He still persisted in squandering and misapplying the public funds.  He still openly followed the policy of satisfying his burghers at the Uitlanders’ expense; but the burghers have a growing appetite, and nothing shows the headlong policy of ’squaring’—­nothing better illustrates the Uitlanders’ grievance of reckless extravagance in administration—­than the list of fixed salaries as it has grown year by year since the goldfields became a factor.

        TRANSVAAL FIXED SALARIES.

L        s.     d.
1886             51,831     3     7
1887             99,083    12     8
1888            164,466     4    10
1889            249,641    10    10
1890            324,520     8    10
1891            332,888    13     9
1892            323,608     0     0
1893            361,275     6    11
1894            419,775    13    10
1895            570,047    12     7
1896            813,029     7     5
1897            996,959    19    11
1898          1,080,382     3     0
1899 (Budget) 1,216,394     5     0

That is to say, the Salary List is now twenty-four times as great as it was when the Uitlanders began to come in in numbers.  It amounts to nearly five times as much as the total revenue amounted to then.  It is now sufficient if equally distributed to pay L40 per head per annum to the total male Boer population.

The liquor curse has grown to such dimensions and the illicit liquor organization has secured such a firm hold that even the stoutest champions of law and order doubt at times whether it will ever be possible to combat the evil.  The facts of the case reflect more unfavourably upon the President than perhaps any other single thing.  These are the facts:  The law prohibits the sale of liquor to natives; yet from a fifth to a third of the natives on the Rand are habitually drunk.  The fault rests with a corrupt and incompetent administration.  That administration is in the hands of the President’s relations and personal following.  The remedy urged by the State Secretary, State Attorney, some members of the Executive, the general public, and the united petition of all the ministers of religion in the country, is to entrust the administration to the State Attorney’s department and to maintain the existing law.  In the face of this President Kruger has fought hard to have the total prohibition law abolished and has successfully maintained his nepotism—­to apply no worse construction!  In replying to a deputation of liquor dealers he denounced the existing law as an ‘immoral’ one, because by restricting the sale of liquor it deprived a number of honest people of their livelihood—­and President Kruger is a total abstainer!

The effect of this liquor trade is indescribable; the loss in money although enormous is a minor consideration compared with the crimes committed and the accidents in the mines traceable to it; and the effect upon the native character is simply appalling.