TRANSVAAL.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 54, 12 October 1878, Page 3

TRANSVAAL.

(Natal Witness, March 30.) It will be seen—and this is the one point tu '[)•• insisted on aliovo all others that the disturbed ami unsettled state of the Transvaal really arises from the existence of Zultiland as an independent sovereignty Sir Theophilus Shopstono has been disappointed in his wish to establish the civil Government of the country upon a sound and economical basis. Why? Because he has been compelled to remain for months together at Utrecht, endeavouring to settle the dispute as to the boundary. Taking advantage of his absence and altecting to ftud a justification in the unavoidable disorganisation of the ordinary machinery of Government, the Boers have been led into an attitude very nearly approaching one of open rebellion. Had not the Zulu difficulty been threatening to occupy the whole of the Administrator's attention, and tlie whole strength of the Importal troops, this seditious spirit dared never have manifested itself so openly. Tho Sekukuni outbreak is a result, both direct and indirect, of the same cause. And, added to all these indirecl effects of the proximity of the Zulu power, there is the direct threat to life and property, to peace and good order, which cannot eeaae so long as there are twenty thousand gun-barrels in Zuhdaml ready t.> be directed, at any moment, and with or without notice, at the bothering civilisations. There can be no lasting peace between tho rub' of the Englishman and the rule of the descendant of Chaka. The monstrous claims with respect to boundaries put forward by Cetywayo only tho Boundary Commissioners —claims which, if allowed, would give the Zulus four times their present opportunities for coming into collision with tho white Bctlcrs—these claims show that no effort to arrive at a peaceable settlement can bo productive of satisfactory or durable results. Concede to the Zulus one boundary and they will swarm up to the edge, of that and make aggressions, until, when the moment comes at last to fight, there will be three times the length of border to ho defended and six times the extent of country to ho occupied. In the interests of civilisation, and in justice to white and black populations alike Zululand must be annexed, and the sooner tho : work is taken in hand tire easier will it i be of accomplishment. Two more regi- I meats, in addition to thos« now in the' Transvaal and Natal, would bo sufficient,' with co-operation from the sea, for tho i purpose, and the cost of a Zulu war BOW will bo a mere trifle to it.s cost if action should bo indefinitely postponed.