CAPE COLONY AND SOUTH AFRICA. 



93 



enue for 1888-'89 was 3,837,221, exclusive of 

 loans. The estimates for 1889-'90 make the rev- 

 enue 3,889,400, and the expenditure $3,884,021. 



The debt on Jan. 1, 1889. amounted to 20,- 

 971,291, not including 1,323,833 of guaranteed 

 loans. New obligations incurred for the comple- 

 tion of the railroad network increased the debt 

 to nearly 26,000,000 in July, 1890. The Colo- 

 nial Treasurer's estimate of revenue for the en- 

 suing year was 4,260,000. 



Change of Government. The speech with 

 which the Cape Parliament was opened by Sir 

 H. Loch on May 29 indicated the policy of the 

 Government as one of railroad extension, provid- 

 ing for internal development as well as external 

 trade interests. The main features of Sir Gordon 

 Sprigg's railroad scheme were transverse connec- 

 tions between the isolated north and south rail- 

 road systems. The western line, from Cape Town 

 to Kimberley, is joined at Aar Junction by the 

 midland, running from Port Elizabeth, but has 

 no connection with the eastern railroad, which 

 runs from East London to Aliwal north. In or- 

 der to satisfy the local claims of all districts the 

 Premier makes two transverse lines, one from 

 Burghersdorp on the eastern to Norvals Point 

 on the western system, and another 500 miles 

 long, running east and west through the whole 

 extent of the Colony from King William's Town 

 to Cape Town and touching the sea at Mossel 

 Hay. The scheme included also a coal line from 

 Indeve to the neighborhood of Molteno, while 

 the extension of the Kimberley line that the 

 Government was building to Vryburg was trans- 

 ferred to the Chartered Company, which intends 

 to carry it into Mashonaland. The Premier did 

 not pretend that the long line through the coast 

 districts would prove self-supporting for many 

 years to come. As his huge project would add 50 

 per cent, to the public debt, depreciate the 3|- 

 per-cent. stock, and augment the annual tax- 

 ation by half a million sterling, the Dutch party, 

 led by Mr. Hoffmeyr, which has been the main 

 strength of the ministerial majority, joined Mr. 

 Sauer's little English party in defeating Sir Gor- 

 don Sprigg's railroad bill. The Premier resigned, 

 and since Mr. Sauer could not form a Cabinet 

 and Mr. Hoffmeyr would not take office without 

 a hope of carrying out some of the ideas of the 

 Afrikander party, Cecil Rhodes formed a com- 

 posite ministry on July 17, composed of the fol- 

 lowing members : Premier and Commissioner of 

 Crown Lands, Cecil J. Rhodes; Attorney-General, 

 J. Rose Lines; Treasurer-General, J. X. Merri- 

 man ; Colonial Secretary, J. W. Sauer ; Secretary 

 for Native Affairs, P. H. Paure ; minister without 

 portfolio, J. Sivewright. Mr. Sivewright, one of 

 the leaders of the Dutch party, had offered a 

 substitute railroad bill, leaving out the immense 

 duplicate connecting road with its branches. 

 The new Premier announced that no legislation 

 would be submitted outside the programme of his 

 predecessor, which included measures in regard 

 to leprosy, education, a school of mines, a minis- 

 try of agriculture, and a new census in 1891. 

 The intention of the new ministry was to have a 

 purely South African policy, and in regard to ex- 

 penditure to proceed with caution. Mr. Rhodes 

 is a young man who, by effecting the consolida- 

 tion of the diamond mines of Kimberley into a 

 trust company with the object of keeping up 



prices by limiting production, gained great 

 wealth and a world-wide reputation as a finan- 

 cier. He afterward obtained control of some of 

 the most important gold mines that were opened 

 in the Transvaal, and then conceived the am- 

 bitious plan of a commercial monopoly of the 

 mineral wealth and other resources of all the un- 

 occupied territory north of the South African 

 Republic, and founded the Chartered Company 

 for this object. The Parliament approved the 

 alternative railroad bill providing for a single 

 junction between the two systems and a road to 

 the coal fields, and also voted to construct a line 

 from Colesberg to Bloemfontein, in the Free 

 State, and thence to. the Vaal river. The session 

 closed on Aug. 20. 



Natal. The Governor of Natal, who is also 

 Governor of Zululand, is Sir Charles B. II. 

 Mitchell, appointed in 1889. The area of the 

 colony, which has a coast line of 200 miles, is es- 



timated at 21,150 square miles. The populati 

 ~ >,933 Europeai 



;ion 



in 1888 was 481,361, comprising 35,933 Europeans, 

 an increase of over 50 per cent, since 1879 ; 35,270 

 East Indians, an increase of about 85 per cent. ; 

 and 410,158 Caffres, an increase of nearly 30 per 

 cent. The colonial revenue in 1888 was 990,- 

 614, and the expenditure 781.326. The chief 

 product for export is cane sugar, of which 15,554 

 tons were produced in 1887. The natives grow 

 large quantities of wheat, corn, oats, and vege- 

 tables, and have considerable herds of cattle and 

 Angora goats. The coal deposits in the northern 

 part of the colony are worked now to a small ex- 

 tent, a railroad having been carried into the coal 

 field in 1888. The imports in 1888 amounted to 

 2,890,468, and the exports to 1,417,871, of 

 which 941,562 represent the produce of the 

 colony. Four fifths of the imports come from 

 Great Britian. The number of vessels entered 

 in 1888 was 447, of 362,237 tons. On Jan. 1, 1889, 

 the number of miles of railroad already com- 

 pleted was 234. The lines are being extended to 

 the borders olthe Orange FreeState and theSouth 

 African Republic. The gross earnings in 1888 

 were 349,184 ; expenses, 247,991. The public 

 debt, which was contracted mainly to build rail- 

 roads, amounted in the beginning of 1889 to 4,- 

 535,126. The elections in the autumn of 1890 

 were unusually exciting on account of the ques- 

 tion of responsible government that carne before 

 the constituencies. 



Orange Free State. The smaller of the Boer 

 republics, which has Griqualand West on the 

 northwest, Natal and Basutoland on the south- 

 east, the Transvaal to the north, and Cape Colony 

 to the south of it, is about 41,500 square miles in 

 extent, with a white population of only 61,022, 

 according to the census of 1880. They are de- 

 scendants of the old Dutch, Flemish, and French 

 Huguenot settlers of the Cape of Good Hope. 

 Immigration is increasing, the immigrants com- 

 ing from Germany and British lands. The legis- 

 lative power is vested in the freely elected Volks- 

 raad of 57 members, and the executive in a Presi- 

 dent chosen by the votes of the burghers for five 

 years. Judge Reitz, who was elected on the 

 death of Sir John Henry Brand, was sworn into 

 office on Jan. 11, 1889. The land, consisting of 

 undulating plains, is well adapted to grazing. 

 Only 2-6 per cent, of the white population is 

 illiterate. The chief commercial product is wool, 



