NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12860, 8 May 1905, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

| A new VELDT. i Tim Kalahari "Desert" is the name that white men have given to a great expanse of almost unknown territory to the west of the Transvaal, but it is not really desert, in the accepted sense of that word, for the bulk of it possesses most of the characteristics of the South African veldt, and yields a periodical growth of "feed'" and of mixed vegetation. The Government of Cape Colony is now to open it for settlement. The Kalahari consists of a, great plateau (some 5000 ft to 5000 ft above sea level), lying roughly between 18deg and 29Jdeg south latitude, and 18Jdeg to 28deg east longitii'ie. Geologies are satisfied, from the evidence of existing salt-pans and other signs, that in former times there were a number of considerable lakes in the Kalahari, of which the present Lake Ngmai is the sole survivor. The only water-courses known are periodic, with the one exception of the Okavango, which Hows into Lake Ngmai. and draws its water supply from a source beyond the northern boundary of the Kalahari. Selling has recorded frequent winter rains and thunderstorms near Lake Ngmai, in the neighbourhood of which are the principal settlements of the Kalahari. These are sparsely populated by Bushmen, Beohuanas, Batovana, and Bageye. The natives are largely nomadic, and live principally by bunting. The total area ot the

Kalahari has been estimated at 350,000 Square milc.«*. been winter season 350,000 quare miles. The winter season throughout the country is chilly amd rainy, but the summer is hot. Altogether, evidence points to the Kalahari being a country worth development. The work of its settlement should appeal strongly to the adventurous, pioneering instinct which is fortunately still strong in the younger son.* of the Empire throughout the world. The Cape Government has laid down the following conditions for prospective settlers:—Application; for license to prospect for water must be made to the Civil Commissioner of the district, and such license Mill hold good for two years, on condition that active operations are begun within six months of the application. An occupation license will be issued to an applicant as .soon as he has found sufficient water for the regular and continuous maintenance of a hundred head of cattle, and these licenses will be good for five years, upon annual payment of a 20th of the juice of land, i.e., from l£d to 3d per acre, and one-20th of survey expenses. The maximum amount of land that mar be taken up i.« 60,000 acres, and the squatter will be given no mineral rights. He must occupy the land selected within six months of application, until a formal title is granted. After rive years the occupier may hold his land oh a quit rent tenure, subject to the payment of 15 yearly instalments of one20th of the land value, and one-20th of survey expenses. The adventurous, element in the prospect offered is appealing to a good many young men in South Africa, and is likely to prove tempting to the more enterprising at home.

WIIKI'E KNUI.AND EXCELS. Mr. 1!. Shaw, secretary of the Textile Society of the Leeds University, who recently revisited America and Canada after an interval of some years, told the society, in a paper ho read, that he found, speaking generally, no advancement in the textile industry. We had nothing to learn as woollew and worsted manufacturers from the United States, and less from Canada; and we had nothing to fear, providing we continued to train our manufacturers and workers on scientific lines. Even with the high tariff walls to got over, we. could still do a large trade ,vith America, and that by sheer force of skill and ability. America was still the best customer we had for worsted goods, in the. month of January she look more yards of worsted goods than all Kurope put together. Nearly the whole of

Ie textiles in America were- made with

English machinery, and that machinery was doing the best work, whilst the most skilled men were, generally speaking, trained in England, But in spile of this, the American woollen and worsted fabrics were not so well made, and not so merchantable as English cloth of a similar type, the explanation being that not enough time and care were devoted to the finishing process. The American manufacturer whs generally satisfied t< copy what the European was doing, so much so, indeed, that it was becoming necessary for the high-class English maker of fancy fabrics to refuse the supply of .samples of his cloths to American merchants for fear of having his styles copied. Canada was still in its infancy in woollen and worsted manufacturing, and the cloths made by the domestic mills were not to be' compared with the goods made in this country.