CAPE COLONY AND SOUTH AFRICA. 



27,282,405. On June 30. 1899, the loans out- 

 standing amounted to 32,474.000, against which 

 there was a sinking fund of 4,200,000. 



Military Forces. The British naval station 

 of Simon's Bay is well fortified, and here a con- 

 tingent of the* imperial army is stationed. The 

 British expenditure in 1897 was 275,474. The 

 colonial military force, called the Cape Mounted 

 Rifles, numbers' 1,015 officers and men. The vol- 

 unteers numbered 7,007 in 1897; the Cape police, 

 08 officers and 1,843 men. 



Commerce and Production. The colony in 

 1898 produced 1,950,831 bushels of wheat, 1,447,- 

 353 of oats, 907,920 of barley, 2,060,742 of mealies, 

 1.140,015 of Kaffir corn, 3,934,277 pounds of to- 

 bacco, 4,8(51,050 gallons of wine, 1,387,392 gal- 

 lons of brandy, and 2,577,909 pounds of raisins. 

 There were 1,201,522 cattle, 382,610 horses, 85,060 

 mules and asses, 12,616,883 sheep, 5,316,767 goats, 

 and 267,693 ostriches in 1898. The production 

 of wool was 39,141,445 pounds; of mohair, 8,115,- 

 370 pounds: of ostrich feathers, 294,733 pounds; 

 of butter, 2,623,329 pounds; of cheese, 36,729 

 pounds. 



The total value of the imports in 1897 was 

 17,997,789, and of the exports 21,660,210. 

 The imports of merchandise were 16,490,739 in 

 value: exports of colonial produce, 19,176,061. 

 Of the merchandise imported, the value of 13,- 

 429,000 was subject to duty, and the duties col- 

 lected were 2,189,580, representing an average 

 rate of about 16 per cent. The imports include 

 goods destined for the Boer republics and the 

 Bechuanaland and Basutoland protectorates, and 

 a large part of the exports are their products. 

 1'he protectorates and the Orange Free State are 

 united to Cape Colony in a customs union, which 

 Natal also joined in September, 1898. The prin- 

 cipal imports were textiles and apparel of the 

 value of 4,598,682, and food and drink of the 

 value of 3,817,828. The value of gold, the 

 product of South African mines, exported during 

 the financial year 1897 was 10,991,926; of dia- 

 monds, 4,454,376; of wool, 1,496,779; of An- 

 gora hair, 676,644; of ostrich feathers, 605,- 

 058; of hides and skins, 514,167; of copper ore, 

 300,772; of wine, 17,715; of grain and meal, 

 13,027. The total exports of diamonds for the 

 thirty years that the Kimberley mines have been 

 open have amounted to 83,311,000. For 1898 

 the imports were valued at 24,500,000, having 

 risen from 5,700,000 in ten years, and the ex- 

 ports at 26,700,000, compared with 8,876,000 

 in 1888. 



Navigation.^The number of vessels entered 

 from abroad during 1897 at the ports of Cape 

 Colony was 1,093, of 2,694,370 tons, and the num- 

 ber cleared was 1,089, of 2,709,795 tons. The 

 British vessels numbered 743, of 2,350,064 tons, 

 of those entered, and 761, of 2,390,798 tons, of 

 those cleared. The vessels entered coastwise 

 numbered 1,278, of 3,725,831 tons; cleared, 1,278, 

 of 3,723,409 tons. 



Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. The 

 Government railroads in 1898 had a total length 

 of 1,901 miles, besides which there were 359 miles 

 privately owned. The railroad running north 

 from Kimberley to Maf eking and Buluwayo was 

 built by a private company connected with the 

 British South Africa Company, which built the 

 section of 96 miles from Vryburg to Mafeking 

 now operated by the Cape Government at the 

 company's expense. The total capital invested 

 in the Cape Government railroads is 19,323,155, 

 a cost per mile of 10,165. There were 9,223,676 

 passengers and 1,340,414 tons of frieght carried 

 in 1897. The gross earnings were 3,070,897; 



expenses, 1,898,316. The net earnings for 1898 

 were nearly 4.7 per cent. 



The .post office in 1897 forwarded 19,484,524 let- 

 ters, 9,168,960 newspapers, 633,796 post cards, 

 633,796 books and samples, and 513,720 parcels. 



The telegraph lines have a, total length of 

 6,609 miles. The number of messages in 1897 

 was 2,392,503. The receipts were 148,558; ex- 

 penses, 132,586. 



The New Assembly. In the elections for the 

 Assembly under the redistribution act passed by 

 the last Legislature the Progressist party es- 

 poused the imperial policy advocated by Cecil 

 Rhodes and the South African League, and came 

 thus to a direct issue with the Afrikander Bond. 

 The main contest was over by the end of Sep- 

 tember, 1898, when the members opposed to Mr. 

 Rhodes numbered 40, his adherents 35, and inde- 

 pendent members 4. After carrying a vote of 

 want of confidence by a majority of 2 on Oct. 12, 

 1898, Mr. Schreiner formed a government, dis- 

 placing Sir J. Gordon Sprigg. His followers were 

 afterward increased and the strength of the 

 Rhodes party diminished by the transfer of 3 

 seats on election petitions. The 16 new seats 

 created by the redistribution act were filled by a 

 succession of elections which took place in the 

 early months of 1899 and were hotly contested. 

 In Vryburg the volunteers who had taken part 

 in the campaign against the Bechuanas in 1897 

 insisted on registering and voting, in the hope 

 of securing the seats for the Progressives. The 

 final results gave Mr. Schreiner a majority of 

 from 8 to 13 votes in an Assembly of 95 mem- 

 bers. The Government presented to the Parlia- 

 ment, which assembled on July 14, measures to 

 restrict the immigration of undesirable aliens, 

 to secure the purity of elections and the proper 

 registration of voters, to prohibit the engagement 

 of native labor for places beyond the colony by 

 other than authorized Government agents, to 

 improve education, to authorize railroads for the 

 opening of new districts, and to relieve distressed 

 agriculturists by the reduction of quit rents or 

 the price of land. An extradition treaty with 

 the South African Republic was concluded after 

 long negotiations. The revenue of the colony 

 was insufficient to meet the outlay, owing to the 

 reduction of taxation and the customs union, 

 and to restore the equilibrium an income tax 

 was proposed, estimated to yield, with other 

 new taxes, 250,000, about half the decrease 

 caused by the customs union and remissions. 

 Under the customs union the average duty on 

 imports had been reduced from 20 to 15 per cent. 

 The Cape Government agreed to collect at cus- 

 toms-union rates the duties on articles destined 

 for Rhodesia, and for articles grown or manu- 

 factured within the customs union free trade with 

 Rhodesia was secured. Although the Afrikanders 

 had won the elections over the Progressives, the 

 more advanced section among them predomi- 

 nated over the extreme Dutch Conservatives who 

 composed the Afrikander Bond, and therefore 

 Mr. Schreiner was called to the -premiership 

 rather than Mr. Hofmeyer. The policy of the 

 Ministerial party w r as to govern South Africa 

 in the interest of the South Africans, not for 

 objects of imperial expansion nor to suit the 

 views of European capitalists. How far the idea 

 of severing the imperial connection was from the 

 thoughts of the Afrikander statesmen was shown 

 in the vote of the Parliament to give the prom- 

 ised contribution to the naval defense of the 

 empire, not in the form of an ironclad, as was 

 first proposed, but in an annual grant of 30,000. 

 More important yet was the surrender by the 



