'5T2 Kkpokt S.A.A. Advaxckmkxt of Scikxck. 



lectual life, which uppurtunities allowed him to come across in tlie 

 routine of his busy life. I must also reserve the special account of his 

 contributions to the discovery of minerals to the second part of this 

 address. To Dr. Atherstone's journey's thi-ough the country T can 

 do scant justice here. The first was made under the auspices of a 

 Grahamstown prospecting syndicate, at whose expense he went to 

 Namacjualand in 18-54 ; in 1870 he visited the Stormbery;, and in the 

 following vear Kimberlev and the Lvdenbuig gold-fields. He also 

 made manv shorter trips, which are all grapliicallv descril)ed in his 

 notes. 



I must, however, before concluding the account of his life, refer 

 to schemes of his, so \ast and of such iimnense importance to JSouth 

 Africa that, had they V)een adopted, they wotdd have altered the 

 whole trend of affairs, and have conferred inestimable benefits upon 

 us. t must at the outset say that these were no mere visionary 

 dreams — the outcome of an idle iniiul, but were worked for, pushed 

 and fought for, in season and out of season, with statistics, estimates 

 and expert knowledge. Though they were not adopted they never- 

 theless aff"orded inspiration tt» others, and two of the schemes are at 

 the present dav being carried out, with untold lal)Our and with the 

 utmost dittieulties, which did not in those days e.xist. In 18.')7 there 

 was a general expansion of credit, and large outlays were autlu>rised 

 for public works, including a railway from Capetown to Wellington. 

 ]>v. Atherstone was keenly interested, and in the following years 

 worked out a scheme for the linking up of all the more important 

 centres of population in tlic colony by a system of railways (the 

 line to the Free State is planned in the notebooks of 18GG, before 

 the discovery of diamonds), ^^'lu'n, later, the line to the Diamond 

 Fields was laid across the barren Karroo, he pointed out how ecftnomi- 

 cally bad such a system was that for hundreds of miles was carried 

 (»%er a countrv from which no local trattc could be expected, while, 

 on the other hand, parts of the country' which could support a railway 

 along every mile of its length were left undeveloped. The traffic all 

 these years has been sufficient to pay for the i-eckless disi-egard for 

 the future, aiul we are only now i-ealising that there was some mis- 

 take in the original plan of construction. From Dr. Atheistones 

 notel)ooks we can trace that the error was recognised at the time, 

 but as Dr. Atherstone p(»intedly exclaims, "JMolteno lives in tlie 

 Karroo." In coiuiection with this scheme was the develoiiment of 

 the Kowie as a harbour — a perfectly feasil)le scheuu' : but here again 

 Dr. Atherstone was forced to realise that inti'insic meiits were of no 

 value when set against opposing vested interests, and \\hen eventually 

 the harbour works were coinmencerl by Prince Alfred, who di-ove the 

 first pile in i860, the scheme was already doomed to failure. 'I'hat 

 it was not an idle scheme, the report of last year's pi-esident of this 

 section will abundantly show. The innnediate success of the scheme 

 depended, in Dr. Atherst(>ne"s estimatiop, not so much in its acting 

 as the outlet for the back country, as on the development »>f the 

 surrounding disti-icts, anrl to this end he tried to estal)lish cotton 



