§ MR. BYLES (Salford, N.)I beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is cognisant of the almost daily recurrence, in certain of the magistrates' Courts in Natal, of sentences of flogging imposed upon native and Indian subjects, the severity and frequency of which punishments are provoking severe strictures in the local Press; and can he see his way to any step which would tend to bring up Colonial tribunals more nearly into conformity with the humanitarian practice of English Courts of Justice.
§ COLONEL SEELYI have seen some of the severe strictures in the Natal local Press, to which my hon. friend refers, and which relate to the exceptional action of certain individual magistrates. Any action must rest with the Government and Legislature of the Colony.