§ SIR JOSEPH M'KENNAasked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether, having reference to the report in the " Times " of Friday the 15th inst. of an interview granted by Lord Carnarvon, Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, to a deputation which waited upon him on Thursday, his Lordship's observations are to be taken as indicating any apprehension regarding the present financial position and the general prosperity of the Colony of Natal?
§ MR. J. LOWTHERSir, the remarks of Lord Carnarvon to which reference is made were addressed to a deputation representing a Natal land company, and were applied almost entirely to the question of the occupation of waste lands and to financial considerations arising there from, and they must not be taken as indicating the slightest doubt of the financial prosperity of the Colony of Natal. The satisfactory solution of these difficulties would, no doubt, still further advance the existing prosperity of the country; but, so far from considering the present time to be one of depression, nor from anticipating any decrease in the revenue or trade of Natal, there is every reason to believe that the happy settlement of the difficulties in the Transvaal has already given a decided impetus to business, and that a period of increased activity and progress has been entered upon.