of the Volksraad.  That does not help to restore confidence.  The Sanitary Board applied for a portion of the Telephone Tower Park in order to erect a Town Hall.  They were refused.  Now, some one has made an application for the right to erect swimming baths.  That does not restore confidence.  I hope the mere publication of these things will prevent them from succeeding.  The Sanitary Board applied for the Union Ground, also for public purposes, but it was granted to private applicants on the quiet.  They have hawked it about and borrowed money on it.  It was offered to many of the big capitalists here, but they would not touch it.  The Sanitary Board are told that a building is to be put up, in which fifty rooms will be set aside for them, but they are not satisfied that the authorities should do good by stealth and blush to find it fame.

I cannot understand how mere applications can shake confidence?—­Well, they do, because they are only made when there is a chance of their being granted.  But, if you want facts, I will tell you what shook the investor’s confidence as much as anything that has happened for years—­that was the Ferreira claim-jumping raid, which it was sworn to in Court had been suggested by you yourself, Mr. Joubert.

Not ‘suggested’ by me—­

The Chairman said the witness was straying away from the original question.

Witness said that the Minister of Mines had wanted examples of what shook confidence, so he was obliged to give them.

The report of the Commission created a very favourable impression.  The majority of people believed that although it might not be entirely acted upon, yet it would be quite impossible for the President and the Volksraad to disregard suggestions made by so influential a group of officials as those forming the Commission, and that at any rate most of the recommendations would be accepted.  The unbelieving few who knew their President Kruger, however, waited for something to be done.  Presently ominous rumours went round about differences in the Executive.  Then came the scenes in the Volksraad, when the President revealed himself and charged Mr. Schalk Burger with being a traitor to his country for having signed such a report, followed by the usual fight and the usual victory for the President, and the usual Committee constituted mainly of extreme Conservatives appointed to report upon the other Commission’s report; and then the usual result:  Something for nothing.  The Netherlands Railway made an inconsiderable reduction in rates, which it appears was designed to buy off, and did succeed in buying off, further scrutiny of its affairs.  With regard to the two big monopolies, Dynamite and Railway, it appears that the Volksraad Commission accepted the private assurances of the monopolists as sufficient warrant for reversing the conclusions of the Industrial Commission.  The proposed Local Board for the goldfields was promptly ruled out as an unthinkable proposition, a government