^2 Men, Mines, and Animals in South Africa. 



development in view of the vast plant which has 

 been erected. A healthier tone and spirit now 

 prevail, the work of reorganization, of reducing 

 capital and working expenses, proceeds apace. 

 Unskilful managers and incompetent directors are 

 being got rid of, either by the efforts of share- 

 holders or of far-sighted men, and viewing the 

 extent and nature of the reefs it is safe to predict 

 that the Randt is on the high road to become 

 the o-reatest sold-field of the world. It should 

 be remembered that in addition to all the diffi- 

 culties and obstacles which I have described 

 above, and which the gold-fields have had to 

 encounter and overcome, must be reckoned the 

 most stupid, selfish, and incompetent Government 

 which ever afflicted a community or a country. 

 The Transvaal possesses everything which man 

 can desire for comfort, luxury, and general j^ros- 

 perity. An unequalled climate, a soil of exuberant 

 fertility, mines of gold, silver, coal, and iron, all 

 of great richness : the Boers in their stubborn and 

 mulish ignorance have resolved that, so far as in 

 them lies, none of this great wealth shall be taken 

 advantage of and developed. In a country Avliere 

 millions of acres might produce millions of quarters 

 of grain, only comparatively a few hundreds of 

 thousands of acres produce Indian corn. In a 

 country where the storage of ^vater and irrigation 

 works offer little difficulty either to the engineer 

 or to the exchequer, no systematic storage of 

 water is attempted. Yet the presence of water 

 everywhere within a few feet of the surface of the 



