A Winter Tour in South Africa

Appendix I.

The following discussion took place on the paper read by Sir Frederick Young, on South Africa, at the opening meeting of the Session of the Royal Colonial Institute, on November 12th, at which the Marquis of Lome presided:--

PROFESSOR H.G. SEELEY: In common with you all, I have listened with great pleasure to this interesting and wide-reaching address. I have not myself been so far afield. My observations were limited to Cape Colony; and the things which I saw in that Colony were necessarily, to a large extent, different from those recorded by Sir Frederick Young. On landing at Cape Town I naturally turned to what the people of South Africa were doing for themselves, and confess I was amazed when I saw the great docks, by means of which the commerce of South Africa is being encouraged, and by which it will hereafter be developed. I was impressed, too, with the educational institutions, the great Public Library, worthy of any town, the South African Museum, the South African College, and the various efforts made to bring the newest and best knowledge home to the people. But perhaps in Cape Town, the thing which impressed me as most curious was the new dock, in process of construction by excavating stone for the breakwater and other purposes. This work was carried on by coloured convict labour. The convicts thus become trained in useful manual work, as well as in habits of obedience, and when they are discharged, are not only better men, but people in whose work employers of labour have confidence. I learned that the great public mountain roads in Cape Colony have thus been constructed by convict labour, at a comparatively small cost, while the convict acquires skill and useful training. Going up country, my attention, among other matters, was turned to the distribution of mineral wealth and difficulties of water supply, for, as Sir Frederick Young has remarked, the water supply is one of the great problems which all persons have to consider in South Africa. The season during which rain falls is short, and the rain drains rapidly down comparatively steep inclined surfaces, so that science of many kinds has to be enlisted to conserve the water, and turn the supply to account. I found the rocks of much of the country have been curiously compressed and hardened and thrown into parallel irregular folds, and that these rocks were afterwards worn down by the action of water, at a time when the land was still beneath the ocean, with the result that many basin-shaped depressions are preserved and exposed, each of which holds a certain amount of water. Just as we never dream of putting down a well in this country without knowing the positions of the water-bearing strata, so it is hopeless to bore profitably for water in the Colony till the districts are defined over which the water-bearing basins are spread. Nothing arrests the escape of water in its course through the rocks more efficiently than intrusive sheets of igneous rock which rise to the surface, but until the distribution of these dykes is systematically recorded it will not be possible to open out all the water which is preserved underground. There is no doubt that by utilising geological facts of this nature, a better water supply may be obtained, which will enable more land to be brought under cultivation, and larger crops to be raised. I may say that the Colonial Government is fully aware of the importance of following out such lines of work, and steps are being taken to give effect to such exploration. Vegetation, however, by its radiating power, must always be one of the chief aids to improved water supply. In the matter of mineral wealth, Cape Colony is not so rich as some adjacent lands. It contains coal, but the individual beds of coal are thin, and owing to this thinness the coal necessarily alternates with shale, which is more conspicuous than in the coal fields of Britain. I remember that Professor Sedgwick, my old master in geology, told me that in his youth seams of coal only some four to six inches thick were worked on the sides of hills in Yorkshire, and that the coal was carried on horseback over the country to supply the wants of the mountain population. Cape Colony is in a far better state than that. In the Eastern Province the beds of coal are frequently a foot or two or more in thickness. They crop out on the surface with a slight dip near to the railway, and although only worked at present in a few pits (as at Cyphergat, Fairview, Molteno--I did not visit the Indwe)--the coal-bearing rocks certainly extend over a much wider area of country than that which has been explored. One of the happy results at which I arrived in my short visit to this district was to find that there are certain extinct forms of reptilian life associated with these coal beds, by means of which the geological horizon upon which the coal occurs may be traced through the country; so that there is a prospect of this mineral being followed along its outcrop in the Eastern Province with comparative ease by this means. It is desirable on all accounts that coal should be burned rather than timber, since the destruction of wood is harmful to the supply of water. With regard to the gold of Cape Colony, I have not the requisite knowledge to speak with the same confidence. The quantity in any district is probably small: the amount is great in the aggregate, but very widely diffused. Gold appears to be present in small amounts in almost all the volcanic rocks, so that as those rocks decay and new mineral substances are formed out of the decomposed products, the gold which they contained is often preserved and concentrated in thin and narrow veins of zeolitic minerals, which extend over the surface of these volcanic rocks. To what extent these zeolites may be hereafter worked with profit it is impossible at present to say, for much may depend upon water supply, by means of which the ore would be crushed and washed, and much on the varying quantities of gold present in samples from different localities. On the whole, the utilisation of science in the service of man, especially in relation to metals, coal, and water supply, if systematically carried out, will, I believe, be an element of future prosperity to Cape Colony, and enable the Colony to minister to the welfare of adjacent lands.

Mr. J.X. MERRIMAN: I am sure South Africans are very grateful indeed to the amiable and kindly critic in the person of Sir Frederick Young. It is no new thing to Colonists to owe him a debt. All those present will acknowledge the great things he has done for the Colonies in connection with the Royal Colonial Institute. Sir Frederick Young is a man who has been content to look after small things, and the result is this Institute has been worked up by the individual efforts of Colonists and others to its present flourishing condition. I hope the Institute will long flourish, and never be absorbed by anything under more magnificent auspices--in other words, that you will "paddle your own canoe." It is good sometimes to have a plain statement from a plain man. South Africa suffers under a plague of experts who, after spending a few weeks there, tell us exactly what we ought to do; and we don't like it. I wish I could speak to you as a sort of amiable critic, but I have the misfortune to belong to that much-despised class the local politician, and I notice that, when anybody says anything about the Colonies in England, all unite in kicking the local politician. In order not to sail under false colours, I state frankly that I belong to that class. Of course, South Africa is creating a deal of interest at the present time. People who come to fortunes usually do excite a great deal of interest among relations who may in times gone by have given them the cold shoulder. There can be no doubt as to the material prosperity of South Africa at the present time, and still less doubt as to the future. The gold fields of Witwatersrand are unique in the world. This is not my own statement, but the statement of eminent mining engineers from America. For thirty miles and more you have a continuous stretch of reef, which gives throughout a uniform yield per ton, and which has been proved to the depth of some hundred feet, and may--there is every reason to believe--go to unknown depths. The reefs are now being worked in the most economical manner. When proper appliances for mining are used, and when we get the stock-jobbers off our backs, I believe a career of prosperity will open of which few people dream. From another point of view, to those who love the country and make their home there, there cannot but be a seamy side to the picture. Great wealth brings other things in its train. It has brought into South Africa a great spirit of gambling. People neglect the honest industries of the country: they leave their farm work, and rush off to make fortunes in a minute. Everybody--from the king to the beggar--is gambling in gold shares. Everybody neglects his business, and talks about nothing else. I ask whether this is a wholesome state of society? Is it not a state of society to which we may look with some degree of apprehension? I believe myself that things will work round, but, undoubtedly, the state of affairs is serious. After all, there is something which goes to build up a country besides material wealth, and I am not sure that gambling in gold shares is exactly the thing which is wanted. Of course, there have been other countries where these vast increases of material wealth have occurred--California and Australia--but there the conditions were different. They were new countries, which attracted large numbers of white men, and, when they found the gold fields did not pay, they made homes for themselves on the land. Unfortunately, that state of affairs does not exist at the present time in South Africa, and that brings us face to face with the great problem on which Sir Frederick Young has touched--the great problem which we have always before us--viz., how two races utterly alien to each other, the black and the white, are to live and increase side by side. South Africa is the only country in the world where that problem exists, excepting the Southern States of North America. This is a great question, on which the future of South Africa depends. Unfortunately, the white men do not work in a country where the black race flourishes. If the white man does not become a "boss," he sinks to the level of a mean white man. The difficulty is to get a state of society in which the white race shall flourish side by side with the black; and when people talk about the "local politicians," the "average Cape politician," and the like, they should remember we have to deal with this enormous problem--that we are anxious to do justice to the "black," and at the same time we are naturally anxious to see the European population flourish. I believe the gold fields will attract a large European population. The wages are enormous. There are 20,000 black men, without a stitch upon them, earning as much as eighteen shillings a week a-piece, and getting as much food as they can eat, in the mines of Johannesburg. People talk about the treatment of the blacks. Nobody dares to treat them badly, because they would run away. There is a competition for them, and the black man has an uncommonly rosy time of it. The white men naturally won't work under the same conditions as the blacks. I saw a letter from an operative cautioning his fellow artisans against going out. He says, "We get thirty shillings a day, but it is a dreadful place to live in." I ask the operatives in England to mistrust that statement. ("What is the cost of living?") You can live at the club very well indeed for L10 a month--the club, mind you, where the aristocracy live. It is idle to tell me the honest artisan cannot live. In addition to the black and white population, there is another problem, and that is, the influx of Arabs, who creep down the East Coast through the door of Natal. They are gradually ousting the English retail trader. You may go to up-country towns, and in whole streets you will see these yellow fellows, sitting there in their muslin dresses, where formerly there were English traders. In places where we want to cultivate the English population, that is a very serious thing. Our yellow friends come under the garb of British subjects from Bombay, and are making nests in the Transvaal and elsewhere by ousting the English retail trader. Sir Frederick Young has alluded to State colonisation. I am sorry to differ from so amiable a critic of our ways, but, as one who has had a little experience, I can tell him that you may send Colonists out, but you cannot as easily make them stay there. If they make their fortunes, they come home to England to spend them. If they are poor, and bad times come, the black man crowds them out, and off they go to Australia. You can depend on a German peasant settling, but bring an Englishman or a Scotchman, and he wants to better himself. In that he is quite right, but he does not see his way on a small plot of ground, and off he goes down a mine, or something of that sort. There are great difficulties in the way of State-aided emigration. We do not want the riff-raff; we don't want the "surplus population." It is one of the greatest difficulties to get decent, steady Englishmen to settle on the land. It is the people who settle on the land who make a country, and if Sir Frederick Young can give us a receipt for making English people settle there he will confer one of the greatest possible benefits on South Africa. Sir Frederick Young departed from the usual custom on such occasions by touching on politics. I am glad he did, because more interest is given to the discussion, and there is nothing like good, healthy controversy. Sir Frederick Young is greatly concerned that there should be a settled policy for South Africa. All I can say is, in Heaven's name, don't listen to a syren voice of that kind. So surely as you have a settled policy--some great and grand scheme--so surely will follow disaster and disgrace. The people of South Africa may be very stupid, but they are very much like other people--determined to make their policy themselves, and the policy of South Africa is not going to be framed in Downing Street. I cannot help thinking Sir Frederick Young did injustice to some of my friends who have been at the head of affairs. "The mournful mismanagement of South African affairs," he says, "during the last twenty-five years, and most especially during the last decade, has been truly lamentable, and cannot fail to awaken the saddest feelings on the part of every loyal Briton and true-hearted patriot." But have affairs been mismanaged for the last twenty-five years? The revenue twenty-five years ago was L500,000. It is now nearly L4,000,000. For twenty-five years, under the beneficent rule of Downing Street, we had not a mile of railway. Now we have 2,000 miles. Twenty-five years ago there was no national feeling at all. Now there is a strong South African feeling, which is destined to grow and build up a South African policy. As to the talk about a settled and firm policy, Sir Philip Wodehouse was the last Governor who had a grand scheme from Downing Street. A more honest, conscientious, and able man did not exist; but his policy was a failure. Then came my friend Sir Henry Barkly. His policy was distinctly opposite. It was a true policy for South Africa. It was a policy of laissez-faire. The result was, things went on as merrily as a marriage bell, Dutch and English drew together, the natives were quiet, South Africa was prosperous, and everything went on as happily as possible till Mr. Froude and Lord Carnarvon hit on the grand scheme of uniting South Africa. From that day our misfortunes began. One of the most able, courteous, and high-minded gentlemen in the British service--Sir Bartle Frere--was sent to carry out this firm policy. What was the result? Failure. I will say nothing more about it. Then Sir Hercules Robinson reverted to the laissez-faire policy. South Africa was under a shade--nobody would look at us. But now we are gradually righting ourselves, and getting into a prosperous condition. Now are being raised again the cries for a grand policy. I caution you against them. Let us manage our own affairs. Laissez faire, laissez aller--that is our policy for South Africa. There are no nostrums required. The one thing required is the gradual bringing of the Dutch and English together. There are no two races more fitted to unite. You know how like they are to Englishmen. The Boer is as like the English farmer as possible. There are no people more fond of manly sports than the Dutch; they enter into them heartily, and in the cricket and football fields they are among the best players. They are as fond of riding and shooting as Englishmen are. In fact, the Dutch and the English are as like as Heaven can make them, and the only thing that keeps them apart is man's prejudice. The one thing to do is to bring them together. How can you help that end? Not by girding at them, and writing against Boer ways, but by recognising the fact that they have been pioneers in South Africa, and that they are the only people who will settle on the land. I see there is a great agitation about Swaziland, which is entirely surrounded by the Transvaal Republic. ("No.") Well, except as to Tongaland, and I am not going to say anything about that. The cry is got up, "Don't hand it over to the Boers." In whose interest is that cry got up? It is in the interest of a few speculators, and not in the interest of the capitalists, who have L108,000,000 invested in the Transvaal, and yet are not afraid to trust the Boers with Swaziland. This girding at the Dutch is resented, and does incalculable harm. People at home have very little idea how much influence public opinion in England has in South Africa. Sir Frederick Young has alluded to President Kruger, who won't put down prize fights because he might be thought to be oppressing the Englishman! All I ask is, don't let your talk about union with the Dutch be mere lip service. Trust them; work hand in hand with them. Unless you do you will make little progress in South Africa. By that I mean political progress. The material progress of South Africa is now secured; therefore my advice is--cultivate the Dutch, because, unless they are our friends, we shall be a divided people, and our black and yellow brethren will get the best of us. Our true policy is, Laissez faire, laissez aller.

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