124 



CAPE COLONY. 



were brought into the colony at Government 

 expense. The white population at the end of 

 1887 was 35,866. There were 32,312 Indian 

 coolies. One quarter of these are indentured 

 to the planters for a term of five years. The 

 free Indians compete with white mechanics 

 and clerks, and the further importation of in- 

 dentured laborers, who, after the expiration of 

 their term of servitude enter the field of white 

 labor, meets with strong popular opposition. 

 The native population was 408,922, but of this 

 number more than 225,000 live on reservations, 

 and the colonists are anxious to remove them 

 to Zululand. 



The total trade by sea in 1887 amounted to 

 3,333,000, against 2,333,000 in 1886. The 

 chief exports are wool, sugar, hides, corn, and 

 recently gold, of which 120,021 were exported 

 in eleven months of 1887. A large part of the 

 commerce consists of transit trade with the 

 interior. 



Railroads to the Orange Free State and the 

 Transvaal borders were authorized by the 

 Legislative Council in March, 1888, and a loan 

 of 1,500,000 has been raised for the purpose. 

 The development of the railroads to within a 

 short distance of the frontier has assisted the 

 improvement of the trade of Natal, which has 

 greatly increased since the gold discoveries in 

 the Transvaal. The railroad mileage at the 

 close of 1887 was 217, against 195 in 1886. 



Sonth African Customs and Railway Union. A 

 conference of the South African states and 

 colonies to consider the question of railway 

 extension into the republics and an agreement 

 with regard to customs and the collection of 

 duties, which it would necessitate, was called 

 at the initiative of the English, who had neg- 

 lected the matter of railroad communication 

 with the Orange Free State and the Transvaal 

 until the construction of the Delagoa Bay Raili 

 road threatened to divert the trade of those 

 states and of the central parts of South Africa. 

 Delegates from Cape Colony, Natal, and the 

 Orange Free State met at the conference, which 

 concluded its sessions on Feb. 18, 1888. The 

 South African Republic, which had carried 

 through the Delagoa Bay project in spite of 

 British discouragement, was not represented. 

 The conference agreed on the principle of a 

 uniform scheme of tariffs for the four members 

 of the proposed Zollverein. The duties would 

 be collected at the seaboard by Cape and Natal 

 officials, and the colonial governments would 

 retain one quarter to cover the cost of collec- 

 tion, harbor works, and postal and cable sub- 

 sidies, paying three quarters into the treasury 

 of the Orange Free State or the Transvaal Re- 

 public according to the destination of the goods. 

 To carry out this arrangement, it would be 

 necessary for the Transvaal to enter into a 

 similar agreement with Portugal by which the 

 same rates of duty should be levied on imports 

 brought over the Delagoa Bay Railroad, or, in 

 case the South African Republic declined to 

 enter the union or to impose a duty on goods 



entering by way of Delagoa Bay, the Orange 

 Free State must impose duties at its Vaal 

 frontier which shall be equal to the appointed 

 tariff less the Portuguese transit duties. Im- 

 ports destined for the crown colonies of Basuto- 

 land and British Bechuanaland would be sub- 

 jected to the same maritime duties, and their 

 governments would, like the republics, receive 

 three fourths of the sums collected. A uniform 

 tariff of 12 per cent, was proposed, of which 3 

 per cent, would be retained as the transit 

 charge. Sir Gordon Sprigg, the Cape minister, 

 who presided, suggested that if the republics 

 both declined to enter into the arrangement, 

 the British Government might agree with the 

 Portuguese Government on a uniform tariff, 

 the British and Portuguese colonial authorities 

 retaining part as transit charges, and paying 

 the difference to the Dutch republics or to in- 

 land merchants in the form of a rebate. The 

 conference agreed on specific duties on guns, 

 spirits, tea, coffee, and tobacco ; on a free list 

 comprising fence-wire, machinery, railroad 

 materials, printers' material, and pig iron : on 

 a 10-per-cent. rate for agricultural implements, 

 vehicles, and iron manufactures ; and on a gen- 

 eral tariff of 12 per cent, on all other articles. 

 Between the colonies and states composing the 

 union free trade shall exist, except in spirits 

 and sugar. 



Cape Colony agreed to extend its railroad 

 lines to the Orange river near Colesberg, there 

 to join lines that the Orange Free State prom- 

 ised to build northeastward through Blomfon- 

 tein to Harrisinith, and thence through the 

 coal and gold fields to the Vaal river. At 

 Harrismith an extension of the Natal system 

 will join the line. 



In Natal, where the existing tariff is 7 per 

 cent., as against 15 per cent, in Cape Colon} 7 , 

 there was much opposition to the customs 

 union. President Kriiger, of the South African 

 Republic, expressed himself as desirous for 

 free trade with the Free State and the colonies, 

 but his Government was precluded from enter- 

 ing the customs union by a customs treaty with 

 Belgium and an agreement with the Nether- 

 lands South African Railway Company per- 

 mitting goods to be imported by way of the 

 Delagoa Bay Railroad free of duty. The rail- 

 road proposals were carried in the Free State 

 Volksraad after a long discussion, by the cast- 

 ing vote of the President, and in the last days 

 of May a large majority agreed to the customs 

 union with the English colonies. During the 

 session a resolution was passed also in favor of 

 federal union with the Transvaal. The Cape 

 Legislative Council in August rejected the 

 proposition of a customs union, after it had been 

 approved by the Assembly. The Transvaal 

 Government agreed to admit imports from the 

 colonies at the same rates as on the Portuguese 

 frontier, and to cancel the concession to the 

 Dutch and German railroad company, remit- 

 ting duties on freight, on obtaining a pledge 

 from the British Government that it would not 



