THOUGHTS ARE THINGS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6596, 21 September 1899, Page 1

THOUGHTS ARE THINGS.

There must be a thought before it becomes objective ; thousands have put their thought into objectivity by producing something oi great utility to their fellow-man, and are still doing so. That is why science is making such rapid strides, until just lately all science and skill has failed to discover how to destroy the microbe that is causing such destruction. Grappa-line is the most powerful microbe destroyer yet discovered ; thirty to sixty drops of grappaline three times a day in a little water will- kill all the microbes that cause influenza, asthma, or consumption ; the ordinary coughs and colds r.re cured by a few doses. Ifc beats all previous 'discovery. Grappaline cures mlhi-nza, by taking one bottle, in the worst of cases, asthma and consumption three to four littles, and ordinary coughs and colds live to seven doses ; it is also the quickest reliever of pain yet discovered, it is a genuine urtiele, and no house/ship, or place of business sliouid be without it on the premise.. It is quite a new discovery ; it is 5s a bottle, but it is worth five guineas. To bo obtained wholesale from H. F. Stevens and Kempthorne, Prosser and Co., retail from the Farmers' Co-op., Christchurch and Timaru, and all well-established chemists and grocers. X2476

munition, therefore, was not required for native warfare, and is not to be used against -Icrmany, France, Russia or. Japan. It r.uist be intended to be used against the Queen's soldiers, or nobody, and there must bo something wrong when it can pass peacc."ully through a -British colonial port. What places the whole affair in a worse light is ;he fact that nobody ever believed for a moment that the Premier did not know the ultimate destination of the ammunition. viz, .Pretoria.- The Governor asked whether ;l-e Government would co-operate with the [British authorities in movements of troops and generally, and -^as answered in the aegative. ■• People are now comparing Mr Schreiner's attitude with that of the Portuguese at Delagoa Bay, who, as I have already told you, detained a whole shipment of ammunition and rifles for the Transvaal, in spite of procosts from Pretoria. All the papers here nre urging the Premier to resign, saying that there will be as little regret amongst Britishers as there was over the departure of Sir • William Butler. General Butler, who commanded the troops in South Africa, took the pl;\ce of Sir Alfred Milner as Administrator and High Commissioner during the. latter's absence in England on business, and practically jirouounced judgment against the Transvaal' Uitlanders, especially against the Transvaal province of the South African League, and preached peace when there was no peace. This led to his recall and the announcement that Lieutenant' General Sir Frederick Foresteer-Walker is to superse'ile him, is held to be a most significant war sign, and has created a most favourable impression here. The German East African mail steamer Koenig has just arrived at Delagoa Bay, with a further consignment of three thousand cases of arms and ammunition for the Trans- j vaal Government. Directly after , the anchorage of the steamer, the captain of an ; English warship went on board. What hap- j pened then is not known, but nothing was landed certainly, and a Portuguese . gunboat J lies between the Koenig and the shore at > the present moment, keeping a very strict watch, too, as the Boers have threatened to j send a commando to seize both shipments. The last lot of arms, which included 15,000 j rifles, was brought by a French mail boat, and a French man-of-war" is expected daily. It is reported now that the ammunition is to be transhipped and sent down the coast. Natal has already refused permission to land it, and we are waiting now to see what Mr I Schreiner will do if they try to land it at! any Cape Colony ports. President Kruger telegraphed to the Portuguese Governor-Gene-ral asking for an explanation of the detention, and was referred to Lisbon. Then he wired again, saying that a peaceful settlement with England was expected, and warning the Portuguese that as soon as everything Avas quiet, then the Boers would give their attention to Delagoa Bay, as if it were probable that Portugal was 'acting on her own initiative, and without an understanding with England. Six hundred Portuguese infantry with one battery of artillery are camped close to the Transvaal border. The stoppage of these arms is in accord with the treaty of friendshiip and commerce between Portugal and the Transvaal dated December^ 1875, which says : "The King of Portugal reserves the right of prohibiting the importation of arms and munitions of war, and of subjecting the transit thereof to special regulations, but he binds himself to allow the free importation agd.,trgpsit..pf. axms -ood. military stores iritendedf for trie South African Republic, upon the guarantees necessary to remove all doubt as to their destination being given." Tliis treaty was ratified by the Queen as Suzerain of the Transvaal State in 1882. By the way, the Transvaal censorship is so •strict, that it is quite impossible to get news from Delagoa Bay except by the deep sea cable, which is, of course, much more expensive. Tliis fact might be worth considering in the approaching settlement of the Transvaal account. I There are persistent rumours at Durban, which are vouched for by responsible persons, that a large force in troopsliips. are hovering off the coast. Ifc is positively stated that every morning before dawn mysterious lights are seen flashing on the horizon of the outer anchorage, and that these signals arp answered from the Bluff signal station, after which the lights on the sea disappear. These troops are believed to be froni Malta, Egypt and India. . ' Reports are coming in daily from all parts of Northern Natal, to the effect that the young Beers there are all armed with Mausers, an arm they cannot procure in that colony, and that in the Umvoti county especially these Dutchmen have already appointed a commandant, and have all their organisation complete. They also openly state that Umvoti county being the stronghold of the pro Transvaal Dutch, the Transvaal will make that county their first object, and will rush in and reinforce their sympa-thisei-s there, and will make it their base for overrunning tlie rest of Natal. The Zulus also are showing signs of unrest, and have acknowledged that the Boers have' tried to persuade them to join the Transvaal, and Dinizulu, their king, replied, " Ho did not know which side he would take yet, but if ■ he saw that the English were likely to win then he would join the English." This is characteristic of a native; he will always side with the party he thinks will win, and that is where the whole danger

lies if the English should happen to mccc j with a reverse at the commencement. The Natal Government are being strongly urged to ''seize all the rifles not registered in the colony, and to inform all disloyal subjects by proclamation that their properties will be forfeited if they join or afford assistance to the Transvaal. Although, of course, rumours are the order of jthe day, there is generally some little truth in them, and news has arrived that a strong Boer commando has been seen on the Bechuanaland border, that the Transvaal Staat artillery have left their headquarters suddenly, that the border is being carefully watched, and that three detachments of three hundred each have left for Delagoa Bay, Mafeking and VoUfsmSt. Anyhow, it is perfectly certain that the keenest excitement does prevail amongst the Boers, and that it would take veiy little indeed now to start Avar. They speak of war, too, as a certainty, and mention the* end of September as the date when they are going to drive the hated " rooinck " (Englishman) into the sea. The mail trains from Johannesburg axe crowded with passengers every evening, and the greatest excitement prevails. It is estimated that there are generally at least four thousands persons on the platform, and Ihese vary the monotony occasionally by. hooting the third class passengers fcr leaving at such a time. The following disgraceful outrages show the feeling of the Dutch, towards the English: — Three evenings ago the mail train from the Transvaal to Durban was fired upon by a Dutchman close to the border, eight clean bullet holes, Mauser size," went through the carriages, luckily missing the occupants. Of course the greatest consternation prevailed, and all passengers are cautioned now to lie down , at tho first sign of a similar occurrence. The following day another train wa-s fired at about the same place. It was quite dark when all the shots were fireL, and .the affair ' is put down to some Boers wishing to have the honour of drawing first blood. As a sign of the tinies in the Transvaal, the Liliputians Opera Company, who were billed to remain three weeks at Johannesburg, have closed their season there, and have given as a reason "that, owing to the uncertainty of the situation, the managers do not feel justified in taking any risks." There are a great many families who'have. not the means to leave the Transvaal in tho. event of hostilities, and it has been suggested that subscription lists should be opened both in Natal and Cape, Colony, and that a camp should be formed in Durban, where living is cheaper, and the women and children could be sent there while the men remain behind. Recruits are being sent up country daily from different centres, and are being sta- • tioned on the different borders and points of vantage. To avoid friction with the Capo Ministry, there is no force stationed in Cape territory. By the way, it is a very singular fact that no volunteer force in Cape Colony has offered to go to the front in case of trouble. Individual members have sent in tlieir resignation and enlisted again under Imperial officers, but that is all. . The Dutch papers all say that it would be much better to die on the battlefield than to accede to Mr Chamberlain's proposals, because to agree to a joint Commission to inquire into Transvaal affairs would mean an acknowledgment of England as a Suzerain Power. Another paper prges the Boer vjovernment to break off all relations with Engt , IstncT immediately, ' while* a third 'plaintively asks its subscribers to pay up all outstanding debts before the trouble commences. There seems to me to be one thing that the papers and the Transvaal seem to have quite overlooked, and this is it : Surely the Republic has really already received a declaration of war, if she persists in regarding herself as entirely free from obligation to the Paramount Power, for if she were entirely independent of Great Britain, as she says she is, then the stoppage of the arms afc Delagoa Bay would be tantamount lo a declaration of war ; for unless paramountcy is acknowledged, the stoppage of arms by Portugal, n\ the instigation of Great Britain, simply means that England regards the Transvaal as a hostile Power. The Dutch Reformed Church set apart last Sunday for a. day of humiliation and prayer in order to avert war. This' seems all right in the abstract, but the practical outcome is nothing less than utter mockery. The ministers say they want peace. Well, why do not they uso their influence, which is great, with President Kruger and their own congregations?. The President preached at Pretoria, and lus sermon was, as usual, full of scriptural allusions, and meant absolutely nothing. It was reported this afternoon, from a reliable though not official source, that the following may be regarded ayS the points of the Transvaal reply to Mr Chamberlain's despatch : — (1) Five years' franchise, to be retrospective ; (2) additional representation for the Uitlanders in the Volksraad ; (3) Uitlanders to vote for President in a manner to be decided later ; (4) other questions to be decided by arbitration by other than foreign Powers ; (5) that England should not \ise the present interference in the internal affairs of the Republic as a precedent for future action ; (6) that Great Britain should relinquish the suzerainty claim. MAFEKING AND JOHANNESBURG, The following notes respecting Mafeking and Johannesburg are taken from the letters of Mr H. M. Stanley, descriptive of his travels in the Transvaal, Cape Colony, and Natal, written in 1898: — An hour later we arrived at Mafeking, on the Moloppo River, a tributary of the Orange River. Ma-eking will always be celebrated in the future as the place whence Jameson started, on lus desperate incursion into the Dutch Republic, The Moloppo River contains lenghthy pools of water along its deepened course, but the inhabitants of Mafeking are supplied by copious springs from Montsioa's old farm. The town hes on the north, or right bank, and is 870 miles from Capetown. It is. 4194 ft above the sea. Already it has been laid out in broad streets, ! which are planted with trees, and as theso are flourishing they promise to furnish grateful sliade in a few years. Outside of the town there is not a tree in. sight, scarcely a shrub, and consequently it is more purely a prairie town than amy other. Due east of it lies Pretoria, the Boer capital, about 180 miles distant. Reduced to matter-of-fact figures, Johannesburg proper covers four square miles; its roads and streets are 126 miles in length, 21 miles of which are macadamised, and 10 miles have tram lines. The city's parks and open spaces occupy 84 acres. There have been 20 miles of gas-piping laid, while the electric, light is supplied by 42 miles of wire. The waterworks supply 600,000 gallons of water daily for domestic use, exclusive of what, is required for the mines and street watering. The population of the town at the census of July, 1896, consisted of 79,315 males and 22,763 females, of whom 32,357 ma.es and 18,520 females were European, making a total European population of 50,877. It is believed that duriug the seventeen months which have elapsed this W^wn lias been augmented to about 55,000. The streets of the city generally are about 50ft wide, while the principal business streets average 90ft in width. Several of. these are flanked by buildings which would be no discredit to any provincial city m England, while the array of shops have their windows as artistically dressed with ware as those of Regent Street, in London, which gave me ?ome idea of the ' character and good taste of the people. .