A VISITOR FROM SOUTH AFRICA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6593, 19 September 1899, Page 4

A VISITOR FROM SOUTH AFRICA.

MR ATJERBACH'S OPINIONS. Wellington is being visited by Mr Julius Auerbach, a member of the firm of Messrs Dreyfus and Co., of London, which has large interests in South Africa. Mr Auerbach has spent many years in the Cape Colony, and is also familiar with the Transvaal and its people. In conversation witn a representative "of the " Post " he gave some interesting ■particulars concerning the Boers and the Uitlanders, and the condition ,of affairs generally in South Africa, as they were when he left quite recently. Mr Auerbach was emphatic in expressing his opinion that the Boer would not go to the extent of forcing a war over the grievances of the Uitlanders. There had been a good deal of talk, but he had always found the Boer strong in exaggeration. The country is noted for its exaggeration of things generally. The cablegrams stated the other day that 15,000 persons had fled from Johannesburg. As there were not more than 50,000 whites in the Capital — British and German, principally the former — Mr Auerbach thought the cables also had caught an exaggeration. A number of women,, children, and cowards had run away from Johannesburg during the Jameson raid, and he thought a similar exodus had taken place now. The Boers are very bitter in their feelings against the British, but so far as Mr Auerbach could judge, the British residents do not reciprocate that feeling. It is the form of government they oppose — a government which denies liberty. The Boer people are narrow-minded, prejudiced, and ignorant, and the Transvaal to-day, as regards enlightenment, was about in the state of the dark ages known to English history. Although fully seven-eighths of the people, in the country spoke the language, Dutch is the tongue taught in the schools, and all official documents, agreements, and other deeds re- • ferring to business matters have to be written in Dutch. The Ui,tlander wants the English language taught as a primary subject in the schools, so that his children could bo"*taught their own tongue.., Though he has this and political grievances to put up with, the Uitlander suffers no material misery, said the visitor, and it is only natural that the Boer should feel resentment "at the thought that John Bull wants

jto enter into full possession of the rich country. The Boer has a very small standing army, the bulk being a burgher force. Everyone able to carry a rifle is "a soldier, and has his weapon as a constant', com--panion, but the Boer is not the warrior he has the reputation of being. The dynamite monopoly, said Mr Auerbach, is a grievance of long standing r and arose through the Boer system of granting monopolies to favoured persons. Before the mines were at all developed the dynamite monopoly was given to a German, and in time, when it became " a good thing, he sold it to a syndicate, through whom only, and at its own price, is it possible to get the explosive. Touching upon interState relations, Mr Auerbach said that he is convinced that there is a defensive and offensive alliance existing between the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, althouahit had never been publicly acknowledged. The natives of the country, who have perhaps to be reckoned with, hate the Boer, because of the cruel treatment to which they had been subjected, but they are by no means used to firearms. The Transvaal authorities have been preparing for trouble for a long time, and immediately after the Jameson raid (Mr Auerbach was in the country then) began building and equipping forts. Ammunition is their need. So far as the visitor could judge, should a struggle ensue, the Boer will rely solely upon himself to get i himself out of the difficulty with England, having no reliable friends at home or abroad.