HARRY BOLUS, D.SC, F.I.-S. 7I 



end of that year found him at <^Jraafif-Reinet, which Ijecame 

 his home for nearly twenty years. 



His first position at Graafif-Reinet was that of Secretary 

 to the Graaff-Reinet Board of Executors. His connection 

 with this Society was of short duration; he then became 

 .Secretary of the Midland Fire Insurance and Trust Com- 

 pany, in whose foundation he took a prominent part. He 

 became interested in the Graaff-Reinet Herald, a weekly news- 

 paper, whose columns during this period contain many contribu- 

 tions from his pen. In 1857 he married the sister of his former 

 chief, Mr \\'illiam Kensit. Four years later the foundation 

 of the GraafiF-Reinet College brought him into touch with Pro- 

 fessor F. Guthrie, one of the first-appointed members of the 

 staff of that institution. This acquaintance developed into 

 friendship, which exercised a powerful influence upon the lives 

 of both. It sustained some interruption on the departure of 

 Bolus for Cape Town in 1874, but was resumed on its old foot- 

 ing four years later, when Guthrie became Professor of Mathe- 

 matics in the South African College. They were both prominent 

 in the intellectual as well as in the business affairs of Graaff- 

 Reinet. In August. 1862. Bolus delivered an admirable address 

 on " The Uses of Recreation "* at a soiree of the local Athenseum. 

 In .\ugust, 1874. Bolus and Guthrie were entertained at a public 

 banquet in recognition of the valuable aid they had jointly ren- 

 dered the community in connection with the passing of the 

 Graaff-Reinet Railway Billi. 



In 1862 Guthrie delivered a short course of public lectures 

 on Botany. An article in the Herald X, which there can be little 

 doubt was written by Bolus, gives the following account of them : 



" They were strictly scientific- while at the same time so much useftil 

 information was conveyed as to gratify the m.ore youthful part of the 

 audience and those to whom the nomenclature alone might have proved 

 too dry a study at se\-en in the morning." - • . [Prof. Guthrie has] 

 " a remarkable clearness and precision in his language- ... It is the 

 "best evidence of Prof- Guthrie's success in this effort when we state 

 that some persons who at first attended the course with but little in- 

 terest in the subject soon found their attention awakened and, as the 

 lecturer proceeded,- confessed themselves irresistibly compelled to pursue 

 the study." 



It is understood that Bolus was regular and persistent in his 

 attendance at this course, and we may conclude that he himself 



* Printed in full in the Graaff-Reinet Heraldr August i6th, 1862- 

 t A testimonial presented by the inhabitants of Graaff-Reinet to 

 Bolus and Giuthrie on this occasion includes the following: — 



"We feel that it is mainly owing to your txenions that so 

 much valuable information was gathered, and that statistics were so 

 carefully compiled as to show clearly that Graaff-Reinet at least had 

 an urgent claim upon the Government for a direct railway to its 

 natural seaport, and so distinctly was this proved that, although 

 deviations from some of the lines proposed b>- the Go\'emment were 

 suggested, the line from Port Elizabeth to Graaff-Reinet was carried 

 without the least discussion-'' 

 ; December 20th, 1862- 



