THE Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 1881.
It can hardly be regarded as otherwise than humiliating to tbe sense of British pride, that in the three, probably, most purposeless wars which England hag engdged in during the present century. She has sustained two of the mrst deplorable military disasters which have' overtaken Engjish troops in recent times. It is only the other day that the world stoop] aghast at the intelligence of the annihilation of an entire regiment of oar troops in Zululaud, and before people bad well done wondering why that luck* less war was ever undertaken, and what real gain resulted from it, comes the announcement of a further appeal to arms for the anpexation of Basutoland, and upon . tbe head of this, another for the subjugation pf the Boers. The history of the latter campaign, as far as it has, yet gone, is unfortunately, but too fresh in our minds, and concerning the moral aspect of the struggle we may appropriately quote the following appeal, wuich has lately been addressed by Holland to the people of Great Britain on behalf of her countrymen at the Cape. The petitioners say :— " We may lament this act of theirs, (the appeal to arms by the Boers) but we find it intelligible. For are their forefathers not ours also— the men who, for eighty long and grievous years, struggled for tbe preser* vation of their national independence? And shall tfie, spirit of their ancestors be quenched amoog them 1 No, Britons, yon yourselves are a free people; you cannot do otherwise than sympathise with another, if comparatively unimportantrace, which your powarful Government, it is true, can exterminate and scatter, but which will never allof itself to be subjugated. And it is this feeling which encourages us to direct this Appeal to the sense of justice of the British nation. The people of England cannot brook the dishonor which must ineyit* ably result from a struggle that is as unequal as it is unjust, from a struggle with a powerless race, with a people who wish for nothing further than to live in peace and quiet under their own laws, cul> tiy.ating th£ ground that has become tbeir own through stress and peril. And we cherish the hope that this appeal of ours will pot remain wholly unattended to. We are still inclined to believe that tbe voice of public opinion will give a powerful rapport fp the present Govern* ment of England in order to enable her Majesty's Ministers to undo an apt of injustice, which to judge from the ljberni professions of tbe Cabinet, and from its own particular views, should never have beep planned and carried out." Apropos of Cape affairs generally, the following information concerning that colony will, no doubt, be read with interest at the present time:— "The Cape of Good Hope was founded by the 1 hitch in 1652, but was taken by the British in 1796. At the peace of Amiens in 1803 tbe country was restored to Holland, but three years later was re«occupied by Cfreat Britain, and since then has remained a British Colony. In 1865, after previously passing through different stages of Government, it received its Constitution, which, with amendment by the Colonial Legislature bus endured down to the present time. The Execu* tive is vested in the Governor and a Council composed cf oflice holders spn pointed by the Crown. The Legislative unctions rest with a Parliament consist*
ing of a Council of twenty*one members presided over by the Chief Justice, and in addition to this a House of Assembly of sixty-eight members. Members of the Council must have £2000 tfdrth /of real or £4000 worth of personal estate. Members of both Houses, are £tected by the same voters, the latter mniithaVe property or receivings salary or Wages of from £25 to £50 per annum. In 1878, there were 45,825 registered voters. The public debt was instituted in 1859, at the endf% which year \ it Wa>pßo,ooo^ but by the end of July it had risen io" £10,500,000, the annual interest on which rwas £453:365. fitter the ColoW was annexed ly Great Britain in 1806, the boundary of possession has been enlarged by Ihe absorption of Kaffrapa, in I^66* Baiutolandi in 1868, Griqualand, in 1875 6, and the Transvaal, in 1877. The population in the latter yep. was, 1420,162, that, of Cape Colon/ jbejn| IstiHo of >npfi 236.783 were Europeans, chiefly of Dutch, German, and French origin, and 484,201 natives, Hottentots, Kaffirs, Malays, and Africanders. In 1878, the exports from the Colony to Gre*at Britain amounted to £3,699,012, and the imports to £3,321, 279, the most important article of export beihjfwool, which then eonsitu ted nearly; nine-tenths of the whole, copper ore is also largely exported.
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Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 9 March 1881, Page 2
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796THE Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 1881. Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 9 March 1881, Page 2
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