of the South African heart, is largely the result of this very aridity
and rockiness. Parts are fruitful, but we have no vast corn-producing
plains, which for generations may be cultivated almost without
replenishing, as in Russia and America; we have few facilities for
producing those vast supplies of flesh which are poured forth from
Australia and New Zealand; already we import a large portion of
the grain and flesh we consume. We may, with care, become a great
fruit-producing country, and create some rich and heavy wines, but,
on the whole, agriculturally, we are, and must remain, as compared
with most other countries, a poor nation. Nor have we any great inland
lakes, seas, and rivers, or arms of the sea, to enable us to become
a great maritime or carrying people. One thing only we have which
saves us from being the poorest country on the earth, and should make
us one of the richest. We have our vast stores of mineral wealth, of
gold and diamonds, and probably of other wealth yet unfound. This is
all we have. Nature has given us nothing else; we are a poor people
but for these. Out of the veins running through rocks and hills, and
the mud-beds, heavy with jewels, that lie in our arid plains, must be
reared and created our great national institutions, our colleges and
museums, our art galleries and universities; by means of these our
system of education must be extended; and on the material side, out of
these must the great future of South Africa be built up--or not at all.
The discovery of our mineral wealth came somewhat suddenly upon us. We
were not prepared for its appearance by wise legislative enactments,
as in New Zealand or some other countries. Before the people of South
Africa as a whole had had time to wake up to the truth and to learn the
first