VIEWS OF A VISITING AUSTRALIAN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5462, 14 January 1896, Page 1

VIEWS OF A VISITING AUSTRALIAN.

■•'. PEESIPENT KRUGEE AND THE UITLAOT)BKS. Mr M. A. Alexander, -vyho recently returned to Melbourne after a stay of some • '(<$ out months in ■ the ;Trinsvpai;. was" interviewed by the Argus a few days ago. • • Speakmgpf the President, Mr Alexander Said:-- ""'The old man is very crafty and -very comfortable, too^ at present, and he f knows far too much to quarrel, openly •with the : Uitlanders. - Eemember - ; whafr happened' a few months }jyck when the drifts of the Taal Biver were closed; The business people of Johannesburg found they had, to meet the drafts and bills drawn upon them for orders given, while the goods they represented were : stopped iti transit and none of the waggons permitted to cross the Vaal. They protested, afcd President Kruger announced that he would open tljfe fords presently for y'Si for Might; But the Johannesburg people : appealed to the Home government, Mr ; Chamberlain interfered,, and. Kruger at ionce backed down. He not only opened the drifts, but promised that 'he _ would never close them again, except with the consent of the English' Government. He knows very well tiiat-the TJitlanders are now as 5 to 1 to the Boer burghers.^ Bat the Boers proved determined cuff- , turners at Laingsnek .and MajubaHiUP. . | „ ■ • i -s'-Tibftt is all gone i now--a thing bi lthe : st.-,;,' i rhe Boerß ; are i now liizy and utteifiy, demoralised. Thepreseiit generation haye' -:fc6eh' 'mixing, more* with Europeans,' living" , in ,'; the luxury; which /the'gqld^elds proviLded' for them, ; and are not , like their !■ ,fejtiiers. ; ,H They>h^6|io s))ldi6ry no^ oi^; W f ew ; l : artillery ais ■; the ~ ;pblice^ Zarps' ' people > call them fromtteletterHuponth'Sir : collar, 'Z^A.K.P/ standing for South African •Itepublic police." ' : ■".. By the r Exee\itive in'"case : of war^^^or disturbance ? v L.' J ■ •" Yes, but they have never been trained, ">atid they.haye no, stands. of arms aq far asl know. I did not know that they had Maxims, as, the^cables say. ' The Boers .^Qwadays dre quite, passive, aqd . are meriSiy • fatteiiiiig -•' upUn-v W.e v Euiijpean ■aettlOTs, although they have -related !^ijQthinff of" their hatred and churlishness ; the British and. other, foreigners. If iito-yelling you call at a Boer's house, .unless you can speak Dutch he/vvill not give you so much as a glass of water. Buttalkto him in his own language and it is very different. You would have to.go the round, of the entire family, the boys and girls, sisters, aunts and cousins, generally all under the Same roof, touching the tips pf each one's ffngers in greeting, and they wouM imme-' diateljr bring but the -coff el, which is their ■ invariable way of showing hospitality. Unless you can ingratiate ydurself in this way, however, you will not get bare civility. At :ttie Grovernment offices the Boer officials will hardly answer an Englishman save by grunting. The Post Office does not even deliver letters. Everyone in Johannesburg has to have a box at the Post Office and send for, his. own correspondence. I have seen even telegrams . sometimes lying; m the office for hours undelivered. But President Kruger, as I said, is very well off just now. Before this rush of Uitlanuei-s he never was able even to start a mint. Now he coins his own money— silver 2s, Is, 6d and 3d pieces. The gold coinage is milled, but not the. silver, Altogether the President has been dramiig' about -£8000 a year for, many years past ; he has enriched himself and all his family, v and there is an immense amount of bribery and corruption going on- in the public service. As to the report about fortifying' the capital, I do not understand it at all; Pretoria is an utterly defenceless place-^ quito an open town, with the railway running to the edge of it. There was • nothirig/ in the shape of a camp or fort when I "was there." "As for the present attitiide of the "Pitlanders/' continued Mr Alexander, "I can only suppose that a few members of the National Association, formed some years agOi have been displaying over-zeal, and brought- about this crisis quite prematurely. In my opinion it f will fizzle put, and will be a disgrace to the National Association and to Kruger. Of course the Johannesburg people labour under an absurd.inequality. .They have no, legislative rights, though they are heavily taxed; and . they are absolutely denied a freehold of their.properties. They have a ninety-nine years' lease of their town allotments or "standsy" as they/are^ called, but each stand has 'to pay a heavy monthly license fee to the Government. ; Six blocks near the theatre in Commissioner . Street, the principal thoroughfare of Johannesburg, . sold for .£40,000 while T was there, and these are liable to the monthly license besides the purchase money., Still, the agitation. for* reforms has been only fey speechmaking and deputations so far. Such firms as Bamato's, Eckstein's, Neumann's and other big financial houses would be entirely opposed to an upset that would endanger their own property and j that of -their clients-, abroad, and seriously injure their credit. The, idea has been to agitate peaceably, arid when Paul Kruger dies — he cannot live very long now— ;to bring about a change somehow. The President could more readily be manipulated with golc than by any other means, as the know, and besides they have been so engrossed by the excitement of speculation for some time past that they have had very little attention to devote to politics. Of course there is a possibility, if Dr Jameson has gone there with troops, that the burghers may be called out and the parties come into conflict, but 1 the: President would , be' c,aref ul how he provoked such a thing. The Kaffir 'boj'3' might be encouraged to rise against their employers, for the . sake of pillage and of getting greater personal freedom, and they would think nothing of taking to the knife* It would be ah- ugly outlook then ■ for the TJitlanders and indirectly for the . President himself. Tribal wars also might . break out among the Kaffirs, the ?asuto3 and the Zulus, and they would.be worst of all to deal with. There are about 25,000

or 30,000 Kaffir ' boys ' in Johannesburg. Many of them are employed as 'wash boys ' at the 'drifts/ -where all the washing has to be d6riej;many in domestic service and 10,000 or 12,000 in the .mines. If any movement of this kind were contemplated the Johannesburg people should, I think, first have appealed to 'Mr Chamberlain or Mr Ehpdes, ■ and . seen whether the Imperial or the Colonial Government would help them." Supposing Mr Ehodes had been instrumental in sending Dr Jameson ? "•■■■ "Well, I thinfcinthat case Kruger would have- the sympa'fchy of many of the Europeans. They would not like Jameson's coming. Mr. Ehodes is ; not popular in ' Johannesburg, .which he hardly ever visits, and he has few. followers, even among the English there. ,-A- man in a. prominent position on the Stock Exchange impressed upon me that' the Johannesburg people wo^ald.never.if, they could help it, come under the | : English Qpvernment: The '.TranB.vaai,;heiaid, was so remote from the Caper^lOlO miles inland. What the Uit- " landers wanted was an independent republic, and they would probably wait for that until the President's death." :