Part 19

Grahamstown, though not properly in the Southern Karroo, is at nearly the same level, 1700 feet, as Ceres, and may be considered here. Its rains occur mostly in the summer, and it is consequently more to be recommended as a winter resort. It is one of the prettiest towns in South Africa and one of the most English, and it vies with the capital in educational facilities. It is best reached from Port Elizabeth, from which it is 100 miles by rail, but the journey occupies nine hours. Its climate is remarkably equable but somewhat damp. It has a public library, second only to that of Cape Town, and a magnificent museum. Sport is still to be procured in the neighbourhood, and the society is more cultured and intellectual than is the case in many colonial towns. It has long enjoyed the sobriquet of the "City of the Saints," and is a pleasant and healthy place for family settlement, the schools being numerous and excellent. It is not, however, so well adapted for the presence of sanatoria for phthisis as many other districts in South Africa, owing to its humidity.

The Great or Central Karroo and the Northern Karroo may be considered together, as they have very similar climates, differing only in the greater height of the northern plateau with the consequent influences on temperature and dryness. It may be said to offer a crescendo of advantage as the elevation increases. Here is probably to be found one of the most perfect climates in the world for tuberculosis, and one of the most healthy and invigorating. I would defy the most miserable hypochondriac alive to remain uncheerful on a bright sunny day on these glorious uplands. His struggle to remain lugubrious would be as hopeless as Mr. Thompson's after his second glass of port, even when that gentleman's deference for Sir Austin Feverel urgently required the effort. Something of the same exhilaration may be felt in the higher Swiss altitudes, but unaccompanied by the vivifying influences of the sun. Sunshine and pure air, it must be remembered, are the strongest bactericidal agents known. Mr. Clinton Dent, lecturing at St. George's Hospital, gave expression to his astonishment at the surgical triumphs of healing, which he attributed to pure air, achieved under his observation during the war. The dryness, and consequent clearness, of the air are remarkable, and indeed incredible to the northern European. This feature explains the inferior shooting of our soldiers on their first arrival in South Africa; they would invariably sight their rifles too low, their targets being, in fact, far more distant than seemed possible by reason of the clearness. And this dryness makes it possible to tolerate extremes both of heat and cold which without this factor would mean serious discomfort.

In fact, the moist warmth of our English summers is infinitely more oppressive and less easily borne than the far higher temperatures, but tempered by comparative absence of moisture, which prevail in the Karroo. The rarity of sunstroke throughout South Africa is a clinical observation which establishes the truth of the statements just made. In the records of a military hospital in the Northern Karroo during the months from August to April, including therefore the hottest time of the year, out of 3000 medical cases not a single instance of sunstroke was noted. The experience gained in this hospital has an additional value from the circumstance that the gifted physician, the late Dr. Washbourn, was the observer, and some of the results he records may be more eloquent than many pages of description. Of the medical cases (nearly 3000), 546 were enteric, 379 dysentery, 296 muscular rheumatism, 258 malaria, 187 "continued fever," 152 diarrhoea, 93 jaundice, 70 tonsilitis, 71 influenza, and only 43 bronchitis and chest affections. Dr. Washbourn acutely remarks, "From this list it may be roughly concluded that the air in South Africa is good; the food bad." It will be noticed that intestinal diseases form more than a third of the total. The dysentery was probably due to faulty ingesta and not to the specific organism usually associated with dysentery, since amoebæ coli could not be found in the stools. Malaria occurs only in limited areas in the northern Transvaal and parts of Rhodesia; the Karroo proper and the coast-belt are entirely free. The causation of malaria is now so well understood that it must yearly become a more and more preventable disease. But the great outstanding features of the list, the prevalence of intestinal diseases, the absence of respiratory troubles, merit closer examination. The intestinal diseases, under which the muscular rheumatism, (caused by toxines), the jaundice, and much of the continued fever, must be included, are due to ingesta, _i.e._ food and water. The difficulty of obtaining good food, and the absence of sanitation which is the main cause of the impurity of the water, are the obstacles which must speedily be overcome in order to make the second feature assume its proper value in the treatment of disease. The rainfall is everywhere adequate for the supply of pure water, but this must be properly stored and kept from contagia. The interesting experiments which Dr. Vivian Poore has made on the subject of rural hygiene are convincing as to the possibility of disposing of excreta with complete security to health, and material profit to the community, without the necessity of abundant water. He has found that in the dry-earth system of closets, followed by the application of the excreta to the soil and their superficial burial in the humus, with subsequent tillage, a perfectly successful system of drainage is obtainable. In an acre and a half of ground he has for many years disposed of the excreta of a hundred persons, and the crops he has raised upon this land have yielded a profit of £50 per annum per acre. It appears to me fortunate therefore that most of the South African towns (except on the coast) have not yet adopted the costly and wasteful methods of destruction of sewage which are the fashion of the moment and which entail an immense loss of water. An intelligent application of very simple methods, within the reach of the smallest community or of the largest town, will ensure proper destruction of excreta, increased fertility of soil, and security against contamination of water--the latter being by far the greatest danger in South Africa. The supplying of food is intimately bound up with the conservation of water. The soil of the Karroo is astonishingly fertile when watered, and irrigation should be widely adopted. In places where this has been done the most satisfactory results have been obtained. At Matjesfontein, for example, a small oasis in the midst of the dry Karroo has been created within recent years by intelligent methods of irrigation. It is to be hoped that more energetic and progressive settlers will ultimately, as farms change hands under the financial stress of the war, tackle these difficulties with modern methods of agriculture. When it becomes possible to obtain fresh food-stuffs at moderate cost, the country will be ripe for the multiplication of sanatoria and places of reception for invalids and visitors. The type of sanatorium to be recommended for phthisical patients is still much debated. The essay of Dr. Latham and Mr. West, of St. George's Hospital, who have lately won the King's prize, offered for the best solution of this question, will be published within a few weeks, and may go some way towards settling the model to be adopted. At the present time only a few sanatoria exist in South Africa, and it will be well to devote a few words to the localities in which they are to be found.

Beaufort West, on the northern main line from Cape Town, and Cradock, on the northern main line from Port Elizabeth, are old-established health-resorts which offer fair accommodation for invalids. They are of nearly equal altitude, some 2800 feet, and are both in possession of a good water-supply. Their moderate elevation and ease of access from the coast render them particularly suitable for advanced cases of phthisis who are too ill to travel farther north, and for asthma and cardiac affections.

Howick, on the main north line to the Transvaal from Durban, altitude 3500 feet, was much used as a convalescent military base during the war, and is a popular health-resort with adequate invalid accommodation. It has a good all-the-year-round climate, but is particularly recommended for the winter, which is its rainless season. Estcourt, a little farther north on the same line, is some 300 feet higher, with much the same climate. It has a sanatorium. Standerton, 5000 feet, near the Natal-Transvaal border, and on the Durban line, has a bracing winter climate, and is then much frequented by Johannesburg residents, anxious to escape the dust-storms of the Rand. Wakkerstroom, 6000 feet, a few miles east of Standerton, is an advancing health-resort, which has a sanatorium. It is best adapted for cases of early phthisis. Its altitude contra-indicates it for persons with heart affections.

Middelburg, 4000 feet, in the Great Karroo, on the Port Elizabeth line, has a sanatorium, and opportunities of accommodation in farms in the neighbourhood. It has a summer rainfall, and is therefore more especially to be recommended as a winter resort.

Kimberley, altitude 4000 feet, on the Great Northern Plateau, is the fourth largest city in South Africa, and is entirely unique in this, that it may be described as being run by a benevolent despotism, that of the De Beers Company, who own the diamond mines. This company has built at its own cost the best sanatorium in South Africa. The fierce heat and the dust-storms render it somewhat trying as a permanent residence.

Bloemfontein, 4500 feet, in the Northern Karroo, the capital of the Orange River Colony, has long been a favourite resort for phthisical patients, and has a well-deserved reputation for the extreme dryness of its climate. It has summer rains of short duration but very heavy while they last. Its mean humidity is 58. December, January, and February are the hottest months, with a mean maximum of 85.° It has very fair hotel-accommodation at prices much lower than those ruling in Johannesburg, and has sanatorium establishments. It is on the main line of railway from Cape Town, from Port Elizabeth, and from East London. It has a good water-supply, and should become a most successful centre for the treatment of many pulmonary affections. The principal drawback to its healthiness is the prevalence of dust-storms in the late winter months.

Johannesburg, 5700 feet, in the great northern plateau of the Transvaal, is the largest and busiest town in South Africa, and cannot, for these reasons, be recommended as a health-resort; moreover, for some time to come the scramble for accommodation and the general roughing that results must keep away all but the most active and robust. But it is in a very healthy position, and enjoys a splendid climate for ten months of the year. The later winter months (July and August) are spoilt by the severe dust-storms, and the wealthier Johannesburg residents usually leave it during these months. It is the centre towards which all railways converge, and may be reached from Cape Town (in 45 hours by mail train, once a week; in 60 hours by the ordinary daily service), from Port Elizabeth in 43 hours; from Durban in 24 hours. It has summer rains in heavy downpours, with clear, fine weather between the showers. The healthiest parts of Johannesburg are the Hill and Parktown, which are fashionable suburbs. There are numerous hotels, which at the present time are very expensive; a single room with board cannot be had under 25s. a day; servants' wages are high, from £6 to £10 per month; food-stuffs are dear and difficult to procure; fresh meat is unobtainable, all supplies being imported frozen; eggs are 11s. a dozen; milk 1s. a pint; house-rent, for a six-roomed house, averages from £20 to £30 a month. These details are mentioned to give the intending visitor warning what he may expect at the present moment; and the great rush which is continuing will doubtless keep up the prices and lack of accommodation, so that for a considerable time to come Johannesburg is a place for the delicate and the ill to avoid.

Pretoria, the official capital of the Transvaal colony, is 30 miles north of Johannesburg, but it is 1760 feet lower, and is sheltered and shut in by mountains, which render it a pleasant resort from Johannesburg in its windy months. The winter climate is delightful. The sanitation, both of Johannesburg and Pretoria, is very imperfect and bad, and enteric and dysentery are in consequence very prevalent. Pneumonia is one of the scourges of Johannesburg, probably owing to the frequency of chills, the variation in temperature from the heat of the day to the cool of the evening being very great--as much as 70° at times. Water is not too plentiful, and there are seasons of scarcity which increase epidemic disease.

Basutoland has been called the Switzerland of South Africa from its beautiful mountain-scenery. It is, however, not open to invalids, or indeed to travellers, owing to its being still a native reserve.

Harrismith, 5250 feet, in the Orange River Colony, is probably the nearest available health-resort to Basutoland, and is an excellent place for consumption in earlier stages. A sanatorium is being provided. It is easily reached from Durban. I have known a case of phthisis with repeated hæmoptysis to be arrested by a visit of six months to Harrismith.

Rhodesia is, as has been said, a continuation of the elevated tableland of the great northern plateau, and its climate is very similar to that of the higher Karroo, with the exception that malaria is found in some parts of the country, and is not present in the Karroo. The country is on the whole healthy, but is as yet too undeveloped to receive invalids.

THE SPAS OF SOUTH AFRICA

There are numerous mineral-springs in the country, but they remain for the most part but little used, and there is here an excellent opportunity for future development. A few words upon some of the better known of these may be useful.

Caledon, altitude 900 feet, 80 miles from Cape Town, is the best known and most developed watering-place in South Africa. A line of railway, connecting it directly with the Cape main-trunk line, has just been completed. Its reputation dates from the times of the earliest Dutch occupation. It has ferruginous springs, both hot and cold, which offer a most successful treatment for gout, rheumatism, anæmia, and cardiac diseases and renal insufficiency. There is excellent and increasing accommodation in connection with the springs. The climate is very pleasant, and especially to be recommended in summer, as being drier than the coast towns, though within such a short distance of Cape Town. The rains are in the winter.

Brandvlei, near Worcester, 100 miles from Cape Town, has some very hot sulphur-springs which have not yet been much used.

Montagu, altitude 750 feet, near Robertson (140 miles by rail from Cape Town), has some hot mineral-springs which have been used with success in rheumatism and skin diseases, and there is an "établissement des bains" under progressive management.

Aliwal North, 4500 feet, on the Orange River, best reached from East London, may be compared to the Swiss watering-place, Loêche, in the combination of hot sulphur-springs with a great altitude. The baths are excellent for rheumatism and skin diseases, and good accommodation is procurable. The climate is a delightful one, with short summer rains and bright dry winter. The altitude is unfavourable for cardiac affections, but good for phthisis, and this has long been a much commended resort for the latter disease.

Warmbaths, altitude about 5000 feet, a thermal spring, connected by rail with Johannesburg and Pretoria (from the latter of which it is distant 70 miles), is rapidly becoming an important spa. The water issues at a very high temperature. It is ferruginous, sulphurous, and alkaline. Increased accommodation here is very desirable, and will no doubt be rapidly supplied. Rheumatic affections, anæmia, and skin diseases are benefited by this treatment, but heart disorders are aggravated by the high elevation.

It is impossible within the limits assigned to me to go into further details about the magnificent opportunities for the health-seeker which this great country must offer in the near future. To those who have been bred under those kindly skies, and who have left them permanently, an incurable nostalgia often comes, when the burden of this murk-laden atmosphere of London seems indeed intolerable. I hope that these few pages may lead many a sufferer to find new vigour and new courage in that sunnier air. May it prove to them in very fact a land of Good Hope and pleasant memories, whether they remain in the country or whether they make but a fleeting visit.[15]

FOOTNOTES:

[15] I have obtained much help, for which I wish to make due acknowledgment, from the following works on South Africa, which I would commend to the inquirer on the subject:--

"John Noble's Hand-Book," published in 1887 by the Cape Government.

"Health Resorts of South Africa." Dr. Arthur Fuller, 1898.

Messrs. Brown's "Guide to South Africa," published by the Union-Castle Company, 1902.

"South African Studies." Dr. Alfred Hillier.

"The New South Africa." Bleloch.

COMMERCIAL PROSPECTS

BY WILLIAM EGLINGTON

_Editor and Proprietor of "The British and South African Export Gazette"_

It is somewhat of an anomaly that of the scores of books which have been published of late years in connection with South Africa, not one has contained any direct reference to its commerce. This is the more remarkable when it is remembered how little is known, outside the circle of those associated with the trade, of its actual extent and importance. It is true that here and there in the daily press statements, more or less accurate, from time to time appear as to its trend, and of late quite a number of technical journals, somewhat tardily, appear to have only just awakened to the fact that the huge demands made upon British industries by South Africa's consumptive requirements are worthy of further investigation. But however admirable their intentions, the process of enlightening the public to which they set themselves would seem to have failed of its object, for the reason that, while each has done its best in its own particular groove, collectively they reveal nothing but what interests their own immediate circle of readers.

In view of the wide publicity given to South African affairs in recent times, the ignorance of the average man as to the remarkable expansion which has taken place in South African trade since the Majuba scuttle is not a little astonishing. He doubtless has a hazy idea that it runs well into millions, but there his knowledge ceases. He has had it dinned into his ears that British manufacturers have been asleep and sacrificed the trade to the greater activities of their rivals, and while he may deplore this fact, and bewail the decadence of our erstwhile commercial supremacy in oversea markets, there his interest ceases. It is with the view of enlightening a wider public as to the extent and scope of our present trade with South Africa, together with its future prospects, that this article has reference, and it will also serve to show, despite erroneous assertions to the contrary, that we have nothing to fear from foreign competition. However lax our manufacturers may have been in the past in allowing their rivals to secure so firm a footing in a market where, until a few years ago, they were supreme, after a perusal of the facts herein adduced it will be conceded that their present position is one from which it will be a matter of extreme difficulty to dislodge them.

Strange as it may appear, South African trade first began to show signs of expansion after the events which followed upon the retrocession of the Transvaal to the Boers in 1881. Until that year it was practically insignificant in its proportions and almost stationary in its volume, being mainly assisted by the activity shown in the diamond industry, gold not then having become a factor in quickening the commercial pulse. In the year named, the total imports into the country from all sources amounted to £11,140,027, of which the Cape Colony took, in round figures, all but two millions. After 1881, however, the imports steadily, if slowly, increased in bulk, which was due less to active developments in South Africa itself than to the gradual opening up of the country after the first Boer war. In 1891, in which year it may be said the fabulous wealth of the Witwatersrand first began to attract the attention of the civilised world, the value of the imports stood at £12,230,270, of which the Cape Colony took practically the same amount of goods as in 1881, while Natal had improved her position by taking about one-fourth of the total. After 1891 the imports increased with extraordinary rapidity in proportion as the gold industry made headway, until in 1901 they touched the high-water mark with £31,595,332, or practically three times what they stood at twenty years before.

In 1881, the quantity of goods imported from countries other than England was so insignificant as not to be worth including in the official returns, and so far as the United States was concerned absolutely no trade with South Africa was done at all, and but very little with the European Continent. In 1892, however, Germany and America began to pay greater attention to the possibilities of what then showed signs of becoming an exceedingly promising market, the share of the former country in that year being only £231,172, while that of the latter was £418,126. How successful they were in their efforts is seen by the fact that with each succeeding year the value of the goods entering South Africa from those countries grew by leaps and bounds, until in 1901 the German share had increased to £1,118,010, and that of the United States to £2,640,193. Neither of these amounts was, however, the highest point reached by either Germany or America, their record years being 1896 and 1898 respectively. It is unquestionable that had British manufacturers paid sufficient attention to the possibilities of the South African trade in the period from 1881-91, and had realised how rapidly the country was developing, thereby quickening them to action, the foreigner would not have got the hold upon its commerce which he now has, the combined share of all the countries competing with Great Britain amounting in 1901 to £4,590,681, or 14.9 per cent. of the total imports. Although the purely British share was as much as 65.6 per cent., the balance being made up by the shares of our Colonies and non-competing countries (i.e. goods imported from countries that Great Britain cannot supply), much remains to be done to retain even that percental share; but it is satisfactory to note that the lessons of the past have not been lost upon us, and that with the general awakening to the foreign menace there is every likelihood that we shall more than hold our own in the future, provided our manufacturers are not handicapped by the exactions of labour, the excessive cost of which, and the general disinclination of the Trades Unions to adopt modern labour-saving machinery, being the two principal factors in determining whether competition with other countries shall be effective or not.

It may not be without interest to put on record the values of the principal articles imported into South Africa in 1901 from all sources. They were as follow:--