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VISIT TO SOUTH AFRICA. 
Supposing we were at war with the Transvaal this would be a 
magnificent place, and a very easy place, for a cavalry foray to destroy 
the railway communication ; there is no loop line nor defence of any 
sort ; if the bridge were destroyed the whole of the country north of 
the Orange River would be, to say the least of it, seriously incon¬ 
venienced. 
I believe the question of irrigation will meet with more attention in 
the future. The want of action has been put down to the fact that the 
Dutch, who rule the Cape, are constitutionally lethargic and unenter¬ 
prising. When their power is a little bit weakened, water supply and 
railways will possibly receive more attention than at present. 
I mentioned distribution, let me say a word about franchise. 
Take the case of any born or naturalised British subject—naturalised 
after he has been resident for twelve months—if he owns property to 
the value of £75, or is in receipt of £50 a year salary, if he can write 
his name and address he gets a vote. As against that I would compare 
the state of matters in the Transvaal. 
There it is rather difficult to get any definite knowledge as to what 
the franchise is, there are so many rules ; but the most accurate infor¬ 
mation I could get was that a foreigner can be naturalised after two 
years’ residence, but he must renounce all other political rights and pay 
the sum of £5. Then he must be resident fourteen years before he can 
have a vote. 
' The number of voters in the Transvaal is about 17,000. The popula¬ 
tion of Johannesburg itself is about 50,000, and in the neighbourhood 
of Johannesburg there would be about 150,000. 
To return to Kimberley, I may mention that the leading paper of 
that mining camp showed enterprise. Upon arrival at the station I 
purchased a copy and was surprised that the first item of news was that 
“ Major ” Levita, R.H.A., was about to arrive in Kimberley. They must 
have been short of news. 
The country north of Kimberley is veldt; uninteresting plains with 
the inevitable kopjes or flat-topped stony hills. The veldt is remarkable 
to my mind, after travelling in India and Mexico, for the apparent 
absence of animal and bird life. 
There is nothing of interest to mention until one gets up to Mafeking, 
which is fifty-four hours, or about 223 miles, from the Cape. 
Mafeking is interesting because that is the place where the Jamieson 
raid started from, or from Pitsani Pitlogo, about seventeen miles 
away. When one gets to Mafeking one is under the impression that 
one has arrived not only at the ehd of the railway, but at the end of 
everywhere ; it is a dismal place. 
From Mafeking the new line starts for Buluwayo. It was being laid 
at the rate of about a mile and a half a day. I travelled on the con¬ 
tractors’ train up as far as Mochudi, then the end of the line. 
I understand that by the end of April the railway will be as far north 
as Palapye, King Khama’s capital, and it is hoped that by the beginning 
of next year it will have reached Buluwayo. 
At Mafeking I took my coach ticket, and a very serious thing it was 
to take, £22 10s. being the price of the ticket, 2s. 6d. lb. for luggage ; 
find one’s own food and be charged for the weight of it. 
As the acme of discomfort I unhesitatingly recommend the Buluwayo 
coach. 
Many will probably remember Buffalo Bill’s coach when it was at 
