Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/613

 1899.] STATE PAPERS— TRANSVAAL. 189

in the mining industry, and the reasons which, in the opinions of men well qualified to judge, had led up to it.

12. The Government at last appointed a Commission, consisting of its own officials, which was empowered to inquire into the industrial conditions of the mining population, and to suggest such a scheme for the removal of existing grievances as might seem advisable and necessary.

13. On August 5 the Commission issued their report, in which the reasons for the then state of depression were fully set forth, and many reforms were recommended as necessary for the well-being of the community. Among them it will be sufficient to mention the appoint- ment of an industrial board, having its seat in Johannesburg, for the special supervision of the liquor law, and the pass law, and to combat the illicit dealing in gold and amalgam.

14. The Government refused to accede to the report of the Com- mission, which was a standing indictment against its administration in the past, but referred the question to the Volksraad, which in turn referred it to a select committee of its own members. The result created consternation in Johannesburg; for, whilst abating in some trifling respects burdens which bore heavily on the mining industry, the committee of the Raad, ignoring the main recommendations of the Commission, actually advised an increased taxation of the country, and that in a way which bore most heavily on the Outlander. The suggestions of the committee were at once adopted, and the tariff increased accordingly.

15. At the beginning of 1897 the Government went a step farther in their aggressive policy towards the Outlander, and attacked the inde- pendence of the High Court ; which, until then, your Majesty's subjects had regarded as the sole remaining safeguard of their civil rights. Early in that year Act No. 1 was rushed through the Volksraad with indecent haste. This high-handed act was not allowed to pass without criticism; but the Government, deaf to all remonstrance, threatened reprisals on those professional men who raised their voices in protest ; and, finally on February 16, 1898, dismissed the Chief Justice, Mr. J. G. Kotze, for maintaining his opinions. His place was filled shortly after- wards by Mr. Gregorowski, the judge who had been especially brought from the Orange Free State to preside over the trial of the Reform prisoners in 1896, and who, after the passing of the Act above referred to, had expressed an opinion that no man of self-respect would sit on the bench whilst that law remained on the Statute-book of the Republic. All the judges at the time this law was passed condemned it in a formal protest, publicly read by the Chief Justice in the High Court, as a gross interference with the independence of that tribunal. That protest has never been modified or retracted, and of the five judges who signed the declaration three still sit on the bench.

16. The hostile attitude of the Government towards your Majesty's subjects has been accentuated by the building of forts not only around Pretoria, but also overlooking Johannesburg. The existence of these forts is a source of constant menace and irritation to British subjects, and does much to keep alive that race-feeling which the Government of