THE SUPPLANTING RACE.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 411, 16 October 1889, Page 4

THE SUPPLANTING RACE.

Our London cable of October Bth tells us that " the editors of two papers published in the Transvaal, both of whom are Englishmen, have been arrested on a charge of treason for having demanded extensive reiorma in the administration of the country, failing which they advocated revolution." This is a matter of no littleimportanoo, and looks very much like the beginning of the end of the Boer regime in the Transvaal. Ib implies either the establishment of what i will be virtually a British republic in that j State, or the annexation of it by Britain. Upwards ot twelve months ago we referred to the peculiar condition of affairs then prevailing in that State; how that, owing to the discovery of very rich goldfields, our fellow countrymen were Hocking there in such numbers that they then outnumbered the Boer population, and that in the course of a few months, should the cmi gration to that country continue in the samo ratio, they would as a matter of course demand a voice in the administration of the affairs of the countjy, and this could only end by their taking supremo command of it. The tologram just received is, under theso circumstances, deeply significant. The Transvaal is about as large as Italy, and the Boers, all told, do not number more than 40,000, and these are nob addicted to permanent settlement or to carrying on commercial business in towns. Pretoria is the capital of the Transvaal, and contains a population of about 3,000, chiefly Boers, but there are two other towns in the State, Barberton and Johannesberg, which contain, or did contain eighteen months ago, upwards of 10,000 each, nearly all British. Thereisanothortownalsonearer Pretoria which is entirely British, and has a larger population than the capital itself. Tho Boers have foreseen the present difficulty for some time, but failed to discover a remedy for it. A certain number of Britishers they would gladly welcome, as by their energy in developing the resources of that rich country, the Transvaal suddenly jumped from e*tretne poverty to immense wealth. Not long since the Transvaal Government was apparently hopelessly bankrupt, now it is extremely wealthy and the people very prosperous. This has been caused by British enterprise in developing the gold and diamond fields. If just a sufficient number of Britishers had taken up their abode in the Transvaal to secure this desirable result and no more, all would have been well for the Boers. Unfortunately for them, however, the British flocked and aro still flocking there in such numbers that the Boers now are very much in the same position as would be the Southern squatters' sheep in the face ot the übiquitous and prolific bunny if there were no such things as poison and rabbitproof fences. The Boers endeavoured in their own way to check tho spread of British influence and population, but everybody knows that it would be as easy to stop a whirlwind as stop Englishmen in sight of a payable goldtield. On June 2ud of last year the Volksraad, or Boer Parliament, passed a law enacting that the Dutch language should be used in all markets and in all public offices throughout the State. It will easily be understood i chat however law-abiding the English may be, it was a little too much to expect them to carry on all their transactions in Dutch, when for instance the whole population of the town was English. The idea alone to an Englishman would be sufficiently galling, but as a matter of fact he could not do it. A Johannesberg paper — and it seems nob at all improbable that the outspoken editor of ib may be one of those mentioned as ai rested — in commenting on this most un justitiablelaw passed by theßoerssaid: "The Volksraad is rushing the country to the edge of a pitfall and hastening ib into trouble to which there can be but one end. It is the veriest folly to attempt to enforce the use of a language not underotood by a large proportion of the people. It ib is hoped that by such methods the Dutch language will be perpetuated, the hope is a vain one. This country is going to become Anglicised, and a year or two will witness a complete change in the position of parties. The country can never be mado great by compelling the people who are rapidly becoming the most numerous in the State to adopt a language they do not understand, and which must hamper official and everyday business to a very serious extent." It is more than possible that the Boer Government have vainly, endeavoured to j enforce this law in what are practically I English communities. If so, all English1 men can guess what the result would be, and the Transvaal press, if we may take as a specimen of their outspokenness the extract^from the paper we have just given, would have no hesitation in telling the Boer (jo\ eminent exactly what thoir opinion of them was, and that thoy did not intend to submit to such imbecilo treatment. A London paper upwards of twelve months ago made tho following remarks on the position in the Transvaal. It said : " Sooner or later tho Boers will have to go out of office, and the English will take their place, and as every day rcndeis this opeiation easier to eflect, the longer the little revolution is deferred, tho less trouble there will be in snuffing out the Boer Government. The English in the Transvaal are perfectly able to work out their own salvation, and will probably in the long run do it without the necessity for a single red-coat crossing the barrier. A year ago the condition of the English element might have " inspired ] anxiety. To day it is powerful enough to look after itself. "' This was written more than twelve months ago, and the English now in the ■ Transvaal are more numerous, more ; organised, and in a far better position to hold their own than they wc.ro then, from the tenor of the telegram wo should think the struggle between the two races is imminent, and if the English are successful without ha\ing to call in the assistance ot the red-coatd, there is every possibility of an attempt being made to inaugurate a British republican State. If tho soldiers I are called in and have the final settling of the question the result will undoubtedly be the annexation of the Transvaal to the British Empire. In either case the "supplanting race " will afford to the world another illustration of its unique nationai charactenstics.— "Auckland Star," Oct. 12