The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 1905. A DILATORY CONTRIBUTION.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXI, Issue 12635, 23 March 1905, Page 2

The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 1905. A DILATORY CONTRIBUTION.

Tlie Colonial Secretary's explanation of the delay in the payment' of the Transvaal's contribution to the cost of the South African war is not likely to satisfy those critics of the Imperial Government who openly j accuse them of having entered into a conspiracy with the mine-owners to destroy, .by" the aid of British troops, the check which the Boer regime had imposed on the rapacity of the financiers.. Mr Lyttelton, in answer' to a question in the House of Commons, said he anticipated that the contribution would be paid in due course, but it would be unwise to press for payment prior to the establishment of representative government in the colony. It is not exactly clear how the new system of government is going to increase the Transvaal's ability to meet this obligation, unless the Colonial Secretary thinks' that the representatives of the people in the country will apply to its principal and. most lucrative industry a pressure which the Crown's representative is. not disposed to on. The * arrangement was that the Transvaal was to provide thirty millions out of the 224 millions which tie war cost. This sum was to be paid in three annual instalments, the first of whic& sag dug in

January, 1904, so that it is little wonder if people in England are beginning to chafe at the delay in its appearance. At the time the arrangement was made, the estimated revenue of the Transvaal was four and a half millions and the estimated normal expenditure three millions, so that the war contiibution of course could not be paid out of surplus revenue. But a loan ox. thirty mil'ions, to be raised by instalments as required, was to be floated, guaranteed by the Transvaal only,, the proceeds of which were to be paid over by the Transvaal Government, and applied.by the British National Debt Commissioners to paying off securities issued under the various war loan Acts of 1900. Lord Milner anticipated that the colony would have no difficulty, in -meeting the interest charges on the three instalments of this loan, out of its surplus, and as the revenue for the year 1903-04 exceeded his estimate,. there is no apparent reason for his failure to carry out his undertaking. The revenue in that year was nearly 5£ millions, and the expenditure 4 millions, which included li millions on the useless South African Constabulary, which might have been saved. But for a time we were given to understand that the first instalment of the loan would be provided by the grateful ' mine-owners who had just been 1 freed from the tyranny of Paul Kruger's Government. When Mr Chamberlain was in Johannesburg, it was announced, amidst a scene of wild excitement, that ten millions of the war contribution would be found by the financiers. It afterwards transpired that the first hint of the advent of Chinese coolies to the Rand was made during Mr Chamberlain's visit to Johannesburg, so that the financial offer of the mining magnates looked suspiciously like the price of the Labour Ordinance which permitted the importation of ;-this cheap: labour.- However, the offer which was cabled abroad over the world has not yet been redeemed, and Mr Chamberlain's successor now tetls Parliament that the matter has not been pressed because there was an understanding that the payment, was to be voluntary, and that the development of the colony was not to be checked. Personally we do not believe that the mines were the cause of the war; it was a fight between the races for supremacy in South Africa. But the mine-owners are the people who have reaped Ahe immediate benefit, and they should be made to pay some of the cost. A g'ance at their balance-sheets showing dividends up to 250 per cent., is proof enough that the gold industry can stand taxation, and as the financiers have gone back on their promise, it ought to be extracted from them in the only way possible.