The week ending December 31, 1904.

The Lieutenant-Governor of the Orange River Colony the other day warned South Africa against encouraging the AME Church. Sir Hamilton should decline to recognise the ministers of a Church calculated to harm the State. The Church should not be officially recognised by Government. The remedy is in the hands of the head of the State.

In the course of an excellent speech, Sir Hamilton Goold-Adams said: “With regard to the AME Church itself, I just desire to read an extract from one of their latest works which naturally irritates any white person who reads it, more especially an Englishman.

“It is from a pamphlet or magazine called “The Voice of Missions,” published in America and circulated in this country. They say: ‘If the Anglo-Saxon cannot mingle his blood by wedlock with the aborigines of the country which he grabs, why does he not keep his feet in England on the fenders of his hearth?’ Again – this is Bishop Turner – Bishop Turner is convinced that God meant the Negro to retain Africa and build up a republic of his own. Now, these are the aims and objects of the AME Church, and knowing this I think it is right for the government of this colony to discountenance as far as they possibly can, any support being given to them.”

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During the holidays Port Elizabeth has been the scene of a tragic event, the object of which is shrouded in mystery. Otherwise the holidays have passed off extremely quiet. Evidences have not been wanting that the severe depression from which we have suffered during the past year has curtailed the spending power of the people.

The shops on Saturday evening were not nearly so crowded as in former years, and we are given to understand that there has been a somewhat marked diminution in the total amounts received over the counter.

Fortunately the Avontuur Railway and Humewood tramway service have placed cheap means of transit at the service of the holiday-makers, and picnics by wagons and brakes have not been so numerous as on former occasions. The old established bonus which usually found its way to the clerk, assistant and storeman on the eve of the Christian festival, in the form of a “Christmas Box,” was not by any means general this year.

One need not go to London to learn the granite fact that there is a starving East End as well as a luxurious West End, for in Port Elizabeth this Christmas time there were scores of honest toilers, who, but a few months ago were in regular employment, had to seek by night the warmth and shelter of Rufane Valley as a substitute for a habitation and home.

Several charitable institutions in this town rendered splendid services towards relieving the distress and appalling misery, but it was after all but a flash in the pan.

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