§ * SIR CHARLES W. DILKE (Gloucestershire, Forest of Dean)I beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is aware that notices of eviction have been served on natives in the Zoutpansberg and other districts of the Transvaal based on a law of 1895, previously stated to have long fallen into disuse; whether, seeing that under Article 7 the eviction of families hitherto permitted to reside on farms has for sanction, in case of continuing or repeated offence, the penalty of flogging on every head of such family so living without a permit, and that by Article 8 coloured persons living with permits on farms are 1034 forbidden to leave without three months notice to the occupier and also to the Commissioner, he can inform the House how far it is understood that the revival of the law in question is an alternative to the proposed Natives' Occupation of Lands Bill, of which the withdrawal was announced in the House of Commons; and whether the Government are satisfied that the revived Act will not prove detrimental to the interests of all natives except such as consent to labour on particular farms.
§ COLONEL SEELYI have no information on the subject, but inquiry has been made of the Governor by telegram.