THE TRANSVAAL: ITS CONDITION AND PRODUCTS.
Among the products of the Transvaal gold must be reckoned first, because
gold in itself is so precious and so important a commodity, that it will
ever force itself into the first rank,--and because notice was first
attracted to the Transvaal in Europe, or at any rate in England, by the
discovery of gold in the country and by the establishment of gold
fields. But I believe that the gold which has hitherto been extracted
from the auriferous deposits of the country has been far from paying the
expenses incurred in finding them and bringing them into the market.
Gold is a product of the earth which will be greedily sought, even when
the seeker lose by his labour. I doubt even whether the Australian gold
would be found to have paid for itself if an accurate calculation were
made. I know that the promoters of Australian gold enterprises and the
shareholders in Australian Gold Companies would attempt to cover me with
ridicule for expressing such an opinion were I to discuss the matter
with them. But these enterprising and occasionally successful people
hardly look at the question all round. Before it can be answered with
accuracy account must be taken not only of all the money lost, but of
the time lost also in unsuccessful search,--and of such failures the
world takes no record. Be that as it may gold has done very much to make
the fortune of the Australian Colonies. This has not been done by the
wealth of the gold-finders. It is only now and then,--and I may say that
the nows and thens are rare,--that we find a gold-seeker who has retired
into a settled condition of wealth as the result of his labours among
the Gold Fields. But great towns have sprung up, and tradesmen have
become wealthy, and communities have grown into compact forms, by the
expenditure which the gold-seekers have created. Melbourne is a great
city and Ballarat is a great city, not because the Victorian
gold-diggers have been rich and successful;--but because the trade of
gold-finding creates a great outlay. If the gold-diggers themselves have
not been rich they have enriched the bankers and the wine-merchants and
the grocers and the butchers and the inn-keepers who have waited upon
them. While one gold-digger starves or lives upon his little capital,
another drinks champagne. Even the first contributes something to the
building up of a country, but the champagne-drinker contributes a great
deal. There is no better customer to the tradesman, no more potent
consumer, than the man who is finding gold from day to day. Gold becomes
common to him, and silver contemptible.
I say this for the purpose of showing that though the gold trade of the
Transvaal has not as yet been remunerative,--though it may perhaps never
be truly remunerative to the gold-seekers,--it may nevertheless help to
bring a population to the country which will build it up, and make it
prosperous. It will do so in the teeth of the despair and ruin which
unsuccessful speculations create. There is a charm and a power about
gold which is so seductive and inebriating that judgment and calculation
are ignored by its votaries. If there be gold in a country men will seek
it though it has been sought there for years with disastrous effects. It
creates a sanguine confidence which teaches the gold-dreamer to believe
that he will succeed where hundreds have failed. It despises climate,
and reconciles the harshness of manual labour to those who have been
soft of hand and luxurious of habit. I am not now intending to warn the
covetous against the Gold Fields of South Africa;--but am simply
expressing an opinion that though these gold regions have hitherto
created no wealth, though henceforth they should not be the source of
fortune to the speculators, they will certainly serve to bring white
inhabitants into the country.
Gold as a modern discovery in South Africa was first found at Tatin in
1867. That there had been gold up north, near the Eastern coast, within
the tropics, there can be little doubt. There are those who are
perfectly satisfied that Ophir was here situated and that the Queen of
Sheba came to Solomon’s court from these realms. As I once wrote a
chapter to prove that the Queen of Sheba reigned in the Isle of Ceylon
and that Ophir was Point de Galle, I will not now go into that subject.
It has no special interest for the Transvaal which as a gold country
must sink or swim by its own resources. But Tatin though not within the
Transvaal, is only just without it, being to the north of the Limpopo
river which is the boundary of our Colony in that direction.
The Limpopo is an unfortunate river as much of its valley with a
considerable district on each side of it is subjected by nature to an
abominable curse,--which population and cultivation will in the course
of years probably remove but which at present is almost fatal to
European efforts at work within the region affected. There is a
fly,--called the Tsetse fly,--which destroys all horses and cattle which
come within the regions which it selects for its own purposes. Why it
should be destructive to a party of horses or to a team of oxen and not
to men has I believe to be yet found out. But as men cannot carry
themselves and their tools into these districts without horses or oxen,
the evil is almost overpowering. The courses of the fly are so well
known as to have, enabled geographers to mark out on the maps the limits
of the Tsetse country. The valley of the Limpopo river may be taken as
giving a general idea of the district so afflicted, the distance of the
fly-invested region varying from half a dozen to 60 and 80 miles from
the river. But towards the East it runs down across the Portuguese
possessions never quite touching the sea but just reaching Zululand.
Tatin is to the north west of this region, and though the place itself
is not within the fly boundary, all ingress and egress must have been
much impeded by the nuisance. The first discovery there of gold is said
to have been made by Mauch. There has been heavy work carried on in the
district and a quartz-crushing machine was used there. When I was in the
Transvaal these works had been abandoned, but of the existence of gold
in the country around there can be no doubt. In 1868 the same explorer,
Mauch, found gold at a spot considerably to the south east of
this,--south of the Limpopo and the Tsetse district, just north of the
Olifant’s river and in the Transvaal. Then in 1871 Mr. Button found gold
at Marabas Stad, not far to the west of Mauch’s discovery, in the
neighbourhood of which the mines at Eesteling are now being worked by an
English Company. On the Marabas-Stad gold fields a printed report was
made by Captain Elton in 1872, and a considerable sum of money must have
been spent. The Eesteling reef is the only one at present worked in the
neighbourhood. Captain Elton’s report seems to promise much on the
condition that a sufficient sum of money be raised to enable the
district to be thoroughly “prospected” by an able body of fifty
gold-miners for a period of six months. Captain Elton no doubt
understood his subject, but the adequate means for the search suggested
by him have not yet been raised. And, indeed, it is not thus that gold
fields have been opened. The chances of success are too small for men in
cold blood to subscribe money at a distance. The work has to be done by
the gambling energy of men who rush to the spot trusting that they may
individually grasp the gold, fill their pockets with the gold, and thus
have in a few months, perhaps in a few days or hours, a superabundance
of that which they have ever been desiring but which has always been so
hard to get! The great Australian and Californian enterprises have
always been commenced by rushes of individual miners to some favoured
spot, and not by companies floated by subscription. The companies have
come afterwards, but individual enterprise has done the pioneering work.
In 1873 gold was found in the Lydenburg district which is south of the
Olifant’s river. Here are the diggings called Pilgrim’s Rest, and here
the search for gold is still carried on,--not as I am told with
altogether favourable results. One nugget has been found weighing nearly
18 pounds. Had there been a few more such treasures brought to light the
Lydenburg gold fields would have been famous. There are two crushing
machines now at work, and skilled European miners are earning from 10s.
to 12s. a day. The place is healthy, and though tropical is not within
the tropics. A considerable number of Kafirs are employed at low rates
of wages, but they have not as yet obtained a reputation as good miners.
The white employer of black labour in South Africa does not allow that
the Kafir does anything well.
Among other difficulties and drawbacks to gold mining in South Africa
the want of fuel for steam is one. Wood of course is used, but I am told
that wood is already becoming scarce and dear. And then the great
distance from the coast, the badness of the roads, and the lack of the
means of carriage exaggerates all the other difficulties. Machinery,
provisions, and the very men themselves have to be brought into the
country at a cost which very materially interferes with the chances of a
final satisfactory result. If there be a railway from Pretoria to
Delagoa Bay,--as at some not very remote date there probably will
be,--then that railway will pass either through or very near to the
Lydenburg district, and in that case the Lydenburg gold fields will
become all alive with mining life.
Attempts are always made to show what gold fields have done in the way
of produce by Government records of the gold exported. In the second
great exhibition of London we saw an enormous yellow pyramid near the
door, and were told that the gold taken out of Victoria would if
collected make a pyramid of just that size. To enable the makers of the
pyramid to arrive at that result it was necessary that they should know
how much gold had been taken from Victoria. I presume that the records
of the Colony did tell of so much,--but if so the gold found must have
been considerably more. For gold is portable and can be carried away in
a man’s pocket without any record. And as that which was recorded was
taxed, it is probable that very much was taken away, untaxed, in some
private fashion. As to the Transvaal gold a record of that supposed to
be exported has been kept at the Custom House in Natal, which shows but
very poor results. It is as follows:--
1873 £735
1874 4,710
1875 28,443
1876 (first six months) 13,650
-------
£47,538
-------
This sum can have done but little more than paid for the necessary
transport of the machinery and other matters which have been carried up
from the coast. It certainly cannot also have paid for the machinery
itself. The bulk of the gold found has, however, been probably carried
down to the coast at Fort Elizabeth or Capetown without any record.
Such is all that I have to say respecting the Gold Fields of the
Transvaal,--and it is very little. I did not visit them, and had I done
so I do not know that I could have said much more. I conscientiously
inspected many Gold mines in Australia, going down into the bowels of
the earth 500 feet here and 600 feet there at much personal
inconvenience, and some danger to one altogether unused to mining
operations; but I do not know that I did any good by this exercise of
valour and conscience. A man should be a mineralogist to be able to take
advantage of such inspections. Had I visited Pilgrim Rest I could have
said how the men looked who were there working, and might have attempted
to guess whether they were contented with their lot;--but I could have
said nothing as to the success of the place with more accuracy than I do
now.
The Transvaal is said, and I believe correctly, to be very rich in other
minerals besides gold;--but the travellers in new countries are always
startled by sanguine descriptions of wealth which is not in view. Lead
and cobalt are certainly being worked. Coal is found in beds all along
the eastern boundary of the country, and will probably some day be the
most valuable product of the country. Did I not myself see it burning at
Stander’s Drift? Iron is said to be plentiful in almost every district
of the Colony and has been long used by the natives in making weapons
and ornaments. Copper also has been worked by the natives and is now
found in old pits, where it has been dug to the depth of from 30 to 40
feet. A variety of copper ornaments are worn by the Kafirs of the
northern parts of the Transvaal who have known how to extract the metal
from the mineral and to smelt it into pure ore. No mining operations in
search of copper have, as I believe, yet been carried on by white men in
the country. At an Agricultural Show which was held in 1876 at
Potchefstroom, the chief town in the southern part of the Transvaal,
prizes were awarded for specimens of the following minerals found in the
country itself. Gold-bearing quartz, alluvial gold, copper, tin, lead,
iron, plumbago, cobalt, and coal. The following is an extract from a
report of the Show, which I borrow from Messrs. Silver’s South African
Guide Book. “We believe there is no other country in the whole world
that could have presented to the public gaze such a variety of minerals
as were seen in the room set apart for their exhibition and which upon
first entering reminded one of a charming museum; and all these minerals
and earthy substances, we are informed, were the products of this
country. We saw gold both quartz and alluvial,--not in small quantities
but pounds in weight; coal by the ton,--silver, iron, lead. We do not
know what to say about this last mineral; but there it was, not in small
lumps, as previously exhibited, but immense quantities of ore, and
molten bars by the hundred.”
This is somewhat flowery, but I believe the statements to be
substantially true. The metals are all there, but I do not know whether
any of them have yet been so worked as to pay for expenses and to give a
profit. All the good things in the Transvaal seem to be so hard to come
at, that it is like looking and longing for grapes, hanging high above
our reach. But when grapes are really good and plentiful, ladders are at
last procured, and so it will be with the grapes of the Transvaal.
The ladder which is especially wanted is of course a Railway. President
Burgers among his other high schemes was fully aware of this and made a
journey to Europe during the days of his power with the view of raising
funds for this purpose. Like all his schemes it was unsuccessful, but he
did raise in Holland a sum of £90,958 for this purpose, which has been
expended on railway materials, or perhaps tendered to the Republic in
that shape. These are now lying at Delagoa Bay, and the sum above named
is part of the responsibility which England has assumed in annexing the
Republic.
The question of a Railway is of all the most vital to the new Colony.
The Transvaal has no seaboard, and no navigable rivers, and no available
outlet for its produce. Pretoria is about 450 miles from Durban, which
at present is the seaport it uses, and the road to Durban is but half
made and unbridged. The traffic is by oxen, and oxen cannot travel in
dry weather because there is no grass for them to eat. They often cannot
travel in wet weather because the rivers are impassable and the mud is
overwhelming. If any country ever wanted a Railway it is the Transvaal.
But whence shall the money come? Pretoria is about 300 miles distant
from the excellent Portuguese harbour at Delagoa Bay, and it was to this
outlet that President Burgers looked. But an undertaking to construct a
railway through an unsurveyed country at the rate of £1,000 a mile was
manifestly a castle in the air. If the absolute money could have been
obtained, hard cash in hand, the thing could not have been half done.
But President Burgers was one of those men who believe that if you can
only set an enterprise well on foot the gods themselves will look after
its accomplishment,--that if you can expend money on an object other
money will come to look after that which has been expended. But here, in
the Transvaal, he could not get his enterprise on foot; and I fear that
certain railway materials lying at Delagoa Bay, and more or less suited
for the purpose, are all that England has to show for the debt she has
taken upon her shoulders.
I am not very anxious to offer an opinion as to the best route for a
railway out from the Transvaal to the sea. Ne sutor ultra crepidam;--and
the proper answering of such a question is, I fear, beyond the reach of
my skill. But the reasons I have heard for the Delagoa Bay seem to me to
be strong,--and those against it to be weak. The harbour at the Bay is
very good,--perhaps the only thoroughly good harbour in South Africa,
whereas that at Durban is at present very bad. Expensive operations may
improve it, but little or nothing has as yet been done to lessen the
inconvenience occasioned by its sand-bar. Durban is 450 miles from the
capital of the Transvaal, whereas Delagoa Bay is only two-thirds of that
distance. The land falls gradually from Pretoria to the Bay, whereas in
going to Durban the line would twice have to be raised to high levels.
And then the route to the Bay would run by the Gold Fields, whereas the
other line would go through a district less likely to be productive of
traffic. It is alleged on the other hand that as Delagoa Bay belongs to
the Portuguese, and as the Portuguese will probably be unwilling to part
with the possession, the making of a railway into their territory would
be inexpedient. I cannot see that there is anything in this argument.
The Americans of the United States made a railway across the Isthmus of
Panama with excellent financial results, and in Europe each railway
enterprise has not been stopped by the bounds of the country which it
has occupied. The Portuguese have offered to take some share in the
construction, and by doing so would lessen the effort which the Colony
will be obliged to make. It is also alleged that Lorenço Marques, the
Portuguese town at Delagoa Bay, is very unhealthy. I believe that it is
so. Tropical towns on the sea board are apt to be unhealthy, and Lorenço
Marques though not within the tropics is tropical. But so is Aspenwall,
the terminus of the Panama Railway, unhealthy, being peculiarly subject
to the Chagres fever. But in the pursuit of wealth men will endure bad
climate. That at Delagoa Bay is by no means so bad as to frighten
passengers, though it will probably be injurious to the construction of
the railway. To the ordinary traffic of a constructed railway it will
hardly be injurious at all.
If the Natal Colony would join the Transvaal in the cost, making the
railway up to its own boundary, then the Natal line would no doubt be
the best. The people of the Transvaal would compensate themselves for
the bad harbour at Durban by the lessening of their own expenditure, and
the line as a whole would be better for British interests in general
than that to the Portuguese coast. But there is but little probability
of this. Natal wants a line from its capital to its coast, and will have
such a line almost by the time that these words are published. But it
cares comparatively little for a line through 175 miles of its country
up to its boundary at Newcastle, over which the traffic would be for the
benefit of the Transvaal rather than for that of Natal. Estcourt and
Newcastle which are in Natal would no doubt be pleased, but Natal will
not spend its money for the sake of Estcourt and Newcastle.
But when the route for the railway shall have been decided, whence shall
the money come? No one looking at the position of the country will be
slow to say that a railway is so necessary for the purposes of the
Colony that it must expend its first and its greatest energies in
achieving that object. It is as would be the possession of a corkscrew
to a man having a bottle of wine in the desert. There is no getting at
the imprisoned treasure without it. The farms will not be cultivated,
the mines will not be worked, the towns will not be built, the people
will not come without it. President Burgers, prone as he was to build
castles in the air, saw at any rate, when he planned the railway, where
the foundations should be laid for a true and serviceable edifice. But
then we must return to the question,--whence shall the money come?
Well-to-do Colonies find no difficulty in borrowing money for their own
purposes at a moderate rate of interest,--say 4 per cent. Victoria and
New South Wales have made their railways most successfully, and New
Zealand has shown what a Colony can do in borrowing. But the Transvaal
is not as yet a well-to-do Colony, and certainly could not go into the
money market with any hope of success with the mere offer of her own
security,--such as that security is at this moment. This is so
manifestly the case that no one proposes to do so. Mr. Burgers went home
for the purpose and succeeded only in getting a quantity of
material,--for which, in the end, the British Government will have to
pay probably more than twice the value.
I think I am justified in saying that the idea among those who are now
managing the Colony is to induce the Government at home to guarantee a
loan,--which means that the Transvaal should be enabled to borrow on the
best security that the world has yet produced, that namely of the
British nation. And perhaps there is something to warrant this
expectation on their part. The annexation, distasteful as the idea is at
home of a measure so high-handed and so apparently unwarrantable, has
been well received. It has been approved by our Secretary of State, who
is himself approved of in what he has caused to be done by Parliament
and the nation. The Secretary of State must feel a tenderness for the
Transvaal, as we all do for any belonging of our own which has turned
out better than we expected. The annexation has turned out so well that
they who are now concerned with its affairs seem to expect that the
British Government and the British Parliament will assent to the giving
of such security. It may be that they are right. Writing when and where
I am now I have no means of knowing how far the need for such a loan
and the undoubted utility of such a railway may induce those who have
the power in their hands to depart from what I believe to be now the
established usage of the mother country in regard to its
Colonies,--viz., that of sanctioning loans only when they can be floated
on the security of the Colony itself.
If I may venture to express an opinion on the subject, I think that that
usage should be followed in this case. No doubt the making of the
railway would be postponed in this way,--or rather would be accelerated
if the British name and British credit were to be pawned for Transvaal
purpose; but I doubt the justice of risking British money in such a
cause. The Transvaal colonist in making such an application would in
fact be asking for the use of capital at British rates of interest with
the object of making colonial profits. The risk would attach wholly to
the mother country. The profits, if profits should come, would belong
wholly to the Colony.
Money, too, with nations and with colonies is valued and used on the
same principles as with individuals. When it has been easily got,
without personal labour, proffered lightly without requirement of
responsibility or demand for security, it is spent as easily and too
often is used foolishly. Lend a man money on security and he will know
that every shilling that he spends must come at last out of his own
pocket. If money for the purpose required were at once thrown into the
Transvaal,--as might be the case to-morrow if the British Government
were to secure the loan,--there would immediately arise a feeling that
wealth was being scattered about broadcast, and that a halcyon time had
come in which parsimony and prudence were no longer needed. The thing
would have been too easy,--and easy things are seldom useful and are
never valued.
At the present moment Great Britain is paying the Transvaal bill. The
marching to and fro of the soldiers, the salaries of the Governors and
other officials, the debts of the late Government, the interests on
loans already made, the sums necessary for the gradual redemption of
loans, I fear even a pension for the late President, are provided or are
to be provided out of British taxes. The country was annexed on 12th
April. On 8th June a letter was written from the Colonial Office to the
Treasury, showing that we had annexed an existing debt of £217,158 for
which we were responsible, and that we had expended £25,000 in marching
troops up to the Transvaal for the sake of giving safety to the
inhabitants and their property. The report then goes on to its natural
purpose. “Lord Carnarvon is of opinion that it may be possible to meet
the more immediate requirements of the moment if their Lordships will
make an advance of £100,000 in aid of the revenues of the Transvaal, _to
be repaid as soon as practicable_. Unless aid is given at once the new
province would be obliged to endeavour to borrow at a ruinously high
rate of interest.” I doubt whether the idea of repayment has taken so
strong a hold of the people in the Transvaal, as it has of the officials
in Downing Street. In a former paragraph of the report the Secretary of
State thus excuses himself for making the application. “It is with
great unwillingness that Lord Carnarvon feels himself compelled to have
recourse to the assistance of the Imperial Treasury in this matter, but
he is satisfied that the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury
will readily acknowledge that in this most difficult case he has had no
alternative. The annexation of the Transvaal with all its consequent
liabilities, political as well as financial, _has been neither coveted
nor sought by him_;”--the italics here and above are my own;--“and it is
only a sincere conviction that this step was necessary in order to
prevent most serious danger to Her Majesty’s Colonies in South Africa
which has persuaded him to approve the late action of Sir T. Shepstone.”
The £100,000 was advanced, if not without a scruple at least without a
doubt, whatever might be the expectations of the Treasury as to speedy
repayment; and there can be little doubt, I fear, that further advances
will be needed and made before the resources of the country in the shape
of collected taxes will suffice to pay the expenses of the country,
including the gradual redemption of the Dutch loans. But if the country
cannot do this soon the annexation will certainly have been a failure.
Great as is the parliamentary strength of the present Ministry,
Parliament would hardly endure the idea of paying permanently for the
stability and security of a Dutch population out of the British pocket.
I do believe myself that the country will be able to pay its way in the
course of some years;--but I do not believe that the influx of a large
loan on easy terms, the expenditure of which must to a great measure be
entrusted to the Colony, would hasten the coming of this desirable
condition. There would be a feeling engendered,--if that can be said to
be engendered which to some extent already exists,--that “nunky pays for
all.” Neither for Colony nor for Mother Country can it be well that
nunky should either pay or be supposed to pay through the nose.
When it shall once be known that the Transvaal is paying its own bill,
governing itself and protecting itself out of its own revenues, then the
raising of a sufficient loan for its railway on its own security will
not be difficult. It may even then,--when that day comes,--have to pay a
percentage something higher than it would have to give under a British
guarantee; but the money will be its own, brought into use on its own
security, and will then be treated with respect and used with care. The
Transvaal no doubt wants a railway sorely, but it has no right to expect
that a railway shall be raised for it, as by a magician’s wand. Like
other people, and other countries the Transvaal should struggle hard to
get what it wants, and if it struggles honestly no doubt will have its
railway and will enjoy it when it has it.
“The Transvaal may in truth be called the ‘corn chamber’ of South
Eastern Africa, for no other Colony or State in this part of the world
produces wheat of such superior quality or offers so many and varied
advantages to farming pursuits.” This is extracted from Mr. Jeppe’s
excellent Transvaal Directory. The words are again somewhat flowery, as
is always the nature of national self-praise as expressed in national
literature. But the capability of the Transvaal for producing wheat is
undoubted; as are also the facts that it has for years past fed
itself,--with casual exceptions which amount to nothing,--and that it
has done something towards feeding the great influx of population which
has been made into the Diamond Fields. It has also continually sent a
certain amount of flour and corn into Natal and over its northern and
western borders for the use of those wandering Europeans, who are
seeking their fortunes among the distant tribes of South Africa. In
estimating the wheat produce of the country these are I know but idle
words. A great deal of wheat,--when the words are written and
printed,--means nothing. It is like saying that a horse is a very good
horse when the owner desires to sell him. The vendor should produce his
statistics as to the horse in the shape of an opinion from a veterinary
surgeon. If Mr. Jeppe had given statistics as to the wheat-produce of
the Transvaal during the last few years it would have been better.
Statistics are generally believed and always look like evidence. But
unless Mr. Jeppe had created them himself, he could not produce
them,--for there are none. I think I may say that a very large portion
of the country,--all of it indeed which does not come under tropical
influences, with the exception of regions which are mountainous or
stoney,--is certainly capable of bearing wheat; but I have no means
whatever of telling the reader what wheat it has already produced.
It is certain, however, that the cereal produce of the country is
curtailed by most pernicious circumstances against which the very best
of governments though joined by the very best of climates can only
operate slowly. One of these circumstances is the enormous size of the
existing farms. That great colonial quidnunc and speculator in colonial
matters, Gibbon Wakefield, enunciated one great truth when he declared
that all land in new countries should be sold to the new comers at a
price. By this he meant that let the price be what it might land should
not be given away, but should be parted with in such a manner as to
induce in the mind of the incoming proprietor a feeling that he had paid
for it its proper price, and that he should value the land accordingly.
The thing given is never valued as is the thing bought,--as is the thing
for which hard-earned money has been handed over, money which is
surrendered with a pang, and which leaves behind a lasting remorse
unless he who has parted with it can make himself believe that he has at
least got for it its full worth. Now the land in the Transvaal generally
has never been sold,--and yet it has almost entirely become the property
of private occupiers. The Dutchmen who came into the country brought
with them ideas and usages as to the distribution of land from the Gape
Colony, and following their ideas and usages they divided the soil among
themselves adjudging so much to every claimant who came forward as a
certified burgher. The amount determined on as comprising a sufficient
farm for such an individual was 3,000 morgen,--which is something more
than 6,000 acres. The Dutchman in South Africa has ever been greedy of
land, feeling himself to be cribbed, cabined, and confined if a
neighbour be near to him. It was in a great measure because land was not
in sufficient plenty for him that he “trekked” away from the Cape
Colony. Even there 3,000 “morgen” of land had been his idea of a
farm,--which farm was to satisfy his pastoral as well as his much
smaller agricultural needs. When at last he found his way into the
Transvaal and became a free Republican, his first ambition was for land
to fulfil the lust of his heart. The country therefore was divided into
6,000-acre farms,--many of which however contained much more than that
number of acres,--and in many cases more than one farm fell into the
hands of one Dutchman. The consequences are that there is not room for
fresh comers and that nevertheless the land is not a quarter occupied.
Nor is this the only or perhaps the greatest evil of the system which I
have attempted to describe. The Boer has become solitary,
self-dependent, some would say half savage in his habits. The
self-dependent man is almost as injurious to the world at large as the
idle man. The good and useful citizen is he who works for the comfort of
others and requires the work of others for his own comfort. The Boer
feels a pride in his acres, though his acres may do nothing for him. He
desires no neighbours though neighbours would buy his produce. He
declares he cannot plough his fields because he cannot get labour, but
he will allow no Kafirs to make their kraals on his land. Therefore he
wraps himself up in himself, eats his billetong,--strips of meat dried
in the sun,--and his own flour, and feels himself to be an aristocrat
because he is independent.
If the farms in the Transvaal could be at once divided, and a moiety
from each owner taken away without compensation, not only would the
country itself be soon improved by such an arrangement, but the farmers
also themselves from whom the land had been taken. Their titles,
however, are good, and they are lords of the soil beyond the power of
any such, arbitrary legislation. But all the influence of government
should be used to favour subdivision. Subdivisions no doubt are made
from day to day. As I went through the country I heard of this man
having half a “plaats,” and that man a quarter. These diminished
holdings had probably arisen from family arrangements, possibly from
sales. Farms frequently are sold,--freehold lands passing from hand to
hand at prices varying from 1s. an acre upwards. Land therefore is very
vile,--what I would call cheap if it were to be found in the market when
wanted and in the quantities wanted. In our Australian Colonies land is
not as a rule sold under 20s. an acre; but it is being sold daily,
because men of small means can always purchase small areas from the
Government, and because the Governments afford easy terms. But the land
in the Transvaal is locked up and unused,--and not open to new comers.
Therefore it is that the produce is small, that the roads are desolate,
and that the country to the eye of the traveller appears like a
neglected wilderness.
What may be the remedy for this I am not prepared to say after the
sojourn of but a few weeks in the country; but it is probable that a
remedy may be found by making the transfer of land easy and profitable
to the Boers.
As this land will produce wheat, so will it also other cereals--such as
barley, oats, and Indian corn. Hay, such as we use at home, is unknown.
The food given to stabled cattle is Indian corn or forage, such as I
have before mentioned,--that is young corn, wheat, oats, or barley, cut
before fully grown and dried. This is considered to be the best food
for horses all through South Africa.
The fruits of the country are very plentiful;--oranges, lemons, figs,
grapes, peaches, apricots, apples, pears, and many others. The climate
is more tropical than ours, so as to give the oranges and lemons, but
not so much so as to exclude pears and apples.
No doubt it may,--as far as its nature is concerned,--become a land
flowing with milk and honey, if the evil effects of remoteness and of a
bad beginning can be removed.