|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 27
"The necessity for the employment, in the interests of the Empire,
to use the phrase most practical,--uncouth, however, it may
seem,--of our Royal Princes appears to be a very decided and
certain means to the end we have in view, namely, the binding
together, by means of sympathetic enthusiasm, the Colonies to the
Mother Country, but most particularly the creating of a healthy
common accord between South Africa and Great Britain.
"Let any Colony or Dependency feel assured that it is regarded as
worthy of attention by those nearest to the Crown, and any sense of
isolation, any suspicion that the people, or their country are
regarded with any measure of contemptuous indifference must
forthwith vanish. Sympathy, encouragement, personal contact, seem
to be essential elements to the solution of what is admittedly a
problem."
I regard this letter of my well informed correspondent as a most
interesting and truthful expression of wide-spread opinion, among the
intelligent classes of Her Majesty's loyal subjects in South Africa.
I do not believe the South African political problem to be insoluble.
Two things are required to solve it satisfactorily. For the present,--I
quote the eloquent words of a distinguished politician with whose wise
and noble sentiments I cordially agree--"what we ought to do in a case
of this kind is to send out a statesman of the first order of talent,
patience, and truthfulness, irrespective of politics or prejudice. For
it is an Imperial problem of the highest importance; and the powers of
true patriotism and ambition should be amply gratified in dealing with
it."
And for the future, let me add my own earnest conviction, that what is
wanted is Imperial Federation, as the goal to be ultimately reached, to
render South Africa politically satisfied and content.
Imperial Federation means a constitutional system, under which she would
be no longer misruled and misunderstood, by a Government, in which she
has no share, in which she places no confidence, and by whom her wants
and wishes are often ignored. It is not, as is frequently untruly
asserted by writers, and speakers, who have neither studied,
comprehended, nor understood its theory and intention, its end and aim,
that it means the subjugation of the independence of the Colonies to the
control of the Mother Country.
As one of its most earnest advocates, I emphatically protest against all
such erroneous interpretations, as a libel on the principle put forward,
as a plan for the National Government. On the contrary, the project of
Imperial Federation, without any _arriere pens�e_, clearly and
distinctly involves the condition, that the Colonies themselves are to
take their adequate part, and share with the Mother Country in its
future concrete constitution. In the brief, but expressive phrase, I
have already publicly adopted, Imperial Federation means, "the
Government of the Empire by the Empire." In Imperial Federation,
therefore, South Africa would be fairly and influentially represented,
along with the other Colonies of Great Britain. In union with them she
would take her part in guiding the policy, and directing the destinies
of the whole British Empire.
[Illustration: Decorative]
[Illustration: Decorative]
APPENDIX I.
The following discussion took place on the paper read by Sir Frederick
Young, on South Africa, at the opening meeting of the Session of the
Royal Colonial Institute, on November 12th, at which the Marquis of Lome
presided:--
PROFESSOR H.G. SEELEY: In common with you all, I have listened with
great pleasure to this interesting and wide-reaching address. I
have not myself been so far afield. My observations were limited to
Cape Colony; and the things which I saw in that Colony were
necessarily, to a large extent, different from those recorded by
Sir Frederick Young. On landing at Cape Town I naturally turned to
what the people of South Africa were doing for themselves, and
confess I was amazed when I saw the great docks, by means of which
the commerce of South Africa is being encouraged, and by which it
will hereafter be developed. I was impressed, too, with the
educational institutions, the great Public Library, worthy of any
town, the South African Museum, the South African College, and the
various efforts made to bring the newest and best knowledge home to
the people. But perhaps in Cape Town, the thing which impressed me
as most curious was the new dock, in process of construction by
excavating stone for the breakwater and other purposes. This work
was carried on by coloured convict labour. The convicts thus become
trained in useful manual work, as well as in habits of obedience,
and when they are discharged, are not only better men, but people
in whose work employers of labour have confidence. I learned that
the great public mountain roads in Cape Colony have thus been
constructed by convict labour, at a comparatively small cost, while
the convict acquires skill and useful training. Going up country,
my attention, among other matters, was turned to the distribution
of mineral wealth and difficulties of water supply, for, as Sir
Frederick Young has remarked, the water supply is one of the great
problems which all persons have to consider in South Africa. The
season during which rain falls is short, and the rain drains
rapidly down comparatively steep inclined surfaces, so that science
of many kinds has to be enlisted to conserve the water, and turn
the supply to account. I found the rocks of much of the country
have been curiously compressed and hardened and thrown into
parallel irregular folds, and that these rocks were afterwards worn
down by the action of water, at a time when the land was still
beneath the ocean, with the result that many basin-shaped
depressions are preserved and exposed, each of which holds a
certain amount of water. Just as we never dream of putting down a
well in this country without knowing the positions of the
water-bearing strata, so it is hopeless to bore profitably for
water in the Colony till the districts are defined over which the
water-bearing basins are spread. Nothing arrests the escape of
water in its course through the rocks more efficiently than
intrusive sheets of igneous rock which rise to the surface, but
until the distribution of these dykes is systematically recorded it
will not be possible to open out all the water which is preserved
underground. There is no doubt that by utilising geological facts
of this nature, a better water supply may be obtained, which will
enable more land to be brought under cultivation, and larger crops
to be raised. I may say that the Colonial Government is fully aware
of the importance of following out such lines of work, and steps
are being taken to give effect to such exploration. Vegetation,
however, by its radiating power, must always be one of the chief
aids to improved water supply. In the matter of mineral wealth,
Cape Colony is not so rich as some adjacent lands. It contains
coal, but the individual beds of coal are thin, and owing to this
thinness the coal necessarily alternates with shale, which is more
conspicuous than in the coal fields of Britain. I remember that
Professor Sedgwick, my old master in geology, told me that in his
youth seams of coal only some four to six inches thick were worked
on the sides of hills in Yorkshire, and that the coal was carried
on horseback over the country to supply the wants of the mountain
population. Cape Colony is in a far better state than that. In the
Eastern Province the beds of coal are frequently a foot or two or
more in thickness. They crop out on the surface with a slight dip
near to the railway, and although only worked at present in a few
pits (as at Cyphergat, Fairview, Molteno--I did not visit the
Indwe)--the coal-bearing rocks certainly extend over a much wider
area of country than that which has been explored. One of the happy
results at which I arrived in my short visit to this district was
to find that there are certain extinct forms of reptilian life
associated with these coal beds, by means of which the geological
horizon upon which the coal occurs may be traced through the
country; so that there is a prospect of this mineral being followed
along its outcrop in the Eastern Province with comparative ease by
this means. It is desirable on all accounts that coal should be
burned rather than timber, since the destruction of wood is harmful
to the supply of water. With regard to the gold of Cape Colony, I
have not the requisite knowledge to speak with the same confidence.
The quantity in any district is probably small: the amount is great
in the aggregate, but very widely diffused. Gold appears to be
present in small amounts in almost all the volcanic rocks, so that
as those rocks decay and new mineral substances are formed out of
the decomposed products, the gold which they contained is often
preserved and concentrated in thin and narrow veins of zeolitic
minerals, which extend over the surface of these volcanic rocks. To
what extent these zeolites may be hereafter worked with profit it
is impossible at present to say, for much may depend upon water
supply, by means of which the ore would be crushed and washed, and
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|