SOUTH AFRICAN AFFAIRS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1401, 11 March 1905, Page 1

SOUTH AFRICAN AFFAIRS.

A MINING SET-BACK. Tho Johannesburg correspondent of the Christchurch Press, writing on Jauuary 24, says :—“ The gold output for December was a reeord'one. Money was commencing to flow in for any promising new mining venture, and stocks which had jumped to something like pre-war prices were in many cases steadily advancing, and now they have tumbled baok to the lowest ebb. Tho Band is almost in despair. Serious European disturbances are the cause of the latost knookout blow wo have received, t:

'be sot-baok may be, J and moat probably is, only temporary, still there is trouble and misfortune in its trial. Job’s comforters tell the man in the street, ‘ Now is the time to buy.’ The advice may be sound, but it' is only the one naan’in a hundred who has the wherewithal to buy. Scutes of people had been banging oS from investment until such time as the mining market had taken a decided turn. The time had come, they fondiy imagined, last month, and the careful investor took his chance. Many of 'those, who were not strong enough to hold on, have been ruined. Pretoria diamonds is the only stock that has not been “ A question of the hour in these new colonies is the nature of the Constitution that is to be granted for our Government. Public meotings are being everywhere held to urge the Imperial Government to grant, on the one band, full responsible Government, and oh the other a representative Parliament, with an Executive nominated by the Crown, At a mass .meeting in Johannesburg, Mr Hutchison, ex-M.H.8., of New Zealand, was one of the principal speakers in favour of a resolution demanding full political rights. Mr Hutchison said the people did not want responsibility in 1907 or 1910, but they wanted it in 1906. They wanted the next Budget to bs proposed by men who would be respon sibl9 to the people, and a. Ministry that would have a policy, and bq prepared to give effect to that policy, which would include a new gold law, an Aot rostrainiDg Indian trading, and a Ministry that would appoint a Commission to examine the distribution of the compensation funds. The Progressives, as well as the Kesponsibles, have adopted as first principles, one-man-one vote, with a Bmall property or rental qualification, and the automatic redistribution of seats. The JDutoh party object to the automatic redistribution, and desire no other qualification for voters than the residential ono.”