COLONIAL MINISTERS RETURN

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 221, 30 December 1910, Page 5

COLONIAL MINISTERS RETURN

PROM SOUTH AFRICA. * By Cable—Press Association—Copyright, Adelaide, December 29. The Aeneas has arrived. Messrs. Fisher and Fowlds are passengers. Mr. Fisher said that npthing could have excelled the cordial, kind, and demonstrative reception they received in South Africa. The people seemed ambitious to make the Union a success. He was not particularly struck by the nature of the land, although lie was informed it was good. The way the mines were managed was worth travelling a long way to see. The wear and tear and loss of life on the Rand were appalling. Believing representative men of the Dominions knew too little of each other and their countries, he had extended, on behalf of the Government, an invitation to the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition to visit Australia. Mr. Botha would probably accept at an early date. The division of parties in South Africa was more political than racial, but the recent elections were not on racial lines. There were possibilities for a Labor Government there, but it would always -be a black man's country, ruled by an aristocracy of white labor. Mr. Fowlds, interviewed, said he had not observed more bitterness between English and Dutch than he expected. In view of the recent history of the country,' the political parties were not more antagonistic than was usual in British communities. General Hertzog's education policy was responsible for the present acuteness of racial feeling. Mr. Fowlds was favorably impressed with the Dutch people. The native question was most perplexing, and he was sorry to say many good people in South Africa entertained heathenish ideas about blacks.