CHAPTER XVII

THE FUTURE OF THE TRANSVAAL

ANY book dealing even in a sketchy manner with the Transvaal and the Boers, cannot, even if it would, omit some consideration, however theoretical it is and must undoubtedly be, of the future of that country. That the future has many problems which must be solved, I cheerfully admit, and that the Government of the Transvaal will have many difficulties to encounter is not only probable but certain. In spite of temporary interruptions in the working of some of the mines and a decreased output for January 1896, in consequence of the disturbances, it is pretty well certain that the population of the Rand will steadily increase and that the immigrants will view, possibly with jealousy and certainly with disfavour, any prolongation of Boer rule. Of course the matter, the "grievance," I suppose, I had better term it, will not be put in this bald way. There has not been, and assuredly there will not be, any difficulty whatever in detailing any number of "grievances," and giving them that air of plausibility necessary to impress

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people in this country that they are bona-fide. was particularly struck with this fact a short time ago in perusing an article contributed to the Pall Mall Gazette, entitled "The Ruin of the Rand." The alliteration is taking, and the article, if I may say so, was eminently readable. And yet its tendency, I will not say its object, was fallacious throughout, and anyone perusing it and accepting the statements therein contained, would have derived an absolutely erroneous and entirely incorrect idea regarding affairs in the Rand. As an example in point of what I say, let me quote the following extract :—

"The settled policy of the Boer, from the moment he perceived that the indefinite expansion of the mining industry meant the downfall of his political ascendency, has been to check the natural growth of the threatening element by studied discouragements and more or less covert restraints. He will now be spurred on by the passions of victory to new and more ambitious efforts in the same direction. What has been complained of in the past? That oppressive monopolies, enjoyed by foreign vampires, needlessly enhanced the cost of producing gold and prevented the working of low-grade ores. Recent events will not cause the foreign vampires to loose their hold; rather will they bring in their train a new horde of monopolists to batten upon the industry, men who have been seeking for years past an opportunity to prey upon its vitals, but who have hitherto been kept at bay. It will be easy for these exploiteurs to establish a claim upon the recognition of a grateful

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Government, and their importunity will be no longer denied. The monstrous exactions of the Netherlands Railway Company have been another fertile source of discontent. Will these exactions be lessened after the Chamber of Mines is practically broken up, as it must have been by recent events, and none remain to disturb the hallowed peace of the financiers at Amsterdam and Berlin, in whose behalf that enterprise is run? Hitherto the sole mitigation of Netherland's extortion has lain in the fact that the Cape Free State railways have come within forty miles of the Rand; but it is virtually certain that the Free State will now throw in its lot with the Transvaal, the railways which were built for the Republic by the Cape Colony will be expropriated by the aid of Transvaal gold, and the last state of the unfortunate industry will, in this matter, be worse than the first Its isolation will now be complete.

"For several years a fight has been raging over the right to mine numerous deep-level claims, known as bewaarplaatsen. The German bloodsucker fastened with characteristic determination upon these, heedless of the fact that he had no sort of claim to them, equally heedless of the circumstance that in some cases they were a matter of life and death to the outcrop company to whom they legitimately belonged. By dint partly of appeals to the honesty of the better class of Boer representatives, partly to bribery of the baser sort, the fate of these valuable properties has been warded off up to the present time in the hope that

something would happen to bring in the reign of honesty and fairplay. It is easy to forecast what will happen now.

"Year in and year out the cry has gone up that the efficiency of native labour was impaired, crimes and brutalities unspeakable were provoked, and a premium was placed upon the theft of raw gold by the absence of police and the presence of unlimited canteens. Additions are to be made to the standing army of the Republic as a consequence of recent events; but we hear nothing of additions to the civil police, and there is too much reason to fear that bad liquor will flow even more freely in the future than it has flowed in the past.

The customs' tariff has been a scandal of the first magnitude. Everything the Outlander consumed has been taxed to an extent which few in England can imagine. The Boer, while exceedingly careful not to tax himself, seemed to grudge the unwelcome alien almost the very air he breathed. He will doubtless discover, under the new dispensation, some means of bringing even the greatest of God's gifts within his capacious net. Forts cannot be built to overawe Johannesburg, citadels cannot be raised at the capital to provide a secure retreat for the spurious Republicans in their inevitable hour of need, unless the mining industry can be made to bear the cost."

Of course anyone who knows anything practically of the Rand, and regards the matter, not from a capitalist, but from a moral point of view, will not be taken in by this sort of writing, however deftly it is

executed. The Boers are in the Transvaal because they desired to dwell apart, live to themselves and lead a pastoral life away from the busy haunts of men. They invited no greedy capitalists, no hungry plutocrats, ravenous after pelf and dross, to come and occupy their land and extract its wealth in order to get rich quickly and hurry out of the country to squander their gains in the debaucheries of great cities. If these hunters after pelf choose to come to the Transvaal they must take matters as they find them, and if they don't like it—well, there is the alternative! The Boer, as I have more than once observed in this book, has been abused and maligned and execrated by sundry people who have had an interest, and a deep interest, too, in maligning, abusing and execrating him. Let me, before I conclude, call one witness to the contrary. A great man now gone to his reward, a great writer, a great historian, whose memory will be cherished as long as the English language endures-I refer to the late Mr J. A. Froude-now, what says he of the Boer? Here is his testimony: "They were rough, but they had rude virtues which are not the less virtues because in these latter days they are growing scarce. They are a very devout people, maintaining their churches and ministers with excessive liberality. Their houses being so far apart, they cannot send their children to school and generally have tutors for them at home. Religious observances are attended to scrupulously in their household. The Boers of South Africa, of all human beings now on this