Soldier Farmers in South Africa

Southland Times, Issue 14786, 1 November 1900, Page 3

Soldier Farmers in South Africa

It was not until the war in South Africa had been in progress for some months that the question of settling Reservists and others upon the land came into prominence. If that question is now to be seriously taken in hand, it must be clearly recognised in the first place that although individual effort will be needed to supply any satisfactory results, individual effort alone will not, and cannot, meet half the difficulties. It can only be by a well-considered and far-reach-ing scheme that individual effort will be given its opportunity. The Government will be in possession of, or will be able to buy cheaply, immense tracks of land as soon as the war is brought to a close. That land they will have at their disposal for intending colonists. So much may be taken for granted, and the next question is : Who will be the colonists or would-be colonists ? Our own Resorvists will supply a certain percentage. There are Canadian, Australian andlndian colonists, who will be anxious to try their fortunes. It will be the task of the Government to make some inquiry as to these men, some investigation of their past, and of their capacity to make useful settlers. Clearly they must supply the Government Commissioners with some kind of reason for hoping they will make a success of the business. To satisfactory applicants the Government might sell farms under some such conditions as obtain in Ireland to-da}'. To take an instance. The Government buys a farm for, say, £2000. It sells the farm to a satisfactory applicant on terms which entail his repaying the purchase money with interest by instalments in the form of rent within a certain term of years. But before handing over the farm to the applicant, the Government would also be in the position to offer some kind of inducement to farm it — in fact, a bonus. That would be supplied in one or more ways. A sum of money might be given to the man outright wherewith to stock his land. Or, seeing that at the end of the war there will be on our hands thousands of horses, mules, oxen, waggons, and so on, it might be found sufficient to give the incoming farmer an outfit in kind. Possibly to abate the rent for the first year or two years would be expedient. At tlie end of that time, if the farmer was likely- to succeed at all, he would be able to pay his rent and a fair land tax into the bargain. Iff he proved an unsatisfactory tenant tlie Government, as mortgagee of the land, would have its remedy. There will be more to be done than this, of course. There is, for instance, the water difficulty. The rainfall has never yet been properly stored in the Transvaal. Irrigation has never been thoroughly carried out ; in many parts it has not been attempted. And yet irrigation is one of the chief factoi-.s in the farming problem. A correspondent has written to The Times on this question of the settling of soldiers in the Transvaal. His own experience of farming has been singularly successful. He found that his Boer neighbours were amazingly ignorant and unprogressive. They were not farmers in any true sense of the word. They lost hundreds of goats in the winter because they refused to supply them with shelter. The writer of the letter adopted more sensible methods and flourished. But- — he was able by individual effort to solve the water supply question. That cannot be done throughout the Transvaal except by Government, who must build dams and storage cisterns, and dig wells and canals. As The Times's correspondent puts it, " there is suitable land enough for five times the present agricultural population ; it is simply a question of water." Surely some kind of department, such as the Woods and Forests of India, might meet the difficulty. And that the difficulty has only to lie faced to be solved we have no doubt whatever. — St. James's Budget.