§ MR. LAWRENCET beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies on what grounds his Department has dis- 215 couraged the making by Mr. Van Laun, at his own risk, of detailed quantity surveys for the construction of a harbour at Sordwana, on the northern coast of Zululand, and a railway thence to Swaziland; why, in the face of the statement that the information at present in the hands of Mr. H. T. Van Laun is insufficient to enable the Crown Agents for the Colonies to judge of the cost of these works, the Colonial Office still persists in referring the matter to the Crown Agents; why the negotiations with Mr. Van Laun and Colonel William Jesser Coope have been so prolonged by the Colonial Office; whether he is aware that the Chambers of Commerce of Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham, London, and Bradford have by resolution desired the construction of the harbour of Sordwana and its railway; and whether, in spite of this consensus of commercial opinion, this important harbour is to be handed over to the South African Republic?
§ MR. S. BUXTONPermission has not been refused to Mr. Van Laun to rake detailed quantity surveys for the proposed harbour and railway. But, as Mr. Van Laun stated that such a step would involve him in a large expenditure, the Secretary of State decided that the question of the practicability of the scheme and of the financial ability of Mr. Van Laun to find the necessary capital might be referred to the Crown Agents, in the usual course, for a preliminary Report, without requiring the detailed surveys to be first made. The negotiations on the subject have not been prolonged by the Colonial Office; but Mr. Van Laun has not yet approached the Crown Agents. The Secretary of State has received various Memorials on the subject from divers Chambers of Commerce; but he has not been furnished with the materials on which such Memorials have been based. There is no intention of handing over Sordwana Bay, which is part of Zululand, to the South African Republic.