There is no news of any importance from Natal, but
there are one or two miscellaneous items of information which are worth recording. On the night of April 24th a great ex- plosion occurred at Johannesburg in a magazine where smokeless powder was stored. Thirteen men were blown to pieces and fifty more were injured. The cause of the ex- plosion is unknown. It is not possible to say whether the loss will be very serious to the Boers, but it can hardly help being inconvenient. Another item of news is the alleged differ. ences of opinion in the Cape Cabinet over the proposal to appoint a special Tribunal to try the Cape rebels. Mr. Schreiner and Mr. Solomon are said to favour that course. It is also said that they support annexation, while Mr. Saner and Dr. Te Water are strongly opposed to it. Those gentlemen are, of course, as much entitled to their own opinions as any other citizens of the British Empire, but they are strangely deluded if they really think any course but the inclusion of the Republics within the Empire is now possible. That question is finally settled. We may add to these items the very remarkable fact that the pumping-station at the Bloemfontein Waterworks was not seriously injured because some of the chief burghers with the force in possession were shareholders in the Waterworks company, and did not want to decrease the next dividend. That is more than a triumph for the joint-stock principle. It shows that the Boers, though they will fight hard, have no sort of notion of laying their whole country waste and then dying on the ruins.
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