Transvaal
From LoveToKnow 1911
TRANSVAAL, an inland province of the Union of South Africa between the Vaal and Limpopo rivers. It lies, roughly, between 22r and 271° S. and 25° and 32° E., and is bounded S. by the Orange Free State and Natal, W. by the Cape province and the Bechuanaland Protectorate, N. by Rhodesia, E. by Portuguese East Africa and Swaziland. Save on the south-west the frontiers, fbr the main part, are well defined natural features. From the south-west to the north-east corners of the colony is 570 m.; east 1 Concil trident. Sess. XIII. Can. 2.
2 P. L. Migne. CXX. De corpore et sanguine Domini, cap. viii. 2, cf. xv. 2.
3 Sometimes called of Tours, or of Le Mans.
4 See Batifol, Etudes d'histoire et de theologie positive, 2 me serie. Lib. III. Decretalium, tit. 41, n. 6.
6 De captivitate babylonica ecclesiae. De coena Domini. But Luther elsewhere professed Consubstantiation; that is, in modern Lutheran phraseology, the " presence of our Lord's Body " in, with and under the bread.
to west its greatest extent is 397 m. The total area is 111,196 sq. m., a little less than the area of Great Britain and Ireland. The boundaries of the Transvaal have varied from time to time. The most important alteration was made in January 1903 when the districts of Utrecht and Vryheid, which then formed the south-eastern part of the country were annexed to Natal. The area thus lost to the Transvaal was 6970 sq. m. (For map see South Africa.) Physical Features. - About five-sixths of the country lies west of the Drakensberg, the mountain range which forms the inner rim of the great tableland of South Africa. For a few miles on the Natal-Transvaal frontier the Drakensberg run east and west and here is the pass of Laing's Nek. Thence the mountains sweep round to the north, with their precipitous outer slopes facing east. For some 250 m. within the province the mountains form a more or less continuous range, the highest point being the Mauchberg (8725 ft.) in 24° 20' to" S. 30° 35' E., while there are several heights of 7000 or more feet. Eastward from the foot of the Drakensberg stretches a broad belt of low land beyond which rise the Lebombo hills running north and south along the parallel of 32° E. and approaching within 35 m. of the sea at Delagoa Bay. The Lebombo hills are flat topped but with a well-defined break on their seaward side. This eastern edge forms the frontier between Transvaal and Portuguese territory.
The country west of the Drakensberg, though part of the main South African tableland, is not uniform in character, consisting of (I) elevated downs, (2) their slopes, (3) the flat " bottom " land. The downs or plateaus occupy all the southern part of the country, sloping gradually westward from the Drakensberg. That part of the plateau east of Johannesburg is from 5000 to 6400 ft. high; the western and somewhat larger half is generally below 5000 ft. and sinks to about 4000 ft. on the Bechuanaland border. This plateau land is called the high veld,' and covers about 34,000 sq. m. The northern edge of the plateau follows an irregular line from somewhat north of Mafeking on the west to the Mauchberg on the east. This edge is marked by ranges of hills such as the Witwatersrand, Witwatersberg and Magaliesberg; the Witwatersrand, which extends eastward to Johannesburg, forming the watershed between the rivers flowing to the Atlantic and Indian Ocean. Farther north, beyond the intervening slopes and low bush, are two elevated regions covering together over 4000 sq. m. They are the Waterberg, and, more to the east, separated from the Waterberg by the valley of the Magalakwane tributary of the Limpopo, the Zoutpansberg. The Zoutpansberg has steep slopes and is regarded as the northern termination of the Drakensberg. An eastern offshoot of the Zoutpansberg is known as the Murchison Range. The low land between the high veld and the Waterberg and Zoutpansberg is traversed by the Olifants River, an east flowing tributary of the Limpopo.
The true high veld, extending east to west 120 m. and north to south loo m., consists of rolling grass covered downs, absolutely treeless, save where, as at Johannesburg, plantations have been made by man, the crest of the rolls being known as builts and the hollows as laagtes or vleys. The surface is occasionally broken by kopjes - either table-shaped or pointed - rising sometimes too ft. above the general level. Small springs of fresh water are frequent and there are 'several shallow lakes or pans - flat bottomed depressions with no outlet. The largest of these pans, Lake Chrissie, some 5 m. long by t m. broad, is in the south-eastern part of the high veld. The water in the pans is usually brackish. The middle veld is marked by long low stony ridges, known as rands, and these rands and the kopjes are often covered with scrub, while mimosa trees are found in the river valleys.
The banken veld, formed by the denudation of the plateau, is much broken up and is rich in romantic scenery. It covers about 27,000 sq. m., and has an average breadth of 40 m. In places, as between Mafeking and Johannesburg, the descent is in terracelike steps, each step marked by a line of hills; in other places there is a gradual slope and elsewhere the descent is abrupt, with outlying hills and deep well-wooded valleys. The rocks at the base of the slopes are granite, the upper escarpments are of sedimentary rocks. Thence issue many streams which in their way to the ocean have forced their way through the ranges of hills which mark the steps in the plateau, forming the narrow passes or poorts characteristic of South African scenery.
As in the middle veld, rands and kopjes occur in the low or bush veld, but the general characteristic of this part of the country, which covers over 50,000 sq. m., is its uniformity. The low veld east of the Drakensberg begins at about 3000 ft. above the sea and slopes to 1000 ft. or less until it meets the ridge of the Lebombo hills. The lowest point is at Komati Poort, a gorge through the Lebombo hills only 476 ft. above the sea. West and north of the Drakensberg the general level of the low veld is not much below that of the lowest altitudes of the middle veld, though the climatic 1 By the Boers the western and less elevated part of the plateau is known as the middle veld.
conditions greatly differ. North of the Zoutpansberg the ground falls rapidly, however, to the Limpopo flats which are little over 1200 ft. above the sea. Near the north-west foot of the Zoutpansberg is the large saltpan from which the mountains get their name. The low veld is everywhere covered with scrub, and water is scarce, the rivers being often dry in the winter season.
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River Systems
There are four separate river basins in the Transvaal. Of these the Komati (q.v.) and its affluents, and the Pongola and its affluents rise in the high veld and flowing eastward to the Indian Ocean drain but a comparatively small area of the province, of which the Pongola forms for some distance the south-eastern frontier. The rest of the country is divided between the drainage areas of the Vaal and Limpopo. The Vaal (q.v.) rises in the high veld in the Ermelo district not far from the source of the Komati and that of the Usuto tributary of the Pongola. The Vaal drains the greater part of the plateau, flowing westward towards the Atlantic. The waters of the northern escarpments of the plateau and of all the region farther north are carried to the Indian Ocean by the Limpopo (q.v.) and its tributaries the Olifants, Great Marico, Great Letaba, &c. Both the Vaal and the Limpopo in their main course have high steep banks. They carry an immense volume of water during the summer rains, but are very small streams in the winter, when several of their tributaries are completely dry. 2 None of the rivers is navigable within the limits of the province. The absence of alluvial deposits of any size is another characteristic of the Transvaal rivers. For a considerable distance the Vaal forms the frontier between the province and the Orange Free State and in similar manner the Limpopo separates the Transvaal from Bechuanaland and Rhodesia. Since the first advent of white colonists many springs and pans and small streams have dried up, this desiccation being attributed, not so much to decreased rainfall, as to the burning off of the grass every winter, so that the water, instead of soaking in, runs off the hard, baked'ground into the larger rivers. (F. R. C.) Geology. A broad ring of crystalline rocks (Swaziland schists) encircles the Transvaal except on the south, where the Karroo formation extends over the Vaal River. Within this nearly complete circle of crystalline rocks several geological formations have been determined, of which the age cannot be more definitely fixed than that they are vastly older than the Karroo formation and newer than the Swaziland schists.
The following subdivisions have been recognized by Molengraaff Karroo System, Transvaal System, Vaal River System, South African Primary System. Each of these systems is separated from the other by a strong unconformity.
South African Primary System
The South African Primary System includes a complex of rocks as yet little understood. Ac cording to Molengraaff it includes the two following series: - An upper group including the auriferous conglomerates of the Rand: Witwatersrand Series. - a lower group (Hospital Hill series) of quartzites, shales and conglomerates.
Barberton and Swaziland Crystalline schists, quartzites, conglomSeries. crates, intrusive granites.
Barberton Series. - Molengraaff considers the Barberton series to be the metamorphosed equivalent of the Hospital Hill series, while Hatch regards it to be older and to form a portion of his Archaean series (Swaziland schists) to which position it is here assigned. The chief outcrops are in the south-western Transvaal, around Zoutpansberg and in Swaziland. They show a great variety of type made up of slates, quartzites, occasional conglomerates, schists with large masses of intrusive granites and gneiss.
Witwatersrand Series
It is now generally acknowledged that this important series consists of two main groups. Their chief occurrences are in the districts of Witwatersrand, Heidelberg, Klerksdorp and Venterskroon. The lower group (Hospital Hill slates) consists of quartzites and shales, resting on the eroded surface of the older granites and schists, and estimated to be from 10,000 to 12,000 ft. thick. There are occasional bands of conglomerates, sometimes auriferous. In the absence of fossils their age cannot be determined. The upper group consists of conglomerates, grits and quartzites with a few bands of shales. It has obtained notoriety from the conglomerates along certain bands containing gold, when they constitute the famous " banket." The thickness varies from 2300 to over 11,000 ft. The. conglomerate beds occur in belts forming in descending order the Elsburg series, Kimberley series, Bird Reef series, Livingstone Reef series, Main Reef series. The richest in gold are to be found among the Main Reef series, which yields by far the greater part of the total output of gold from the Transvaal. The individual beds, seldom more than a few feet in thickness and sometimes only a few inches, are interstratified with an immense thickness of quartzites. The conglomerates consist almost entirely of pebbles of quartz set in a hard 2 At the Standerton gauge on the Vaal in 1905-1906, a year of extreme drought, the total flow was 8,017,000,000 cub. ft., of which 7,102,000,000 was storm water.
matrix consolidated by the deposition of secondary silica. The conglomerate bands and quartzites contain large quantities of iron pyrites deposited subsequent to their formation, that in the conglomerates containing the gold. Sericite in the form of scales and films characterizes those portions which have been faulted, squeezed or sheared. Sheets of diabase, apparently volcanic flows, and numerous dykes interfere with the regularity of the stratification. The theory of the subsequent infiltration of the gold is that generally accepted. No fossils have been discovered, and except that they represent some portion or portions of rocks of the Pre-Cape formation the age of the upper Witwatersrand beds, as well as that of the lower division, remains an open question. They may safely be considered to be among the oldest auriferous sediments of the world.
Vaal River System
This consists largely of rocks of igneous origin, of which the amygdaloidal diabase of Klipriversberg forms the type. The other rocks include igneous breccias, shales, coarse conglomerates and grits. Near Reitzburg the coarse conglomerates reach a thickness of 400 ft. and about 500 ft. at Kroomdraai. This system rests unconformably on the Witwatersrand series and is unconformably overlain by the Transvaal system. It must, however, be acknowledged that these relationships are very imperfectly understood. Compared with other formations they occupy restricted areas, being only met with south of Johannesburg, around Wolmaransstad, Lichtenburg and east of Marico.
Transvaal System
This is a very definite sequence of rocks covering immense areas in the centre of the country. The following groups are recognized: Waterberg Series, Pretoria Series, Dolomite Series, Black Reef Series.
The Black Reef Series is composed of quartzites, sandstone, slates and conglomerate. It varies in thickness from 500 ft. in the southern Transvaal to 5000 ft. at Lydenburg. Thin bands of conglomerate, sometimes auriferous, occur near the base.
The Dolomite Series, known to the Dutch as " Olifants Klip," consists of a bluish-grey magnesian limestone with bands of chert. The thickness varies from 2600 ft. in the Witwatersrand area to 5000 ft. around Pretoria; and is about 2600 ft. about Lydenburg. It is worn by solution into caves and swallow-holes (Wondergarten). Gold, lead, copper and iron ores occur as veins. So far it has proved to be unfossiliferous. Dykes and intrusive rocks are common.
The Pretoria Series, formerly known as the Gatsrand series, consists of repeated alternations of flagstones and quartzites, shales and sheets of diabase. These follow conformably on the Dolomite series. In the Marico district the shales become highly ferruginous and resemble the Hospital Hill slates of the Witwatersrand series. Near Pretoria duplications of the beds, due to overthrusting, are not uncommon.
The Waterberg Series lies unconformably on the Pretoria series. The colour is usually red, forcibly recalling the Old Red Sandstone and Trias of England. Sandstones, quartzites, conglomerates and breccia make up the formation. They occur to the northeast of Pretoria and occupy still wide areas in the Waterberg district.
A complex of igneous rocks of different ages covers immense areas in the central Transvaal. Various types of granite are the predominant variety. Syenites, gabbros, norites and volcanic rocks are also represented. The granite contains two varieties. One is a red granite intruded subsequently to the Waterberg sandstones; another is a grey variety considered to be older than the Black Reef series and possibly older than the Witwatersrand series.
The Karroo System attains its chief development in the southeastern Transvaal in the districts of Ermelo, Standerton and Wakkerstroom.
The latest classification of Molengraaff subdivides the beds as follows: - Beaufort beds of Cape Colony. Contains coal-seams.
Not present at Vereeniging. Sandstones and conglomerates with coal-seams at Vereeniging.
The Dwyka conglomerate resembles the same bed in the Cape province. The boulders consist of very various rocks often of large size. Many of them show glacial striae. The direction of striae on the underlying quartzitic rocks, particularly well seen near the Douglas colliery, Balmoral, point to an ice movement from the north-north-west to south-south-east.
The Ecca series, as in the Cape, consists of sandstones and shales. Seams of coal lie near the base, some of them exceeding 20 ft. in thickness, but in this case layers of shaly coal are included. The overlying sandstones afford good building stones, and frequently, as at Vereeniging, yield many fossil plants. These include among others, Glossopteris browniana, Gangamopteris cyclopteroides, Sigillaria Brardi, Bothrodendron Leslii, Noeggerathiopsis Hislopi. The Karroo beds lie almost horizontally, in marked contrast to the highly inclined older rocks. Their distribution, other than in the south-eastern districts, is imperfectly understood. Remnants have been found of their former existence in the neighbourhood of Pretoria; and portions of the Bushveld Sandstone have recently been relegated to the Karroo formation.
The diamond pipes probably represent some of the most recent rocks of the Transvaal. They may be of Cretaceous age or even later, and in any case belong to the same class as those of Kimberley. The recent deposits of the Transvaal may be considered to be insignificant. They include the gravels and alluviums of the present streams and the almost ubiquitous red sand of aeolian origin.' (W. G. *) Climate. - Although lying on the border of and partly within the tropics, the Transvaal, owing to its high general elevation, and to the absence of extensive marshy tracts, enjoys on the whole a healthy invigorating climate, well suited to the European constitution. The climate of the high veld, is indeed one of the finest in the world. The air is unusually dry, owing to the proximity of the Kalahari Desert on the west and to the interception on the east by the Drakensberg of the moisture bearing clouds from the Indian Ocean. The range of temperature is often considerable - in winter it varies from about we F. in the shade at i p.m. to freezing point at night. During summer (Oct. - April) the mean temperature is about 73°; during winter about 53°. Nov. - Jan. are the hottest and June J uly the coldest months. The chief characteristic of the rainfall is its frequent intensity and short duration. During May to August there is practically no rain, and in early summer (Sept. - Dec.) the rainfall is often very light. The heaviest rain is experienced between January and April and is usually accompanied by severe thunderstorms. On the eastern escarpment of the Drakensberg the rainfall is heavy, 50 or 60 in. in the year, but it diminishes rapidly towards the centre of the plateau where it averages, at Johannesburg about 30 in., 2 while in the extreme west as the Kalahari is approached it sinks to about 12 in. The winds in winter are uniformly dry while dust storms are frequent at all seasons - a fact which renders the country unsuitable for persons suffering from chest complaints. In the eastern part of the plateau snow occasionally falls, and frost at night is common during winter.
The banken veld district is also generally healthy though hotter than the plateaus, and malarial fever prevails in the lower valleys. Malarial fever is also prevalent throughout the low veld, but above 3000 ft. is usually of a mild type. Nearly all the country below that elevation is unsuitable for colonization by whites, while the Limpopo flats and other low tracts, including the district between the Drakensberg and the Lebombo hills are extremely unhealthy, blackwater fever being endemic. In the low veld the shade temperature in summer rises to 113° F., but the nights are generally cool, and down to 2000 ft. frost occurs in winter. The rainfall in the low country is more erratic than on the plateau, and in some districts, a whole year will pass without rain.
Flora
The general characteristic of the flora is the prevalence of herbaceous over forest growths; the high veld is covered by short sweet grasses of excellent quality for pasturage; grass is mingled with protea scrub in the middle veld; the banken veld has a richer flora, the valley levels are well wooded, scattered timber trees clothe their sides and the hills are covered with aloe, euphorbia, protea and other scrub growths. Among the timber trees of this region is the bolkenhout of terblanz (Faurea Saligna) which yields a fine wood resembling mahogany. The scrub which covers the low veld consists mainly of gnarled stunted thorns with flattened umbrella shaped crowns, most of the species belonging to the suborder mimoseae. A rare species is the acacia erioloba Rameel doom, akin to the acacia giraffae of Bechuanaland. The wild seringa (Burkea africana) is also characteristic of the low veld and, extends up the slopes of the plateau. The meroola (sclerocarya caffra) a medium sized deciduous tree with a rounded spreading top is found in the low veld and up the slopes to a height of 4500 ft. It is common in the lower slopes of the rands of the low veld. Cotton and cotton-like plants and vines are also native to the low veld.. Few of the low veld bushes are large or straight enough to furnish any useful wood, and timber trees are wholly absent from the level country. The forest patches are confined to the deep kloofs of the mountains, to the valleys of the larger rivers and to the seaslopes of the Drakensberg and other ranges, where they flourish in. regions exposed to the sea mists. These patches, called " woodbushes," contain many hardwood trees of great size, their flora and fauna being altogether different from that immediately outside the wood. Common species in the woodbush are three varieties of yellow wood (Podocarpus), often growing to an enormous size, the Cape beech (myrsine), several varieties of the wild pear (Olivia) and of stinkwood (Oreodaphne) ironwood and ebony. The largest forest areas are in the Pongola district and the Haenertsburg and 1 For geology see: F. H. Hatch and G. S. Corstorphine, The Geology of South Africa (London, 2nd ed., 5909); G. A. F. Molengraaff, Geologie de la Republique Sud-africaine du Transvaal, Bull. de la Soc. Geol. de France, 4 serie, tome i., pp. 53-92 (1900. (Translation by J. H. Ronaldson, Edinburgh and Johannesburg, 5904); Reports and Memoirs, Geol. Survey (Transvaal, 5903, et seq.); H. Kynaston, The Geology of the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony, Handbook, British Association (Cape Town, 5905); Trans. Geol. Soc. S. Africa (Johannesburg).
2 Exceptionally very heavy rain is experienced on the Rand. In January 1907 seven inches of rain fell in 24 hours.
Hoogeveld Series Ecca shales.
Dwyka conglomerate.
Woodbush districts north of the Olifants river. Mimosa and the wild wilge-boom (Salix capensis) are the common trees on the banks and rivers, while the weeping willow is frequent round the farmsteads.
Many trees have been introduced and considerable plantations made, as for instance on the slopes between Johannesburg and Pretoria. Among the most successful of the imported trees are citrus trees, the Australian wattle and the eucalyptus. Tobacco and the vine both flourish and most European fruits and vegetables thrive. Of native fruits the misple (Vangueria infausta), miscalled the wild medlar, is of excellent flavour. It is common on the rands and kopjes of the bush veld. Rose and other flowering shrubs and trees grow well on the banken veld and in the valleys. A large yellow tulip (Homerica pallida) is one of the most abundant flowers on moist vlei lands on the high veld and is occasionally met with in the low veld; slangkop (Urginea Burkei) with red bulbs like a beetroot is a low bush plant apparently restricted to the Transvaal and adjacent Portuguese territory. Both these and many other plants such as gift-blaar and drouk-gras are poisonous to cattle. These poisonous plants are found chiefly in the banken and low veld.
Fauna
When first entered by white men the Transvaal abounded in big game, the lion, leopard, elephant, giraffe, zebra and rhinoceros being very numerous, while the hippopotamus and crocodile were found in all the rivers. The indiscriminate destruction of these animals has greatly reduced their numbers and except in the Pongola district, at one or two other places on the Portuguese frontier, and along the Limpopo the hippopotamus, rhinoceros and crocodile are now extinct in the province. A few elephants, giraffes and zebras (equus burchelli - the true zebra is extinct) are still found in the north and north-eastern districts and in the same regions lions and leopards survive in fair numbers. Other animals fairly numerous are the spotted hyena, long-eared fox, jackal, aard wolf, red lynx, wild cat, wild dog and wart hog. Many species of antelope are found, mostly in small numbers, including the kudu, hartebeest, the sable and roan antelope, the white tailed and the brindled gnu, waterbuck, red buck, duiker, blesbok, palla, springbuck (numerous), steinbok, grysbok and klipspringer. The Africander breed of cattle is a well-marked variety, and a characteristic native domestic animal. Whether originally imported from Europe by the Portuguese or brought from the north by Africans is not certain. It is not found in a wild state and the auffalo (bos caffer) is almost if not quite extinct in the Transvaal. Among edentata the ant-bear, scaly ant-eater and porcupine are plentiful. The spring hare (pedetes capensis) abounds. Baboons and other apes are fairly common and there are several species of snakes. The ostrich is found in the Marico and Limpopo districts, and more rarely elsewhere; the great kori bustard and the koorhaan are common.
Insects abound, the greatest pest being the tsetse fly, common in the low veld. Six species of tick, including the blue tick common throughout South Africa, are found, especially in the low veld, where they are the means of the transmission of disease to cattle. Mosquitoes, locusts and ants are also common.
The baba or cat fish and the yellow fish are plentiful in the rivers and the trout has been acclimatized.
To preserve the native fauna the low country on the Portuguese frontier has been made a game reserve. It is nearly 300 m. long with an average breadth of 50 m. Other reserves have been constituted in the north of the province.
Inhabitants
The population of the Transvaal, on the 17th of April 1904, when the first complete census of the country was taken, was 1,269,951 (including 8215 British soldiers in garrison),1 or 11.342 persons per sq. m. Of these 20.67%, namely 297,277, were European or white. Of the coloured population 937,127 were aboriginals; and 35,547 were of mixed or other coloured races. Of the whites 178,244 (59.95%) were males. The white population is broadly divisible into the British and Dutch elements, the percentage of other whites in 1904 being but 8.6. The Dutch, as their usual designation, Boers, implies, are mainly farmers and stock-raisers and are still predominant elsewhere than in the Witwatersrand and Pretoria districts. They speak the patois of Dutch known as the Taal. The British element is chiefly gathered in Johannesburg and other towns on the Rand and in Pretoria. The total white population in the Witwatersrand and in Pretoria in 1904 was 135,135, and the strength of the British in these districts is shown by the fact that only 20% was Transvaal born. Of those born outside the Transvaal 2 4.6% came from other British possessions in Africa and 24.92% from Great Britain or British colonies other than African. Of the non-British or Boer whites Russians form 3.01%, Germans 1-62% and Dutch (of Holland) 1-14%.
The natives are found chiefly in Zoutpansberg district, 1 For most purposes this military element is omitted in the census returns.
where there were 314,797 at the 1904 census, and the adjoining. districts of Lydenburg and Waterberg, i.e. in the northern and north-eastern region of the country. The natives belong to the Bantu negro race and are represented chiefly by Basuto, Bechuana, Bavenda, and Xosa-Zulu tribes. None of these peoples has any claim to be indigenous, and, save the Bavenda, all are immigrants since c. 1817-1820, when the greater part of the then inhabitants were exterminated by the Zulu chief Mosilikatze (see § History). After that event Basuto entered the country from the south, Bechuana from the west and Swazi, Zulu, Shangaan and other tribes from the east and south-east.
The Basuto, who number 410,020 and form 40% of the total population, are now found mostly in the central, northern and northeastern districts, forming in Lydenburg about 67%, and in Zoutpansberg about 50% of the inhabitants. The Bechuana, who number 64,751, are almost confined to the western and south-western districts.
Next, numerically, to the Basuto and Bechuana peoples are the tribes known collectively as Transvaal Kaffirs, of whom there were 159,860 enumerated at the 1904 census. Altogether the Transvaal Kaffirs form 50% of the inhabitants of Waterberg district, 30% of Zoutpansberg district and 18% of Middelburg district. Zulus number 75,601 and form 54% of the population in Wakkerstroom district and 18% in Standerton district. Elsewhere they are very thinly represented. Swazis form more than half the total population of the Barberton and Ermelo districts and are also numerous in Wakkerstroom. In Barberton, Lydenburg and Zoutpansberg districts Shangaan and other east coast tribes are settled, 80,834 being returned as born in the Transvaal. The Shangaan are members of a Bantu tribe from the Delagoa Bay region who took refuge in the Transvaal between 1860 and 1862 to escape Zulu raids. They were for some time ruled by a Portuguese, Joao Albasini, who had adopted native customs. Since 1873 Swiss Protestant missionaries have lived among then and many of the Shangaans are Christians and civilized. Several other east coast tribes, such as the Bankuna, are of mixed Zulu and Shangaan blood. Among the mixed and other coloured races in the census returns figure 1592 Bushmen, 3597 Hottentots and 1147 Koranna; these people are found chiefly in the southwestern regions and are remnants of the true aboriginal population.
Besides the tribes whose home is in the Transvaal considerable numbers of natives, chiefly members of east coast tribes, Cape Kaffirs and Zulus, go to the Witwatersrand to work in the gold and other mines. In all there were, in 1904, 135,042 Bantus in the country born elsewhere. Many east coast natives after working in the mines settle in the northern Transvaal. Of the aboriginal South Africans in the Transvaal, at the 1904 census, 77.69% were born in the Transvaal. Among the aborigines the number of females to males was 114 to Ioo. (See further Kaffirs; Bechuanas; Zululand; Bushmen; Hottentots; and for languages,. Bantu Languages).
The number of Asiatics in the Transvaal in April 1904 was 12,320, including 904 Malays, natives of South Africa, and 9986 British Indians. They were nearly all domiciled in the Witwatersrand and in the towns of Pretoria and Barberton, where they are engaged mainly in trade.
Administrative Divisions and Chief Towns
The province is divided into sixteen magisterial districts. Zoutpansberg, 25,654 sq. m.; Waterberg, 15,503 sq. m.; Lydenburg, 9868 sq. m., occupy the north and north-eastern parts of the country and include most of the low veld areas. Barberton district, 5106 sq. m., is east central. Piet Retief district (in the south-east), 1673 sq. m., lies between Swaziland and Natal. Along the southern border, going east to west from Piet Retief, are the districts of Wakkerstroom, 2128 sq. m.; Standerton, 1959 sq. m.; Heidelberg, 2410 sq. m.; Potchefstroom, 4805 sq. m.;.
Wolmaransstad, 2169 sq. m., and, occupying the south-western corner of the province, Bloemhof, 3003 sq. m. In the west are the districts of Lichtenburg, 4487 sq. m.; Marico, 3626 sq. m. and Rustenberg, 9511 sq. m. The central regions are divided into the districts of Witwatersrand, 16J3 sq. m.; Pretoria, 6525 sq. m.;.
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Middelburg, 4977 sq. m.; Carolina, 1877 sq. m.; Ermelo, 2995 sq. m. and Bethel, 1959 sq. m. It will be seen that twenty districts are enumerated, these being the divisions under the Boer government and still commonly used. In 1904 Bloemhof was officially included in Wolmaransstad; Bethel in Standerton; Piet Retief in Wakkerstroom, and Carolina in Ermelo. Each district is sub-divided into field-cornetcies, the cornetcies being themselves divided, where necessary, into urban and rural areas. For parliamentary purposes the districts are divided into single member constituencies. The capital of the province, and of the Union is Pretoria, with a population (1904) of 36,83 9 (of whom 21,114 were whites). Johannesburg, the centre of the gold-mining industry, had a population, within the municipal boundary, of 155,642 (83,36 3 whites). Other towns within the Witwatersrand district are Germiston (29,477), Boksburg (14757) and Roodepoort-Maraisburg (19,949), virtually suburbs of Johannesburg, and Krugersdorp (20,073) and Springs (5270), respectively at the western and east ends of the district. Besides Pretoria and the towns in the Witwatersrand district, there are few urban centres of any size. Potchefstroom, in the south near the Vaal (pop. 9348), is the oldest town in the Transvaal. Klerksdorp (4276) is also near the Vaal, S.S.W. of Potchefstroom. Middelburg (5085) is the largest town on the railway between Pretoria and Delagoa Bay; Barberton (2433), the centre of the De Kaap gold-fields, lies on the slopes of the Drakensberg overlooking the De Kaap valley.
| Inland Centres To Pretoria „ Kimberley „ Bloemfontein | 46 miles. 310 „ 263 „ | |
|---|---|---|
| „ Bulawayo (via Fourteen Streams) | 979 | „ |
| „ Salisbury („ „„) | 12 79 | „ |
| Seaports | ||
| To Cape Town (via Kimberley) . | 957 | „ |
| „ „ (via Bloemfontein) | 1013 | „ |
| „ Port Elizabeth | 714 | „ |
| „ East London . | 665 | „ |
| „ Durban | 483 | „ |
| „ Lourenco Marques (via Pretoria) | 396 | „ |
Communications
Before 1888 the only means of communication was by road. In that year the government sanctioned the building of a " steam tramway " - a railway in all but name - from the Boksburg collieries to the Rand gold mines. In 1890 the construction of the Transvaal section of the railway to connect Pretoria with Delagoa Bay was begun, the line from Lourenco Marques having been completed to Komati Poort in December 1887. The line to Pretoria was not opened until July 1895. Meantime, in September 1892, the Cape railway system had been extended to Johannesburg and in December 1895 the through line between Durban and Pretoria was completed. Since that date many other lines have been built. The majority of the railways are the property of and are worked by the state. With the exception of a few purely local lines they are of the standard South African gauge-3 ft. 6 in. The lines all converge on Johannesburg. The following table gives the distances from that city to other places in South Africa' :- Besides the lines enumerated the other railways of importance are: (I) A line from Johannesburg eastward via Springs and Breyten to Machadodorp on the Pretoria-Delagoa Bay railway. (2) A line, 68 m. long from Witbank, a station on the Pretoria-Delagoa Bay line, to Brakpan on the Springs line. By (1) the distance between Johannesburg and Lourengo Marques is 364 m., by (2) 370 m. A continuation of the Springs-Breyten line eastward through Swaziland to Delagoa Bay will give a second independent railway from that port to the Rand, some 60 m. shorter than the route via Pretoria, while from Breyten a line (90 m. long) runs south and east to Ermelo and Piet Retief. (3) A line from Krugersdorp to Zeerust (128 m.). (4) A line from Pretoria to Rustenburg (61 m.). (5) A line from Pretoria to Pietersburg (177 m.). This line was continued (1910) north-west to effect a junction with (6) the " Selati " railway, which, starting from Komati Poort, runs north-west and was in 1910 continued to Leydsdorp. North of the junction with the Pietersburg line the railway goes towards the Limpopo. (7) A line from Belfast on the Pretoria-Delagoa Bay railway to Lydenburg (65 m.). (8) A line from Potchefstroom to Lichtenburg (70 m.).
There is an extensive telegraphic system linking the towns of the province to one another, and, through the surrounding countries, with Europe and the rest of the world. 'There is inland communication via Rhodesia with British Central Africa and Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika. The telegraph lines within the Transvaal have a length of about 3000 m. There is a well-organized postal service with about 400 offices. In connexion with the postal services to outlying districts there is a public passenger service by mailcarts. In the Pietersberg district zebras are occasionally employed.
Mineral Resources
The Transvaal, the principal gold producing country in the world, is noted for the abundance and variety of its mineral resources. The minerals chiefly mined besides gold are diamonds and coal, but the country possesses also silver, iron, copper, lead, cobalt, sulphur, saltpetre and many other mineral deposits.
Gold
The principal gold-bearing reefs are found along the Witwatersrand (" The Rand "). Probably connected with the Rand i For projected routes, shortening the journey between Europe and Johannesburg, see the Geog. Journ., Dec. 1910.
reefs are the gold-bearing rocks in the Klerksdorp, Potchefstroom and Venterskroon districts. Other auriferous reefs are found all along the eastern escarpment of the Drakensberg and are worked in the De Kaap (Barberton) district, on the Swaziland frontier, in the Lydenburg district, in the Murchison Range and in other places in the Zoutpansberg. Goldfields also exist in the Waterberg and on the western frontier in the Marico district (the Malmani fields). The total value of the gold extracted from mines in the Transvaal up to the end of 1909 was about £246,000,000.
a. The Witwatersrand and Neighbouring Mines
The Rand reefs, first mined in 1886, cover a large area. The main reef, continuously traced, measures about 62 m. and runs in an east and west direction. The gold is found in minute particles arid in the richest ores the metal is rarely in visible quantities before treatment. In many places the main reef lies at a great depth and some bore-holes are over 5500 ft. deep. The yield of the Rand mines, in 1887 but 23,000 oz., rose in 1888 to 208,000 oz. In 1892 the yield was 1,210,000 oz.: in 1896 it exceeded 2,280,000 oz. and in 1898 was 4,295,000 oz. The war that followed prevented the proper working of the mines. In 1905 when a full supply of labour was again available the output was 4,760,000 oz., in which year the sum distributed in dividends to shareholders in the Rand mines was over £4,800,000. The total output from the Rand mines up to the end of 1908 was 56,477,240 oz. (see Gold, and Johannesburg). The Klerksdorp and Potchefstroom goldfields, known also as the Western Rand, were proclaimed in 1887 and up to the close of 1908 had yielded 446,224 OZ.
b. The De Kaap (Barberton) Fields
Gold was discovered in this district of the Drakensberg in 1875, but it was not until 1884 that the fields attracted much attention. The mines are, in general, situated on the slopes of the hills and are easily opened up by adits. The reefs are narrower than those of the Rand, and the, ore is usually very hard. The output, 35,000 oz. in 1889, was 121,000 oz. in 1896, but only 43,000 oz. in 1905. The total production (including the Komati and Swaziland fields) to the end of 1908 was 1,097,685 oz.
c. The Lydenburg and other Fields
The Lydenburg fields, reported to have been worked by the Portuguese in the 17th century, and rediscovered in 1869, though lying at an elevation of 4500 to 5000 ft. are alluvial - and the only rich alluvial goldfields in South Africa. The ground containing the gold is soil which has escaped denudation. Though several large nuggets have been found (the largest weighing 215 oz.), the total production is not great, the highest output obtained by washing being worth about £300,000 in one year. Besides the alluvial deposits a little mining is carried on, gold being present in the thin veins of quartz which cross the sandstone. The chief centres of the fields are Lydenburg, Pilgrims Rest and Spitzkop. The total output of the Lydenburg fields up to the end of 1908 is estimated at 1,200,000 oz. Farther north, in the Zoutpansberg and on its spurs are the little-worked mines generally known as the Low Country goldfields. Near Pietersburg in the Zoutpansberg is the Eersteling, the first mine worked in the Transvaal. Operations began in 1873 but in 1880 the machinery was destroyed by the Boers. It was not until 1904 that prospecting in the neighbourhood was again undertaken. The fields in the Waterberg and along the Malmani river are very small producers. The total yield to the end of 1908 of the Zoutpansberg, Low Country and other minor fields was 160,535 oz.
Diamonds
The chief diamond fields are in the Pretoria district. The ground was discovered to be diamondiferous in 1897, but it was not until 1903, when mining began on the Premier mine, situated 20 m. north-east of Pretoria, that the wealth of the fields was proved. The site of the Premier mine had been recognized as diamond-bearing in March 1898. The owner of the land, a Boer named Prinsloo, refused to allow experimental spade work, but after the conclusion of the Anglo-Boer War in 1902 sold his property for £55,000 to T. Cullinan (a Cape colonist and one of the chief contractors in the building of Johannesburg), whose faith in the richness of the ground was speedily justified. In June 1903 mining began and the diamonds found in the first five months realized over £90,000. On the 27th of January 1905, the largest diamond in the world, weighing 30254 carats, over 12 lb avoirdupois, was found in the mine and named the Cullinan. The Premier mine is of the same character as the diamond mines at Kimberley (see Diamond), and is considerably larger. The area of the " pipe " containing blue ground is estimated at 350,000 sq. yds.
Besides the Pretoria fields there are diamondiferous areas (alluvial diggings) in the Bloemhof district on the Vaal river north-east of Kimberley, and in other regions. In 1898 the output for the whole of the Transvaal was valued at £44,000. The output since the opening of the Premier mine has been: 1903-1904, £685,720; 1904-1905, £1,198,530; 1905-1906, £968,229; 1906-1907, £2,203,511; 1907-1908, £1,879,551; 1908-1909, £1,295,296.
| INDUSTRIES] |
Coal and other Minerals
There are extensive beds of good coal, including thick seams of steam coal near the Rand and other goldfields. Coal appears to have been first discovered in the neighbourhood of Bronkhorst Spruit between the Wilge and Olifants rivers, where it was so near the surface that farmers dug it up for their own use. In 1887 coal was found at Boksburg in the East Rand, and a mine was at once started. The principal collieries are those at Boksburg and at Brakpan, also on the East Rand, with a coal area of 2400 acres; at Vereeniging and Klerksdorp, near the Vaal; at Watervaal, 12 m. north of Pretoria; and in the Middelburg district, between Pretoria and Lourengo Marques. Like that of Natal the Transvaal coal burns with a clear flame and leaves little ash. The mines are free from gas and fire damp and none is more than 500 ft. deep. The output in 1893, the first year in which statistics are available, was 548,534 tons (of 2000 lb); in 1898 it was 1,907,808 tons, and for the year ending 30th of June 1909 was 3,312,413 tons, valued at £851,150.
Iron and copper are widely distributed. The Yzerberg near Marabastad in the Zoutpansberg consists of exceedingly rich iron ore, which has been smelted by the natives for many centuries. Silver is found in many districts, and mines near Pretoria have yielded in one year ore worth £30,000.
Salt is obtainable from the many pans in the plateaus, notably in the Zout(salt)pansberg, and was formerly manufactured in considerable quantities.
Agriculture
Next to mining agriculture is the most important industry. At the census of 1904 over 500,000 persons (excluding young children), or 37% of the population, were returned as engaged in agriculture. Some 25% more women than men were so employed, this preponderance being due to the large number of Kaffir women and the few native men who work in the mealie fields. The chief occupation of the majority of the white farmers is stock-raising. The high veld is admirably adapted for the raising of stock, its grasses being of excellent quality and the climate good. Even better pasture is found in the low veld, but there stock suffers in summer from many endemic diseases, and in the more northerly regions is subject to the attack of the tsetse fly. The banken veld is also unsuited in summer for horses and sheep, though cattle thrive. Much of the stock is moved from the lower to the higher regions according to the season. Among the high veld farmers the breeding of merino sheep is very popular.
The amount of land under cultivation is very small in comparison with the area of the province. In 1904 only 951,802 acres, or 1.26% of the total acreage was under cultivation, and of the cultivated land nearly half was farmed by natives. The small proportion of land tilled is due to many causes, among which paucity of populations is not the least. Moreover while large areas on the high veld are suitable for the raising of crops of a very varied character, in other districts, including a great part of the low veld, arable farming is impossible or unprofitable. Many regions suffer permanently from deficient rainfall; in others, owing to the absence of irrigation works, the water supply is lost, while the burning of the grass at the end of summer, a practice adopted by many farmers, tends to impoverish the soil and render it arid. The country suffers also from periods of excessive heat and general drought, while locusts occasionally sweep over the land, devouring every green thing. In some seasons the locusts, both red and brown, come in enormous swarms covering an area 5 m. broad and from 40 to 60 m. long. The chief method employed for their destruction is spraying the swarms with arsenic. The districts with the greatest area under cultivation are Heidelberg, Witwatersrand, Pretoria, Standerton and Krugersdorp. The chief crops grown for grain are wheat, maize (mealie) and kaffir corn, but the harvest is inadequate to meet local demands. Maize is the staple food of the Kaffirs. Since 1906 an important trade has also arisen in the raising of mealies for export by white farmers. Oats, barley and millet are largely grown for forage. Oats are cut shortly before reaching maturity, when they are known as oat-hay. The chief vegetables grown are potatoes, pumpkins, carrots, onions and tomatoes.
Fruit farming is a thriving industry, the slopes of the plateaus and the river valleys being specially adapted for this culture. At the census of 1904 over 3,032,000 fruit trees were enumerated. There were 163,000 orange trees and nearly 60,000 other citrus trees, 430,000 grape vines, 276,000 pine plants and 78,000 banana plants. Oranges are cultivated chiefly in the Rustenburg, Waterberg, Zoutpansberg and Pretoria districts, grapes in Potchefstroom, Pretoria and Marico, as well as in the Zoutpansberg and Waterberg, to which northern regions the cultivation of the banana is confined. In the tropical district of the Limpopo valley there is some cultivation of the coffee-tree, and this region is also adapted for the growing of tea, sugar, cotton and rice. Tobacco is grown in every district, but chiefly in Rustenburg. Of the 3,032,000 lb of tobacco grown in 1904, Rustenburg produced 884,000 lb.
A department of agriculture was established in 1902, and through its efforts great improvements have been made in the methods of farming. To further assist agriculture a land bank was established by the government in"1907 and an agricultural college in 1910.
Land Settlement
The land board is a government department charged with the control of Crown lands leased to settlers on easy terms for agricultural purposes. Between 1902 and 1907 about 55 o families were placed on the land, their holdings aggregating over 500,000 acres. The Crown lands cover in all about 21,500,000 acres. Large areas of these lands, especially in the northern districts, are used as native reserves.
Other Industries
There are few manufacturing undertakings other than those connected with mining, agriculture and the development of Johannesburg. There is a large factory for the supply of dynamite to the gold mines. The building and construction trade is an important industry on the Rand, where there are also brickworks, iron and brass foundries, breweries and distilleries. There are a number of flour mills and jam factories in various centres. A promising home industry, started under English auspices after the war of 1899-1902, is the weaving by women of rugs, carpets, blankets, &c., from native wool.
Export and Import Trade. - Before the discovery of gold the trade of the Transvaal was of insignificant proportions. This may be illustrated by the duties paid on .imports, which in 1880 amounted to £20,306. In 1887 when the gold-mining industry was in its infancy the duty on imports had risen to £190,792, and in 1897, when the industry was fully developed, to £1,289,039. The Anglo-Boer War completely disorganized trade, but the close of the contest was marked by feverish activity and the customs receipts in1902-1903rose to £2,176,658. A petiod of depression followed, the average annual receipts for the next three years being £1,683,159. In1908-1909they were £1,588,960.
The chief exports are gold and diamonds. Of the total exports in 1908, valued at £33,323,000, gold was worth £29,643,000 and diamonds £1,977,000. Next in value came wool (£226,000), horses and mules (£110,000), skins, hides and horns (£106,000), tobacco (£89,000), tin, coal, copper and lead. The gold and diamonds are sent to England via Cape Town; the other exports go chiefly to Deiagoa Bay. The imports, valued at £16,196,000 in 1908, include goods of every kind. Machinery, provisions, largely in the form of tinned and otherwise preserved food, and liquors, clothing, textiles and hardware, chemicals and dynamite, iron and steel work and timber, and jewelry are the chief items in the imports. Of the imports about 50% comes from Great Britain and about 20% from British colonies (including other South African states). Half the imports reach the Transvaal through the Portuguese port of Lourengo Marques, Durban taking 25% and the Cape ports the remainder. There is free trade between the Transvaal and the other British possessions in South Africa, and for external trade they all adhere to a Customs Union which, as fixed in 1906, imposes a general ad valorem duty of 15% on most goods save machinery, on which the duty is 3%. A rebate of 3% is granted on imports from Great Britain.
Constitution
The existing constitution dates from 1910. The province is represented in the Union Parliament by eight senators and thirty-six members of the House of Assembly. For parliamentary purposes the province is divided into singlemember constituencies. Every adult white male British subject is entitled to the franchise, subject to a six months' residential qualification.' There is no property qualification. All electors are eligible to the assembly. Voters are registered biennially, and every five years there is an automatic redistribution of seats on a voters' basis.
Central Government
At the head of the executive is a provincial administrator, appointed by the Union ministry, who holds office for five years and is assisted by an executive committee of four members elected by the provincial council. The provincial council consists of 36 members elected for the same constituencies and by the same electorate as are the members of the House of Assembly. The provincial council, which has strictly local powers, sits for a statutory period of three years. The control of elementary education was guaranteed to the provincial council for a period of five years from the establishment of the Union.
In May 1903 an inter-colonial council was established to deal with the administration of the railways in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony (known as the Central South African railways), the South African constabulary and other matters common to the Orange River and Transvaal colonies. This council was presided over by the governor of the Transvaal and formed an important part of the administrative machinery. By agreement between the two colonies the council was dissolved in 1908. In 1910 the control of the railways passed to the harbours and railway board of the Union of South Africa.
Local Government
The unit of administration is the field cornetcy. The semi-military organization of these divisions, which existed under the South African republic, has been abolished, and field-cornets, who are nominated by the provincial government, are purely civil officials charged with the registration of voters, births and deaths, the maintenance of public roads, &c. The chief local authorities are the municipal bodies, many " municipalities " being rural areas centred round a small town. The municipal boards possess very ' The number of electors at the first registration (1907) was 105,368.
| [GOVERNMENT - FINANCE |
wide powers of local government. The Witwatersrand municipalities are for certain purposes combined into one authority, and representatives of these municipalities, together with representatives of the chamber of mines, compose the Rand water board. The basis of municipal qualification is ownership of real property of the value of £ioo, or the tenancy of premises of the value of £300, or annual value of £2 4. Neither aliens nor coloured British subjects can exercise the franchise.
Finance
In 1883, before the Rand gold mines had been found revenue and expenditure were about £150,000; in 1887, when the mines were beginning to be developed, the receipts were £668,000 and the expenditure £721,000; in 1889 the receipts had risen to £1,577,000 and the expenditure to £1,226,000. In 1894 the receipts first exceeded two millions, the figures for that year being: revenue £2,247,000, expenditure £1,734,000. The figures for the four following years were Expenditure.
£2,679,000 £4,671,000 £4,394,000 £3,971,000 The public debt of the Boer government was £2,500,000. In 1899 war broke out and the finances of the country were disorganized. The accounts of the colony began, for normal purposes, with the year ending 30th of June 1903, and ended in June 1910 on the establishment of the Union. In May 1903 a loan of £35,000,000, guaranteed by the imperial government and secured on the general revenues of the Transvaal and Orange River colonies, was issued to the extent of £30,000,000, the balance being raised about the middle of 1904. This loan bears interest at 3 io per annum, with a sinking fund of 1%, and as to the £30,000,000 was issued at par, the £5,000,000 being put up to tender and realizing an average price of £98, 10s. 3d. The principal head in the allocation of this loan was the purchase of the railways in the two colonies at a cost of £13,520,000, while an additional £5,958,000 was devoted to the building of new lines, purchases of rolling stock, &c. The debt of the South African Republic was paid off; £542,000 went to make good the deficit on the administration for 1901-1902; the sum of £1,561,000 was paid to burghers of the Cape Colony and Natal as compensation for war losses; £3,000,000 was devoted to land settlement schemes and £2,000,000 to public works other than railways. The railways were treated as the common property of both colonies, and to administer them and other common services the inter-colonial council was created. In addition to the charges enumerated £5,000,000 were spent out of the loan on " repatriation and compensation " of burghers who had suffered during the war. 1 In addition to the £35,000,000 guaranteed loan of1903-1904two small loans for land settlement and public works, together amounting to £254,800, were issued, and in 1907 an imperial guarantee was given for the raising of another loan, of £5,000,000, by the colonial government. The act authorizing the loan devoted £2,500,000 to the establishment of a land and agricultural bank, and £2,500,000 to railways, public works, irrigation and agricultural settlement and development. The loan was raised, as to £4,000,000, in January 1909, the average price obtained being £96, 3s. 7d.
The chief sources of revenue are customs, mining royalties, railways, native revenue (poll tax and passes), posts and telegraphs, stamp and transfer duties, land revenue and taxes on trades and professions. A tax of 10% is levied on the annual net produce of all gold workings (proclamation of 1902) and the government takes 60% of the profits on diamond mines. In 1907 an excise duty was, for the first time, levied on beer. The principal heads of expenditure are on railways and other public works, including posts and telegraphs, justice, education, police, land settlement and agriculture generally, mines and native affairs. Since June 1910 the control of state finance passed to the Union parliament, but the Transvaal provincial council is empowered to raise revenue for provincial purposes by direct taxation and, with the consent of the Union government, to borrow money on the sole credit of the province.
In the five years1902-1907the average annual receipts and expenditure amounted to £4,500,000, exclusive of the sums received and expended on account of the loans mentioned. The inter-colonial council received and spent in the four years1903-1907over £21,500,000, including some £3,500,000 paid in from revenue by the Transvaal and Orange River colonies to make good deficits. Fully two-thirds of the revenue and ' Besides this £5,000,000 an additional sum of £9,500,000 was spent by the imperial government in relieving the necessities of those who had suffered during the war, but of this £9,500,000 the sum of £2,500,000 was in payment for goods received.
expenditure of the Council was derived from and spent upon the Transvaal, so that had the accounts of the two colonies been entirely distinct the figures of the Transvaal budget for 1903-1907 would have balanced at about £8,500,000 a year. In July 1907 when the control of the finances passed into the hands of the Transvaal legislature the credit balance on the consolidated fund was £960,000. In 1908 the inter-colonial council was dissolved, but the railways continued to be administered as a joint concern by a railway board on which the governments of both colonies were represented. This board in 1910 handed over its duties to the harbour and railway board of the Union. The Transvaal revenue (apart from railway receipts) in 1908-1909 was £5,735,000, the corresponding expenditure £4,524,000. The budget figures for1909-1910were: revenue £5,943,000; expenditure £5,231,000. The diamond revenue yielded £235,000 and the gold profits tax £965,000. The balance handed over to the Union government was £1,015,000.
Justice
The laws are based on Roman-Dutch law, as modified by local acts. Courts of first instance are presided over by magistrates, the whole colony being divided into sixteen magisterial wards. There is a provincial division of the Supreme Court of South Africa sitting at Pretoria (consisting of a judge president and six puisne justices) with original and appellate jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters. A local division of the Supreme Court, formerly known as the Witwatersrand high court (consisting of one or more judges of the Supreme Court) sits permanently at Johannesburg and has civil and criminal jurisdiction throughout the Rand. Circuit courts are held as occasion requires.
Police
Pretoria and Johannesburg have their own police forces. The rest of the province is policed by the South African constabulary, a body 3700 strong, to which is also entrusted customs preventive work, fire brigade work and such like functions.
Education
Since 1910 education other than elementary is under the control of the Union parliament. The provincial council is responsible for elementary education. At the head of the permanent staff is a director of education. School boards and district committees are formed, but their functions are almost entirely advisory. In accordance with the terms of the Education Act of 1907 of the Transvaal colony, state schools are provided for the free instruction of all white children in elementary subjects. Attendance at school between the ages of 7 and 14 is, with certain exceptions, compulsory. The medium of instruction in the lower standards is the mother tongue of the children. Above standard III. English is the medium of instruction. No religious tests are imposed on teachers and religious teaching is confined to undenominational Bible teaching. No government grants are given to private schools. (In 1906 members of the Dutch community established a " Christian National Education " organization and opened a number of denominational schools.) Secondary education is provided in the towns and high schools are maintained at Pretoria, Johannesburg and Potchefstroom. There are University colleges at Pretoria and Johannesburg. Education of the natives is chiefly in the hands of the missionaries, but the government gives grants in aid to over loo schools for natives. At the census of 1904 the natives able to read formed less than 1 of the population. At the same census 95% of the white population over 21 were able to read and write; of the whites between the ages of 5 and 14 59% could read and write.
State schools for white children were established by the Boer government, and in the last year (1898) before the British occupation there were 509 schools and 14,700 scholars, the education vote that year being £226,000. In 1902 the property vested in various school committees was transferred to government and control of the schools vested in a department of state. In 1909 there were 670 government elementary schools, with more than 42,000 scholars. In1907-1908the education vote exceeded £500,000.
Religion
Of the total population 26.69 are Christians, and of the Christians 80% are whites. No fewer than 70% of the people, including the bulk of the natives, are officially returned as of no religion." Of the 336,869 Christians 69,738 were natives. Nearly half of the white community, 142,540 persons, belong to one or other of the Dutch Churches in the Transvaal, but they have only 4305 native members. Of Dutch Churches the first and chief is the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk, founded by the Voortrekkers and originally the state Church. The others are the Nederduitsch Gereformeerde Kerk, an offshoot of the Church of the same name at the Cape, and the Gereformeerde Kerk (the " Dopper " Church) with some 15,000 members and adherents in the Transvaal. The " Dopper " Church, an offshoot of the Separatist Reformed Church of Holland, is distinguished from the other Dutch churches in being more rigidly Calvinistic and " Biblical," and in not using hymns. A " Scouts " Church was formed at the end of the war of1899-1902by burghers who had previously acted as " National Scouts " and were ostracized by the synods of their former Churches. After some years of friction " National Scouts " were however readmitted, on terms, to their former membership.
| Revenue. | |
| 18 95 | £3,539,000 |
| 1896 | £4,807,000 |
| 18 97 | £4,480,000 |
| 1898 | £3,983,000 |
| HISTORY] |
The Anglicans number 67,882 (including 13,033 natives), and are 19% of the European population. At the head of the community is the bishop of Pretoria. Next in numbers according to European membership among the Protestant bodies are Presbyterians, 19,821 (including 1194 natives), and Methodists 37,812 (including 20,648 natives). The Lutherans are the chief missionary body. Of a total membership of 24,175 only 5770 are European. The Protestant European community amounts altogether to 35% of the white population. The Roman Catholics number 16,453 (including 2005 natives) and form 5% of the European population, and the Hebrews 1 5,47 8 or 5.34% of the European inhabitants.
Defence
A strong garrison of the British army is maintained in the province, the headquarters of all the imperial military forces in South Africa being at Pretoria. These forces are under the command of a lieutenant-general, who, however, acts under the supreme direction of the governor-general. The Transvaal forms a distinct district command under a major-general.
A volunteer force was established in 1904, for service within the Transvaal, or wherever the interests of the country might require. The force, disciplined and organized by a permanent staff of officers and non-commissioned officers of the regular army, is about 6500 strong, and consists of a brigade of artillery, four mounted, three composite and four infantry corps, a cyclist corps, &c. There are also cadet companies some 3000 strong. (F. R. C.) History A. Foundation of the Republic. - At the beginning of the 1 9th century the country now known as the Transvaal was inhabited, apparently somewhat sparsely, by Bavenda and other Bantu negroes, and in the south-west by wandering Bushmen and Hottentots. About 1817 the country was invaded by the chieftain Mosilikatze and his impis, who were fleeing from the vengeance of Chaka, king of the Zulus. The inhabitants were unable to withstand the attacks of the disciplined Zulu warriors - or Matabele, as they were henceforth called - by whom large areas of central and western Transvaal were swept bare. The remnants of the Bavenda retreated north to the Waterberg and Zoutpansberg, while Mosilikatze made his chief kraal at Mosega, not far from the site of the town of Zeerust. At that time the region between the Vaal and Limpopo was scarcely known to Europeans. In 1829, however, Mosilikatze was visited at Mosega by Robert Moffat, and between that date and 1836 a few British traders and explorers visited the country and made known its principal features. Such was the situation when Boer emigrants first crossed the Vaal.
The causes which led to the exodus of large numbers of Dutch farmers from Cape Colony are discussed elsewhere (see South Africa and Cape Colony). Here it is only necessary to state that the Voortrekkers were animated by an intense desire to be altogether rid of British control, and to be allowed to set up independent communities and govern the natives in such fashion as they saw fit. The first party to cross the Vaal consisted of 98 persons under the leadership of Louis Trichard and Jan van Rensburg. They left Cape Colony in 1835 and trekked to the Zoutpansberg. Here Rensburg's party separated from the others, but were soon afterwards murdered by natives.' Trichard's party determined to examine the country between the Zoutpansberg and Delagoa Bay. Fever carried off several of their number, and it was not until 1838 that the survivors reached the coast. Eventually they proceeded by boat to Natal. Meantime, in 1836, another party of farmers under Andries Hendrik Potgieter had established their headquarters on the banks of the Vet river. Potgieter and some companions followed the trail of Trichard's party as far as the Zoutpansberg, where they were shown gold workings by the natives and saw rings of gold made by native workmen. They also ascertained that a trade between the Kaffirs and the Portuguese at Delagoa Bay already existed. On returning to the Vet, Potgieter learned that a hunting party of Boers which had crossed the Vaal had been attacked by the Matabele, who had also killed Boer women and children. This act led to reprisals, and on the 17th of January 1837 a Boer commando surprised Mosilikatze's encampment at Mosega, inflicting heavy loss on the Matabele without themselves 1 Two small children were spared and brought up as Kaffirs. In 1867 they were given over to the Boer government by the Swazis, who had acquired them from their captors.
X XVII. 7 losing a man. In November of the same year Mosilikatze suffered further heavy losses at the hands of the Boers, and early in 1838 he fled north beyond the Limpopo, never to return. Potgieter, after the flight of the Matabele, issued a proclamation in which he declared the country which Mosilikatze had abandoned forfeited to the emigrant farmers. After the Matabele peril had been removed, many farmers trekked across the Vaal and occupied parts of the district left derelict. Into these depopulated areas there was also a considerable immigration of Basuto, Bechuana and other Bantu tribes.
The first permanent white settlement north of the Vaal was made by a party under Potgieter's leadership. That commandant had in March 1838 gone to Natal, and had endeavoured to avenge the massacre of Piet Retief and his comrades by the Zulus. Jealous, however, of the preference shown by the Dutch farmers in Natal to another commandant (Gert Maritz), Potgieter speedily recrossed the Drakensberg, and in November 1838 he and his followers settled by the banks of the Mooi river, founding a town named Potchefstroom in honour of Potgieter. This party instituted an elementary form of government, and in 1840 entered into a loose confederation with the Natal Boers, and also with the Boers south of the Vaal, whose headquarters were at Winburg. In 1842, however, Potgieter's party declined to go to the help of the Natal Boers, then involved in conflict with the British. Up to 1845 Potgieter continued to exercise authority over the Boer communities on both sides of the Vaal. A determination to keep clear of the British and to obtain access to the outer world through an independent channel led Potgieter and a considerable number of the Potchefstroom and Winburg burghers in 1845 to migrate towards Delagoa Bay. Potgieter settled in the Zoutpansberg, while other farmers chose as headquarters a place on the inner slopes of the Drakensberg, where they founded a village called Andries Ohrigstad. It proved fever-ridden and was abandoned, a new village being laid out on higher ground and named Lydenburg in memory of their sufferings at the abandoned settlement.
Meantime the southern districts abandoned by Potgieter and his comrades were occupied by other Boers. These were joined in 1848 by Andries W. J. Pretorius, who became commandant of the Potchefstroom settlers. When the British government decided to recognize the independence of the Transvaal Boers it was with Pretorius that negotiations were conducted. On the 17th of January 1852 a con- River vention was signed at a farm near the Sand river in the Orange sovereignty by assistant commissioners nominated by the British high commissioner on the one hand, and by Pretorius and other Boers on the other. The first clause was in the following terms: The assistant commissioners guarantee in the fullest manner, on the part of the British government, to the emigrant farmers beyond the Vaal river, the right to manage their own affairs, and to govern themselves according to their own laws, without any interference on the part of the British government, and that no encroachment shall be made by the said government on the territory beyond to the north of the Vaal river, with the further assurance that the warmest wish of the British government is to promote peace, free trade, and friendly intercourse with the emigrant farmers now inhabiting, or who hereafter may inhabit, that country; it being understood that this system of non-interference is binding upon both parties.
At this time there were settled north of the Vaal about 5000 families of European extraction - about 40,000 persons, including young children. They had obtained independence, but they were far from being a united people. When Pretorius conducted the negotiations which led to the signing of the Sand River Convention he did so without consulting the volksraad, and Potgieter's party accused him of usurping power and aiming at domination over the whole country. However, the volksraad, at a meeting held at Rustenburg on the 16th of March 1852, ratified the convention, Potgieter and Pretorius having been publicly reconciled on the morning of the same day. Both leaders were near the end of their careers; Potgieter died in March and Pretorius in July 1853.
| [THE FIRST REPUBLIC |
Whatever their internal dissensions the Boers were united in regard to what they considered their territorial rights, and in the interval between the signing of the Sand River Convention and the death of Pretorius an incident occurred significant alike of their claims to jurisdiction over enormous areas and of their manner of treating the natives. Within a few weeks of the signing of the convention Pretorius had asked the British authorities to close the " lower road " to the interior, that is the route through Bechuanaland, opened up by Moffat, Livingstone and other missionaries. Pretorius alleged that by this means the natives were obtaining firearms. At the same time the Transvaal Boers claimed that all the Bechuana country belonged to them, a claim which the British government of that day did not think it worth while to contest. No boundary westward had been indicated in the Sand River Convention. The Barolong, Bakwena and other Bechuana tribes, through whose lands the " lower road " ran, claimed however to be independent, among them Sechele (otherwise Setyeli), at whose chief kraalKolobeng - Livingstone was then stationed. Sechele was regarded by the Boers as owing them allegiance, and in August 1852 Pretorius sent against him a commando (in which Paul Kruger served as a field cornet), alleging that the Bakwena were harbouring a Bakatla chief who had looted cattle belonging to Boer farmers. It was in this expedition that Livingstone's house was looted. There was little fighting, but the commando carried off between two and three hundred native women and children - some of whom were redeemed by their friends, and some escaped, while many of the children were apprenticed to farmers. Sechele's power was not broken, and he appealed for British protection, which was not then granted. The incident was, however, but the first step in the struggle for the possession of that country (see Bechuanaland). It served to strengthen the unfavourable impression formed in England of the Transvaal Boers with regard to their treatment of the natives; an impression which was deepened by tidings of terrible chastisement of tribes in the Zoutpansberg, and by the Apprentice Law passed by the volksraad in 1856 - a law denounced in many quarters as practically legalizing slavery.
On the death of Andries Pretorius his son Marthinus W. Pretorius (q.v.) had been appointed his successor, and to the younger Pretorius was due the first efforts to end the discord and confusion which prevailed among the burghers - a discord heightened by ecclesiastical strife, the points at issue being questions not of faith but of church government. In 1856 a series of public meetings, summoned by Pretorius, was held at different districts in the Transvaal for the purpose of discussing and deciding whether the time had not arrived for substituting a strong central government in place of the petty district governments which had hitherto existed. The result was that a representative assembly of delegates was elected, empowered to draft a constitution. In December m this assembly met at Potchefstroom, and for three y, weeks was engaged in modelling the constitution 1856. of the country. The name " South African Republic " was adopted as the title of the state, and the new constitution made provision for a volksraad to which members were to be elected by the people for a period of two years, and in which the legislative function was vested. The administrative authority was to be vested in a president, aided by an executive council. It was stipulated that members both of the volksraad and council should be members of the Dutch Reformed Church, and of European blood. No equality of coloured people with the white inhabitants would be tolerated either in church or state. In reviewing an incident so important in the history of the Transvaal as the appointment of the Potchefstroom assembly it is of interest to note the gist of the complaint among the Boers which led to this revolution in the government of the country as it had previously existed. In his History of South Africa Theal says: " The community of Lydenburg was accused of attempting to domineer over the whole country, without any other right to pre-eminence than that of being composed of the earliest inhabitants, a right which it had forfeited by its opposi tion to the general weal." In later years this complaint was precisely that of the Uitlanders at Johannesburg. To conciliate the Boers of Zoutpansberg the new-born assembly at Potchefstroom appointed Stephanus Schoeman, the commandantgeneral of the Zoutpansberg district, commandant-general of the whole country. This offer was, however, declined by Schoeman, and both Zoutpansberg and Lydenburg indignantly repudiated the new assembly and its constitution. The executive council, which had been appointed by the Potchefstroom assembly, with Pretorius as president, now took up a bolder attitude: they deposed Schoeman from all authority, declared Zoutpansberg in a state of blockade, and denounced the Boers of the two northern districts as rebels.
Further to strengthen their position, Pretorius and his party unsuccessfully endeavoured to bring about a union with the Orange Free State. Peaceful overtures having failed, Pretorius and Paul Kruger placed themselves at the head of a commando which crossed the Vaal with the object of enforcing union, but the Free State compelled their withof drawal (see Orange Free State). Within the Transvaal the forces making for union gained strength notwithstanding these events, and by the year i 860 Zoutpansberg and Lydenburg had become incorporated with the republic. Pretoria, newly founded, and named in honour of the elder Pretorius, was made the seat of government and capital of the country. The ecclesiastical efforts at unity had not been equally successful. The Separatist Reformed Church of Holland had sent out a young expositor of its doctrines named Postma, who, in November 1858, became minister of Rustenburg. In the following year a general church assembly endeavoured to unite all the congregations in a common government, but Postma's consistory rejected these overtures, and from that date the Separatist (or Dopper) Church has had an independent existence (see ante, § Religion). Paul Kruger, who lived near Rustenburg, became a strong adherent of the new church.
Pretorius, while still president of the Transvaal, had been elected, through the efforts of his partisans, president of the Orange Free State. He thereupon (in February 1860) obtained six months' leave of absence and repaired to Bloemfontein, in the hope of peacefully bringing about a union between the two republics. He had no sooner left the Transvaal than the -old Lydenburg party, headed by Cornelis Potgieter, landdrost of Lydenburg, protested that the union would be much more beneficial to the Free State than to the people of Lydenburg, and followed this up with the contention lions' that it was illegal for any one to be president of the South African Republic and the Free State at the same time. At the end of the six months Pretorius, after a stormy meeting of the volksraad, apparently in disgust at the whole situation, resigned the presidency of the Transvaal. J. H. Grobelaar, who had been appointed president during the temporary absence of Pretorius, was requested to remain in office. The immediate followers of Pretorius now became extremely incensed at the action of the Lydenburg party, and a mass meeting was held at Potchefstroom (October 1860), where it was resolved that: (a) the volksraad no longer enjoyed its confidence; (b) that Pretorius should remain president of the South African Republic, and have a year's leave of absence to bring about union with the Free State; (c) that Schoeman should act as president during the absence of Pretorius; (d) that before the return of Pretorius to resume his duties a new volksraad should be elected.
| THE FIRST REPUBLIC] |
If at this stage of their existence the real ambition of the Transvaal Boers was to found a strong and compact republican state, their conduct in opposing a scheme of union with the Orange Free State was foolish to a degree. The events of the year 1860, as well as of all the years that followed down to British annexation in 1877, show that licence rather than liberty, a narrow spirit of faction rather than patriotism, were the dominant instincts of the Boer. Had the fusion of the two little republics which Pretorius sought to bring about, and from which apparently the Free State was not averse, actually been accomplished in 1860, it is more than probable that a republican state on liberal lines, with some prospect of permanence and stability, might have been formed. But a narrow, distrustful, grasping policy on the part of whatever faction might be dominant at the time invariably prevented the state from acquiring stability and security at any stage of its history.
The complications that ensued on the action of the Pretorius party subsequent to his resignation were interminable and complicated. Some of the new party were arraigned for treason and fined; and for several months there were two acting presidents and two rival governments within the Transvaal. At length Commandant Paul Kruger called cut the burghers of his district and entered into the strife. Having driven Schoeman and his followers from Pretoria, Kruger invaded Potchefstroom, which, after a skirmish in which three men were killed and seven wounded, ' fell into his hands. He then pursued Schoeman, who doubled on his opponent and entered Potchefstroom. A temporary peace was no sooner secured than Commandant Jan Viljoen rose in revolt and engaged Kruger's forces. Viljoen's commando, with which Pretorius was in sympathy, was known as the Volksleger, or Army of the People. Kruger's force called itself the Staatsleger or Army of the State. Pretorius in 1863 resigned his Free State presidency and offering himself as mediator (not for the first time) succeeded at length in putting a period to the confused series of intestine quarrels. In January 1864 a conference, which lasted six days, was held between the parties and an agreement was reached. This was followed by a new election for president, and once more Pretorius was called upon to fill that office. Kruger was appointed commandant-general.
Civil strife for a time was at an end, but the injuries inflicted on the state were deep and lasting. The public funds were exhausted; taxes were impossible to collect; and the natives on the borders of the country and in the mountains of the north had thrown off all allegiance to the state. The prestige of the country was practically gone, not only with the world outside, but, what was of still more moment, with her neighbour the Free State, which felt that a federation with the Transvaal, which the Free State once had sought but which it now forswore, was an evil avoided and not an advantage lost. A charge frequently laid at the door of the Boers, at that time and since, was that of enslaving the black races.
This charge was not without some justification. It is true that laws prohibiting slavery were in existence, but the Boer who periodically took up arms against his own appointed government was not likely to be, nor was he, restrained by laws. Natives were openly transferred from one Boer to another, and the fact that they were described as apprentices by the farmers did not in the least alter the status of the native, who to all intents and purposes became the property of his master. These apprentices, mostly bought from slave traders when little children, formed, however, a very small proportion of the native population, and after some fifteen years' servitude were usually allowed their freedom. Natives enjoying tribal government were not enslaved, but nothing could exceed in ferocity the measures taken to reduce recalcitrant tribes to submission. Education, as need hardly be said, was in the 'sixties at a very low ebb, and nothing approaching the standard of a high school existed. The private tutor was a good deal in demand, but his qualifications were of the slightest. An unsuccessful European carpenter or other mechanic, or even labourer, not infrequently occupied this position. At the various churches such elementary schools as existed were to be found, but they did not profess to teach more than a smattering of the three " R's " and the principles of Christianity.
In 1865 an empty exchequer called for drastic measures, and the volksraad determined to endeavour to meet their liabilities and provide for further contingencies by the issue of notes. Paper money was thus introduced, and in a very short time fell to a considerable discount. In this same year the farmers of the Zoutpansberg district were driven into laagers by a native rising which they were unable to suppress. Schoemansdal, a village at the foot of the Zoutpansberg, was the most important settlement of the district, and the most advanced outpost in European occupation at that time in South Africa. It was just within the tropics, and was situated in a well-watered and beautiful country. It was used as a base by hunters and traders with the interior, and in its vicinity there gathered a number of settlers of European origin, many of them outcasts from Europe or Cape Colony. They earned the reputation of being the most lawless white inhabitants in the whole of South Africa. When called upon to go to the aid of this settlement, which in1865-1866was sore pressed by one of the mountain Bantu tribes known as the Baramapulana, the burghers of the southern Transvaal objected that the white inhabitants of that region were too lawless and reckless a body to merit their assistance. In 1867 Schoemansdal and a considerable portion of the district were abandoned on the advice of Commandant-general Paul Kruger, and Schoemansdal finally was burnt to ashes by a party of natives. It was not until 1869 that peace was patched up, and the settlement arrived at left the mountain tribes in practical independence. Meanwhile the public credit and finances of the Transvaal went from bad to worse. The paper notes already issued had been constituted by law legal tender for all debts, but in 1868 their power of actual purchase was only 30% compared with that of gold, and by 1870 it had fallen as low as 25%. Civil servants, who were paid in this depreciated scrip, suffered considerable distress. The revenue for 1869 was stated as £31,511; the expenditure at 30,836.
The discovery of gold at Tati led President Pretorius in April 1868 to issue a proclamation extending his territories on the west and north so as to embrace the goldfield and all Efforts Bechuanaland. The same proclamation extended Transvaal territory on the east so as to include part of Delagoa Bay. The eastern extension claimed by Pretorius was the sequel to endeavours made shortly before, on the initiative of a Scotsman, to develop trade along the rivers leading to Delagoa Bay. It was also in accord with the desire of the Transvaal Boers to obtain a seaport, a desire which had led them as early as 1860 to treat with the Zulus for the possession of St Lucia Bay. That effort had, however, failed. And now the proclamation of Pretorius was followed by protests on the part of the British high commissioner, Sir Philip Wodehouse, as well as on the part of the consul-general for Portugal in South Africa. The boundary on the east was settled by a treaty with Portugal in 1869, the Boers abandoning their claim to Delagoa Bay; that on the west was dealt with in 1871.
The Sand River Convention of 1852 had not defined the western border of the state, and the discovery of gold at Tati to the northwest, together with the discovery of diamonds on the Vaal in 1867, offered Pretorius every inducement to extend his boundary. Although to-day the great diamond mines are south of the Vaal River, the early discoveries of diamonds were made chiefly on the northern bank of the Vaal, near the site of the town now known as Barkly West. This territory was claimed by the South African Republic, by Barolong and Batlapin Bechuanas, by Koranas, and also by David Arnot, on behalf of the Griqua captain, Nicholas Waterboer. To settle the boundary question an arbitration court was appointed consisting of a Transvaal landdrost, A. A. O'Reilly, on behalf of the South African Republic, and John Campbell on behalf of the other claimants, with Lieutenant-Governor Keate of Natal as referee. The judges disagreed, and the final decision, afterwards known as the Keate award, was given by the referee on the 17th of October 1871. The decision was in favour of Waterboer, who had, on the 25th of August 1870, before the appointment of the arbitration court, offered his territory to Great Britain, and it was understood by all the parties interested that that offer would be accepted. The award, admittedly just on the evidence before Keate, placed, however, outside the territory of the republic the Bloemhof district, in which district Boer farmers were settled, and over which the Pretoria government had for some years exercised jurisdiction. A few days after the publication of the Keate award Sir Henry Barkly, the British high commissioner, issued proclamations taking over Waterboer's territory under the title of Griqualand West (q.v.). The eastern boundary of the new territory was made to include the region between the Harts river and the Vaal, in which the diamond diggings were situated, but not the Bloemhof district. To this district Sir Henry Barkly asserted the British rights, but no steps were taken to enforce them and as a matter of fact the Bloemhof district continued to be part of the Transvaal.
The award caused a strong feeling of resentment among the Boers, and led to the resignation of President Pretorius and his executive. The Boers now cast about to find a man who should have the necessary ability, as they said, to negotiate on equal terms with the British authorities should any future dispute arise. With this view they asked Mr (afterwards Sir John) Brand, president,, of the Free State, to allow them to nominate him for the presidency of the South African Republic. To this President Brand 1872. would not consent. He recognized that, even at this early stage of their history, the Transvaal Boers were filled with the wildest ideas as to what steps they would take in the future to counteract the influence of Great Britain. Brand intimated to many of the leading Transvaal Boers that in his opinion they were embarking on a rash and mistaken policy. He urged that their true interests lay in friendship with, not in hostility to, Great Britain and the British. Having failed with Brand, the Boers invited the Rev. Thomas Francois Burgers, a member of a well-known Cape Colony family and a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, to allow himself to be nominated. Burgers accepted the offer, and in 1872 was elected president. About this time gold reefs were discovered in the Zoutpansberg district near Marabastad, and a few gold seekers from Europe and Cape Colony began to prospect the northern portions of the Transvaal. The miners and prospectors did not, however, exceed a few hundred for several years.
The appointment of Burgers to the presidency in 1872 was a new departure. He was able, active and enlightened, but he was a visionary rather than a man of affairs or sound judgment. Instead of reducing chaos to order and concentrating his attention, as Brand had done in the Free State, on establishing security and promoting industry, he took up, with all its entanglements, the policy of intrigues with native chiefs beyond the border and the dream of indefinite expansion. In 1875 Burgers proceeded to Europe with the project of raising a loan for the construction of a railway to Delagoa Bay. He was empowered by the volksraad to raise £300,000, but with great difficulty he obtained in Holland the sum of £90,000 only, and that at a high rate of interest. With this inadequate sum some railway plant was obtained, and subsequently lay for ten years at Delagoa Bay, the scheme having to be abandoned for want of funds. On his return to the Transvaal in 1876 Burgers found that the conditions of affairs in the state was worse than ever. The acting-president had in his absence been granted leave by the volksraad to carry out various measures opposed to the public welfare; native lands had been indiscriminately allotted to adventurers, and a war with Sikukuni (Secocoeni), a native chief on the eastern borders of the country, was imminent. A commando was called out, which the president himself led. The expedition was an ignominious failure, and many burghers did not hesitate to assign their non-success to the fact that Burgers's views on religious questions were not sound. Burgers then proceeded to levy taxes, which were never paid; to enrol troops, which never marched; and to continue the head of a government which had neither resources, credit nor power of administration. In 1877 the Transvaal one-pound notes were valued at one shilling cash. Add to this condition of things the fact that the Zulus were threatening the Transvaal on its southern border, and the picture of utter collapse which existed in the state is complete.
| FIRST ANNEXATION] |
B. First Annexation by Great Britain. - This condition of affairs coincided with the second movement in South Africa for a confederation of its various colonies and states, a movement of which the then colonial secretary, the 4th earl of Carnarvon, was a warm advocate. As to the Transvaal in particular, it was felt by Lord Carnarvon " that the safety and prosperity of the republic would be best assured by its union with the British colonies." Sir Theophilus Shepstone was given a commission, dated the 5th of October, 1876, instructing him to visit the Transvaal and empowering him, if it was desired by the inhabitants and in his judgment necessary, to annex the country to the British crown. Sir Theophilus went to Pretoria in January 1877, with an escort of twenty-five mounted police, and entered into conferences with the president and executive as to the state of the country. By this time Burgers was no longer blinded by _the foolish optimism of a visionary who had woven finespun theories of what an ideal republic might be. He had lived among the Boers and attempted to lead their government. He had found their idea of liberty to be anarchy, their native policy to be slavery, and their republic to be a sham. His was a bitter awakening, and the bitterness of it found expression in some remarkable words addressed to the volksraad: " I would rather," said Burgers in March 1877, " be a policeman under a strong government than the president of such a state. It is you - you members of the Raad and the Boers - who have lost the. country, who have sold your independence for a drink. You have ill-treated the natives, you have shot them down, you have sold them into slavery, and now you have to pay the penalty.. .. We should delude ourselves by entertaining the hope that matters would mend by-and-by.. .. Do you know what recently happened in Turkey? Because no civilized government was carried on there, the Great Powers interfered and said, ` Thus far and no farther.' And if this is done to an empire, will a little republic be excused when it misbehaves?.. If we want justice, we must be in a position to ask it with unsullied hands.. .. " After careful investigation Shepstone satisfied himself that annexation was the only possible salvation for the Transvaal. He had gone to Pretoria hoping that the Transvaal volksraad would accept Carnarvon's federation scheme; but the federation proposals were rejected by the raad. Shepstone was willing to find some way other than simple annexation out of the difficulty, but none appeared to present itself. The treasury was empty, the Boers refused to pay their taxes, and there was no power to enforce them. A public debt of £215,000 existed, and government contractors were left unpaid. Sir Theophilus Shepstone, finding that the raad would not adopt any remedial measures, on the 12th of April 1877 issued a proclamation annexing the country. The proclamation stated (among other things): " It is the wish of Her Most Gracious Majesty that it [the state] shall enjoy the fullest legislative privileges compatible with the circumstances of the country and the intelligence of its people." The wisdom of the step taken by Shep- British stone has been called in question. For many years subsequently the matter was so surrounded with 1877. the sophistry of English party politics that it was difficult for Englishmen to form any impartial opinion. The history of the Transvaal is more complete and better understood to-day than it was in 1877, and no one who acquaints himself with the facts will deny that Shepstone acted with care and moderation. The best evidence in favour of the step is to be found in the publicly expressed views of the state's own president, Burgers, already quoted. Moreover, the menace of attack on the Zulu side was a serious one, however able the Boers may have been to meet a foe who fought in the open, and who had been beaten by them in previous wars. Even before annexation had occurred, Shepstone felt the danger so acutely that he sent a message to Cetywayo, the Zulu chief, warning him that British annexation was about to be proclaimed and that invasion of the Transvaal would not be tolerated. To this warning Cetywayo, who, encouraged by the defeat of the Boers at Sikukuni's hands, had already gathered his warriors together, replied: " I thank my father Somtseu [Shepstone] for his message. I am glad that he has sent it, because the Dutch have tired me out, and I intended to fight with them. .. and to drive them over the Vaal... ." A still further reason for Shepstone's annexation, given by Sir Bartle Frere, was that Burgers had already sought alliance with European powers, and Shepstone had no reason to doubt that if Great Britain refused to interfere, Germany would intervene. Moreover, apart from the attitude of President Burgers, which cannot be said to have been one of active opposition, a considerable number of the Boers accepted the annexation with complacency. Burgers himself left the Transvaal a disappointed, heart-broken man, and a deathbed statement published some time after his decease throws a lurid light on the intrigues which arose before and after annexation. He shows how, for purely personal ends, Kruger allied himself with the British faction who were agitating for annexation, and to undermine him and endeavour to gain the presidency, urged the Boers to pay no taxes. However this may be, Burgers was crushed; but as a consequence the British government and not Paul Kruger was, for a time at least, master of the Transvaal. In view of his attitude before annexation, it was not surprising that Kruger should be one of the first men to agitate against it afterwards. The work of destruction had gone too far. The plot had miscarried. And so Kruger and Dr Jorissen, by whom he wa