Part 1

SOUTH AFRICA AND THE TRANSVAAL WAR

SOUTH AFRICA AND THE TRANSVAAL WAR

BY

LOUIS CRESWICKE

AUTHOR OF "ROXANE," ETC.

WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS

VOL. VIII

SOUTH AFRICA AND ITS FUTURE

EDITED BY

LOUIS CRESWICKE

MANCHESTER: KENNETH MACLENNAN 75 PICCADILLY

PREFACE--VOL. VIII.

Everyone who has followed the story of the War in South Africa from start to finish will assuredly have acquired a keen and lasting interest in the land which has been won by the expenditure of so much blood and treasure. Earnestly will he discuss in his mind all questions connected with the development of the New Dominions of the King, and vigilantly will he watch every action of the Government in regard to them.

In order rightly to estimate the difficulties to be overcome and the issues to be hoped for, and to follow these questions with complete apprehension, it is necessary to be familiar with their aspect in every possible light. To this end, the Editor has invited the co-operation of various well-known Authorities, each of whom has kindly contributed his opinion on matters coming within his special experience.

The Publishers claim, therefore, that in this Volume is collected the cream of modern thought, furnished at first-hand by those whose mastery of their subject, and whose interest in the Empire, render them competent to instruct in the intricacies of the South African problems, with which for some time to come we must stand face-to-face. That these writers do not on all points entirely agree is a matter for congratulation, as readers are thus enabled to view the political panorama from every reasonable standpoint, and weigh the pros and cons of their arguments with perspicuity and without prejudice.

At the present juncture, when Mr. Chamberlain, the greatest of Colonial Secretaries, is visiting South Africa, the Publishers are convinced that this Volume is the most valuable book on the new Colonies that has yet been offered to the Public.

CONTENTS--VOL. VIII.

PAGE EMIGRATION 1

By His Grace THE DUKE OF ARGYLL, P.C., K.T.; Author of "Imperial Federation," "The Life and Times of Queen Victoria," &c.

SOUTH AFRICAN FEDERATION: VIEWS OF COLONIAL PREMIERS 16

By E. B. OSBORN, Author of "Greater Canada."

LAW AND LANGUAGE 23

By M. J. FARRELLY, LL.D., Barrister-at-Law; Advocate of the Supreme Court of Cape Colony.

THE AFRICANDER PARTY: ITS ORIGIN, ITS GROWTH, ITS AIMS 38

By the Hon. A. WILMOT, Member of the Legislative Council, Cape Colony; Author of "History of Our Own Times in South Africa," &c., &c.

RHODESIA: SOME PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS 55

By E. F. KNIGHT, Author of "Where Three Empires Meet," "The Cruise of the _Falcon_," &c.

PROBLEMS AND POSSIBILITIES 72

By JAMES STANLEY LITTLE, Author of "South Africa," "The Progress of the British Empire in the Nineteenth Century," "The United States of Britain," &c. &c.

THE FUTURE OF THE MINING INDUSTRY 86

By F. T. NORRIS.

THE AGRICULTURAL OUTLOOK 113

By THE EDITOR.

WOOL-GROWING 133

By ALLEN G. DAVISON, Chief Inspector of Sheep for Cape Colony.

SOUTH AFRICAN RAILWAYS 140

By W. BLELOCH, Author of "The New South Africa."

HEALTH RESORTS OF SOUTH AFRICA 157

By ERNEST GRAHAM LITTLE, B.A., formerly Porter Scholar, of the Cape University; M.D. University of London; Member of the Royal College of Physicians; Physician, with charge of the Skin Department, at St. Mary's Hospital; Senior Assistant Physician to the East London Hospital for Children and Dispensary for Women, Shadwell; late House Physician at St. George's Hospital and at the City of London Hospital for Diseases of the Chest.

COMMERCIAL PROSPECTS 174

By WILLIAM EGLINGTON, Editor and Proprietor of "The British and South African Export Gazette."

THE FUTURE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN CONSTABULARY: VIEWS OF MAJOR-GENERAL BADEN-POWELL 186

APPENDIX: MR. CHAMBERLAIN AND THE BOER GENERALS 189

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS--VOL. VIII.

COMMERCIAL MAP OF SOUTH AFRICA _At Front_

1. _COLOURED PLATES_

PAGE

A STOCK FARM _Frontispiece_

CHURCH STREET, PRETORIA--THE APPROACH TO THE TOWN 20

AT THE HEAD OF UMGENI FALLS, HOWICK, NATAL 40

THE OUTLET BELOW VICTORIA FALLS, ZAMBESI RIVER 64

LORD MILNER 80

A KAFFIR VILLAGE 120

PEELING BARK ON A WATTLE PLANTATION IN NATAL 132

BLOEMFONTEIN 160

2. _FULL-PAGE PLATES_

THE DOCKS, CAPE TOWN 8

THE LOW VELDT FROM BOTHA'S HILL 48

A HUNTER'S WAGGON, RHODESIA 56

THE RESETTLEMENT OF THE TRANSVAAL--A BOER FAMILY RETURNING TO THEIR FARM 72

WASHING PLANT OF DE BEERS DIAMOND MINES AT KIMBERLEY 88

CYANIDE WORKS (NEW COMET MINE) AT JOHANNESBURG 92

MINES ON THE LINE OF REEF AT JOHANNESBURG 96

DRIVING AN "END" IN MAY CONSOLIDATED MINE, JOHANNESBURG 100

GENERAL VIEW OF THE SURFACE WORKS OF A RAND GOLD MINE (KNIGHT'S) 104

PRITCHARD STREET, JOHANNESBURG 108

MILL (OR BATTERY) OF A GOLD MINE (SALISBURY AND JUBILEE, JOHANNESBURG) 112

TEA FARM, SHOWING COOLIES PICKING 124

A SUGAR-MILL IN NATAL (CENTRIFUGAL ROOM) 128

JOHANNESBURG MAIL TRAIN AT THE FOOT OF MAJUBA 144

COMMISSIONER STREET, JOHANNESBURG 148

MORNING MARKET AT JOHANNESBURG 152

MORNING MARKET AT KIMBERLEY 168

CHURCH STREET EAST, PRETORIA 176

3. _PORTRAITS_

SIR HENRY M'CALLUM, K.C.M.G. 12

HON. SIR W. F. HELY HUTCHINSON 16

RIGHT HON. SIR J. GORDON SPRIGG, K.C.M.G. 24

HON. SIR ARTHUR LAWLEY, K.C.M.G. 32

SIR H. J. GOOLD-ADAMS, C.B., C.M.G. 44

THE COLONIAL CONFERENCE 184

4. _MAPS AND ENGRAVINGS IN THE TEXT_

FIVE-MILE SPRUIT, RHODESIA 56

CAPE TO CAIRO RAILWAY 58

RHODESIAN NATIVES WASHING CLOTHES 63

MACHECKIE RAILWAY BRIDGE 65

THE WANKIE EXPEDITION 68

RHODESIAN MINING--THE DOBIE MILL 70

PROSPECTING FOR GOLD 87

THE INFANCY OF A GOLD MINE 90

SECTION OF A GOLD MINE 93

HEAD-GEAR OF THE WITWATERSRAND GOLD-MINING CO. 100

KAFFIR COMPOUND 102

CYANIDE WORKS 104

GENERAL VIEW OF SURFACE WORKS 106

MAP--TRANSVAAL GOLD-FIELDS 109

MAP--RHODESIAN GOLD-FIELDS 111

WELLWOOD FARM 114

FARM IN THE KARROO PROPER 118

VERMONT MERINO EWES 122

PURE NEGRETTI MERINO RAM 126

ANGORA GOAT (YOUNG EWE) 130

FLOCK OF FAT CROSS-BRED MERINO AND FAT-TAILED SHEEP 133

ANGORA GOATS (YOUNG RAMS) 135

FAT-TAILED HAIRY AFRICANDER SHEEP 136

ANGORA GOAT (RAM) 138

BRIDGE OVER THE TUGELA 142

STATION YARD, DURBAN 146

MAP OF CAPE GOVERNMENT RAILWAY 152, 3

MAP--BRITAIN IN AFRICA 199

SOUTH AFRICA AND ITS FUTURE

EMIGRATION

BY HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF ARGYLL, P.C., K.T.

_Author of "Imperial Federation," "The Life and Times of Queen Victoria," &c._

Emigration of white men and women to South Africa--how can we best secure this? The abiding difficulty at the Cape and throughout the states that will form the future South African Confederation is the colour question. The "colour" is not that of the gold to be found so often in many places, but the question of the white and the black races dwelling in the same country.

Dutchman and Englishman will in time form one race. There is nothing to part them. They are European cousins. They both come from North Europe. The blood of the Dutchman runs in the veins of the Englishman. The parent stock of the Dutch gave off many a swarm wherewith to people the East Anglian shores. England has been fed and fought by the Dutch since those old days. We have received many of their sturdy countrymen into London. Any one who does not know the number and influence of the Dutch in comparatively recent times in our metropolis should pay a visit to the Austen Friars, the place where the monks of St. Augustine had their headquarters in the city, and see the fine old church the Dutch built, and in which they still worship. We remember well the stiff battles of Charles II.'s time. We know the names of Van Tromp and De Witt as well as any Dutchman. We have learned to respect our Dutch cousins, both on sea and land.

And their religion? There is nothing there to separate us. Has the Presbyterian form of religion kept Scotland separate? No, save in the pride of her ancient history. No Scotsman has any objection to marry an English lass, especially if she has herself more than will give both of them something better than oatcake. And the Dutch Reformed Church is much like the Presbyterian. There is nothing that can in its tenets form any bar to the mixing of the British and Dutch people in South Africa. To be sure, a "nacht-maal" is not precisely a Church of England convocation or congress. It approaches much nearer to a Scottish communion service in out-of-the-way Highland parishes. There is nothing aggressive or exclusive in the staid and sober faith of our Dutch friends. And this being so, Scotsmen especially have intermarried often with the Boers.

As trustee of a Highland estate, some time ago my consent was asked to the granting of a leasehold to a Scottish gentleman, who had returned from the Transvaal. The only objection the lawyer who asked the question mentioned as existing against this man was that he was said to have married a native. Some canny objectors had written a letter saying that this ought to form a bar to any grant of land to the man, though he had originally come from the district. Who was the lady? was the next inquiry. Was she a Hottentot Venus? Did she "bang her hair" in too negroid a fashion? Would she introduce among the dim lights of the North the terrible practices of her people? Would the quiet village be scandalised by strange feasts and weird howlings? No, by no means. What was she, then? Why, nothing but a nice flaxen-haired, rather squab-featured, but withal comely Boer girl! So she entered into her Highland possession, had a door "stoop," or something like a bit of raised verandah flooring put outside the entrance, but found, poor soul, that it was rather a dripping place of observation in her adopted climate. Nevertheless, the last news of her is that she is a happy, "sonsie" mother, and has some children, who don't speak Dutch as their common language, but only a few low Dutch words, with very Highland accent.

But this is said to be only the case where a Scotsman marries a Boer. There is apparently something in the Scot that makes him look after his family more carefully than does the average Englishman or Irishman. It is therefore only the Scot, as it is said, both in Africa and in Canada, whose children, if he marry one of another race, do not desert the accents of their forefathers on the paternal side. As a rule the children become much what the mother is. I have seen the children of a naval man who had married an Indian woman on the Pacific Coast become almost like the small fish-eating savages around them. They were willing to do a little work for a spurt, and then relapsed into dirt and laziness. So in the north-west of Canada it is only an Orkney or Aberdeen east-coast Scot who can keep his family to civilised life, if he marry a Cree or member of any other Indian tribe. The Frenchman's children, by an Indian mother, take to hunting only. Even with the Scots in Old Canada the same rule holds good, at least wherever a Celt has married a French Canadian. There are numbers of families below Quebec, on the north side of the river St. Lawrence, whose names are Highland. They are the descendants chiefly of Fraser's Highlanders, one of the regiments employed during the war against the French in 1748-49. When the soldiers obtained grants of land on the conclusion of the war they married French-Canadian women. Their descendants now can seldom speak one word of English or of Gaelic. They speak nothing but Canadian French patois. It is the mother's influence, with rare exceptions, that tells. So it is in South Africa. In some districts it is as with Fraser's Highlanders, in Province Quebec. You may visit farm after farm, especially those whose owners have Irish names, and you will not find any person in the house, or on the land belonging to the farm, who can speak a word of either English or Irish! It may be doubted if there would have been much loyalty taught to any government by the use of the Erse tongue. The "Taal" may inculcate a certain amount more of respect for paternal and government authority. Yet if theory distinguishes between Briton and Boer, or Englishman and Africander, Nature does not, and you find that the mingling of the races is a practical principle acted on regularly wherever the races are brought together. We may congratulate ourselves that this is so. The mixed race will be a magnificent one, with the size, courage, and tenacity of the Dutch, and the gentleness, bravery, and power of government and of cohesion of the Britisher. There are no handsomer women anywhere than there are among the Dutch ladies of Cape Colony. Many of their sons are sent to English public schools and universities, and though there are, alas, only too many who live under British institutions and who do not become British, there is no reason why, in course of time, they should not become as good citizens of a British Commonwealth as have the Vanderbilts and Van Horns and Roosevelts, and many others of Dutch name and lineage in New York State, for New York was New Amsterdam, and a very flourishing Dutch colony. On the banks of the Hudson you may still see thoroughly Dutch houses, built in the old days. What New Yorker would now change his nationality, though of Dutch descent? The freedom they have in the United States their cousins will also have in South Africa. They will mix with the English, whose language most of them speak already. They will do so all the more readily as time passes, in that they can never feel themselves to be anything but the equals of the British in all save in numbers.

It was for the benefit of the union between England and Scotland that the Scots won Bannockburn and many another hard fight besides. They could point to their victories as the English could to theirs. And so with those of Dutch race at the Cape. They can point to famous names of good soldiers, who have inflicted defeat on the best British troops. And for this they will be all the greater friends hereafter. Unless each partner in business or in marriage can bring something into the common pot, there is not so happy a sense of helpfulness and mutual aid given, as there is when this union is a more equal one. There is another and a most weighty consideration which will tend to the union of the European races. This is the common necessity each has to strengthen the other against any possible predominance of the blacks. The danger in this matter will arise more in the warmer regions of the north of the future confederation than in the more temperate south. Time has proved that the white races can do well in the Cape. They increase rapidly. The climate is most favourable. The physical character of the races does not in any way deteriorate. On the contrary, it improves. They gain, as the Americans say, in "avoirdupois." An "avoirdupois" Dutchman at the Cape, whose ancestors have been "avoirdupoising" there for two centuries, is a better all-round, and very round man, than is his compatriot in race at home among the canals and tulip gardens of Holland. But the black holds his own in weight and in numbers even in the temperate climate of the Cape Colony. Farther north, where the temperature is hotter, it is certain that he will be a better man than the white. The only exception to this can be in the mountain districts, where at high elevations in the plateaus there is probably a possibility that the white man's children may thrive. In general, however, in all the low ground north of the Transvaal, and in many districts there, the "Kaffir" will be more favoured by the climate than will be the white invader. The Europeans will partially subject them, and partially they will remain, deteriorated in morals, but by no means likely to remain only the obedient servants that they are expected to be. There are many who now say that the next big trouble in South Africa will be with the blacks. This apprehension, if there be any reason in it, is another incentive for the whites to combine to make settlements secure and numerous, where they can defy any movement among the blacks. It is an additional incentive to us in the old land to see what we may do to make this union of the whites as British in feeling, as liberty loving, as British institutions can make it. The Boers in fighting have not lost their freedom. They have only lost one form of collective and separate independence. Individually their independence is far better guaranteed under British than under Dutch Africander forms of government.

But a great help to their seeing and understanding of this will be the predominance, not the domination, of the English language. In the schools English history and its modern expansion in the colonies should be taught. Half of the dislike of England shown in the Republic and among the people in the United States arises from the teaching of the school-books, which indoctrinates the young American with the idea that as all tyranny known to his American fathers was centralised and expressed in Lord North's Stamp Act and the Tea Duties, so the modern Britisher must still be imbued with the ideas of Lord North, and taxation without representation must go hand in hand with British rule. The young Africander must be taught that we of the old country have learned our lesson. He must know that each of the British self-governing colonies is a separate nation in alliance of its own free will with the mother-land. He must know that even in the wildest dreams of Africanderism the most separatist of the separatists desired the naval stations of the Cape to remain one of the chief resorts of the British fleet. Now that Germany and France have their foot on South African soil, "marching" with the states of the new confederation to be, the youth of the states must be taught to know our forms of government and the history of them, so that they may judge if they would rather be under the German or French flag. To be under any separate new flag would of course be to court danger from the powerful countries, who could cut off their trade from the harbours, were it not for the protection afforded by the British fleets. Union and education are therefore the passwords to success.