On veldt and farm in Bechuanaland--Cape Colony--the Transvaal--and Natal

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Contents

CHAPTSK PACM

I. INTRODUCTORY - - ... i

II. MARKETS AND TRADING - - - ' ^3

Chapter I. Introductory

The recent crisis in the Transvaal, which has attracted so much general notice, owes its origin to a variety of causes. In this it is only preserving the orthodox character of a true political upheaval ; for these things do not, and never can, happen from a single cause. The effects of the commotion— or its antithesis — will also be far-reaching; and just as the excitement prevented men from perceiving the numerous indications of impending changes, which showed themselves long before the incident of the Jameson raid, so at the present time there is a veil over most men's minds, and it is pretty generally believed that all will return to a satisfactory basis, so soon as the mining interest settles down.

But the affairs of the Rand are only a small corner of the revolution which is taking place in South Africa ; and the object of this book is to place before the public the development which will immediately follow in other departments than that of the mines.

If we look back over the last ten years, we shall see

I that a vast European population — coming, not from rural districts, but from the great European and American centres, and accustomed to all the luxuries of nineteenth-century civilization — has been pouring into South Africa at the rate of between five and eight hundred a week. They came in — ^with galvanized iron and tinned meats — to a semi-barbarous land where water often is not obtainable, and food-stuffs are scarce. The people in possession of the land were antiquated in their habits, yet in their own way they made some attempts to profit by the increased purchasing power of the market. They probably did all that men — without knowledge and without capital — could have done. But it only required the slightest pressure from any cause, whether drought or disease, to break down at once the delusion of Boer methods.

When Mr. Kruger conceived the policy of * worrying the tortoise into showing its head,' he precipitated with his own hands the death of Boer policy. There is ample evidence to prove that he was misled on several vital points. Whether the assistance of Germany was formally solicited or not, there is at all events sufficient indication that Mr. Kruger looked for sympathy from that quarter. There is no contesting the fact that he despatched emissaries to the Cape Colony to urge the Boers there to come into line with his burghers in opposition to Great Britain. On January 13, 1896, the Volkraad of the Orange Free State adopted a resolution to assist the Transvaal at all times if required. Subsequently, at the Customs Conference in the Free State, the sympathy of the Free State with the Transvaal was clearly indicated. This gave a political colour to the case, and a threat was thrown out that Cape Colony

INTRODUCTORY 3

would annul the Customs Union^ and cast in her lot with Rhodesia. There was an element of unexpectedness in this, for hitherto the Cape had been subservient. Mr. Kruger believed up to the time of the Customs Conference that he was winning all along the line, and arraying the forces of the Boers against Imperial Britain and the English in the colony. Natal would be crushed ; the mines handed over to Germans or Hollanders ; the British flag hauled down, and Kruger, President of United South Africa, would plant his Boers upon the land, and carry out a Kafl&r policy through South Africa similar to that which has been pursued in the Transvaal. So ran his dream.

But the Pharaoh of Pretoria reckoned with the usual near-sightedness of a mere tyrant. Other events had been taking place in South Africa, which were destined to invalidate his schemes, and smite them with a slowworking paralysis. The Almighty Himself was not on Kruger's side this time, for first there came a drought, and close upon the drought swarms of locusts, and after the locusts a great plague.

Had these troubles attacked the Transvaal alone, the matter would probably have increased, instead of diminishing, Kruger's strength. It would have intensified the sympathy he was so terribly anxious to secure. But mercifully the troubles were not stayed. The drought made itself felt even in Natal, which is usually a comparatively well-watered territory. The locusts spread to the sea. The rinderpest swept off cattle by hundreds of thousands in the mighty native reserves of Bechuanaland, and cleared the Free State of almost all its cattle. Meantime the sheep in the Karoo had nothing to eat, and very little to drink, and in some

I — Z districts the stock offered for sale to the butchers was so emaciated as to be almost worthless.

Then a panic on the score of famine arose in Capetown, vigorously supported by the press. Under a variety of sensational headings, letters and articles appeared in different newspapers, and meetings were held demanding the repeal of the duties on food-stuffs.

The line which the agitation took was a violent attack upon the Bond or Dutch policy of Protection, and an approach towards the Free Trade policy of Natal, which had hitherto been snubbed by the Old Colony.

To one who compares the tone of the press a year previously with that of to-day, it will seem incredible that so great a change was about to take place. The utmost circumspection was then exercised about the expression of the slightest shadow of dissent from Boer idiosyncrasies, when suddenly a howl of execration and abuse was heard, and the most open-spoken criticism, which laid bare the domestic concerns, as it were, of the Bond. Mr. Kruger found to his dismay that, instead of worrying a tortoise, he had been irritating another animal whose strength he had never suspected. The continual aggravation of high duties imposed on food-stuffs, and extreme railway rates, with the consequent discomfort in the lives of people who were fresh from Europe, became the chief topic of interest. * I won't live in a country where they won't feed you,' said a young American when he had to spend six weeks without potatoes at the mining centre of Heidelberg. But there were plenty of people who, having embarked in certain enterprises or taken up appointments, were neither minded to go away nor to endure the dis-

INTRODUCTORY S

comfort of doing without ordinary comforts. That the cry against food duties was used for political ends is no doubt true, but there was plenty of ground for complaint.

In spite of a vast hinterland of virgin soil, supplies in Capetown have been very inadequate. It is by no means uncommon to be given tinned milk, while tinned butter comes in the hundredweight. Until last year, when the Bond carried a further measure of protection, Australia and New Zealand supplied a large proportion of the meat, and probably more than half the wheat used in South Africa is imported from abroad.

A visit to any one of the warehouses belonging to the merchant shippers will afford ample proof that South Africa is quite as far from being self-supporting as Great Britain. Enormous supplies of 'bully beef,' tinned haddocks, and other preserved food-stuffs, show what basis the market of Africa rests upon. It is fairly a matter for surprise that tinned tomatoes should be shipped from New York, although the tomato is an indigenous weed.

Another feature which added strength to the Free Trade movement was the rapidity with which money was made by men who wished neither to hoard it nor send it away. It needed a channel on the spot, and though some amongst them may have been ready enough to spend it in undesirable pleasures, there was a large population who strenuously demanded a degree of comfort similar to that enjoyed by our middle classes at home. Fresh provisions, pure, sweet and unadulterated food, came first, as the best way to stave off the suffering and sickness which is all too prevalent. The cheapening of these necessaries, and the improving of their quality, was a distinct aim in many minds. It was a demand made by men who understood little beyond the fact that so much of their earnings went in taxes ; and the repeal of these taxes was the first step towards home comfort in Africa. The strangest feature in the case is that no adequate attempt was made in South Africa itself to meet this demand for bread, meat and vegetables.

In California, and other mining centres, the agricultural development has a good deal more than kept pace with that of the mines, and has now altogether outstripped it. In Africa the conditions of farming are exceptionally hard, and the industry requires nursing at the outset. Then, the men in possession of the soil have, by their ignorance, heaped up di£Eiculties. They need teaching, and yet refuse to be taught. Hence comes the scarcity.

To the town-bred clerk the Boer may be as good a farmer as anyone else ; at any rate, he will accept the Boer's dictum, that none but Boers know how to farm in Afirica. Then, seeing the wretched thing which the Boer makes of it, the young man naturally turns elsewhere to invest his enterprise.

As though countersigning the Boer's statement, the failures of many British agriculturists, who have embarked in African farming, have been conspicuous. Those men who rushed in unprovided with local knowledge wherewith to direct their energy and determination were bound to fail. They have, generally speaking, started with a strong belief in the advantage of niethods which have been proved to be successful in Great Britain ; and have ignored the fact that the great differences in soil and climate render the best home

INTRODUCTORY 7

system merely experimental in South Africa. The result of their rashness has been dearly -earned experience and too often beggary ; which has obliged them to turn elsewhere for a living.

If, however, we wish to look at what has been done in Africa to meet the wants of the rapidly increasing industrial centre^, we shall find that all the impetus and the skill is due to British emigrants, a band of whom settled in the Eastern Provinces in 1820. The history of the matter is as follows. A period of distress and depression in agriculture at home decided the Imperial Government to vote the sum of £50,000, ' in order to send some of the able-bodied surplus population from the old country, where they were so much in the way, to the eastern frontier of Cape Colony, where they were so much wanted.' About 5,000 were shipped in Government transports; and on arrival each family received a grant of 100 acres. They were also presented with waggons, and provided with rations at Government expense until they could raise su£Eicient for themselves. The history of this movement is admirably given in the * Handbook to South Africa ' published by Messrs. Silver and Co. For the present purpose it is sufficient to state that from this settlement the prosperity of the Eastern Provinces, and the rise of the important port of Port Elizabeth, arose. It is there that South African methods have been sounded and reduced to something approaching scientific systems ; and therefore if a farmer intends settling in any other part of Africa, even Rhodesia or Natal, he could not do better than land at Port Elizabeth, and proceed to study African farming on the advanced farms of the King Williamstown, Grahamstown, and Schoombie farmers. A hundred pounds, or even less, spent in such a local education would be very usefully employed, and such men would go on to Rhodesia or Natal better equipped for a start than after years devoted to the same subject in England^ even though part of the time were spent in one of the admirable colonial colleges, such as Hollesley Bay.

At the same time, it is impossible to lay too great stress on the urgent necessity for studying localities and not persisting in any method in one place merely because it succeeded elsewhere. The best plan is to take up the threads of the new place exactly as they are found, and then very cautiously attempt the introduction of whatever alterations appear likely to succeed, and to do this at first more as an experiment than with the hard-and-fast determination to stick to it as the one orthodox road to salvation.

There can be no doubt that hitherto British enterprise has been hampered by the Dutch. This is not unnatural, and scarcely to be wondered at. It suits the Boers to grow a little for a high price rather than a great deal for a moderate price. They are lacking in perspective, and no race under the sun is so little gifted with imagination. That they are clever, no one can doubt who comes in contact with the best specimens of the race ; but a not uncommon trait of intense self-sufficiency, very prevalent among the uneducated class in any country, makes criticism unendurable to them. Of course, the Englishman's farm alongside of their own is a very practically-illustrated piece of criticism ; and too much allowance can scarcely be made for the temper of a man who is touched on the raw every time he looks out from his own doorway. Under the Boers the fine grain-growing district of Malmesbury has been

INTRODUCTORY 9

reduced to ruin, and, with a frantic effort to keep up prices, the Dutch vote has engineered protective duties upon wheat. The land is not half cultivated, and, having been forced with strong applications of guano, will now produce only the most miserably thin crops. Even worse than the grain is the case of cattle. Diseases appear to have been present in the early days of most cattle countries. Even in Great Britain they are only held in check by extreme vigilance. In the Argentine a few years ago disease had to be encountered, but it was resolutely met and stamped out. The Cape has been engaged in raising cattle for the last 200 years, and diseases have multiplied and become more virulent. The Boer looks upon disease as a decree of Divine providence, which it would be impious to arrest. Cattle diseases are consequently rampant throughout South Africa. It is a matter of congratulation that the Government has been induced by the farmers of the Eastern Provinces to establish a veterinary staff to study the causes of these diseases, and to discover remedies. The endeavours of Dr. Hutcheon and his staff have been successful up to a certain point ; at least, it may be stated that they have collected a mass of valuable notes, and proved that science is capable of taking the field successfully.

There have been other indications that Government was disposed to grapple with the initial difficulties of agriculture. Urged on by the Progressive Dutch and the energetic British and colonial farmers, an Act compelling farmers to dip their sheep for scab was passed, though in the teeth of a strong Boer opposition. In the Calvinia district and at Beaufort West, Government erected water-storage and irrigation works, and lo ON VELDT AND FARM

during the late session (of 1896) a Bill was passed authorizing the construction of other reservoirs.

The scheme is simply the establishment by Government of water-storage and the sale of water upon a commercial basis, similar to that undertaken by limited-liability companies.

Thus far matters had progressed in public opinion before the grievances of Johannesburg had been laid bare. The sudden sympathy evoked by the sufferings of a population whose food-stuffs were severely taxed caught like wild-fire in Cape Colony. Too late Kruger must have perceived the error of his policy, for in April last the rates upon food-stuffs on the Netherland Government line were reduced by one-half. But real scarcity stared not only Johannesburg, but his own people, in the face. A day of humiliation and prayer followed hard upon the vigorous buying up of food-stuffs and mules for transport; but the conviction was being driven home, even amongst his own people, that other measures of a preventive character would have been better. Railways suddenly rose in public estimation, and the value of Johannesburg and its mines was manifested to a people who saw their farms reduced to parched, bare, and desolate veldt.

The agitation in Capetown against Protection and the results likely to accrue will be dealt with in due course in the following pages. It must, however, be borne in mind that the present condition of things agricultural in South Africa is one of transition. Enormous changes are about to take place, based on the reversal of the old Boer policy. These changes will affect markets, transport, and raw products; and all along the line opportunities will be offered for men to go in

N

INTRODUCTORY ii

and add to the prosperity and comfort of the country, whilst reaping profits for themselves. The main difficulty in dealing with the subject, apart firom the enormous field which it covers, is the great variety of the climate and soil. Though the distances in Afiica are great, it must ever remain one country; and yet there are so many territories where volcanic changes have split up the soil, or changed the course of rivers, or blown aside the barriers of lakes, that no regular system can be applied to any one branch of agriculture, such as is practicable in the case of ranching in the Argentine, and grain-growing in Australia.

Very often a large acreage has to be bought to secure the ' here a little and there a Uttle ' where something may be achieved ; and as the labour-supply is very cheap and abundant, more will be done by manual labour than by machinery. These points are sufficient to indicate that farming in South Afirica can never be treated in as sweeping oi: wholesale a manner as elsewhere.

Of this, at least, we can be sure, that the subject of raw products and of agriculture in general has pushed itself into the field of politics, and that a people believed to be given over to the mere greed of gain have been aroused to study political economy in a very practical manner. That their conclusions may always be just, that the solution they would apply to problems will always be wise, we can hardly hope ; but of this we may feel fairly secure, that no Treasurer of Cape Colony will again declare without hesitation, as Sir Gordon Sprigg did to the present writer, that capable agriculturists willing to come into the country and guarantee the investment of capital in land * shall get

I a ON VELDT AND FARM

nothing ' at the hand of Government. It is more men of the same class as the Eastern Province farmer that are South Africa's great want. It may be impossible to initiate such a scheme as that by which Canada has drawn to herself, and still continues to draw, the foundations for a splendid people ; but unquestionably, by whatever means South Africa can secure a share of the now dispersing British agriculturists, the outlay and trouble will be well repaid.

The notion of cheap food will not die out in people's mind, although the agitation is not parallel with the Repeal of the Corn Laws. The basis is as different as our meadows and downs are to the kopjes and * thirsts.' The points are these : (i) The position of no country is sound where three-quarters of its wheat must come from abroad; (2) The farmers say the present high railway rates and cost of transport prevent them growing wheat at a profit ; (3) Sir James Sivewright says it would not pay Government to carry wheat at a lower rate ; (4) If Government shows a surplus of half a million there is evidence to prove that these rates are taxing the food-stuffs of the people ; (5) Famines must be expected where a population increases at the rate it does in South Africa, necessitating the purchase of corn from over sea. The question therefore is. Which is cheaper for Government — to lower the railway rates or for production to be cheapened in other ways ?

Chapter II. Markets And Trading

The subject of irrigation is already to the fore as a distinct factor in South African economy. Already large schemes are in hand, and the necessity is so generally acknowledged that no man in his senses would dream of taking up land without trying to put water upon it.

Plenty of opportunities are certain to be offered for persons of enterprise and skill — and not without experience — to combat this initial difficulty in South Africa. In another decade we may see the vast reservoirs of old lakes restored by saving the flood-waters, which so long have rushed unheeded to the sea. All along their banks will be a deep fringe of beautiful trees — the Lombardy poplar, the blue gum, eucalyptus, and cedar, while great stretches of the gaunt and horrible Karoo will smile with perpetual verdure under the cloudless sky of Africa's longest drought. Yet a second difficulty remains, the solution of which rests not alone with engineers, and scarcely at all with the farmers. There are golden opportunities for large capitalists possessed of a certain knowledge and experience belonging only to the old world. These are the things needed in South Africa now that the mediaeval existence of the Boers is passing away.

The supply of raw produce is only half the battle — the demand is the other half ; but the connection of the two halves is necessary to a successful whole. Obviously a great deal of the world's health and wealth depends on the regulation and supply of markets. The imj)ortance of this branch of trade is nowhere more clearly seen than in London, where we have nearly 3,000,000 of human beings dependent for their daily bread upon supplies drawn from the furthest corners of the globe. It is the great miracle of modern times, the finding bread which these may eat, for it includes and, in fact, accounts for all the marvels of electricity and steam, of cold storage, and rapid transit, which the age has produced. The business merely begins with the farmer or producer of primary products; the rest is carried on entirely by commercial activity — an activity which gains control of supplies and disi>oses of them precisely as, where, and when they are needed with almost mechanical regularity.

The tendency of the farmer is to aim direct at the consumer, and doubtless whenever he achieves this there is a momentary triumph. It is more profitable to the producer and cheaper for the consumer to get rid of the middleman. This is our complaint at home, where the middleman has been given unlimited power. Yet we shall see an instance in Africa of the farmer being practically helpless, and without the power of providing a market, where the middleman is absent.

The question is, Can farmers provide markets for themselves ? It can at least be safely asserted that they cannot do so independently of the ruling conditions of trade, and to understand and provide for these conditions requires such strenuous application and great activity as very few farmers would feel equal to bestowing after their usual day's work.

If we look at the case of tea, wool, sugar, hides, cheese, wine, etc., we shall find markets a still more intricate subject, as these products pass through some kind of manufacturing before being offered to the consumer. They also acquire a keeping power which entirely alters their commercial status. Then, the factory necessary for their preparation may not be on the immediate si>ot where the commodities are produced. In this case it is inevitable that the middleman steps in. He is the only positive trader, since he merely buys to sell again, without adding in any way to the goods for which he merely finds a market. Trade in the abstract is the finding of markets.

When the total commercial ignorance of the Boers is considered, it will not be difficult to understand that farming in their hands was not a lucrative business.

' In matters of commerce, the fault of the Dutch Is the giving too little, and asking too much.'

In other words, their maxim is to sell little and sell dear, whereas the whole tendency of modern trade is exactly in the contrary direction — the growing of enormous crops and the sale of double quantities for two-thirds of the price, and the reaping of profits by organizing, co-operating, and cheapening methods.

A glance at the changed conditions of Covent Garden Market will prove this. The extremely choice and costly products have not greatly increased in supply, but the second and even third-class products have trebled and quadrupled. Whereas at one time men found it most profitable to grow small quantities of

*

■ singularly perfect fruits, they now send to market large

j: quantities of first-rate goods ; in fact, they cater for the

millions whose means are simply comfortable, instead of for the few people of vast fortunes. The same rule I applies to all trade, though it may not always be so

apparent, and it is only another manifestation of the strength and power of the democracy. There will always be a few choice articles which reap top prices, but the serious question is the disposal of the surplus at a small profit.

No one should attempt farming without considering this matter — how the steady demand of the masses may be made a basis for trade. While admitting that the calling of agriculture partakes of the nature of art and science, it is impossible to ignore the commercial side of it. No man succeeds at it to-day who is not a good man of business. If this is admitted in the mothercountry, where good local markets are within every farmer's reach, and where commercial information can be readily obtained, how much more must it apply in new territories where communication is difficult, and where, owing to the size of the farms and the scarcity of population, products collect in bulk at certain seasons of the year, far in excess of local requirements !

Hitherto the part of the middleman has been played by the few pedlars or traders who act independently, or through the large merchant houses on the coast — ^the export, import, and forwarding agents.

The business done by these large houses is enormous. Not only does it consist of shipping machinery for mines, galvanized iron for houses, railway stock, but also food-stuffs of all descriptions — mealies, corn, flour, and tinned products, besides clothing. And when it is considered that the great continent is unprovided with manufactories, and that almost everything that is made comes through somebody's hands from over the sea, the vast extent of the import trade must be sufficiently clear. What they most desire is an increase in the export trade. Wool, mohair, hides, and feathers are, after all, limited. They ship out agricultural implements, and everything an up-country farmer can require, from the hat on his head to the pot in which he cooks his food; and in return they take from him wool, mohair, wattle-bark, or whatever else he may have for sale, and he stands in their debit for coffee, sugar, galvanized iron, ploughs, saddlery, or whatever else he may require. The matter is worked by agents, the great shipping houses at the ports backing their agents with credit to a certain amount. Here steps in a curious feature in South African life — the trader's store. The business done by traders is incalculable, and what has the appearance of merely a very indifferent village shop often has lying behind it enormous financial returns. It is said that the business is not so profitable as it was fifteen years ago, and that therefore many traders are becoming farmers. It is not unusual to combine store-keeping with farming, and the practice is very convenient. Very few traders start on their own account, and nearly all of them are connected with the large shipping houses in Port Elizabeth. These firms consider the application of men who announce that they are prepared to take goods up-country and open trade with them. The firm agrees to allow the intending trader a certain quantity of goods on credit for a fixed period of three, four, or six months. The trader conveys the goods as fisu: by rail as he can, and then hires or purchases a waggon or cart, and * treks ' away to the district where he intends to open trade, ajid for which he has obtained a license. He will probably meet with customers by the way. Kaffirs will offer him karrosses or horns, or, it may be, feathers or hides ; these he takes in exchange for coffee, sugar, matches, cloth, and looking-glasses. He also stops at the various farms, where he is sure to be welcome, because white men are scarce, and to the lonely Englishman on the high veldt he brings newspapers and a breath of the old world ; for these the trader has groceries as well as shirts, saddlery, etc., and perhaps he takes the orders for agricultural implements, if he has not brought them with him.