Transvaal Monopolies.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume II, Issue 110, 17 February 1900, Page 1

Transvaal Monopolies.

In a recent issue of the " Fort-, nightly," Mr J. P. Pitzpatrick, author of "The Transvaal From Within," supplies a few notes on the war, and incidentally refers ta the dynamite monopoly that has been given to, or, rather, taken by, President Krugef. One clay Mi! Fitzpatnck asked General Jouberfc how thejnonqpolyhad b.een restored, and a story, to illustrate the President's methods and policy was told by the General. The monopoly was granted, he said, when he was away, 'and he had arranged with General Smit to opposs it, and was angry to find that tha General had voted fcr ifc. General Jouberfc reproached General Smit for his action, and the latter answered : '• Old fricni, I did oppose him, but he would not pass it Dy a majority merely. He sxd it must be unanimous. I said I would never agree. First he talked nicels to me, but I aid it no good. Then he spoke louder and louder, and, after, a while, he got quite mad with ragp. He stamped up and down the room, and bellowed at me lika a buffalo. But I 'did not care for his rage. Then he stopped, and quoted the Bible to me. Old brother, it is true, he quoted the Book itself to show that the monopoly must be granted. I was very firm. Then he came to me and shook hands with me, and then he cried. Tell me, old brother, what can you do against a man like that ?" This is the man, says Mr Fitzpatrick, who has moulded the policy of the Boers, and who, in the last twenty years, has succeeded in driving the wedge between the two white races in Soath Asnca. The methods by which the bitter racial hatred was fostered are shown by an incident that occurred only last year. The President was speaking on a public occasion, and he deliberately made the monstrous charge that the massacre of the Boers by the Zulu King Dingaan, in the early days of Natal, hae bsen instigatsd by two Englishmen. Mr Fitzpatrick contends strongly that there is plenty of evidenca to show that President Kruger was for many years looking to something beyond the independence of his country. In 1894 the British residents in the Transvaal saw the commencement of preparations that could not have been made merely for the defence of the country. The constant signalling by heiographs and flash lights from the forts, the strengthening of defences, the purchase of the largest and the best field and siega guns, the drilling of the arfcilloiy, and other warlike preparation^,, were known to most of the inhabitants of the Transvaal, and those who have sufferjd by the war naturally wonder if they were known to the Imperial Government and, if so, why they were cot znee by preparations on thQ other sicte,