The record-union., 1899-06-13

with foreign Powers or any native
tribes of Africa. e.
Concerning the heavy taxes the Beers
point out that they do not yield suffi-.
Gent revenue as yet to enable the
Transvaal to discharge its Indebted
ness, though it is confessed that tht
revenues have more than doubled in
the last two years. The Beers point out
that they alone are not responsible for
the heavy duties, since they have no
seaport, and that all imports have to
reach them over territory controlled by
England or by Portugal and that the
British are alone responsible for the
high rail rate on grain. That teachers
are imported from Holland, is true, be-
cause Of capacity and because SO few
can be found capable of teaching
Dutch, English, French and German
hence the Beers some years ago granted
Rand, which removed chief grievance
of the Uitlanders.
That the Government pays out far
more than it receives now for school
purposes. amounting to over nine
pounds sterling per pupil per annum;
that notwithstanding the complaints
against taxation, the Government rev.
enues declined last year and year be-
fore last so much that loans had to be
raised to meet current expenses. To
this the Uitlanders reply that the de-
ficiency was made by raising the sal
aries of the members of the Volks-
raad. But it is true that in 1897 there
was such decline in values and mining
stocks, and such general financial en-
barrassnent, that the Transvaal Gov
eminent was compelled to negotiate
loans, for one reason because the pre-
valance of the rirderpest impoverished
many of the burghers.
An Industrial commission was raised
in 1897 to consider the complaints Of
the miner Uitlanders, and it developed
the fact that of the 1873 gold mines
only 20 produced gold, the product
half million pounds sterling, while
1914 yielded no gold, and only 25 COM
panies declared dividends. The COM
mission recommended the removal of
of licenses; the holding out of induce
ments for Kaffirs to come in and supply
needed labor in the mines: that labor
contracts signed in Europe should be
recognized in the Transvaal; that the
Boer Government negotiate to have the
transit duties removed, the republic
paying at that time some 100000 a
year in such duties to neighboring Bri-
fish colonies. That commission ad-
vised that the Government assume the
monopoly of the Importation of dyna-
mite cancel the dynamite concessions
and fix duty on explosives not in ex-
cess of 2Os per case.
On their part the British hold that
| the severe laws of the Transyaal bear
ing upon British subjects violate the
spirit of the treaty between the two
Governments; that the laws for exclu-
sion of undesirable emigrants are harsh
and operate against worthy British;
that the discomfort among the Uitland-
ers is such as to justify England in de-
manding reforms; that if these are not
granted Great Britain must see to il
that her subjects are not oppressed In
the Transvaal.
There is a great deal more than all
this, as for instance the dispute of 1897
about the closing of the drifts consti-
tuting the two ports of entry on the
Vaal River to over sea goods. in order
to stop illicit importation of arms; the
regulations regarding the wearing of
badges; the hours within which certain
persons must be within doors after
dark; observance of Sunday, etc.
Thus it will be seen that the relations
between the Beers and the Uitlanders
are of a character calculated to grow
worse rather than better, and that
England is by no means disposed to
avoid issues with President Kreuger
which will furnish a pretext for inter-
ference and what is clearly the ulti-
mate purpose of Great Britain, the an
nexation of the Transvaal 1t is her
ambition to control absolutely the en-
tire Cape region, and We are disposed
to think that she will in time accom-
plish it.