VISIT TO SOUTH AFRICA. 
298 
DISCUSSION. 
Colonel A. W. White, late C.R.A., S. Africa : Colonel Blaksley, 
ladies and gentlemen—I came here this afternoon prepared to listen 
but not to talk myself. Having however been just now expressly asked 
to say a word or two by way of discussion I feel bound to do so, though 
the lecturer has mainly avoided debatable ground and thus very wisely 
left us but little to discuss, and still less to criticise. 
I will not at this late hour attempt to follow Lieutenant Levita step 
by step in his tour through South Africa, suffice it that having gone 
over much of the country he has described in his interesting lecture, I 
can testify to the general accuracy of his pictures of people and places 
and of the everyday scenes of South African life. 
Let me however remind you that the lecture deals with an immense 
geographical area, and that it is essential to recollect that the description 
of one place or district in South Africa must not be accepted as applic¬ 
able to every other in that part of the world. As a matter of fact 
Lieutenant Levita’s tour may be fairly compared to that of a stranger to 
Europe, who starting from London has travelled via Berlin and Warsaw 
to Moscow, returning via Vienna and Paris, just in time to catch the 
outward-bound steamer ; and I suppose there is as much difference 
between life in Matabeleland and in say Eastern Natal, as there is 
between life in Russia and in the County of Kent. 
And here I will ask the lecturer to forgive me if I take exception to 
one point: that is his summary condemnation of the chief town of 
South Africa. That it does not exactly come up to Paris and London is 
true, but I think he has been too hard upon it. Cape Town is really 
a fine city, with handsome public buildings and a splendid situation. 
It is well lighted by electricity, and possesses two excellent local rail¬ 
ways, and an electric tram system, which if not ornamental is at least 
more comfortable and expeditious than our English omnibus service. 
Cape Town has some ten miles of pleasant suburbs, consisting for the 
most part of substantial residences in well-wooded private grounds, 
and surrounded by scenery of exquisite beauty. 
As to living in South Africa, we are often told that the food is bad 
and the cooking worse. In the wilds it can hardly be otherwise, but as 
regards the towns I think people are misled by judging too much 
from the hotels and the refreshment rooms of railway stations. 
These institutions unfortunately exist mainly by and for their liquor 
bars, and seldom lay themselves out much to please the bona fide 
traveller. Hotel charges are low, usually 12s. 6d. a day inclusive, which 
in a country twice as expensive as England is too little to command 
luxuries. The cattle it is true are lean and the poultry ill-fed, hence better 
cooks are required in South Africa than in England to turn out good 
dishes ; but then wages are high, and the hotel keepers cannot afford to 
keep good servants, consequently the hotel dinner is generally indifferent. 
This impresses the new comer and through-traveller unfavourably, but 
those who have had time to make a prolonged stay in the civilized parts 
of Cape Colony and Natal, and especially in the Cape Peninsula, and 
have experienced the kindly hospitality of colonial society, will agree 
with me that in South Africa as elsewhere there are plenty of people 
who know well how to make themselves and their friends comfortable, 
and that granted a long-enough purse you can generally do yourself 
almost as well in Cape Town as you can in London. 
