SOUTH AFRICAN TRAVEL

Evening Star, Issue 19942, 11 August 1928, Page 19

SOUTH AFRICAN TRAVEL

MIDLAND GAPE PROVINCE IH AND AROUND PORT ELIZABETH Hearing that the area served by Pori Elizabeth was in several respects remarkable), we decided to sec it with some thoroughness. We therefore travelled, mainly by rail, through the picturesque and thriving industrial cen tre .of Kingwilliamstown to Grahamstown, and then inland in a circle to Bedford, Cradock, Middelburg, Graaff Reinet, and Uitenhagd to Port Elizabeth (writes Mr P. Zachariab, In his book of travel in South Africa). On the journey to Cradock and Graafi-Reinet the country was the very opposite to that around Grahamstown and East London. Wc were again on the Karoo—as it happens, a rich, but to the casual glance a desert-like Karoo. The air was dry and the soil not only dry, but drab-coloured There were kopjes everywhere, and around the kopjes barrenness—a barrenness accentuated rather than relieved by what grew thereon. Pew deserts had a more woebegone appearance. The verdure, after the rainless winter, was an affair of with ered twigs. The watercourses were dry' The polished ironstone reflected the heat as from a mirror. Near GraaffReinet, for example, the aptly-named Valley of Desolation, after the long drought of which we were to witness the dramatic end, was so Dantesque in sheer aridity, bo like a calcined alloy of the moon, that we longed, almost ached, for the moist smell of mould and the sight of gnarled tree trunks and running water. Instead there was piickly pear, scrub, and desolation. Yet curiously enough the trip was one which we remember with peculiar pleasure. The clearness, purity, and tonic quality of the air were astonish ing. The sun got into our blood and danced there.

It is an air which, as it were, unties the years from one’s shoulders, so that after a while on the Karoo one stands erect with vigour renewed. And the daily sunshine —that most forceful magic—gives one a new perspective, .impressions may not be durable where there is so little by which to fix them, but while they last they are vivid Every dav is a golden day. Just to live is a pleasure. So that, despite all ive have liere frankly set down about the Karoo, we travelled it with considerable enjoyment that heightened when we saw' GraafMieinet m the smoky orange of a desert sunset.

A STORM BREAKS. Clouds banked up during the night. At dawn a storm hung lowering. All rejoiced, for the drought had been bn„ and severe. The air was motionless vet the thick dust that covered the cattle trails was strangely stirred. “Dust devils” rose like wraiths, hunt; fantastically poised awhile. and then expired. Barth lay. f l ,ecUl for the pent-up moisture And tation was in every heart. A I as ever, and the life-giving clouds Pa iTvvas’ Nature’s jest. Gloom settled firmly on the farmers. Hie orchaids drooped in earnest. Gaunt .sheep and goats nibbled a parched twig oi two and then lay down m apathy. It was a depressing spectacle. Two days later there was no perceptible sunrise. A pall hung over the veld. Fitful lightning gleamed across the clouds. Occasional largo drops ot rain fell with a thud, and were sucked up greedily by tho thirsty earth—tell at noticeable intervals, one hero and there, leaving on the dust a craterliko dent. Then these, too, ceased, and all was still, dark, and ominous. Of a sudden tho heavens opened, a sea of flame flared above the veld. A crash - as of planets in collision followed, flame leaped with flame across the sky, then all was quiet and dark acrjiin. At last, with a shriek, the deluge came. Hail and thunder cracked together—peal upon peal roared cavernously over the kopjes, and tho driving rain came down in solid sheets. Tho ten-month drought was broken. In a few hours thousands of tons of water had fallen, rivers were churning their banks to mud, even tho chronically dry creek had caught some overflow and ‘had become a mad torrent of tortured water on which flotsam swirled wildly. Within a week, so swift is Karoo growth after rain, the juice of succulent herbs freely lathered the jowls of tho livestock, and the sheep, when kraaled, chewed tho cud of a heavy contentment. Their troubles for the time were over. The season, they sensed, would now be ono of plenty, for already every plant had quickened into life, every shrivelled stick had thrown out some blossom or leaf, the valleys and plains were mauve-green, and once again the Karoo was full of promise. We mention this storm, and shall later draw a moral . from it, because rightly considered it is the key to much that is curious in tho economy of South Africa. HARNESSING THE WATERS. Tho miracle that is being wrought on the Karoo with water conservation is as heartening a spectacle as will be seen anywhere. The rivers arc being harnessed, tho wilderness is “ being made to blossom like the rose.” In Egypt the British have doubled ■ the supply of water and doubled the cultivable area. South Africans are doing the samo. in their country, and so are gradually preparing to rank with the great producers. Nowhere in South Africa is this more strikingly brought homo than in the area served by Port Elizabeth. Draw a V on tho map from Port Elizabeth to Queenstown on the one side, and from Port Elizabeth to Graaff-Reinet on the other. In between is tho area of greatest irrigation development in South Africa. The country there, though fertile, is on the whole dry, having a low rainfall. Yet such is generally tho violence of the storm when ram does fall that millions of tons of water run to the sea and are wasted each year This is now being improved. A largo capita] has been invested, by Government and private enterprise, to imprison in reservoirs and turn to account much of that water- The task, entailing an outlay of several millions sterling, and more as new areas are taken in hand, is not only a costly but a heavy one. When the great storage reservoirs now being constructed are complete tho area will become a rich one, producing great yields ol almost every crop. That much .is certain, for what can be done with permanent water on the Karoo has already been abundantly proved, notably under the great irrigation works near Prieska. With such developments in its hinterland, Port Elizabeth is destined for a big future. It is already an important export port of the Union, and, for variety of manufactures, one of its most highly-developed industrial towns. Tanneries and the manufacture of boots and other leather goods are especially well developed and growing industries. Then there are foundries, and factories producing candles, soap, jam, biscuits, confectionery, cement, and two large motor car assembling plants. A great trade in wool is done, and wool-washing, and, in time, textile factories, and other new industries, to say nothing of_ a considerable expansion of present industries, may confidently be looked for. A SWISS NOTE. Port Elizabeth has a good deal to commend it. It is a town ot considerable architectural merit. Its quaint hilly situation .lends tself to picturesque effect in building, and here and there is a touch faintly suggestive of a Swiss scene—villa terraces rising one above the other. On The Hill, a

flat tableland overlooking the lagoonlike bay, are smart residences in pleasant grounds, indeed, a holiday at Port Elizabeth can bo very inviting, with all the amenities of a prosperous, progressive town, as well as boating at Zwartkops. jaunts to Schoemakerskop and among the pines at VV aimer, and sunlit hours on tiio sands of Humewood Beach, the fashionable bathing suburb. Granamstown, to which allusion has been made, is 107 miles by rail from Port Elizabeth. It is a cathedral city and important educational centre, charmingly ringed by a series of wooded hills.

Grahamstown was founded in 1812, uud British settlers reached, the vicinity in 1820. in the latter year the price of the Napoleonic wars was still being paid. Everywhere trade was bad, production was hampered, employment scarce, and the cost of living high. Thousands of people in Britain and Europe were overwhelmed with hopelessness. The Governoi at the Cape, impressed by the country around what is now Grahamstown, recommended to the British Government that settlers should be sent out to occupy it. The scheme, as it promised slightly to relieve the pressure in Britain, by making habitable what somehow became reputed a kind of colonial Eden, appealed to the public imagination. A grant-in-aid was voted. Ninety thousand ' people applied to come. Four ihousand were selected. The first contingent disembarked at Port Elizabeth in 1820. There were no landing facilities in those days, so the settlers rowed as near land as they could, and, with their possessions, waded ashore. BY THE CAMP FIRES. Wagons an'd guides were provided, and the settlers took the road to their new home, looking bravely to the future they were to shape there, or. round the camp fire, pensively regarded the past. One of the party has depicted the scene: The groups, with all their variety of mien and attitude, character and complexion, now dimly discovered, now distinctly lighted up by the fitful blaze of the watch fires, and the exotic aspect of the aloes and euphorbias, in the wan light of the rising moon, had a very strange and striking effect. It made us feel, far more impressively than wo had yet felt, that we were now indeed pilgrims in the wilds of savage Africa. The counti’y through which the newcomers passed was open and park-like in places, wildly mountainous elsewhere. Alternately the way lay through sunny valleys or gloomy defiles so narrow that the wagons could only just pass. After many tribulations the destination was reached. On three sides sterile mountains rose, but the main vallov was pleasant, with tall grass running to seed, and many trees, among which antelopes pastured. Huts were soon erected, and attention given to the means of livelihood. Dainty fingers, some perhaps more accustomed to fans than churns, made butter and cheese, soap and candles. And the minds or the men were bent, in earnest on such pioneer work as tilling the land, handling live stock, tanning sheepskin with mimosa bark, and cutting garments therefrom.

Such approximately were the people and the conditions that went to the development of the largo and now important area of which Grahamstown became the ecclesiastical, commercial, social, and educational centre. • The brunt of terrible native wars, which the small bands of earlier Dutch settlers had borne with such lofty spirit, fell heavily on tho newcomers. Grahamstown became the centre of the fierce struggle between white and black, generations passing before that outpost emerged from its troubles, and peace and prosperity settled over it. Now gardens smile where once disaster abode, great pines and gums stand densely on the hills and line the streets, making, like tho history of the place itself, a checker work of light and shadow.