Notes and Events.

Manawatu Herald, 11 January 1896, Page 3

Notes and Events.

The Hon. Cecil Rhodes, P C, and Premier of the Gape Colony has thought if; wise during the present excitement to resign the Premiership. A well-known writer in 1891 remarked " Mr Rhodes, if he lives for another ten years, will make or will mar the Empire," This seems being illustrated early within the prophecy.

Max O'Rell has written after a prolonged lecturing tour through the South African provinces the follow ing opinion : —The* Transvaal will never be an English colony. The English of the Transvaal, as well as those of Gape Colony and Natal, would be as firmly opposed to it as Ibe Boecs,themselves, for they have never forgiven England for letting herself be beaten by tbe Boers at .Majuba Hill, and accepting her defeat —a proceeding which has rendered them ridiculous in the eyes of the Dutch population of South Africa. Johannesburg will absorb (fee Twaevaai; the apathy of the

Boers will be bound to give way to the ever-increasing activity of the English, but the prestige rf England will profit nothing by this. The Transvaal is bound to become an Anglo-Saxon Republic, which will one day form part of the United States of South Africa. With me this is not a simple impression, but a firm conviction." '

Mr Rhodes gave £10,000 towards the Home Rule cause in Ireland but urged that representation should be granted to it in the Imperial parliament. The present outbreak in Africa has been' the means of exploding prematurely many little schemes, some of which have probably originated with the Privy Councillor. President Kruger of the South African Republic thinks so and does not hesitate to say so. Though it may not worry Mr Rhodes and his South African company it does not sound well for the head of a neighbouring State to hold such opinions and it will aleo complicate further negotiations if, as President Kruger says thpy have " the con fidence of the Boers in Mr Rhodes has been rudely shaken."

Mr Stead is an ardent writer and has shown an ability to go too far. In a character sketch of Mr Rhodes he daringly says "Mr Rhodes is no fanatic—no visionary. ... He accepts the law of the survival of the fittest It colours all his thinking; ifc dominates bis policies. If it be the will of God that the fittest should survive, then surely the first duty of man h to help in securing the survival of the fittest, the elimination of the unfit. But who are the fittest to survive ? The answer is written in capitals all over the open page of the planet. The fittest, as proved by scientific test of survival, are the Englishspeaking folk." If this really represents Mr Rhodes' views, then Dr Jameson's expedition is more easily understood.

Just another extract from thp above mentioned sketch. The Norse man first discovered the American continent, the Italians gave it its name, and showed the Oid World the way to the New, the Dutch colonised New York, the French occupied the mouth" of the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence, and thp Spaniards held the Pacific Coast, while the Russians annexed Alaska. To-day, from Nova Scotia to San Francisco, from Behring Sea to the Gulf of Mexico, the English-speaks ing man is supreme. Mexico aud South America are honeycombed with Anglo-American agencies. Australasia has fallen as the golden fruit of Hesperidea into the lap of the Briton. In India, 800.000,000 Asiatics whose civilisation and culture were hoary when our ancestors stained themselves with woad acd offered human sacrifices in the re- i cesse3 of their forests, acknowledge the suprnne authority of the Eng«. lishman. And in South Africa, Black and Boer alike admit ihat the sovereignty of the continent will ultimately be vested in those who , speak the tongue of Shakespeare and ' of Milton. Everywhere, therefore ! there are the mnnifest and unmis> i takeable sign* of the ascendancy of' our Imperial race."