38 SIR W. F. HELV-lIUTrniNSON'. 



succeeded him' as Governor of the Cape of Crood Hope, and he 

 discharged the functions of that high office with conspicuous 

 tact during a time when the most dehcate handling w^as essential. 

 His term of residence in the Government House at Cape Town 

 covered a transition period, the nature of which could scarcely 

 have heen anticipated at its commencement. When tiiat period 

 was entered upon, the country was being torn asunder by war- 

 fare and bitterness : at its termination the Union of South Africa 

 was just on the eve of inauguration, and the enthusiastic send-off 

 that Sir Walter received from men of all shades of political 

 opinion, just before his final departure from South Africa, after 

 seventeen years of gubernatorial service in the country, was the 

 best possible proof of the wisdom and skill that had characterised 

 his administration during those troublous years. 



Sir Walter had made it his definite pur])ose to exercise 

 moderation to all men, and to carry amity into every circle 

 whither he went, and it i'^ difficult to judge whether his tactful 

 interest, as a townsman, in tlie w^elfare of the agriculturist, or the 

 facility with which he, as an Englishman, familiarised himself 

 with the language and habits of the other dominant race in 

 South Africa, did more t ) win for him the confidence and 

 esteem of those who, not many years previously, had sympa- 

 thised, passively or actively, with the forces arrayed against his 

 vSovereign and country. It may also be said with truth that he 

 took the utmost pains to make himself acquainted with every 

 portion of the country that he was appointed to govern, with 

 every phase of its resources and industries, with every class of 

 its inhabitants. It has been well remarked that " the country folk 

 especially liked the entire absence of frigidity or formality that 

 marked his progresses through the Colony." " ^ly ambition," 

 Sir Walter said, shortly after taking office here, " is to get at the 

 hearts of the people, and when the time comes for me to depart, 

 J shall be happy if I can feel that you will remember me as a 

 friend." That was the feeling which animated him consistently 

 through his occupancy of the Cape Governorship, and he re- 

 mained true to it during the few subsequent years of his life, as 

 every possible occasion testified. Presiding over a meeting of 

 the Royal Society of Arts in May. IQ12, when a lecture on the 

 subject of " Colonial Vine Ciilture " was being delivered by 

 Mr. A. H. Burgoyne, M.l\. Sir Walter rather warmly and at 

 some length expressed his dissent from some of the lecturer's 

 observations. He hoped that Mr. Burgoyne would excuse him 

 when he said that if he had been to South Africa, he would have 

 expressed himself rather differently about the Dutch farmers. 

 . . . . When discussing South African agriculture, it might 

 be well to begin by leaving oft' calling the Dutch farmers ignorant 

 and indolent, because that was a mistake. There were many of 

 them, no doubt, still open to the charge, but the number was 



