SOUTH AFRICA

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 78, 27 December 1926, Page 6

SOUTH AFRICA

A VISITOR’S IMPRESSIONS CALIFORNIA OF THE UNION BIG GAME AND CLOSER SETTLEMENT (By Robeit Bell.) (Concluded.) • A few hours belore leaving Johannesburg on my way north to the Victoria Falls, I was informed by a friend in the “gold city” that I would be passing through country where the lion was fairly common. 1 suggested that my friend was a little imaginative, but_ received an indignant repudiation. "Keep a lookout as you go along,” I was advised, and my friend added that the Ijon had been known to attack native kraals in the north and. western Transvaal. that farmers driving along the road had been “bailed up,” and that occasionally lions, wildebeeste, zebras, and buck and other wild beasts could be seen from the train window. It sounded promising to me, if not exciting, having come from New Zealand, where the nearest approach to a pest is a small lizard. After leaving Johannesburg I travelled west and then north, skirting the edge of a vast district known as the Northern Transvaal. On my arrival at Bulawayo 1 sent a telegram to my friend in Johannesburg: “Thus far, and haven’t seen a blankety lion.” Secretly, however, I was hoping for better luck on my return journey. . But I discovered that my friend was right, and before I reached Johannesburg again, I learned that lion and leopard were plentiful in some localities; that the wildebeeste were in great abundance; (hat the sable antelope, the roau antelope, the impala, and other big game were fairly plentiful;, that the giraffe was occasionally to be seen; and that the hippopotamus might bo encountered.

It was ev’dent that the Northern and Western Transvaal, within one day’s lou.rney from Johannesburg, could be considered one of the foremost big game shooting grounds in the world. The liberality of Nature in the Northern Transvaal, as a matter of fact, is wonderful. The district may be termed the California of South Africa. Twenty years aso the task was commenced in the Union of making an important mining country even more important agriculturally. But so vast was the territory, and so ‘mall the available population, that the agricultural development had necessarily to be confined to areas here mid there. The result is seen to-day in the many fine estates, built up ray men who started often with only very moderate capital. Such e-tales, the envy of the beginner, are found in all parts of the country—Natal, the Orange Free State, the Transvaal. High Veldt, and Cape Province. And in pome districts nearitbe coast, in Natal and the Cape Province, the whole countryside has been transformed. It is a striking testimony of what may bo done in South Africa. Settlement and civilisation is gradually driving back wild animal life, and there is no doubt, in spite of what I have said earlier in this article, that the lion and the leopard, and the zebra and the wildebeeste, and the others, are leaving the Northern Transvaal. So rich h this district that settlement is (bound to come very soon. It is. a land of unusual fertility, interspersed with numerous small, but valuable, streams, and intersected with mountain ranges® that give variety of altitude, and con‘equently of climatic conditions. The rainfall ranges from 15 to over 50 inches a year, and the thermometer from, temperate to torrid —according to whether one is on the cool plains, or among the inild foothills, or in the semi-tropic valleys. All ordinary crops and many special ones are cultivated to perfection there. Apples, peaches, and oranges flourish together in the warmer valleys. Gardens grow luxuriantly. Exceptional harvests of maize, cotton, tobacco, potatoes, tomatoes, and nuts are generally obtained. Cattle thrive, especially on the plains. And in parts it is wonderful tree country, suitable for commercial timber-growing. It is considered that the Northern Transvaal has magnificent mineral resources. It is here that the great platinum fields have recently been discovered, and there are tin, gold, corundum, asbestos, copper, and coal. Indeed, such are the diverse resources of climate and soil, Su.ch as the mineral wealth, and such the scenic and climatic magnetism of much of the environment, that the Northern Transvaal may justly be ranked in potential productivity with the richest, and residentially with the most attractive, areas in the Union of South Africa. . It is undoubtedly the California of South Africa, with some attractions that California has not got, namely, exceptionally cheap land, good shooting, game of every description, and an abundant supply of cheap native labour for field and household work. To the man of moderate capital , with a taste for ruaal pursuits, the Northern Transvaal offers means of livelihood, congenial outdoor occupation a comfortable home, and prospects of steady improvement. Actuated by such considerations, there has been a good deal of settlement since the war, and much capital has been invested by syndicates as well as by individuals. There is malaria, it is Ij'ue. but .only in certain districts. Oyer large portions of the Northern Transvaal the climate is not only delightful but wholesome.