CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume V, Issue 267, 23 May 1855, Page 6

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

(From the Adelaide Observer.) By the way of Melbourne we have South African papers to the 23rd of January. Sir George Grey was still absent from the seat of Government. His Excellency was expected at Uitenhage on the 17th, and intended to proceed thence to Port Elizabeth. He seems to have won golden opinions throughout his "progress"in Southern Africa. The following is extracted from the Advertiser of the 20th January— A public meeting is to be held at Malrneshury on the 17th February, to take into consideration, among others, the following subjects likely to come before Parliament during next session; —the burgher or commando law, the voluntary principle, the masters and servants ordinance, the public roads, and district courts. The Cape Town Mail of Jautiary 20, remarks:— "We seem now to be breathing with freedom, the horrid alarm of war has died away, though the painful effects of the alarm are yet being felt. Nothing can exceed the consternation when it was announced by the frontier authorities that Anta, v-/ith his armed bands, had entered the Anatola. Our authorities evidently thought ifc was so, without reflecting that there were located in the said mountains some four or five Fingo chiefs and people, aud that the whole was held by a strong military force in four or five military posts. " Despite of these alarms, the frontier is in a state of peace and almost unheard of quiet: a few cases of cattle robbing having taken place, not by Kaffirs, but by Fingoes, in the colony. It is a rare thing to see a native bearing arms, either gun or assegai ; the cause of this I will not venture to assert, but it is what I have never seen before to the same extent. Tbe news of a new Governor, and the interest the natives fiud there is taken in their case by the new Parliament, cause them to sit still. It will be for the Government and Parliament to put these thousands of natives (brought under their pov/er and influence) under wise and prudent laws, and then there will be, I trust, an end of wars, and alarm of war. " In addition to the above, the whole face of nature is covered with the most verdant green — grass and water are most abundant. As to the cultivation of the soil, I..have never seen any thing equal to it, the season is most propitious, steady and fine rains fall daily, the standing crops of Indian and Kaffir corn promise a large return, the cornpits of the natives contain a sufficient supply of food for this year and the next, and tbe present standing crops will add fully two years more.