CAPE COLONY AND SOUTH AFRICA. 



101 



100,000. The imports of wheat exceed the 

 exports. The bulk of the foreign commerce is 

 with Great Britain. On the high plains of the 

 interior agriculture is only possible by means of 

 irrigation from running streams or artesian wells. 

 On the terraces of the southern coast the rain- 

 fall is ample, and there wheat, maize, oats, and 

 all kinds of vegetables and fruits are grown to 

 supply the towns, mines, and shipping. The 

 breeds of merino sheep and Angora goats are 

 kept up to a high standard by the importation 

 yf the best foreign blood. The sudden growth 

 of the gold-mining industry has created a new 

 market for farm produce with which the agri- 

 culturists have not been able to keep up. In 

 the gold regions agriculture is mainly carried on 

 by natives in a primitive 'fashion. The exports 

 of ivory and, of the skins of wild animals, once 

 considerable, have ceased, as the large game has 

 been exterminated. The imports of mining ma- 

 chinery and railroad material for the develop- 

 ment of the gold regions and of stores for the 

 miners have been large. The total value of the 

 merchandise imports of Cape Colony for 1892 

 was 8,691,017: exports of colonial products, 

 11,774,556. The imports of Natal by sea were 

 3,165,249, and the exports 1,480,606. The 

 wine output of the Cape, owing to the ravages 

 of the phylloxera and other causes, has declined 

 in four years from 6,000,000 to 4,000,000 gallons. 

 The Cape wines do not suit European taste, and 

 all attempts to build up an export trade have 

 failed. The product of brandy is nearly 1.500,- 

 000 gallons, one third going to the diamond fields, 

 Bechuanaland, and the republics. 



Railroads and Telegraphs. The Govern- 

 ment railroads of Cape Colony in the beginning 

 of 1893 had a total length of 2.252 miles, con- 

 structed at a cost of 19.321,755. The western 

 trunk line runs from Cape Town to Kimberley, 

 whence it has been extended by the South Africa 

 Company, with the aid of imperial subsidies, 

 through Bechuanaland to Vryburg, and ulti- 

 mately is to be carried into Matabeleland and 

 Mashonaland by way of Mafeking. The eastern 

 system, starting from East London, and the mid- 

 land, starting from Port Elizabeth, unite, and 

 have been extended by the Boer Government 334 

 miles through the Orange Free State to the Vaal 

 river, and thence northward 78 miles to Pretoria 

 by the Transvaal Government. From Natal a 

 line, starting from Durban, enters the Orange 

 Free State at Charlestown, which is to be ex- 

 tended to Pretoria, Johannesburg, and Kriigers- 

 dorp, in the Transvaal. The Natal Government 

 lines have a total length of 399 miles, built at 

 the expenditure of 5,820.419. A railroad has 

 been built by a company from the Portuguese 

 port of Lourengo Marques, on Delagoa Bay, to 

 Pretoria, 333 miles. The railroad convention 

 for the extension of the Natal line into the 

 Transvaal, signed Feb. 12, 1894, establishes prac- 

 tically a railroad and customs union between 

 Natal and the South African Republic. The 

 Natal Government binds itself not to charge 

 higher duties than those now in force nor lower 

 ones than the Portuguese duties at Delagoa Bay, 

 and so to fix the freight tariff by arrangement 

 with the Transvaal Government that they shall 

 not compete with the rates from Delagoa Bay. 

 A similar customs and railway union exists be- 



tween the Cape of Good Hope and the Orange 

 Free State. From the Portuguese port of Beira 

 a railroad is being built by the promoters of the 

 British South Africa Company into Mashona- 

 land. 



The telegraphs of Cape Colony have a total 

 length of 5,482 miles. Natal has 652 miles of 

 lines. In the Orange Free State there are 1,500, 

 and in the South African Republic 1,681 miles. 

 The Cape system has been extended by the Brit- 

 ish South Africa Company to Mafeking, and in 

 1894 a distance of 800 miles to Salisbury, and 

 from that point 400 miles across the Zambesi to 

 Blantyre and Zomba, in Nyassaland. The Af- 

 rican Transcontinental Telegraph Company was 

 formed in London in the latter part of 1893 

 with a capital of 2,000.000, for the purpose of 

 continuing the telegraph from Salisbury, Ma- 

 shonaland, to Zomba, and thence through the 

 lake regions and the Egyptian Soudan to con- 

 nect with the European system at Cairo, Egypt. 



Cape Colony. The Governor, who is at the 

 same time High Commissioner for South Africa, 

 is Sir Henry Brougham Loch, appointed in 1889. 

 The legislative power resides in a Legislative 

 Council of 22 members, elected for seven years 

 and presided over by the Chief Justice, and a 

 House of Assembly of 76 members, elected for 

 five years. In 1892 the property qualification of 

 electors, which was formerly occupation of house 

 property worth 25 or receipt of 50 in annual 

 wages, was raised to the occupation of house 

 property worth 75, and the ability to write 

 one's name and address was made an additional 

 requirement. 



The Cape ministry in the beginning of 1894 

 was composed as follows : Prime Minister, Cecil 

 Rhodes ; Colonial Secretary, P. H. Faure ; Treas- 

 urer, Sir J. Gordon Sprigg: Attorney-General, 

 H. H. Juta; Commissioner of Public Works, 

 John Laing; Secretary of Agriculture, John 

 Frost. In August Mr. Schreiner succeeded Mr. 

 Juta. 



Area and Population. The area of Cape 

 Colony proper is 191.416 square miles; the popu- 

 lation* in 1891 consisted of 336,938 Europeans 

 and 619,547 natives and colored, more than half 

 being of Bantu stock, and the others mixed 

 breeds. Griqualand West, which is now incor- 

 porated in the Colony, had 29,670 European and 

 53,705 native and colored inhabitants, in a terri- 

 tory of 15,197 square miles. The native terri- 

 tories of East Griqualand, Tembuland, Transkei, 

 and Walfish Bay have a combined area of 14,698 

 square miles, and had in 1891 a population of 

 10,379 whites and 476,985 natives. The net im- 

 migration of adults in 1892 was 4.788. 



Finances. The revenue for the year ending 

 June 30, 1892, was 5,570,867, including 1,075,- 

 523 from loans. The receipts from the services 

 were 2,342,709; from taxation, 1,748,924; from 

 the colonial estate, 346.915 ; fines, stores issued, 

 etc., 56,796. The total expenditure was 6,- 

 371.220. of which the service of the debt took 

 1.221,464; railways, 1.21 9,655; defense, 150.- 

 681; police and jails, 239,354; civil establish- 

 ment, 131,975 ; expenditure under act of Par- 

 liament. 2,387,471. 



The debt of the colony on Jan. 1, 1893, 

 amounted to 26,006,197. Of this, over 17.- 

 000,000 were spent on railroads, and 1,717,162 



