heir undoubted
right to cancel the monopoly and by imposing a duty of such amount as
might be deemed necessary upon imported dynamite. It was also pointed
out that the proposed reduction in the cost of dynamite would offer
no relief whatever since it was far more than counterbalanced by the
taxes upon mynpachts and profits which were then being imposed.

During this year the Volksraad instructed the Government to
enforce their right to collect 2-1/2 per cent. of the gross
production from mynpachts (mining leases). All mynpachts titles
granted by the Government contained a clause giving the Government
this power, so that they were acting strictly within their legal
rights; but the right had never before been exercised. For twelve
years investors had been allowed to frame their estimates of profit
upon a certain basis, and suddenly without a day's warning this
tax was sprung upon them. It was indisputably the right of the
Government, but equally indisputably was it most unwise; both because
of the manner in which it was done and because there was no necessity
whatever for the doing of it, as the revenue of the country was
already greatly in excess of the legitimate requirements. Immediately
following this came a resolution to impose a tax of 5 per cent. upon
the profits of all companies working mining ground other than that
covered by mynpacht. The same objections applied to this tax with the
additional one, that no clause existed in the titles indicating that
it could be done and no warning had ever been given that it would be
done. The proposal was introduced one morning and adopted at once;
the first notice to investors was the accomplished fact. These
measures were particularly keenly resented in France and Germany.

The grievance of hasty legislation was in these cases aggravated by
the evidence that the taxes were quite unnecessary. President Kruger
still fought against cancellation of the Dynamite Monopoly, by which
the State revenue would have benefited to the extent of L600,000 a
year, if he had accepted the proposal of the Uitlanders, to allow
importation of dynamite subject to a duty of L2 per case--a tax
which represented the monopolists' profit, and would not therefore
have increased the cost of the article to the mines. 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 growin