ling with Gold thefts, neither the Government nor the
Volksraad felt at liberty to adopt the recommendation as to constituting
an Advisory Board on the Witwatersrand. They decided to go deeper to the
roots of the evil, and so altered the administration of the Laws that
the evidences of dissatisfaction have disappeared. Indeed, no one ever
hears of gold thefts now, and the representative bodies of the mining
industry have repeatedly expressed their satisfaction with the
administration of the Pass Law, and especially with that of the Liquor
Law.

[Sidenote: The Liquor Law.]

In this very Liquor Law we have a test of a good administration. From
the very nature of the drink question it is one of the most difficult
laws that a Government can be called upon to administer, and the measure
of success which has attended the efforts of the Government and its
officials proves conclusively that the charges of incompetency so
frequently brought against the Government of the South African Republic
were devoid of truth, and were only intended to slander and to injure
the Republic. A combined meeting of the Chamber of Mines, the Chamber of
Commerce, and the Association of Mine Managers--the three strongest and
most representative bodies on the Witwatersrand Gold Fields--passed the
following resolutions,[40] which speak for themselves:--

1. This combined Meeting, representing the Chamber of Mines, the
Chamber of Commerce, and the Mine Managers' Association, desires
to express once more its decided approval of the present Liquor
Law, and is of opinion that prohibition is not only beneficial to
the Natives in their own interest, but is absolutely necessary
for the Mining Industry, with a view of maintaining the
efficiency of labour.

2. This Meeting wishes to express its appreciation of the efforts
made to suppress the Illicit Liquor Trade by the Detective
Department of this Republic since it has been placed under the
administration of the State Attorney, and is of opinion that the
success which has crowned these efforts fully disproves the
contention that the Liquor Law is impracticable.

The first resolution was carried by an overwhelming majority, and the
second unanimously.

Compare this declaration of the representatives of the Mining and
Commercial interests of the Witwatersrand with the allegation repeated
by Mr. Chamberlain in his great "grievance" dispatch o