BAMBAATA ALIVE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 66, 11 December 1907, Page 7

BAMBAATA ALIVE.

HIDDEN BY DINIZULU. STRANGE RUMOUR FROM NATAL. THE ARRESTING PROCESS. BT TELEGRAPH PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT, (Rcc. Dcc. 10j 10.55 p.m.) Durban, December 10. At tho request of Dinizulu, Colonel Mackenzie has sont a conveyance to bring him from Usutu to Nongooa. It is reported that tho delay with regard to his arrest arises out of legal preliminaries connected with tho service of the warrant under Civil proceedings. It is also reported that the Natal Government is awaro that tho rebel chief Bambaata—who was supposed to havo been killed in tho last robellion, and whose reputed bead was exhibitod to tho natives —has been living in a dugout near Dinizulu's kraal, and is now in hiding. Durban, Decomber 9. Four loyal natives at North Vryheid captured and assagaied a rebel. Before tho man died ho stated that ho and anothor had been entrusted with a special mission, but declined to say by whom. INDIANS' OFFER TO SERVE. , Capetown, Decomber D. • One hundred and fifteon Transvaal Indians, including Pathans and Gurkhas, have offered to serve in Zululand. Lord Selborne stated that Natal must dceido tfhetlior sho would accept tho offer. NATAL'S NATIVE ADMINISTRATION CONDEMNED. The "Layman" of October 11 quotes from the report of tho Commission that was appointed a year ago by tho Natal Government to inquire into tho administration of nativo affairs. Tho "Layman" finds tho report "a very serious indictment of tho treatment of the natives of Natal." Thore is a want of sympathy with the reasonable aspirations of the Zulu race. Civilisation is debasing tho natives. Tho women aro being debauched by whito men. In this connection • tho report says: "We are distinctly losing in moral reputation, and nothing is more calculated. . .■

to stretch the endurance of even the most submissive people to the breaking-point. . . It is not only ill the power qf the Government, but a positive duty, to begin by some immediate administrative iret to oxcise this evil, which, like a cankor, is insidiously destroying our reputation for morality nnd amity. ' Further summarising iho roport, tlio "Layman" says: "Tho evidence as to tlio overbearing conduct of the native polico seems to be overwhelming, while thoro is ground for gravo complaint as to tlio treatment meted out in some cases to nativo applicants at magistrates' offices. Educational opportunities are quite inadequate. Fines are inflicted boyond. tlio capacity, of tho natives to pay. Money is lent to them at usurious interest, lients aro unduly high. They have been required to conform to laws of which they wero largely ignorant. Tho system of passes or .permits has been unreasonably and oppressively pushed. Tho yoko of compulsory labour has beon upon their neclcs. This is but a brief summary of tho complaints, nnd it is important to bear in mind that they are mado afto.r some sixty years of Colonial government. Yet as long ago as ISGS Sir T. Shopstone wrote of tho Zulus as being 'easier lo govern' than you think, and 'moro tractable than tho Basutos.' " The "Layman" declares that it is impossiblo to read tho paragraph in the report relating to the causes of the late rebellion (Bambaata's) without seeing that it was in part duo to misgoYernment. The "Layman" fears that another groat native uprising will bo brought about, and adds l : "If such a disaster should overtake tho country thorc will, no doubt, bo an outcry at Homo in favour of inilioting a crushing blow upon the rebels. It might, of oourso, . become necessary to tako drastic measjires to re-establish tho authority of tho Colonial Government, but no impartial critic, with this roport in his hands, would bo ablo to doubt that tho Colonial Government had brought the on themselves by their own mismanagement and misrule." Tho offer of the Transvaal Indians to fight for the flag is interesting, in view of tho obstinato passive resistance which they aro making to the Transvaal's compulsory fingerprint registration. At last reports about half the Indians in tho Transvaal, wero still unregistered.