Frank Richardson Cana and Alfred Peter Hillier

“ The history of the country shows how much has been due to the efforts of men like Livingstone, Mackenzie and Rhodes. It is quite clear that had they not represented the true state of affairs to the authorities the whole of this territory would have gradually been absorbed by the Boers, until they had effected a union with the Germans on the west. The great road to the north would thus have been effectually shut against trade and British colonization. With regard to the precise effect of missionary influence upon the natives, opinion will always remain divided. ”

“ Commerce.—All the British states and territories are members of postal, telegraphic and customs unions. The customs are of a protective character, while there is a rebate on goods from Great Britain and British possessions [1] (see below, History) . There is internal free trade throughout the Union of South Africa. The customs tariff in the Portuguese possessions is of a highly protective nature; goods coming from Portugal pay one-tenth of the dues levied on foreign goods. In German South-West Africa no discrimination is made as to the country of origin of imports. ”

“ The spectacle of thousands of British subjects kept permanently in the position of helots, constantly chafing under undoubted grievances, and calling vainly to Her Majesty's government for redress, does steadily undermine the influence and reputation of Great Britain, and the respect for British government within the queen's dominions. ”

“ At that time all the chief towns in both of the late republics were held by the British, and the Boers still in the field were reduced to guerilla warfare. Most of the men on their side who had come to the front in the war, such as General Louis Botha in the Transvaal, had been opponents of the Kruger régime; they now decided to continue the struggle, largely because they trusted that the Cape Dutch, and their sympathizers in Great Britain, would be able to obtain for them a re-grant of independence. ”

“ In the Cape, Natal and the Transvaal coal mining is largely developed; in the Transvaal and the Cape tobacco is grown extensively; sugar, tea and other tropical and sub-tropical produce are largely cultivated in Natal and the Portuguese territory, and, since 1905, mealies have become an important article of export. There are few manufactures; among the chief are the making of wine and brandy in the Cape province, and flour-milling. Cattle and mealies constitute the most valuable possessions of the natives. The imports are of a general nature, textiles and food-stuffs being the most important. ”

“ Alarge population grew up, first at Kimberley, afterwards at Barberton, and finally at Johannesburg—a population modern in its ideas, energetic, educated, cosmopolitan, appreciating all the resources that modern civilization had to offer them, and with a strong partiality for the life of the town or the camp rather than that of the farm and the veld. The majority of the Boers remained very much what they had been in the 17th century. Their life of continual strife with natives, continual trekking to fresh pastures, had not been conducive to education or the enlargement of intellectual outlook. ”

“ In every direction can be seen luxuriant valleys through which rivers thread their silvery way, wild chasms, magnificent waterfalls—that of Maletsunyane has an unbroken leap of over 600 ft.—and, above all, hill crest after hill crest in seeming endless succession. ”

“ There is absolute freedom of testamentary disposition in the Cape province and in some other parts of South Africa. The effect of marriage upon the property of the spouses is, by the Roman-Dutch law and in the absence of any ante-nuptial contract to the contrary, to bring about a complete community of property, virtually a universal partnership between husband and wife, subject to the sole and absolute control of the husband while the marriage lasts. ”

“ The aspect of the country is everywhere grand, and often beautiful, fully justifying the title, “The Switzerland of South Africa,” often applied to it. Viewed from a distance the mountains appear as dark perpendicular barriers, quite impenetrable; but narrow paths lead round the precipitous face of the hills, and when the inner side is gained a wonderful panorama opens out. ”

“ Moreover, the cabinet looked forward, without forcing it in any way, to the federation of South Africa. In the Transvaal the burghers of British origin were about equal in number with those of Dutch origin, and the fairly even balance of parties might be held to be a guarantee against retrogression; in the Orange River Colony it was notorious that the grant of self government meant handing over the control of the country not simply to the Boers, but to that section of them which since the war had exhibited the greatest racial bitterness. ”

“ Government and Finance.—Basutoland is a crown colony, of which the high commissioner for South Africa is governor. In him resides the legislative power, exercised by proclamation. The Territory is administered, under the direction of the governor, by a resident commissioner, who is also the chief judicial officer. He is aided by a government secretary and by assistant commissioners. Under the British officials the country is governed by hereditary native chiefs, over whom is a paramount chief. ”

“ The legislative power is vested in a parliament consisting of the Sovereign, a Senate, and a House of Assembly. The Senate consists of 40 members, 8 representatives from each province, and 8 members nominated by the governor-general in council. Four of the nominated members are selected on the ground mainly of their thorough acquaintance with “the reasonable wants and wishes” of the coloured races in South Africa. The presence of both nominated and elected members in the Senate is a novel provision in the constitution of the upper chambers of British colonial legislatures. ”

“ Of non-indigenous flora are the oak, poplar, bluegum, the Australian wattle, the vine, and almost every variety of fruit tree and European vegetables. In suitable regions tea, coffee, sugar and rice, as well as tobacco and cotton, are cultivated. In the western districts of the Cape viticulture is largely followed. The cereal most grown is maize (known in South Africa as mealies) ; kaffir com, wheat, barley and oats are also largely cultivated. The soil is everywhere rich, but the lack of perennial water and the absence of irrigation works on a large scale retards agriculture. ”

“ In the period which has elapsed since the establishment of British rule at the Cape the law has been considerably modified and altered, both by legislation and by judicial decisions, and it is not too much to say that at the present time there exists hardly any material difference in principle over the greater part of the field of jurisprudence between the law of England and the law of South Africa. ”

“ The intimation of the impending grant of self-government to Cape Colony was regarded by both Boer republics as bringing nearer the prospect of their union with the British colonies. But just at that time differences arose between Great Britain and the republics as to the ownership of the Kimberley diamond fields which estranged the Boers (see Griqualand and Transvaal) . In the Transvaal Pretorius was succeeded by T. F. Burgers, a man totally unfitted to govern a country distracted by factions, harassed by wars with natives, and with an almost depleted exchequer. ”

“ Epidemics of smallpox and typhoid occur; and leprosy, imported from the Orange River and Cape Colonies, has taken firm hold on the Basuto, of whom about 91 per 1000 are sufferers from this disease.
Flora and Fauna.—A few kloofs are wooded, but of forest land there is none. Along the upper courses of the rivers are willows and wild olive trees; round the chief settlements the eucalyptus and the pine have been planted. Heaths, generally somewhat rare in South Africa outside the Cape peninsula, are abundant in Basutoland. The Alpine flora is very beautiful. There are few wild animals ”

“ As in the Cape province coloured persons are qualified to vote, they are thus also qualified to be members of the provincial council. Any member of the provincial council who becomes a member of either House of Parliament thereupon ceases to be a member of such provincial council. Each provincial council continues for three years from the date of its first meeting and is not subject to dissolution save by effluxion of time.
The executive power in each province is invested in an officer appointed by the government and styled provincial administrator. He holds office for five years. ”

“ Language is frequently used which seems to imply that the Dutch have some superior right even in this colony to their fellow-citizens of British birth. Thousands of men peaceably disposed and, if left alone, perfectly satisfied with their position as British subjects, are being drawn into disaffection, and there is a corresponding exasperation on the side of the British.
I can see nothing which will put a stop to this mischievous propaganda but some striking proof of the intention of Her Majesty's government not to be ousted from its position in South Africa. ”

“ Sir Hercules Robinson, who was regarded sympathetically by the Dutch population of South Africa, had succeeded Loch as high commissioner. Both high commissioner and the imperial government were hopeful that Kruger might even yet be induced to modify his policy; the Uitlanders now entertained no such hope and they prepared to appeal to arms to obtain redress of their grievances. The first proposals for an armed rising came from Rhodes in June, but it was not until November that the Uitlander leaders came to a definite understanding with the Cape premier as to the course to be pursued. ”

“ The commission charged with the delimitation of constituencies is permitted to vary the quota as much as 15% either way. Members of the House of Assembly must, like senators, be British subjects of European descent, they must be qualified to be registered as voters and have lived for five years within the Union. A general election must take place every five years, and all polls must be taken on the same day. There must be a session of parliament every year, so arranged that twelve months shall not elapse between the last day of one session and the first sitting of the next session. ”

“ The coast line, from the mouth of the Kunene on the west to the delta of the Zambezi on the east, is little indented and contains only two sheltered natural harbours of any size—Saldanha Bay on the west and Delagoa Bay on the east. At Port Natal, however, the removal of the sand bar at its entrance has made available a third magnificent harbour, while at Table Bay (Cape Town) and at other places ports have been constructed. South Africa presents, however, a solid land mass without peninsulas of any size or any large islands off its coasts. ”

“ Language.—The languages spoken in South Africa by the inhabitants of European descent are English and Dutch, the latter chiefly in the form of a patois colloquially known as the Taal. (German and Portuguese are spoken in the possessions of those countries, but a knowledge of English or Dutch is frequent even in those territories.) The history of the Dutch language in South Africa is intimately bound up with the history of the South African Dutch people. The basis of the language as spoken to-day is that 17th-century Dutch of Holland which the first settlers brought to the country ”

“ The vast spaces of the veld, the silence of the solitudes, the marvellous, varied and abundant animal life, the savage, half-weird character of the natives and the wild adventure of the early colonists have been caught with a true spirit of genius. ”

“ Since the development of the diamond and gold mining industries the coast colonies had unduly neglected their own resources and had relied chiefly on the forwarding trade. Hence there was jealousy and competition between the Cape and Natal and a tendency to use the railways (which were state owned) , by means of rebates, to counteract the effects of common customs dues. Then, too, an increasingly important factor was the competition of Lourenço Marques for the Rand trade. In a time of acute trade depression this commercial rivalry was disastrous to the welfare of South Africa. ”

“ In the case of a money bill rejected by the Senate a joint sitting to decide its fate may be held in the same session in which the Senate has failed to pass the bill. Every minister of state may sit and speak in either house, but can vote only in the house of which he is a member. Re-election is not necessary on the appointment of a member as a minister of state. Members of parliament are paid £400 a year, £3 being deducted from this allowance for every day's absence during the session.
A Supreme Court of Judicature for South Africa was created at the establishment of the Union. ”

“ Nearly every Basuto is an agriculturist; there are no manufactories, and the minerals, in accordance with the desire of the people, are not worked. The land is wholly in the possession of the natives, who hold it on the communal system. Whites and Indians are allowed to establish trading stations on obtaining special permits from the government, and the Indians absorb much of the retail trade. The chief exports are wheat, mealies, Kaffir corn, wool, mohair, horses and cattle. ”