§ SIR GEORGE CAMPBELLasked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether it is to be understood from the Papers regarding Natal laid before the House that, in the event of the European colonists who exercise the franchise accepting responsible government, it is intended to hand over to the legislature and government representing them the rule over the native population (exceeding the Europeans in number, in the proportion of 400,000 to 80,000), without giving the natives any voice whatever in the matter, without any provision for their representation in the new elective assembly, and without reservation to Her Majesty's Government in England of any greater power than in the case of the Basutos attached to the Cape Colony?
§ MR. COURTNEYSir, the Questions of my hon. Friend are of an argumentative character, and they seek to obtain an interpretation and defence of Lord Kimberley's despatches to Sir Henry Bulwer of the 2nd of February. I hope my hon. Friend will forgive me if I demur to answering his Questions. The despatches are, I think, plain and intelligible, and they have been published in Natal, and a General Election ordered on the basis of them. It would be very inconvenient, if not dangerous, to give verbal glosses and interpretations of them here, which might be transmitted to Natal in an abbreviated and confused fashion injuriously affecting the issues put before the constituencies of the Colony.
§ SIR GEORGE CAMPBELLasked whether the Natives were in any way to be consulted with regard to the carrying out of these arrangements?
§ [No answer was given.]