ftfkukuni War, and Fall of President Burger* 145 



Bank and other monopolies authorised by the Volks- 

 raad. Mr. Burgers brought from Holland Mr. Von 

 Gorkum as Minister of Education and Dr. Jorissen 

 (who had been a parson on an island in the Zuyder 

 Zee), as head of the schools. Some Hollanders wrote 

 that they were not orthodox, and an agitation was 

 started, led by Daniel Taljaard, to prevent their 

 appointment to the Raad. Mr. Burgers appealed 

 to me, and I pointed out that as the Raad had 

 authorised their engagement they must be given a 

 chance, and could not be dismissed on inadequate 

 evidence of unsuitability. They were retained, and 

 Jorissen became a prominent politician during the 

 annexation period. Mortals cannot foresee events ! 



At this time, besides my own private work, I 

 had mueh to do. I was president of a land commis- 

 sion, which necessitated visiting various parts of the 

 country, to settle land disputes, which took up much 

 time. I was on several committees on the Raad, 

 finance committee, Director of Railways, a special 

 commission to enquire into official salaries and 

 working of offices, etc., besides the daily attendance 

 in the Raad as Member for Pretoria District. 



On May 10th, 1876, General Piet Joubert, 

 Jacobus Esterhuizen and myself were appointed by 

 the Volksraad to draft native laws, and more espec- 

 ially a "Plakkets Wet" that is a Squatter's Law. At 

 the time I pointed out that it would be difficult to 

 enforce this law for various reasons, but I was in a 

 minority, and the law was passed ; it has since 

 proved to be in -operative. It has never been 

 honestly enforced ; some people were harassed and 

 threatened ; while Field-Cornets and other officials, 

 instead of the five families allowed by the law, kept 

 as many as they liked, drew rents from some, and 

 obtained their labour from others. Many Boers 



