§ MR. THOMAS BAYLEY (Derbyshire, Chesterfield)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether Tier Majesty's sanction has been given to the Bechuanaland Native Reserves Bill, which was passed by the Parliament of Cape Colony in June and, if so, whether he will inform the House as to the areas affected and the approximate number of natives whom it is proposed to deprive of lands, as regards which it wits provided by the British Bechuanaland Act of 1895 that they should not, he alienated or in any way diverted front the purposes fur which they had been set apart?
MR. CHAMBERLAINThe Bill as passed by the Cape Legislature has not yet been received. I am informed that the area affected is 483,000 acres, or about one-sixth of the total area of the reserves. I have no accurate information as to the population, but I estimate roughly that it is, or was, about 7,500 out of 57,000. The hon. Member in his statement of the provisions of the British Bechuanaland Annexation Act relating to native reserves has omitted the qualifying words "otherwise than with the authority of an Act of Parliament of this colony."