BOER AND BRITON AT PEACE

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8289, 18 September 1903, Page 4

BOER AND BRITON AT PEACE

*(By i*An Afrikander," in the-London Daily Express.) Capetown, July 18. It is more than a year since the cordial acceptance of the Vereeniging terms by both i Boer and .Briton promised to South Africa a period of rest and quiet during which the country could return to its normal state. When'l take a general survey of what has happened during the last twelve months X cannot but consider that this promise has been realised. '

In the Capo Colony, where perhaps ths gravest danger of discontent and dissatisfaction lay, the (failure of the attempt to suspend the Constitution} and the visit of the Colonial Secretary have, both had an. excellent effect. • Their immediate result was seen in the Hofmeyer circular on the part of the Bond; and, on the part of the 'Progressives, i in the cessation of those irritating side attacks on their Dutch fellow-subjects which formed so prominent a part in the suspension campaign. This is nowhere so strikingly apparent as in the debates during the present session of the Cape Legislature. One expected invective, taunts, acrimony, constant and unseemly squabbling over small points. On the contrary, the session has been one of the calmest and quietest which have been held during th 9 last ten years. ■ There was matter enough for heated debate, and the' line of demarcation between Bond (or South African party) and Progressive is still sharp enough to permit of no general commingling of the two parties into one; but on some occasions both sides acted together, and the fact tnat they did so is significant. When £Mx Merriman introduced his motion against the introduction of Chinese labor he received cordial support from the Progressives, and during the debates on the question of amnesty the latter treated the subject in a broad-minded, liberal spirit. The Bloemfontein Customs Convention has been passed by the casting votes of the Presidents of both .Chambers, but time alone' can tell bow it will pave, the way towards federation. • That ■it! is a step 'in the right 'direction.cannot-iedoAbted: . ';-■'.[■'. ,'."•.. ■ To add to-the self-satisfaction with, which, every South African can look back on the year just left behind, the financial position 1 of the Cape ColonyN is; thoroughly sound. In i his Budget Statement some time ago Sir I Gordon vSprigg "the House with the highest estimates for the coming year which any Minister has ever submitted at ' the Cape. The forecast for 1903-1904 is £11,585,233 estimated expenditure (an increase of £1,383,471 upon the expenditure during the past year) and 3*11,724,000 estimated revenue—the highest revenue ever estimated. Turning to the new colonies, one finds that there has been steady progress, though undoubtedly it has been slow, painfully slow in some cases. The regeneration of a country—and Lord Milner's work has been practically a work of regeneration—takes time and demands an infinity of patience. It is unnecessary to examine Ceneral Botha's allegations in detail, but it is scarcely that an impartial examiner would have permitted himself to write about "a mongrel nominee legislature," or about "Romanising and Sacerdotalism" —phrases which, until the advent of the English Education Act Afrikanders were almost unacquainted with. The best criticism to the General's letter is, perhaps, Air Owen Seaman's concluding reflection in Punch, in which it comes that if the back-veldt districts of the Transvaal are so utterly impoverished there should have been this year, in spite of tne great poverty, more ploughing than has been done for many years. In the Orange River Colony, especially in the Kroon6tad district, some distress most certainly prevails, and, according to private accounts, there is actual want of food, local committees have been formed to assist the people by issuing rations. . It must be borne in mind that the present winter in South lAfrica is a severe one, and that consequently much of the misery amongst the poorer classes has been caused by exposure and the want of proper shelter. Owing to the scarcity of labor, building operations can only go on slowly, and many farms are still in ruins, while the owner and his family live in "hartebeest huize," or huts made of veldt sedge'and reeds. In summer such huts have their advantages, but in the winter they are the reverse of comfortable, or even healthy. In the Transvaal the two great problems before the Administration are the question of imported labor and of education. The Government's attitude on the labor question has caused discontent among the whites laboring at the mines, and its action with regard to the question of education has alienated the Dutch Reformed powerful factor which has to be reckoned with in political as well as social matters. The result has been the sstablishment of numerous private schools, often very poorly supported, and in general by no means up to the standard of the Government school, but attended by farmers' children, who have been taken out of the latter on account of what General Botha calls "Romanism and Sacerdotalism"—by which he probably means the teaching of .White and Wilmot's history instead of Dr Theal's, and the using of a -'Step by Step," or "Royal Reader," instead of the Dutch "Kinderbybel."

Against these private schools the Government can only offer better teaching, free education, and"superior school buildings, and these advantages are sure to tell in the long run. , The labor question is a far more difficult one, since it is the beginning of a series of vexatious problems which arise out of the great question of color which South Africa has to face. Whatever arrangement's are made at present they can only be temporary for it is inconceivable that on a matter of such paramount importance to the whole of South Africa the major share of the decision should be granted to those States not possessing responsible government. There is much dissatisfaction throughout the country, in the Cape as well as in the sister States, with regard to the allotments of the War Losses Compensation Commission, which are said, in many cases, to be farcically unfair. It is, however, an inevitable result of the system on which' these Commissions work that they should fail to satisfy everyone, and although the apportioning of .compensation may give rise to much discussion and even ill-feeling, it is not likely that it will materially retard the progress of the country or the efforts of the Moderates to promote reconciliation.