336 THE LAND OF THE LION 



kept three years waiting for settlement, three years after 

 they have entered their claim. 



Then the terms on which land may be had have not only 

 been altered more than once, but are subject to constant and 

 irritating alteration. First, land is sold outright to bona fide 

 settlers, then it is leased for ninety-nine years at a halfpenny 

 an acre, then for thirty-three or twenty-three years at a penny. 

 The list of changes is a long one and more and more to follow. 

 It is confessedly difficult to attract real settlers to a land so full 

 of problems and dangers, and at so great a distance from 

 English homes and English markets, and it really would 

 seem as though the purpose of those who make laws was to 

 place hindrances in the path of actual settlement rather than 

 to remove them. 



As to the education of those in the country or coming to 

 it, practically nothing whatever has been done. There are 

 as yet very few true white settlers. As I have said in an- 

 other place Englishmen who intend making their real home 

 here are almost non-existent. Some are working with pluck 

 and perseverance, some are beginning to make a little money, 

 but just so soon as they have put their farms in order, found 

 a crop that will pay them well, secured native labour to work it, 

 and made reasonably sure of a market, they will pay some 

 head man to carry on their work and, taking their savings 

 with them, they will go home. I don't think it fair to call 

 such men settlers, nor do I think it likely that such class of 

 men, even when enterprising and industrious as they often 

 are, will be able in the future to hold their own against the 

 Boer, who, if less intelligent and less industrious, sits down on 

 the land and raises a family. The Boer will need, and in the 

 interest of the country itself should have, help given to him to 

 educate his family. Many of them have spoken to me on 

 the subject. There are in the Protectorate Boers and Boers. 

 There are already some intelligent, progressive men who 

 fully appreciate, as they believe them, the great possibilities 



