CAPE COLONY AND THE BOERS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 6624, 16 February 1900, Page 4

CAPE COLONY AND THE BOERS.

Mr A. B. Paterson, in an interesting letter to the Sydney Morning Herald, for which journal he is acting as special war_ correspondent in South Africa, writing from Arundel, says:—This is the most curious country in one way—it looks dry, barren, and desolate to the last degree There is no grass, but an unlimited quantity of a sage-like herb, and yet wherever there is a spring there is a beautiful garden with every kind of grain and fruit flourishing. The sheep fmerinos) look well, the cattle and horses are all fat and contented - looking, and yet to (o^ at the place one hiA suppose 100 acres of it would feed a goat. They say that by sinking 40ft one pap get water nearly anywhere, and if this is true there is a great future as a farming country for this place, as i the soil is no doubt good, but the poverty of natural grass makes it look a desert to an Australian. I would not advise any Australian to try Rheep-farming. here; it is better business at home. Their rivers are like our rivers, mostly dry, and their rainy season appears to be simply the season of the year when there is no reason why rain should'nt fall sometimes. We have seen a month of rainy season for one wet day. The more one sees of the place the more one is struck with the rividness of Olive Schreiner's description of it—a red-soilpd sunburnt plain, a line of rocky mounds, a white-walled farmhouse, and a few head of cattle sheep, and ostriches, and the hot sun glaring over all. The want of trees is dismal, and one misses the birds so much. There are very few birds indeed; the most common is a long-legged blue bird very like our native companion, and a prairie hen, a bird like a shell grey peacock. There are most of the plagues here that we left in Australia, droughts, scab and grasshoppers being prominent. The Boers resent very much legislation against scab in sheep; they say Heaven sent the scab, and we must not interfere. They are- very slow to see anything new. At the farmhouse where we are camped there is a procession of soldiers all day long, with mugs wanting to buy milk, and if they liked to advance their price they could sell all their milk at half-a---crown a pint, as the regiments are full of wealthy men, who would give anything for fresh milk, especially when they get sick; but no. those people look on the price of milk as 3d & bottle, and they sell all they have at 3d a bottlo, never dreaming of asking more. They aro slow to see the profit they might make out of the war. An Australian selector would be getting half-a sovereign a quart for milk here The same with their horsefeed; they still ask 6d a bundle, • lv ley could &et famine prices for it. They will learn more later on,