VERY LATEST.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2954, 28 November 1900, Page 3

VERY LATEST.

Tffiilii CP|T|pi| lUsiss tliHbft.

THE TRANSVAAL,

MINERALS IN TRANSVAAL.

TRIALS OF LOYAL LOERS.

United Press Association —Per i cctnc Tel egraph—Copy right. Received 9.2 a.m., November 23th. LONDON, November 27. Fresh coal, copper, gold, and diamond deposits have been found within 20 miles of Pretoria. Kruger was aware of their existence for years, but- l-.epi the secret, fearing an influx of Out landers. Eight hundred Boers aie near Wiiidcorton. , T , General Clements has brougnt to ivrugersdorp 23 Boars and tne’v families woo surrendered to the Britisu and have iemaiued loyal since June. They have suffered the utmost hardships m hiding Loni cruel rnarauoOif. Clemen::' ib-'-pci.-sd^ •'■**' l 'C) Oi y r -0. '• r ;ii xUi UU- V’ TtMOX; Be la Key .

MR CECIL RHODES’ PLEA FOR UN <Ti v

IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Speaking at the annual congress of the South African League in Capetown, the Right Hon. Cecil Rhodes, the President, said they had been fighting Krugcrism, and if they could only press this Home to the people who lived with them, the peopie who were going to develop Africa with them, they would do good service. lie continued: “You may say. What do you mean by Krugerism? Well, Krugcrism is what any one of us might be led into; given enormous power and a simple-minded people, the tendency is to absorb everything. At first you have perhaps a hundred people with you in the inner circle, and you gradually reduce them to almost yourself. That is Krugerism, and that is what has happened in the Transvaal. The administration of the Transvaal was Kruger. I remember well speaking to Dr Leyds at Bloemfontein, when we went up to the opening of the railway, and I said to him; ‘ Wiry do you not impress on Mr Kruger this and that change?’ He said: ‘I assure you, Mr Rhodes, we have no power whatsoever with him. The Government of the Transvaal is-Kruger, and Kruger alone.’ He said: ‘I am kept because I am useful, but I can assure you if you think I influence him in these directions of obtaining monopolies, keeping out the Uitlanders, and the various gross grievances which were created in the Transvaal — if you think we support him in that, you make a great histake. Always remember the Government of the Transvaal is Kruger, and none else.’ And that, continued Mr Rhodes, is what we were fighting, and it is marvellous if you think of it how everyone came to the same conclusion. We have won our position, and I put it to you clearly what our position was. The maintenance of Her Majesty’s flag in the country was number one, and number two was the equality of the civilised races south of the Zambesi.’’

Speaking of the future, Mr Rhodes said : “We have federation coming on, and we should be at work now considering what should be our position in connection with what should be local and what should be neighbouring States—our representation, and federated causes. Mr Chamberlain is desirous of the Rejmblics into self-government, and in time this will mean the union of South Africa. If our temporary opponents would only think of these big questions, they would' get tired of the endless personal chattering in the House of which 1 am a member. They would say that the whole of South Africa is at our feet. We must begin to prepare for it. I do not wish to plaster Rhodesia on the Cape; it is much more likely (lie Cape will be plastered oijj to Rhodesia, but at any rate we shall feel that we are one of the Slates of Federal South Africa. Only the other day I was in' one of the remote parts of these new territories (Rhodesia), which was occupied by a Dutch trek from the Free Stale and Transvaal, led by member of the Free Stale Raad, one of Steyn’s most trusted burghers. He said to me: ‘Naturally we have our sympathies and cannot bide them. When we hear of a battle, and our men got the better, we are please'!; but a visor thought conies and we see that the Government of the Transvaal is hopeless, that the Stale is getting too much mixed up, and that tiiis is why we brought this trek to this country.’ He added— 1 In our heart of hearts we are pleased. We know now we shall have the union of South Africa.’ You may have thought me almost isolated from the Dutch. Nothing of the kind. I receive great encouragement from (lie two settlements we have in Rhodesia. 1 have received many messages shoo 1 came hack, i here is no compromise needed. We have obtained through the assistance of Her Majesty the position to which our race is entitled. We like these people; many of them are our personal friends. It is for us by our action and by oar conduct and I our flail}' work to show that there is nothing * now between us, but that the great policy

is that this paltry 600,000 whites must devote their whole efforts to the development of this huge country. When I think that in five years one has been able to build 1000 miles of railway; that we propose in Rhodesia, if the report of our coal is successful, to extend our railways acress the Zambesi to the Victoria Fails, and then we have this enormous territory up the Congo to develop, and for whom? The people of this country and those who will join us from Home. Are we going to be paralysed in this by this wretched race dispute. Lot us say we will have none of it. The battle is over. A portion of our people were really nothing but slaves in the Transvaal, and we think a great many of our people have been nothing but slaves to a jDoliticul organisation. Come and join us in this great work,and for goodness sake iet us try and drop disputes about the war and the origin of the war, and drop the ] feeling that we are both going to remain in hostile camps. There will be such work in this country as mines to be opened up, railways, irrigation, and fifty other questions, with a country as huge as'Europe, and surely the race question must be pushed out.”