Writing on October 2, the Johannesburg correspondent--one L. E. N.--of a London morning paper gives a graphic account of the wonderful City of Gold at that date. "Gold of the value of over £20,000,000 a year," he says, "is extracted from that stretch of dusty upland called The Reef.... But look closer. The white workers on the mines carry revolvers; the police are armed with ball cartridge and bayonet; camped yonder at Auckland Park is a mobile column of mounted men ready to move against an enemy at a moment's notice; the country folk on the other side of the swelling rise are armed to the teeth, and live at night in barricaded and fortified houses." What a beautiful commentary on life as it is lived--under the British flag--in the commercial and political hub of the great sub-continent! The Boers, who through their political organization the Het Volk have refused to take any active part in the management of the country, determined with a sort of grim humour, since the British sought to destroy the corrupt Government of their late President, they shall be allowed to mismanage the country as they will, have been led to break their political silence to petition the Government for more protection. At a meeting held at Krugersdoorp at the beginning of October, they decided to forward a resolution to the Imperial Government requesting that the importation of Chinese coolies should be discontinued, and those already in the country should be repatriated. Regret was further expressed at the danger to life and property, and it was pointed out that the policy of not allowing the Boers to carry firearms prevented them from properly protecting the lives of their families. [Illustration: GOOD SPORT.] General Botha did not exaggerate the dangers which resulted from the importation of Chinamen, and he voiced the common sentiment of Boer and Briton when he asked that a Commission should be appointed to investigate the treatment of the Chinese coolies, and ascertain the cause of the disturbances. The mine owners' press informed the public that there are very few cases of desertion; that when any number of Chinamen do desert the South African Constabulary deal with them efficiently. They are hunted down, rounded up, and brought in by their pigtails for trial. At the trial they are convicted, or were before the amendment of the Ordinance in August last, and locked up. Any one going through the Transvaal will see hundreds of these Chinese convicts working in large batches on the roads. White men are placed in charge of these convicts, and when the repairing and macadamizing of the roads is not done to their liking, the Chinamen are flogged, and flogged in the open. They are subjected to every kind of brutal treatment; and it is probable that almost as many desert from the convict prisons as desert from the slave compounds.