summary of a few impressions.
on my return from south africa i was interviewed by a representative of south africa. i had proposed to write on my voyage to england a closing communication describing my visit to natal and summarising my views on the south african outlook generally. unfortunately, i was attacked with severe rheumatic pains shortly after the steamer left cape town, and was not able to put pen to paper. i, however, gave the representative of south africa the impressions i should have written on the voyage, had circumstances permitted me to do so.
the labour question in natal.
“how were you impressed with natal?”
“i was very much struck by its beauty and its fitness for a white population. there was one curious anomaly, however, in the fact that the natives in natal are very numerous, and yet the colonists suffer from a deficiency of labour. ships often lie at the wharves for days, waiting for coal, because labourers cannot be got to put it on board. at the same time the labour party, or the white man’s party, at durban are complaining that the coolies are being brought to natal in too great numbers.”
“those are points in economic development that want immediate tackling?”
“something should be done to start the enlistment of zulus of natal in its labour forces for the development of the state. it is a most interesting little state, very quietly governed, and the people are an exceptional class of colonists, but they seem to have some problems before them which will tax the ability of future ministries.”
“the coolie immigration question, i take it, is not one of the least of these?”
“that is so. there are masses of white men in england and on the continent, it seems to me, who would jump at the opportunity of getting allotments of land in natal. the government might do worse than afford some greater facilities for the importation of white labour. in natal there are 45,000 white men against 400,000 zulus. in addition to that they have taken zululand with about half a million of zulus, so that there are now 45,000 whites against 900,000 blacks.”
“then, in your opinion, that mass of blacks wants leavening by the introduction of white men. the immigration would have to be worked from this end, would it not?”
“yes, they would have to be liberally treated for the first few years to induce them to go. natal, as i have said, is a very lovely country. there are enormous estates railed off for sheep and cattle raising, and it seemed to me that i saw more places there fit for small estates of white men than in any other part of the country, excepting rhodesia.”
mr stanley was careful to further emphasise the exception to his rule furnished by rhodesia.
“that opens up a very interesting question,” remarked the interviewer, “for emigration from this country has been allowed to take its own course without much assistance, save from the emigration agencies, who, of course, have to be approached by intending emigrants instead of approaching them.”
natal should be better advertised.
“yes,” rejoined mr stanley; “the wants of a colony like natal must be advertised, and its claims to the consideration of those desiring new homes should be pressed upon the people of england.”
“how do you think the white men in natal now would regard the influx?”
“well, they must be considered, but it is as much for their interests as for those of anyone else. if they are as narrow-minded as the labour party at durban, there may probably be a serious calamity some day.”
“had you an opportunity of discussing such problems with mr escombe or any of the leading politicians of the colony?”
“i saw perhaps twenty, but i fancy they are rather afraid of saying what is in their minds, because the ultimate solution depends upon the democracy of natal, and ministers hesitate to be leaders in any such agitation.”
although he has already treated the subject of rhodesia and its future prospects so exhaustively, mr stanley had nevertheless still many points of importance to touch upon. he insisted very strongly upon the necessity for offering inducements to other settlers besides those engaged in mining.
more settlers wanted in south africa.
“i think,” said he, “every colony in south africa has been very remiss in the matter of attracting immigrants. you have only to look at the statistics of population—black and white—to see how disproportionate are the two races. the cape of good hope, with 221,000 square miles, has nearly a million and a quarter of coloured people to 377,000 whites, and the former are multiplying with extraordinary rapidity. natal, again, as i have said, has 45,000 whites and nearly a million coloured people. british bechuanaland, with only a little over 5000 whites, has 65,000 coloured people. matabeleland, or rather what is now rhodesia, had some years ago only 2500 whites and 250,000 natives. of course, the whites are more numerous now, but still the disparity is sufficiently striking.”
“it has been asserted very freely that until the production of gold assumes large proportions the white population cannot increase, because they have nothing to subsist upon.”
“there is always a place for intending farmers. if the land is to be parcelled out among such, the present is as good a time for them as it is for the miners.”
“men, of course, can support themselves on farms, even although there is no town in the vicinity to furnish a market for their surplus produce?”
“exactly so. it is necessary in the end to have markets, of course; but the first necessary thing is to make a home. considering the conditions of this country and the rapid growth of population, with the closure of the united states, with only canada and australia open to the surplus population, where is there a better country for englishmen than rhodesia?”
immigration wanted to counterbalance boer influence.
“you think mr rhodes has perhaps overlooked the advantage of putting forward these considerations?”
“not only mr rhodes, but all the politicians of the cape colony and natal. the best work the british government ever did was in sending those five thousand english people to south-east africa in the early part of this century. the experiment unfortunately has never been repeated. there is a different kind of population going out now. when they go to the cape, they begin to spread themselves over every part of south africa as far as salisbury. it seems to me that there ought to be three or four hundred families going out every week to settle in new homes. there is a great political question in the background, and if englishmen are not awake to it they must be instructed. the boers, not alluding to any political party such as the afrikander bond, or the krugerites, or the republicans of the orange free state and the transvaal, but judging by their general conduct and the tone of their public utterances, seem to have determined to keep englishmen out of south africa in order to maintain the balance of power in their own favour. their whole action tends to that. supposing the cape colony had a grievance against the british empire, and chose to form a republic of its own, it would be a boer republic, because the boers are more numerous than the english. it would be an addition to the orange free state and the transvaal. some great absorbing question might arise at any time; yet no one seems to have done anything to prepare for such a contingency, or to maintain the balance of power in favour of the english. the dutch would naturally take sides with one another, as they did in the jameson raid affair. then all the dutch population veered round in favour of the transvaal, whereas before that, as in the drifts question, the cape dutch rather thought that the transvaal was wrong. the unjustifiable attack upon the transvaal, so unexpected, like a bolt from the blue, gave the dutch an impression that the british government were at the back of the raiders, or if not the british government, at least the british nation. they said to themselves, ‘the british people are ever hostile to us, and are determined to have this country english, and under the thumb of the british government. we refuse to have the british government vex us now as it has done in the past. they drove the transvaal dutch from the cape colony; and they may drive us away if we are not united in opposing this constant british hostility or meddlesomeness with our peculiar habits, principles, and ideas.’”
“it is perhaps more correct to say that the dutch retired before the advance of the english rather than that the english drove them away by persecution.”
a hint to downing street.
“an over-sensitive english sentiment is at the root of many of the past disturbances. when i was going to south africa on the norman the great question of the hour was the indenturing of the bechuanaland rebels. i talked a good deal with colonial people on board, and they were not disposed to be reticent about their feelings. they frankly said the british people were just beginning the same old game of meddlesomeness. ‘here,’ they said, ‘are rebels whom we have caught in the act of fighting against us, raiding and murdering our fellow-colonists. we pay for the forces to suppress that rebellion; we have taken hold of the prisoners who have surrendered. we do not know what to do with them better than to distribute them, with their own consent, among the farmers for a term of five years, instead of imprisoning them, and thereby making them non-productive and a burden to the state. if we had sent them back to their own country, they would simply have died, or made it very dangerous for anyone with property to go near their country, and we should have had to begin again. you english say it is a form of slavery. we deny it. it is no more than sir charles warren did in 1878. what the british government did in 1878 we are doing now. don’t you suppose that, having given us an almost independent government, we have got plenty of pious, well-educated, intelligent men as capable of looking after our morals as the civilised people of england? why do you all the time place english sentiment in opposition to us, with a view of tyrannising over us? we make our laws, and can correct them if they are wrong. we do not want you to interfere all the time. our lives and our property, the welfare of our wives and children, depend upon good government. but immediately we do anything you raise the cry that we are barbarous and wicked, and are reducing rebels to the state of slaves, and thus you excite and disturb the people.’ ‘supposing,’ said one of the speakers, ‘that the majority of the british nation were inclined to that opinion, and believed that we were so wickedly disposed as to subject our coloured people to a condition of slavery, parliament would raise the question, and very possibly, if the sentiment has taken deep hold of your people, would pass a law to prevent it. then a collision of interests would take place—boers against english. the english would probably follow the british government, except a few who have been resident in south africa and understand those questions as well as the born colonists. thus the colonists would become divided. the boers and afrikanders could not trek again, as bechuanaland and rhodesia shut them off from the north. they therefore would demand a republic, to cut themselves adrift from the imperial government. the same question would be raised as was raised in the united states when they separated from great britain. danger only can arise from the english habit of interfering in colonial matters which they do not understand, and from not giving the colonists credit for being able to manage their own affairs.’”
“then, in your opinion, the remedy for that is to reinforce the english population in south africa, and for exeter hall here to exercise more reserve?”
“precisely,” replied mr stanley. “if you have a manager of an estate and you suppose he is a man of ability and you entrust him with the management of your estate, and then cavil at everything he does, he will resign. that is just the sort of feeling that is so apt to be raised in south africa—the incompatibility of temper between the people of south africa and the too sentimental people of great britain. there are two parties in south africa, boer and british, and if the former are inclined to be tyrannical to the natives and subject them to slavery, you have the english party, which is as clever and intelligent as people here, ready to preach to and convert the oppressors and to act in opposition to them. therefore, the english criticism at home is not needed, and it should not interfere with the colonists’ domestic concerns. england must give the colonists credit for their intelligence, and for a desire to act like civilised people. there would be no need then for a republican, or a separatist party at the cape.”
a great emigration company wanted.
“what do you propose as a means towards the end you speak of?”
“it is natural,” replied mr stanley, “that the english of cape colony should be anxious for the future of the country in case of a separation from great britain, and that they should fear the establishment of a boer republic. i see in this a very strong reason why someone with power, wealth and influence should step forward and try to lead them to do something to prepare for maintaining the balance of power. rhodesia, the transvaal, the orange free state and natal draw away from the cape colony a large number of enterprising englishmen, and consequently the boers, not being so enterprising, nor so very fond of running from one home to another unless a great political principal is at stake, prefer to stay on their farms and multiply there, whereas the english are all the time thinned down by those everlasting discoveries and developments in the north and north-east, so that they remain numerically inferior to the dutch. if there was a company with a man like mr rhodes at the head of it, which would buy land and settle on it new colonists of english birth, they would be all the time keeping up the equality that is necessary to prevent the english from being boer-ridden.”
“do you think rhodesia would adapt itself to such a policy as well as the cape colony.”
“quite as well. with the opening of all those mines reported to be so promising, and with the vast advertisement of the opening of the railway, mr rhodes ought to see that more miners have been coming into the country than agriculturalists, and something ought to be done to provide for the provisioning of so many people and keeping the prices of food down by multiplying the producers of food. the country is just as well adapted for them as any other in south africa. if the government of rhodesia neglect this, the boers will go on filtering through the transvaal to rhodesia, and the same mistakes will recur that have been made in the cape colony and the transvaal, where the settled population is dutch and the moving english.”
australians available.
“what are the principal countries outside south africa from which such settlers could be drawn?”
“there are plenty of people in australia, for instance, who would be very glad of the opportunity to settle in nice places in rhodesia if they were tempted to do so. you must show that rhodesia is better than australia, where you have the fringes of the coast and the best parts of the interior already taken up. you have only to go to melbourne, sydney, and other large australian towns, to find that they have a very large population who do not know what to do with themselves or where to go, who would be valuable to a new country like rhodesia. take, for example, the people who went from australia to paraguay. these would be far better in rhodesia amongst englishmen than in paraguay surrounded by spanish americans, whose ideas and modes of life are so entirely different. when i was in melbourne i had an offer from fifteen hundred australians to settle in east africa. i advised them not to do so until the railway was built. they wanted to start ranches and raise cattle there, but i said their stock would die before they could reach the pastures. in rhodesia to-day, however, you have a country, to which such people would be very advantageous. cape colony has an enormous area that requires to be populated, and so has natal. how are you to reach the class of people required for this? what are you to offer them? it must be something better than where they are now.”
“in your opinion rhodesia is well adapted for cattle raising?”
“yes; the matabele found it so, and there are still many cattle there despite the rinderpest. new cattle will do well enough, i think, if you take them rapidly by railway across the malarial belt.”
“and seeing that the cape is so much nearer to england than australia, there is no reason why an export trade should not be developed in time?”
charming east london.
“certainly not,” was mr stanley’s emphatic rejoinder. proceeding to deal more particularly with the future possibilities of various parts of the cape colony, he alluded to his visit to east london, which he thought one of the healthiest places he had ever seen, characterising the country around as a most charming one. “i was more taken with the south-east coast,” said he, “than with any other part of south africa. probably it was due to the season, but everything was as green as in england. people looked healthy, and little children as rosy as they could be. i admired the magnificent groves of trees planted by colonists and the flourishing estates that were visible all the way until we got into the karroo. the best part of the eastern province is perhaps as large as scotland. i should say it was just as well adapted for white people as any part of england, and yet the population is so scant as compared with the vast acreage. it was in that part that the english families were settled, and made beautiful towns like grahamstown and king williamstown.”
“and at that time,” interpolated the interviewer, “they had to contend with natives, who are now subdued?”
“yes,” said mr stanley, “that is a disadvantage that settlers nowadays would be exempted from.”
“is there not an obstacle to your scheme, in the circumstance that people nowadays are not content to go abroad for a mere living? they demand something more than they can get at home—not perhaps a fortune, but at least the chances of amassing sufficient money to raise them to a position of comparative independence?”
how farmers make profits.
“but there are different ways of making a fortune or of saving money,” replied mr stanley. “it can be done by agriculture as well as by mining. the farmer, however, must be content to look upon the farm as his home, and the capital and labour devoted to it as constantly increasing in value. the farm which he buys at 10 shillings an acre may become worth in a few years from 5 to 10 pounds an acre. there is his profit. he buys an estate say of 200 acres for 100 pounds, and in five or ten years’ time it may be worth 500 or 1,000 pounds. it depends upon the progress made in the general development of a country by the working of its mineral resources and by its commerce and trade. the greater the development of the country the greater will be the value of the farmer’s land, because more people are constantly coming who don’t care to be pioneers, but will buy a farm already developed. the pioneer then goes from farm to farm, and in this he makes his profit. people who went from new england to ohio or kentucky, for instance, developed farms which they sold at an enhanced price, afterwards removing to kansas; after getting, perhaps, twenty-five times as much for their farms in kansas as they had paid for them, they went next to colorado, where their farms ultimately fetched twenty-five or fifty times as much as their original cost. then they went on to salt lake, mexico, arizona, or other parts of america, and repeated the same process. that is the way a farmer makes his money in such countries.”
mr stanley has already dealt at great length with the question of irrigation, which is so important in countries where the water supply is inconstant. in the course of his remarks with our representative he further elaborated this point, showing how the backwardness of agriculture in certain parts of south africa, as well as in other comparatively new countries, is the fault of the people rather than of the countries.
“the other week,” said he, “i suggested the formation of a united south african waterworks company. there are hundreds of streams in rhodesia and other parts of south africa, and yet every casual tourist says the land is worth nothing for agriculture. that is what was said about mildura, in australia, until irrigation was started. the same system is necessary in south africa, and a powerful irrigation company could distribute the water when available, and also conserve it for the dry seasons.”
“i daresay it is your opinion that little can be done in this direction by the isolated efforts of individuals?”
“practically nothing,” replied mr stanley. “if new settlers see land near water they will buy it; but they come to the country with slender capital, perhaps two or three hundred pounds, and cannot afford to sink wells in the desert; but if someone will raise that water for them, and sell the land, it will be taken at once. the people who settle, supposing they are english, will constantly keep english influence equal to the boer.”
rhodesia in the hands of land grabbers.
“some existing african companies hold farm lands,” remarked the interviewer. “ought they turn their attention promptly to the agricultural development of those lands, instead of confining their attention so exclusively to mineral wealth?”
“certainly,” said mr stanley. “take, for instance, the willoughby consolidated. they have an enormous acreage of land. the people of bulawayo wanted water, so a certain number formed a company to make the waterworks. they had to buy about 6000 acres from the willoughby consolidated to protect their watershed. supposing these people had not bought the land for the sake of the waterworks, the willoughby consolidated would have kept all this vast acreage to themselves, and would have developed it only according to the necessities of the neighbourhood, or sold it to some settlers who wanted to live there. most of rhodesia has been divided in that way by the people who grabbed at the territory, so that poor settlers, the bone, marrow, and sinew, are frightened by the prices.”
“do you, then, think that the best farms are already allotted?”
“one who was only in the country such a short time as myself cannot go into all these small details. he can only say that his impression is that the people complained that most of the best lands had been taken up by the great companies. miners are disposed to hold very cheering ideas in regard to the minerals, and more miners come in than agriculturists. therefore it strikes me, seeing those miners come in in such numbers, that something has been left undone; the responsible authorities ought to have seen that the proper settlers who could feed those people were induced to come at the same time. earl grey or some other director should be asked if the chartered company had kept habitable land in rhodesia which might be sold for farms; if they had reserved sufficient farming acreage for the wants of a farming population, or if they had sold it all to the great companies. it would be people like earl grey who could give you these details. we can only get impressions from the mutterings of those in the country who say, ‘what is the use of coming here? all the good land is gobbled up by the companies.’ one would be glad to have the matter explained. farmers with 500 pounds capital, if they could get land cheap in rhodesia, might be tempted to settle there, but if the land is in the hands of companies, those companies will want to make big profits. the chartered company are under the necessity of selling land to get money. the greater the run of farmers to rhodesia the higher would be the prices of land. the chartered company, we can see, have been liberal enough to miners, but i doubt whether they have been so liberal to the farmer class.”
“from your experience of the conditions in england, do you think people at home would respond readily to an effort by mr rhodes and the rhodesian government to attract them to rhodesia?”
“yes, i do, because south africa is as pleasant a place to live in as any part of the world that i have visited. it is certainly more pleasant than the cold north of canada. america was very good, but it is not superior to south africa. the united states government, however, had a very large reserve of land which they could afford to give at 2.5 dollars an acre, and they gave 160 acres of land to anyone who would promise to settle there for five years and build houses and improve the land. that is what the chartered company should do. if you have an estate, you must invest a portion of your capital in seed and in machines for cultivating the land; if you regard a state as a farm, the best seed you can put into it is a farming population. settlers who develop the soil contribute as much wealth to the state as those who dig for minerals. perfected communication also adds value to every acre. i had at one time to explain why i did not consider the land of the congo state worth a two-shilling piece, because it was impossible to reach it, but, i said, if you make it accessible to me it is worth so much an acre. if you leave me isolated in the heart of the congo, i throw away my life and the two-shilling piece.”
“is there in rhodesia plenty of land beyond what is required for the matabele and the mashonas?”
what the chartered company should do.
“well,” replied mr stanley, “the natives have always got the slopes of the country. it is, of course, a white man’s land, because the white man has taken it. at the same time there are reserves, and the question is, how much of the reserves for the whites has been put aside for agriculturists. ought the company to be satisfied with having only miners in rhodesia who will employ the natives, and after all the gold is got will retire and leave rhodesia the black man’s country that it was, or do the authorities intend to plant an english race permanently there? what are their offers? the chartered company ought to give 160 acres of land to any settlers who will undertake to develop it and remain on it for five years, after which the land would be their own. a somewhat similar system is adopted with regard to the mines. if you peg out claims you must work them. so it ought to be with the agricultural land. having done this, it would remain for the chartered company to do their utmost to increase facilities for communication. if they gave reserves free to the natives whom they had conquered, they certainly ought to give at least the same advantages to the white settlers who are to make the country prosperous and to yield revenue by the payment of taxes.”
rhodesian railways.
“did you observe the criticisms of the financial news on your proposal regarding the railway from bulawayo to the sea?” asked the interviewer.
“yes,” said mr stanley. “the financial news does not see the object of making two railways between bulawayo and the coast, but i was writing from the bulawayo standpoint. if bulawayo is to be the capital of matabeleland, it has as much right to branch out in all directions as salisbury has in mashonaland. naturally, if i were a bulawayan, i should not care to see salisbury getting all the plums, especially as bulawayo is better situated than salisbury. a railway from bulawayo to victoria would bring out the merits of the latter place. there are already over a thousand whites between bulawayo and victoria, and a great many gold claims. then, again, it is only twelve miles from victoria to zimbabwe. a great many people want to see the ruins. tourists go to victoria first, and thence drive in carriages to zimbabwe. thus, from all these sources, mines, settlers, merchants, and tourists, the railway would have a good revenue, while the company would have other indirect gains. from victoria to umtali you could make a junction with the existing line to beira. bulawayo should shoot out its right arm towards the indian ocean, for another reason. supposing, in the event of an outbreak, a scheme were formed by the boers to cross over the border and occupy the bechuanaland railway, where would rhodesia be? rhodesia would be cut off, unless it was abandoned, which is improbable. you thus see the necessity of two entrances, one from the east and one from the south. supposing bulawayo, on account of its two exits, begins to thrive, and the development of the land is increasing at a great pace, the next thing necessary is to extend its tentacles in other directions, and get more trade. it will not omit the zambesi coal fields and the victoria falls. there is another object you have, not only for the tourist to see the falls, but also the coal fields lying close to them. you reach the victoria falls and you have loanda and the trans-african railway, which already reaches 160 miles to the interior; you can either join with that or you can construct a separate line to mossamedes. you thus draw another line of country to increase the trade of bulawayo. i am speaking now from the point of view of bulawayo as a centre of trade. the competition between it and salisbury might be compared to that which existed for a quarter of a century between saint louis and chicago. the former was a very conservative city; it had its enormous fleet of steamers and the whole mississippi tributary to it, and when it had 250,000 of a population, chicago had only 50,000. the people of chicago, however, were determined to tap every field of trade within reach. they struck off to california, denver, utah, saint louis, to the north-west, and down to new orleans, so that to-day chicago has a population of one and a half millions, and saint louis only 500,000. bulawayo is more favourably situated for railway expansion than salisbury, which is inclined too far to the north-east, whilst bulawayo is almost as near to beira as salisbury is. it is, moreover, as near to mossamedes as to the cape, and it has the whole congo state to the direct north of it. consequently it would, become a kind of chicago, drawing the trade of all those countries, so that as the new white men scattered, some to the zambesi, raising a town near the coal fields, and hotels near, the falls and zimbabwe ruins, bulawayo would feed them all. at the same time, cape town would become the new york of south africa. if this were accomplished, then, in any eventuality, bulawayo and rhodesia would be secure in their independence, for they would have their two exits to the indian ocean and to the atlantic, and could still remain british.”
“probably cape town would look askance at any proposal to establish a port at mossamedes?” said the interviewer.
“yes,” replied mr stanley, “but rhodesia does not belong to the cape, and what is good for its prosperity must be considered apart from cape town, and, as rhodesia thrives so long as it is connected with the cape, the latter will always profit by it. tourists will prefer to go to cape town because there they will be among englishmen instead of portuguese, but goods would go to mossamedes and thus cut off five days in transit.”
black and white.
“do you think the black men in south africa are likely to disappear as the whites increase?”
“no,” replied mr stanley, “i do not think they will. there are now so many wedges of white population between the native territories that any native movement can at once be checked. i see abundance of hope in that direction for the prevention of any federation of the natives such as used to be tried in the early days of the american colonies. there the cause was want of communication, with an enormous area covered by indians and only a few scattered settlements of whites, but in south africa you have nothing of that kind. the natives will all be wanted. there are certain things that they alone can do, such as working in the open air in the summer. the white men are the makers of money, and the natives must naturally be the hewers of wood and drawers of water.”
