§ MR. A. M'ARTHURasked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether the British Resident at Pretoria had called the attention of Her Majesty's Government to those provisions of the Gold Law lately passed by the Transvaal Volksraad, which declare that any native buying or bartering rough gold shall be subject to fifty lashes and imprisonment for twelve months, and which also render diggers who pay their native servants wages in rough gold as well as persons who purchase rough gold from natives, liable to fines up to £1, 000, and to imprisonment for five years; and, whether Her Majesty's Government will ascertain why the coloured population of the Transvaal are to be subject to those exceptional laws?
§ MR. EVELYN ASHLEYSir, the British Resident has not yet reported on this Gold Law; but he has been asked to do so. I think it better, therefore, to refrain from saying anything about it until we have an authentic Report from him, of what he has to say about it.