SOUTH AFRICA

Otago Witness, Issue 2815, 26 February 1908, Page 19

SOUTH AFRICA

PRETORIA, February 19. Mr Botha, addressing a farmers' meeting at Standerton, defended the proposed limitations placed on mineral prospecting. He promised that before vested interests were interfered with every claim between Randfontein and Benoi should be worked. In connection with the withdrawal of the charges of desecrating Mr Kruger's grave, Mr De Villierg, the Transvaal Attorney-gen-eral, states that the officers and the civilian were innocent of the charge. PRETORIA, February 18. Ex-General De la Rey, in unveiling a monument at Burgersdorp to the burghers who were killed in the Boer war, dt!* clared that the Afrikanders had emerged more than conquerors. He said the struggle had consolidated the Boers in all the colonies, who would now never be> deprived of South Africa. Professor Mullar described the monument as a beacon of blood. LONDON, February 21. Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Winston Churchill stated that the Transvaal had asked Britain, to ascertain I whether France would sanction the recruiting of Madagascar natives for employment in the Rand mines. February 24. Reuter's Durban correspondent asserts that the Soutli African Customs and Railway Conference in April is expected to revert to the original 10 per cent, ad valorem rate, with an. extended free li6t and moderate Protection, designed to assist permanent colonial industries of a promising character. There are indications that a representative committee will be appointed to investigate the question of federation and to report id the various Parliaments this year. Burglars who visited a house at Boston, Massachusetts, And poisoned a pel dog 1 , returned the next night and left another dog of the same breed to replace the one they, had killed, " ♦