No sooner did Johannesburg grow to be a powerful city, than the
Uitlanders, her citizens, demanded that they should have a voice in the
government of the country.
They complained that they were hardly used by the Boers, and made to pay
heavy taxes.
The taxes are certainly heavy, but they are levied upon the gold miners,
who have come to the Transvaal for the sole purpose of making fortunes out
of the gold deposits; these fortunes they wish to carry away with them to
their own country.
The Boers, very naturally, think that some portion of these riches should
be paid to the country which gave them, and they cannot see by what right
these foreign gold-hunters expect to have a voice in the government.
One of the great grievances of the Uitlanders is that the Boers will not
have English taught in the schools, and that their children are obliged to
learn the language of the country if they go to the public schools.
These demands of the Uitlanders will seem all the more absurd when it is
understood that they do not ask for a voice in the government as citizens
of the country. None of these English-speaking people have so much as
offered to become citizens of the Transvaal.
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