it is a fact, that people who can pay for them are grunted written permits from the Government cither to deal in stolen gold or to sell liquor to the Kaftirs, in direct defence of the gold law.s and the liquor laws. The result) is that gold thefts go unpunished, and a terrible state of diunkenncss exists among the blacks. A knowledge of this practical suspension of the gold law.s lms attracted a horde of lawless characters to Johannesburg. Recently a smelting room was broken into anil a theft, accomplished of •lOoz of gold. As a matter of form the fact was reported to the police, but for some days at least they refused to look into the matter. Other similar attempts have been made. All men on night workare armed with revolvers. " Holding up" outrages are more frequent than ever, and Eew people, if ntsy, go outside the town without some weapon of defence. The correspondent adds that he cariies his revolver day and night, and though he has not had occasion to use it, yet he is careful to practise with it a good deal. Another correspondent writes : — " An acquaintance of mine recently returned draws a .sombre picture of the present economic condition of the Transvaal. At the moment of leaving there were '200 soup kitchens open iv Johannesburg, and the near approach of the southern summer offered but little hope of general relief."