CAPE COLONY AND BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA. 



As the State has guaranteed interest on rail- 

 road bonds, the amount to be raised is $314,- 

 745. Deducting interest in Sinking Fund, 

 the net bonded indebtedness of the State is 

 $3,319,061.43 Of the bonded indebtedness of 

 $3,411,000, the State itself holds $2,665,000 

 for the benefit of the common schools and the 

 State University. The amount of bonds in pri- 

 vate hands, on June 30th, was only $746,000. 

 The rate of taxation, for the last year, was 73^ 

 cents on each $100 assessed value of property. 

 The number of acres of land subject to tax was 

 24,015,065, valued at $454,641,311; the value 

 of personal property taxed was $140,431,866 ; 

 total taxable property, $595,073,177 ; amount 

 of tax for State purposes, $4,372,019.22; amount 

 of county taxes, $7,377,948.30 ; total taxation, 

 $11,749,967.52. 



The amount of money expended for the sup- 

 port of schools, during the last school year, 

 was $2,749,129.46. The State University at 

 Berkeley is represented to be in a very flourish- 

 ing condition. The Agricultural College is in 

 successful operation, and the College of Me- 

 chanic Arts is to be built at once. 



On July 1st there were 1,195 patients in 

 the lunatic asylum at Stockton, 201 having 

 been admitted during the year preceding. The 

 average daily cost of supporting them was 41 

 cents each. The asylum at Napa, on the same 

 date, contained 395 inmates, and the average 

 daily cost of support was 60| cents each. The 

 latter institution was not wholly completed at 

 the end of the year. Its total cost will be 

 about $1,500,000, and it will accommodate 600 

 patients. The Institution for the Deaf, Dumb, 

 and Blind, at Oakland, which was destroyed by 

 fire, has been replaced, at a cost of $90,000, 

 the two buildings erected having accommoda- 

 tions for 250 pupils. Additions of workshops 

 and a new cell-building have been made to the 

 State prison at San Quentin, which has now a 

 capacity for about 1,000 inmates. 



The general election,heldonthe first Wednes- 

 day in September, was for the choice of lo- 

 cal officers and members of the Legislature 

 only. The question of having a convention 

 held for the revision of the constitution of the 

 State was submitted to a vote, arid decided in 

 the affirmative. The Legislature is required to 

 provide for the election of delegates and the 

 holding of the convention, which must meet 

 within six months after the act is passed. 



The 22d session of the Legislature of the 

 State began on December 3d. On the 19th, 

 James T. Farley was elected to the United 

 States Senate for the term of six years, begin- 

 ning March 4, 1879, receiving 28 votes In the 

 Senate and 54 in the House, against 12 in the 

 Senate and 24 in the House for M. M. Estee, 

 the candidate agreed upon by the Republican 

 members, 



CAPE COLONY AND BRITISH SOUTH 

 AFRICA. As stated in the ANNUAL CYCLO- 

 PEDIA for 1875 and 1876, a strong movement 

 has been developed in favor of a close union 



between the different British colonies and the 

 independent states of South Africa. The area 

 and population of the British possessions of 

 South Africa was as follows in 1877: 



COLONIES. j Square Mila. Population. 



Total , 



532.309 1,774,921 



Whites 



Caffres 214^133 



Hottentots 93,561 



The census of 1875, in the Cape Colony, was 

 the first held since 1865. The Colonies, of July 

 8, 1876, gave the preliminary results as follows : 



Half-breeds 87,1S4 



Fingoes 73,506 



Malays 10,817 



Total 720,934 



Of the total number, 369,628 were males, and 

 351,356 females. 



The "Descriptive Hand-book of the Cape 

 Colony," by John Noble, gives the following 

 statement of the census of 1875. The total 

 does not agree with the figures given above, 

 nor is it a correct statement of the population 

 of the different provinces, but the difference 

 is not very great, and the table is interesting 

 as showing the division of the colony into 

 provinces adopted in 1874, and the approxi- 

 mate population of each : 



PROVINCES. Inhabitant*. 



1. Western provinces 86,899 



2. Northwestern provinces 74.888 



8. Southwestern provinces 81,446 



4. Central provinces 71,057 



5. Southeastern provinces 96,054 



6. Northeastern provinces 80.610 



7. Eastern provinces 231,559 



Total 721,580 



The total should be 722,508, instead of 721,580, 

 but the result will probably be still more erro- 

 neous when the results of the census become 

 known. In this table British Caffraria is in- 

 cluded in the eastern provinces. 



In the Cape Colony, the executive authority 

 is vested in a Governor and a responsible min- 

 istry. The Legislature consists of a Council of 

 21 and an Assembly of 68 elected represen- 

 tatives. The Governor in 1877 was Sir Henry 

 Bartle Edward Frere. He was assisted by the 

 following ministry: Colonial Secretary and 

 Premier, John Charles Malteno; Treasurer, 

 Henry White ; Attorney-General, Simeon Ja- 

 cobs ; Commissioner of Crown Lands and Pub- 

 lic Works, C. A. Smith; and Secretary for 

 Native Affairs, C. Brownlee. Natal is gov- 

 erned by a lieutenant-governor, Sir Henry 

 Ernest Bulwer, and the government of the 

 Transvaal was provisionally administered in 

 1877 by Sir Theophilus Shepstone. 



The Cape Colony has done very much for 

 education during the past decade. The entire 



