§ MR. RANDLES (Cumberland, Cockermouth)To ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he is aware that the royalty on diamonds in Cape Colony is 1 per cent. on the value of diamonds, whilst it is 60 per cent, of the profits in the Transvaal; and whether he will, in the interests of the newer colony, consider the advisability of assimilating more nearly these royalties.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Lyttelton.) No comparison is possible between the two colonies in this matter, as in the Transvaal the right of mining for and disposing of all precious stones was under the law of the late South African Republic, and is also under British law vested in the Crown, and there is no such law in the Cape Colony. I may add that in the Cape an income-tax has been introduced to which the mines contribute largely. I am not prepared to contemplate altering the Transvaal law.