362 THE LAND OF THE LION 
considerable number, a new order from the local govern- 
ment is issued. Under it an immigrant may take out a 
5-dollar licence good for three months, which will per- 
mit him to kill game while he is travelling over the country 
looking for the location on which he wishes to settle. 
It must be admitted that such an arrangement, if it is 
naturally nettling to the older British settlers, is at least 
generous to the Boer. How does the Dutchman take it? 
I have heard married men among the Boers, not young, 
irresponsible hot heads, standing among their friends and 
with their wives and children by them, openly defy the 
game wardens and police and boast when these officers 
question them politely, that they had taken out one such 
licence, and that its date would expire in a few days; that they 
would not be bothered to take out another, and that they 
would go when they pleased, and shoot all the game they 
chose, and no one should stop them! These men were 
convinced that everyone was afraid of them, and that the 
privileges granted them by the Government were only 
granted because those in authority did not dare to do other- 
wise. Such men are an undesirable element in the 
country. 
I have dwelt at length on this case, because their presence 
complicates seriously the native question. No one know- 
ing the history of Boer immigration can welcome such 
settlers as likely to aid in establishing and maintaining 
honourable relations with the natives. Here another and 
grave difficulty awaits the Government. To put it as 
mildly as possible, the Dutch treatment of the aborigine, 
if in his own view it 1s just, could not be called sympathetic. 
Some of the native tribes cannot at present live without 
the game. Their clothing and much of their food depends 
on their hunting. The Boer utterly wipes all game out, and 
having done so in one country goes elsewhere to do the 
same thing over again. He despises the native, scorns 
