GOLDEN SOUTH AFRICA.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 11785, 7 October 1901, Page 1

GOLDEN SOUTH AFRICA.

T -RADE AND FARMING PROSPECTS, AFTER THE WAR ,-+£ ol £ no l James G- Stowe, the UnTnin Sta u eS u Consul - General Cape Town, who has done so much to pX S I or,rt!n GriCa^- tFade there ' is now; * w« 1? ull.u 11 .! 011 hls wa y to America of %eSn£ a ?h UnepUallefl °PP°rtuniti?4 ' 3SS& cute uth COmm fc r a Cial Pr ° SPe( * S de'cla^,^ fo^r^r-'be^ • scratched. Immediately after the war there will be a wave of prosperity. At present a great stretch of the country is empty. The peonle when they come back will have ?o be started again, a nd they wiU want everything new. The trade win be fL* t-iilt -ii ll V; gelv a credit on e. but to^mVL by *»» unequalled demand * iuraf 1 * Sr ™ l ~ Not only will fresh mines be opened ma ll directions, but old mines dfs- . Th?r?il° r iT *' WUI bC Started a S ain There is, 1 believe, a great supply of ?h PP w nT Khodesia - Ma J«r BurnhaS S 1, w ? 11 r kn »^i l scout, told me that he located large and rich seams

* believe, too, that it will be found that South Africa is a good " oil country. Every natural sign ' seem sto show this. 1 have just sent a long despatch to my Government or^this very point. ' % JL '' But Jt is up-to-date agriculture that is most wanted in "South Africa - It is an exceedingly fertile country but the Dutch farmers have cultivated it m very primitive fashion. The lack of water, of which so much is heard, could be easily remedied If the country were cultivated for a few years rain would come. /Witness Western ,America x whe,r.e our deserts •> have been made into fertile^landsi^*"- - -But without waiting for that, much could be done by irrigation. " The Dutch farmers as a whole • refuse to grow large crops. They -^ prefer small quantities and \high " prices. There is splendid grass on. the veldt, but they will not make it into hay. They allop hay to be imported from Argentina and elsewhere rather than do so. They will not cater for the towns as they; might. • ' *

" Coming home I heard several English officers talk of going back *o South Africa to take up land there. Numbers of them may possibly do so, and if such men wll only go in for cultivating cereals and fruits they should do well. Fop it is plough farming that South, Africa wants.

" American firms are pushing trade there. In a few years our imports have increased from £1,200,000 to £3,600,000. The shipping trade, how, ever, still remains in English hands, and the talk of American lines being started has so far come to nothing.

" The danger I see is that in the greater rush of business which will come after the war the apparent; prosperity miy go too far. It would be hotter for South Africa in the long run if there were not too great a rush of trade at first, for large credits and a great purchasing trade without much capital may after four or five years causp a serious commercial collapse."

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