The Empty Land 



A short while ago among a small party I 

 stood on a high hill overlooking that wonderful 

 city of industrial enterprise Johannesburg. 

 We were met to see a tract of land which was 

 about to be laid out in Freehold Allotments for 

 a thousand white workers of the City Deep Mine. 

 And as we viewed the picturesque and healthful 

 site, Earl Grey turned to the patriotic capitalist, 1 

 who first in the Transvaal was planning here 

 a Garden City, and remarked : "I envy you 

 this magnificent work of development." Lord 

 Grey's words seemed to carry the promise 

 of a new era, and the hope of a commonweal 

 of industry, trade, and agriculture. For what in 

 life can be a grander work than to create free 

 homes for men and women, and to hear the 

 laughter of their happy children, on the garden 

 lot, the small holding, or the thousand-acre 

 farm amid the everlasting sunshine of what is 

 yet an empty land. 



1 Mr R. W. Schumacher. 



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