THE CONDITION OF SOUTH AFRICA.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 9304, 18 November 1901, Page 1

THE CONDITION OF SOUTH AFRICA.

THE MINISTERIAL MISSION TO THE TRANSVAAL. CASTING OUT ROTTENNES AND CORRUPTION. (Sydney Telegraph Correspondent.) CAPETOWN, Oct. 10. l'he tune has now come! when we hav< been enlightened both as to the objecti and the results of the recent mission oi tlie Cape Ministers to the Transvaal. ; Mtacwhile, I am told by one of tht jarty that the trip proved an instruc live one, by showing to the Ministers what havoc has been wrought by the wai which has been forced upon us by Krugerism ram i ant The entire railway tract thii-agh tl*e Free States is marked by the cu'cnseo ut horses,' cattle, and sheep, which have either died or been killed; while of the farm-houses which were once to bt setu on ihe landscape, not one re nimns standing It must not be imagined that these homesteads were' ever verj numerous. Still, they did exist here and there, whereas now nothing but bare walk remain. It is impossible to imagine what men like ex-President Steyn must think as they gaze upon the ruins ofi theii country which, but for their wicked and foolish ambition, might have been prosperous, even great. With regard to Johannesburg, my friend tells me that it .is resuming its normal condition, though, only, of course, m a comparatively small way. Lord Milner, he adds, lives and works with his accustomed industry and simplicity m the "Golden City," having his public offices m town, but residing and doing much of his work m the suburbs. He -displays the same fearlessness m his daily life as m his despatches ,thus giving fresh evidence of the fact that he is devoted, m the widest sense of that little-under-stood term, to his King and his country. I may add that the return journey to the Cape, which was all the way by rail, was performed without a break, except *to water and coal the engine, and the Ministerial train did not, as ordinary passenger trains generally do, abstain from travelling at night. Ministers, like monarchs, felt that their truest safety was m rapid travel from • point to point; and the result seems to have justified their faith. The country was looking at its best, this being the spring- time of the year; but the fact would De more pleasing did it not also imply that there is now plenty of feed for the Boer horses and cattle as well as for ours. On this point, by the way, I have received an enlightening answer from a friendly pro-Boer, not a few . of whom 1 meet daily m the conrse of my walks abroad I asked him what was his opinion as to the probable close ofi the war. His anewer was "Certainly not m the summer nionths"-^-and these extend, roughly to next April. It is possible that had he then known of the nasty knock Botha was to receive on the Zululand border he might have been less cocksure of the conclusion at which he had . arrived. A UOLT FROM THE BLUE. Two very in.|-:Unt and drastic lo.snlis which have foilowel the Miuisimal visit to ihu iraiisviMl ,±Liow ra .dood of light upon what transpired m the consultations which took place. One result is the issue of a Gazette extraordinary yesterday afternoon, which proclaimed martial law at Capetown and the other parts of the colony, as weU as m all districts not hitherto proclaimed, excepting the" native territories. . The proclamation came like a bolt out of the bine, for the people at the ports had been lolled into the belief that they would be kept free from martial law, and the result has been that the coast towns have become the dumping ground of deported suspects, many of whom are, indeed, well known to be actual rebels, and who are suspected, with excellent reason, of working m one way or another for the enemy's benefit. These . gentry (and ladies, too) are m for a disagreeable time, while the wicked mischief of the South African News will have a check put upon it. Further, the Colonial Government has now been deputed by Lord Kitchener to defend and police the colony ,accepting the aid of the Imperial authorities when necessary. RE-POPULATING THE GOLDFIELDS Meanwhile, let me turn to another topic of equally pressing importance. In the controversy which has taken place, and is a still m progress, as to the desirability or otherwise of re-populating the goldfields, it has been argued, with much cogency/that the feet of 60,000 0r 60,000 people actually resident m Johannesburg and along reef' would be the strongest possible evidence to the Boers of the hopelessness of their, dream of restored independence. These people do not, however, give sufficient weight to the answering plea, that the feeling. of these thousands would depend upon the security of long lines of railway. For at present the; nearest open port to the Rand, namely Durban, Natali is 24 hours' distance from Johannesburg, and that the line traverses vast expanses of broken country, where it is vulnerable to an active and cunning enemy every few miles. A populated Rand would be a strength if its supplies could be made certain; it would be an awful source of weakness if it invloved perpetual watching of the lines of railways and constant liability to a stretch of starvation, not to speak of a paralysis of the mining industry through lack of supplies. Whatever academic conclusion the controversialists pjay arrive at, it is a comforting reflection that the High Commissioner is steadily pursuing the policy he initiated several months ago m encouraging the gradual return to the Rand on the part of miners and others who have business there, or who can go to -direct employment m the mines which have started work, on however small a scale. And he is holding the balance as fair as possible as between the sexes, In a mining centre, men naturally are of the most essential importance; but of late the daily trains from Capetown, Port Elizabeth, East London, and Durban to Johannesburg have carried a considerable complement of women and children, the wives and families of what are termed permanent residents on the Reef, like railway and other Government officials, miners, and so on. So that as I write the streets of Johannesburg are echoing to other footsteps than those of "mailed men." The voices of women and children are once more heard m the land, to the infinite good of the 1 community. These things are but a prophecy, of course, of what is going to happen by and bye; and I hope it may serve to many Australians, like the utterances of the' prophets of old, to sustain and support those who hear them, however dark and unlikely of fulfilment they may seem at present. Side by side with this gradual re-peppling of the Transvaal there is growing up the framework of the Government, both for State and municipal purposes, which is to serve m place of the Republican (?) institutions which have been extinguished with the old bad system under the stubborn old gentleman who is gradually coming to his senses at Hilversum. APPPRECIATION OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. On this head, too, I should like to say one or two reassuring things, for which I have the best oi all warrants, the evidence of my own senses. There has existed m the minds of thoughtful colonists a fear lest the change of government would not be accompanied by the greatest and most necessary change of all, namely, the casting out of the rottenness and corruption which marked aud disgraced every public department m the Transvaal, and the creation m its stead of au administration that was pure and without reproach. There are small grounds for any such fear I am glad, nay, delighted, to add that, for a model, it is necessary to go outside the bounds of South Africa. Whether you examine the civil service of the Cape Colony, Natal, or Rhodesia— that i 6 to say, the e&sentially English colonies — you will find the civil sen-ice above reproach. It is not only modelled on that of Great Britain, but* it attains to the same high standard. There are, of course, weaklings and wasters here aud there, and I have little doubt that some of the men who are living upon Britishers' money at the present moment m the civil service are rebels and traitors at heart. But these are the exceptions proving the excellent rule that a British South African civil servant is synonymous with an honest and a loyal gentleman.

Having said so much, I would point out to those who have their fears as to the tone and status ofi the' new civil service m the Transvaal and Orange River Colony that their ranks are being largely made up of men from the essentially English colonies. Nor does this by any means refer only to the lower branches of the service m the new colonies. Not to go further than the Cape Colony which has been, and still is, so much maligned, we have supplied the' Transvaal with a Chief Justice, a secretary to the law department, a. departmental head of the Colonial Office, a Master of the Supreme Court, and several subordinate officials of the highest probity and honor. Natal has sent its similar contingents, and I have no doubt Rhodesia has also been tapped, though Rhodesia itself is largely staffed by graduates from the Cape civil service, from the Chief Administrator downward. At the head of these men, and of the men generally who are to run the new colonies, stands Lord Milner, who I know to be the pink of chivalrous highmindednebs, and who, as he once remarked to a friend of mine, receives the honors showered upon him by a grateful King and country "with gratitude and equanimity." The phrase is a peculiar one, but we* who know our Miner feel that it just expresses the attitude of his mind. These facts are a guarantee to me that around the administration of the new colonies there is being set up a barrier that will stand the pressure of . a corruption which seems to be inherent m gold and diamond mining magnates. Were I not j assured- on this head, my utmost energies would be directed towards clearing out from South Africa, with my bag and baggage, under the conviction, that its last state was going to be .worse than its first. As things stand, I look forward to the tunes when, the devils of corruption and other cognate evils having been cast out, the country is going to be broad based upon honor and true liberty, and will therefore be worth living m for me and mine, for you and yours. God grant it !