236 [September, 1902.] 
IMPERIAL INSTITUTE JOURNAL. 
Vol. VIII. No. 93- 
of the most varied experience and resources. Seeing the number of men 
now actually in the country — over-sea Colonists, South African Colonists, 
Yeomen from home — who either have applied or are only waiting for 
some definite announcement, and having regard to the immense corre- 
spondence with which I have been favoured from home and the colonies, 
showing that many others are ready to come, I make no doubt whatever that 
we could get 10,000 or more agricultural settlers within a twelvemonth if we 
were able to provide for them. Our great difficulty is not to get the men, 
but to get the land of suitable quality on which to plant them. 5 ’ After 
pleading for a Government power of expropriation in order to get the 
necessary land, Lord Milner continues: — “We are at best in a position to 
provide for three or four hundred settlers. To make any real impression we 
require at least as many thousands. I do not, indeed, think that if the 
movement for the introduction of British settlers were once effectively started, 
it would stop at three or four thousand, nor do I believe that it would be 
confined to the lands acquired by Government. If once a nucleus of British 
settlers is established in any districts, private individuals, whether severally or 
in associations, will gather round it, for the number of people who are 
waking up to the possibilities of South African farming, under a progressive 
Government, is already considerable. But I am confident that Government 
action on a large scale is necessary to start the movement. The time is fast 
approaching when it will be absolutely necessary to raise loans for both new 
Colonies to meet expenses arising immediately out of the war. I wish to 
place on record my profound conviction that, unless in raising these loans we 
provide a substantial sum for the purchase of land and the settlement thereon 
of farmers of British races, an opportunity will be lost which will never recur, 
and the neglect of which will have the most prejudicial effect on the future 
peace and prosperity of South Africa. I do not, indeed, ask that these first 
loans include a sum as large as may ultimately be required if land settlement 
is to assume the proportions w r hich I contemplate. But, if our first 
considerable undertakings in this line are proving themselves successful, I 
foresee no difficulty in obtaining more money later on, should we require it. 
What I do fear is a check now, when we ought to be in a position to seize 
every possible opportunity of getting hold of land suitable to our purpose, 
and of retaining in the country such men as we want to put on it. If we lose 
the next year or two, we lose the game, and without that power of acting 
promptly, which a ready command of money alone can give, we shall begin 
to throw away opportunities from this moment at which I am writing onwards. 
What I want to put plainly to His Majesty’s Government are these two 
questions : (i) Are we to be allowed to go on purchasing good land, by 
voluntary agreement wherever possible, but compulsorily if necessary ? And, 
assuming this question to be answered in the affirmative, (2) what amount 
shall we be able to dispose of for this purpose in the immediate future ? In order 
to facilitate a decision on the latter point, it would be best to put forward a 
definite proposal. And the proposal which I venture to make is, that we 
should ear-mark a sum of two millions in the case of the Transvaal, and one 
million in the case of the Orange River Colony, out of the first loans raised 
by either Colony, for the purpose of land purchase and settlement.” 
India. — Though the monsoon is deficient this season over a large part 
of India, the latest telegrams state that rain has fallen in those areas in 
which it was most needed. In Western India the rain just saved the crops, 
which were in imminent danger, and has removed the immediate fear of 
famine. The Central Provinces and Berar have also benefited by the rains. 
Reports from the tea districts in Assam record the yield normal, and the 
prospects fair, except in Darjiling, where the weather has been unfavourable 
and the yield poor. 
Mr. J. Ferguson, of The Ceylon Observer and Tropical Agriculturist , 
has communicated to The Times the following statistics of the planting 
enterprise of Ceylon for the present year. The total approximate 
areas under the principal products are as follows: — tea, 382,343 acres; 
cacao, 24,136 acres ; cardamoms, 8,621 acres ; coffee (Arabian), 4,304 
acres; coffee (Liberian), 758 acres; cinchona, 3,471 acres; rubber (chiefly 
young plants, and interspersed with other products), 3,356 acres ; grass 
(cultivated), 4,461 acres; camphor, annatto, cocoa, kola, ramie, vanilla, 
pepper, cloves, citronella grass, divi-divi, croton, castor oil, aloes, cin- 
namon, tobacco, cotton, 11,201 acres; cocoa-nuts, arecas, nutmegs, 
fruit trees (on the cacao, tea, or coffee plantations), 22,696 acres ; fuel 
timber, sapan, and kapok (on the tea, cacao, or coffee plantations), 
7,576 acres. The most notable fact revealed by the above figures is the 
falling off in the area of tea, the total in cultivation on plantations being 
4.000 acres less than a year ago, or, including native gardens, a decrease 
of 6,000 acres, making a total of 386,000 in place of 392,000 acres. This 
must be due to the abandonment of non-paying fields and some unprofitable 
gardens ; for it is accompanied by an extension of the total extent in 
cultivation by 1,000 acres, although poor coffee has gone down, being 
3,200 acres less than a year ago. Cacao, on the other hand, is 500 acres 
more in planted extent; cardamoms are greater in area by 1,800 acres; 
cinchona shows an increase of 1,000 acres ; and indiarubber (chiefly the 
Para or Hevea variety) of nearly 1,000 acres — which must, however, be 
rather under the actual area planted during the year, the total extent planted 
being about 3,400 acres. In several minor products too — camphor, nutmeg, 
crotons — there has been a good deal of planting, and still more has there been 
in the Kelani Valley and other low country estates, a planting out of cocoa-nut 
palms among the tea, just as Para rubber has been put in freely on the 
Kalutara tea estates. The check to tea, and the fact that there are no 
clearings this year to plant, ought to strengthen the hopes of those who 
believe in a future for this staple product, so soon as consumption overtakes 
production. The shipments of tea from Ceylon for the first six months 
of this year were 5,000,000 lb. behind those for the same period last year 
for the United Kingdom; but shipments to Russia and America show an 
increase. The cocoa-nut palm industry — chiefly in native hands — covering 
600.000 acres with a crop of 1,000,000,000 cocoa-nuts (for oil, copra, fibre, 
desiccating kernels, etc.) is in a highly prosperous condition ; while that in 
cinnamon bark continues fairly satisfactory. 
Foreign Countries. — In reply to a question as to the continuance of 
the restrictions on the importation of cattle into this country from Argentina, 
the President of the Board of Agriculture stated in the House of Commons 
that the removal of such restrictions must mainly depend on the action of 
the Argentine Government against the introduction of disease into their 
country. This is an attitude which will meet with general approval. It is 
difficult, however, says The Times , to see what Mr. Hanbury meant when 
he added that the imports of dead meat into this country had largely 
increased. The official returns show that over the first six months of the 
present year the imports of dead meats of all kinds into the United Kingdom 
reached a total of 8,803,476 cwt., as against 9,369,491 cwt. in the first half of 
1901, and 8,874,011 cwt. in the same period of 1900. As a matter of fact, 
therefore, our imports of dead meat have so far been less this year than in 
the corresponding periods of the two immediately preceding years. More- 
over, if we look at the chief items in our meat import, we find that the totals 
for the first half of the present year are below the corresponding ones for the 
first six months of 1901. Thus of fresh beef we have imported 1,937,472 cwt. 
this year, as against 2,200,254 cwt. last year; of fresh mutton, 1,940,838 cwt. 
as against 1,988,727 cwt.; of fresh pork, 356,172 cwt. as against 409,901 cwt.; 
of bacon, 2,632,640 cwt. as against 2,839,526 cwt.; of hams, 768,070 cwt. as 
against 893,157 cwt. It would appear, therefore, that our imports of dead 
meat, far from having largely increased, have undergone a decisive decrease. 
— 4. 
LABOUR RETROSPECT. 
United Kingdom.' — 'The state of employment in important industries 
during August compares unfavourably both with the preceding month and also 
with August of last year, this decline being only partly attributable to the 
extra holidays arising from the Coronation. The iron and steel trades, as well 
as the shipbuilding industry, seem to have settled down to a period of 
quietude. The textile industry shows practically no change. In the coal 
trade the situation continues to cause anxiety. In Lancashire and district the 
production, although materially reduced, still exceeds the consumption, with 
the result that further collieries are being shut down. In the South Wales 
industry grave uncertainty exists regarding the recently terminated sliding 
scale agreement. The glass trade dispute in the Stourbridge district continues, 
the union having made a further move. They have withdrawn their men 
from glass manufactories where the unionists were locked out. Meanwhile, 
the chances of the English glass makers competing successfully with their 
German rivals are becoming more remote. 
This year the Trade Unions Congress will be held in London. Amongst 
the more important resolutions to be submitted to the delegates are nine 
bearing upon amendments of the Workmen’s Compensation Act, consisting 
mainly of proposals to extend the Act to all trades and employment (by the 
miners’ federation) ; to extend to injuries sustained by workmen “outside their 
actual employers’ works ” (by the boiler makers and iron and steel ship- 
builders) ; and to abolish the 14 days’ qualifying period. Three resolutions 
relate to amendments of the Factory Acts, so as to secure a Saturday’s noon- 
day stop, and the appointment of inspectors to enforce the provisions of the 
Act with regard to ships. There are four notices of motion relating to postal 
questions, and six bearing upon the subject of wages — the Admiralty and fair 
wages, wages in the building trades, the minimum wage for Government 
labourers, wage stoppages, the minimum wage and the fair wages resolution— 
and there are three notices recommending the adoption of systems of 
compulsory arbitration. 
Colonies. — It is satisfactory to note that the Native Labour Association, 
to which has been entrusted the task of supplying natives for the mines 
and other industries on the Rand, is making steady progress. The returns 
for July showed an increase over those of previous months. Agents 
have proceeded to the northern limits of Mozambique, and to British 
Central Africa, and, as soon as an arrangement has been arrived at 
between the associations and the Governments concerned, recruiting will 
begin in these new districts on organised lines, and a steady supply of natives 
is anticipated. The Times publishes the following figures, which, with the 
exception of the Portuguese estimates, are based on the latest reports of the 
native Commissioners or Secretaries for native affairs in the different colonies 
and districts. The Portuguese figures have been supplied by the Curator of 
Portuguese native affairs, who explained that a census is now being taken, and 
that the present figures are an estimate only. The statistics are as follows : — ■ 
Cape Colony, 1,059,141 ; Basutoland, 252,571 ; Natal and Zululand, 786,912 ; 
Orange River Colony, 129,787; Transvaal, 750,000; British Bechuanaland, 
122,000; Rhodesia, 321,600; Swaziland, 45,000; Portuguese territory, 
1,500,000; a total of a little under 5,000,000. Up to the present, the 
general estimate of the number of natives to the south of the Zambesi has 
been between seven and eight millions, and various great employers of labour, 
relying on this estimate — and using the most fallacious method of estimating 
the percentage of natives obtainable for labour — namely, one in five, have 
been convinced that the lack of labour is due to every cause except the true 
one — utter inadequacy of the native population to meet the labour demand. 
According to European statistics, the percentage of able-bodied males to the 
total population varies from 1 in 10 to 1 in 16. If the more liberal figures 
1 in 8, be taken, a total of 622,000 natives is arrived at who are fit to work 
throughout South Africa. At the present time the farms in the Transvaal and 
Orange River Colony require 100,000 boys, the docks and ports 150,000, the 
needs of the mines on the Rand within two years will be 200,000, and of 
Kimberley 10,000. The house boys on the Rand to-day number 27,000 
