>-
Plate
PRETORU
WEST
ARE
RACECOURSE
'
PRETORIA W£ST
POWER STATION
Plate II.
UNION BUILDINGS.
The City of
Pretoria and
Districts. ^
An Official Handbook describing
the Social, Official, Farming,
Mining, and General Progress
and Possibilities of the Adminis-
trative Capital and Surrounding
Districts. ....
Issued under the joint auspices of the Pretoria
Municipality and the General Manager,
South African Railways.
Publicity Department,
South African Railways
Johannesburg,
December, 1913.
Pretoria
The Government Printing and Stationery Office
1913
R. 2409— 25/8/13— 15,000
2>T
CONTENTS,
CHAPTER PAGE
■^ I Introductory 5
V^ II A Backward Glance 5
j^lll Historic Pretoria 21
^IV The Modern City 36
* V Tours around Pretoria 44
VI General 52
Vll Pretoria Municipality 70
Vlll Pretoria Architecture 83
IX Flora 95
X Farming 103
XI Mining 146
Index 157
List of illustrations I65
30563S6
Introductory.
CHAPTER I.
^
"^"^HE Union Building at Pretoria is now neariug
^^ completion. When finished it will be in
many respects the most unique building in
the country, for in it will be accommodated the
bulk of South African officialdom — the Ministers of
the country and the advisers of the Ministers ; the
departmental heads and the technical experts ; the
agricultural, the pastoral, the mining, the commercial,
the financial, and the political specialists, as well as
the hundreds of other ofiicials upon whom the adminis-
tration and the advancement of the Union so largely
depend.
The building is worthy of the purpose for which it
is intended, and its formal opening will be an
occasion of general interest and national importance.
Nationally it will signalize a new era of administrative
centralization for the better conceiving and diffusing
of concerted harmonious policy ; socially it will be the
function of the year. Who can be in Pretoria will be
there then. Who cannot come will seek to know
something of what happens, and something of the
Inlroducior}i/.
place. Pretoria will loom large in the public attention,
and to many the reason will not be apparent, for it
is, after all, a city with which the country at large is
not as well acquainted as should be the case. People
generally do not know Pretoria as intimately as it
deserves to be known, as intimately as in their own
interest they should know it.
The moment is opportune for remedying tnis. The
dexterous Capucliins, to quote Macaulay's text, never
chose to preach on the life and miracles of a saint
until they had awakened the devotional feelings of
their auditors by exhibiting some reUc of him — a thread
of his garment, a lock of his hair, or a drop of his
blood. Similarly, advantage may well be taken of the
lively but possibly transient interest which the forth-
coming opening will excite to say something about the
progress and possibilities of Pretoria ; to gauge its
relative importance am.ongst the towns of South
Africa ; to indicate what \dsitors may see, and the
significance of what they see ; to show what there is
about Pretoria to please, what to displease; to weigh
advantages and disadvantages fairly, and prove that
though expansion may not have been as great as at
Union the optimists predicted, it nevertheless has been
considerable and promises to increase, judging from
all augurs, at a ratio more rapid than ever.
Everywhere, increasingly, investors and workers are
turning to places with such rapid developing powers ;
everywhere tourists seek new fields. It therefore
cannot but be in the general interest to reveal
Pretoria as it was, is, and probably will become.
A Backward Glance.
CHAPTER II.
0^
-^Tribulations attend the growth of every
^^ covmtry, and South Africa has had its share.
Native war and civil strife, drought, flood,
and pestilence have been its frequent lot. They
however mark rather than mar its history, prove a
high national spirit and indomitable grit rather than a
general incompetence or lack of perseverance, for dis-
sensions which threatened disruption, spread bitterness,
and caused intense hardship, though they might by
more temperate counsels have been lessened, if not
avoided, were by unusual adaptability and resource
generally turned from looming calamity to a greater
expansion — a seeking of fresh pastures and better
understanding, an adoption of improved methods and
an opening up of new country : a wider spreading of
settlement and an increase in stability When two
sections of the population disagreed, the weaker
generally withdrew to develop the unoccupied hinter-
land ; when drought, flood, or stock disease assailed,
they entailed loss but taught a sometimes needed
lesson.
A Backward Giance.
The contemplation of the past is therefore profitable
as indicating that, whatever our present obstacles and
differences of opinion may be, they are minor to those
already successfully surmounted ; from which may
reasonably be inferred that rapid and considerable
though past development has been, the Transvaal
development now afoot is Ukely to be greater and
more rapid. For conditions are better, the outlook
brighter, than ever before. South Africa, or at least
that portion which is now the Union, has changed
radically for the better. The white races have been
united, the wilds reclaimed, the natives tamed by law
and order. Greater security and comfort, more and
happier homes, exist than when civil strife, kaffir
risings, and the toll of pioneering swept tragedy
through every camp and desolation to every outpost
household. Danger has gone, and with it much of
hardship ; fang and claw no longer prey around the
outspan ; no impis lie within the kopje's shadow,
waiting to stab and murder when the time arrives ;
peace and prosperity are assured. But the change,
though greatly beneficial, has not been all gain.
The aesthetic has suffered. Much that made even
a hard uncertain life more attractive than the soft
ease and surety of the present, much of the
picturesque, and much of the romantic, has also gone.
The myriad deer no longer flit across the moonlit plain.
The rhinoceros has forsaken his haunts, the elephant
takes his midday ease in other shades. No free-gift
farm or foundling state awaits the trekker ; no mighty
herds entice the hunter ; no dreams of untold wealth
are dreamt in crazy mining huts. The drifts are
unchurned, the clean-aired bush-girt by-ways are
unfurrowed, the solemn silences and sun-washed
"Plate III.
::i.
A Backward Glance.
solitudes of the veld unruffled by coach or transport
wheels ; for the railways carry all, swiftly and with-
out ostentation, and where the adventurous once
rode ;in open exultation, the noiseless plough now
plies in hidden field or the miners burrow unseen
within the earth.
It is therefore not only profitable for future guidance,
but pleasurable for present recreation, occasionally to
take a backward glance, to reconstruct the past, recall
the days of long ago, and visualize the scenes and
circumstances in which, deliberately or by chance, men,
and gentle women and little children, on lonely farms
and distant mission stations, in pioneer towns and
rough wild mining camps, on trek and in the laager,
suffered and sometimes died that the sovereignty of
the white man might be proclaimed and maintained,
that unity might arise, and peace, progress, and pro-
sperity follow, so that out of the wilds cities like
Pretoria might be reared.
It is well to recall how great and how wonderful
has been the progress, especially throughout the
Transvaal, since the days when the hyena howled
where the smoke-stacks of the Rand now belch, since
Moselekatse harangued his slayers of a million \dctims,
where the stately Union Building in Pretoria now
stands, since the white inhabitants fought each other,
where the brave of both sides now lie buried beneath
the wreaths of a nation's united esteem.
Thus Pretoria, though not founded until 1855, owes
its existence primarily to disruptive events such as
those we have cited — to the events of 1836, which had
their inception in Cape Colony, and caused so much of
the dissension, so much of the strife, but indirectly and
A Back'Oard Gland.
ultimately so much of the good which has attended
South Africa !
The means have generally justified the end, but in
1830-36 the outlook was discouraging. It was one of
the darkest periods through which the country has
passed. No white men, excepting occasional hunters,
explorers, or squatters, had penetrated or could claim
intimacy with what are now the Free State and Trans-
vaal Provinces. Excepting for a few pioneers in Natal,
settlement was confined to Cape Colony ; and the
position of the settler there, especially in the remoter
districts, was an unenviable one. He was harassed by
native raiders. He was goaded by the policy of a
Government which would neither attempt to check the
raider nor allow the raided to do so. He was faced
with the prospect of consequent ruin, or if by chance
that were staved off, then by the prospect of heav^'
loss through the ill-starred regulations for the emanci-
pation of slaves which allotted to the Colony a third
the compensation its slaves were worth, and then
insisted that the large portion of that inadequate com-
pensation should escape the local slave-owners through
the obstacles placed against obtaining payment. No
payments were to be made in South Africa for released
slaves. No force was to be sent, or locally raised, to
protect the remoter settler. He was on the horns of a
dilemma, and, turn as he would, relief seemed possible
only by leaving the Colony.
The blame, however, excepting possibly in the pay-
ment of slave compensation and inapt social legislation
for which the Colony was unripe, was not wholly on
one side. The position of the governing was hardly
less trying than that of the governed. Conditions of
life were very different to what they now are ; the
A Backward Glance.
native problem, though still great, was greater ; white
settlers were fewer and more widely scattered ; the
vast native hordes were more turbulent.
The Kaffir was a man differing widely from his
modern descendant. He had not been subdued by
contact with civilization. His ardour had not been
tamed by industrial labour. Circumstances had not
forced him into town or mine. In his own domain his
women, as now, did the work — tilled the fields, hewed
wood, and carried water for the tribe. The Kaffir
himself collected cattle and practised arms, and of the
two occupations that of fighting was the main. This
was natural. Cattle were the symbol of a native's
wealth and status. As such their possession was to be
coveted. But the very existence of the tribe depended
on its fighting strength. There was no law but that
of might. A man of courage, versed in the use of the
stabbing spear and battle-axe, and deft in his own
protection with the ox-hide shield, was an asset to
every chief and as such esteemed. Consequently every
adult Kaffir was, or affected to be, a fighting man — a
fighting man first, and a rancher, cattle thief, tribal
minstrel, or hunter after. The prevalent spirit was a
warlike one.
Then were the people amongst whom the remoter
Cape settlers had, apart from their farming difficulties,
to maintain themselves and families as best they could.
In such circumstances conciliation had little prospect
of being effective. The native had nothing to gain
from peace, and no natural preference for it. War
was the object of his whole system — to defend his
possessions when compelled, to augment them by
looting when possible. Victory or defeat in battle
were the only arguments he appreciated ; the rifle
alone, not the indaha, had the power to sway him.
A Backward Glanct.
This the remoter Colonists saw and urged ; but the
danger was easier to discern than to avert. The
niihtary forces of so sparsely populated a country as
the Cape were admittedly inadequate for the proper
protection of so extensive a territory as the roving
instincts of the Colonists had caused them to spread
over. Those resources could be made adequate only
at a cost out of all keeping with the comparative
poverty of the Colony. It seemed good to the authori-
ties to conciliate rather than fight the turbulent native.
But as the native's instinct and aspirations, natural
taste, and whole training were for war, this policy
proved impractical. A scuffle with an outpost, which
resulted in the death of a minor chief, was by the
natives made a pretext for vengeance ; and then
ensued a period which forms one of the ghastliest in
our history. Within a few days fifty of the scattered
settlers were butchered ; scores of homesteads were
plundered and destroyed ; many thousands of cattle
were swept to the Kaffir kraals.
Nor was this all. Either because for the time being
the natives were glutted with success, and so more
than usually pliable, or because the settlers, stirred to
their utmost, excelled themselves, the reprisals which
followed quickly resulted in the marauders being driven
into more distant territory. Neutral tribes were settled
as a buffer between them and the settlers, and it may
have been that affairs would have remained so
indefinitely, necessitating alertness and occasional
encounters, no doubt, but on the whole a state of
affairs not intolerable. Exeter Hall, however, thought
differently. The measures had been taken purely on
local initiative. They were measures of self-defence,
but they were not approved oversea. The authorities,
10
A Backtoard Glance.
probably mindful of the minor chief's death, reversed
the Colonists' action as far as possible, removed the
neutral human barrier, gave back to the warriors their
old territory ; and did so on the contention that the
native had been provoked by the settler.
On top of all came the slave trouble. The owners
agreed that the slaves should be freed, but wanted
them freed in batches, so as to disorganize industry
as little as possible, and so as not suddenly to throw
on the country a numerous horde of free but largely
irresponsible people, unaccustomed either to the joys
or the cares of independence. The case had its strong
points, but the issue was one of human liberty, and if
one man were to be released from bondage there was
no justice in retaining another through no fault of his
own. The slaves were released en masse, and, without
police or military supervision, without the compulsion
to work, threatened at least to thieve, if not worse.
The compensation was absurdly low. and payable onlj^
in lyondon.
Unprotected against the exultant native enemy, not
only deprived of the labour of their slaves, but
threatened by their depredations, and often nearly
ruined by monetary losses through the unfair com-
pensation, the settlers were in a worse position than
ever. To a large number of them it seemed to threaten
ruin. To the Dutch-speaking portion it proved in-
tolerable. Prone at the best of times to take matters
into their own hands, restraint, especially in the
face of strong provocation and calamity, was little
to their taste. Large numbers decided to leave the
old Colony. North of the Orange River the country
was mostly unoccupied, and apparently claimed by no
one. Life there would necessarily be one of hardship
II
A Backward Glanct.
and isolation. It would mean separation from all the
amenities and prestige, but also from the burdens and
irritations of British rule. There in the vast and
little-trodden solitudes a man might live his life accord-
ing to his notions of right and wrong, establishing such
government as seemed to him best, pursuing such
ideals as fitted his mood. Ordeals of unusual rigour
and the diiability of remoteness from the civilized
world would be his lot ; but so would freedom and
justice, no power being near enough to restrict the one
or interested enough to tamper with the other.
So, in 1836, the Great Trek began, that movement
from which two fine States were to grow. The magni-
tude of the undertaking, the sense of strong grievance
which alone could grompt it. and the sterling A
qualities required to bring it to a successful
issue can hardly be
exaggerated. Not the
versatility which
decentralizes
13
A Backward Glance.
aim, the restlessness which hinders sequence, or the
imagination which anticipates difficulties and pictures
miseries yet to come ; but solid patience, deep faith,
and a large indift'erence to the vagaries of fate were
the qualities most likely to turn such an undertaking
to success. These qualities the Voortrekkers had.
They were a sober, slow-going, but a sagacious,
courageous race. They lacked the vivacity of the
townsman, were largely without his imagination, had
not his stock of varied, though often superficial,
experience. But they did possess the talents and
attainments natural to their situation — the quick eye,
the patient resourcefulness, the strong sense of rough
but ready justice. They had the bodily and mental
stamina to sustain fatigue and disappointment ; they
were strengthened by adversity, toughened by struggle.
Their courage, self-denial, and endurance were admir-
able. Their history is rich in acts of heroism and
devotion. Their hospitality and natural kindliness
were pronounced.
Such were the people who ventured forth, in little
bands, to conquer the wilderness and tame the bar-
barian ; who, like the Pilgrim Fathers, opened the
way to comfort and happiness for the thousands that
were to follow. They rose superior to every dis-
couragement, ultimately surmounted every obstacle —
and such obstaces ! To-day a journey through any
part of South Africa presents few inconveniences.
The traveller knows exactly where he is going and
what for. He travels in security, comfortably and
even luxuriously. Seventy years ago it was different.
A journey to the interior was not lightly undertaken,
even by the hunter accustomed to imperil his life and
trained to elude danger. To uproot whole families
13
A Backward Glance.
and send them there was heroic and uncertain in
the extreme. No one could foretell what dangers
would be encountered or what destiny awaited the
pioneers. It was a matter of chance. On every side,
once the border was crossed, the country was fraught
with danger : and beyond lay the Great Unknown.
Nor were the inevitable hardships less than the
probable perils. Transport facilities, as we know them
to-day, were almost entirely lacking. Between the
advancing voortrekkers and the Colony they were
leaving, there were practically no lines of communica-
tion : an occasional dispatch-rider, perhaps ; but no
railways, no intermediate depots for refreshment arid
replenishing stores ; no postal or telegraph services ;
no hope of assistance, in the event of trouble, from the
Colony behind. Once they crossed the border, inter-
course with the outer world would for years, perhaps
for generations, be infrequent and uncertain, owing to
the hostility of marauding native tribes, the greatness
of the intervening distances, and the absence of roads.
And that the native hostility to encroachment on
domains previously little used by them was anything
but passive, the records prove. Only too often did it
happen, especially when the trekkers travelled in small
separated bands, and more especially when such isolated
bands were surprised, that suddenly from the stillness
the war-cry rose from thousands of savage throats ;
and when the little laager could no longer hold out,
when the scherms were broken and the ammunition
spent, when the firing was over and the spears were at
rest, the last heart-throb of the gallant white band
had beaten.
The commissariat, too, was a source of weakness
and anxiety. A little bartering for food with natives
14
"Plate VII.
"Plate VIII.
ou) fR^m\ ^^^^^m
L0^
"l
JfneA/rUJl-i-
A Backward Glance.
temporarily friendly might be possible, but was uncer-
tain. Game was abundant but migratory, and for all
that was known to the contrary might be scarce at
seasons and in places. What the trekkers would require
in the years to come had therefore mostly to be brought
with them. Grain for seed and for sustenance until
crops could be grown had to be found room for, though
for months the trekkers lived mainly and sometimes
exclusively on the game they shot, as not much grain
could be carried, wagon space being limited and largely
occupied by the first essentials — powder and shot, and
by the women and children, the cooking utensils, farm
implements, and a little clothing and bedding. Few
luxuries were carried, excepting sugar, coffee, and
tobacco ; little furniture. Water was a matter of
chance. It was a frugal existence to which the trekkers
vowed themselves.
They started in different parties from various centres,
at various times, under various leaders. Finally the
day for departure came. The loads were carefully
apportioned, the flocks and herds assembled. Such
articles as at the last moment could be crowded on the
wagons — a few simple pieces of furniture, heirlooms
with many poignant associations — were loaded. The
bullock teams were inspanned ; the women and children
took their places beneath the hoods of the wagons.
The shrill cries of the Hottentot herds and the sing-
song droning of the drivers mingled with the lowing
of the cattle, the creaking of the axles, and the sighs
of those who felt a parting pang. From horizon to
horizon the plains smoked with the dust of many
hooves and wheels, as the farmers, turning their backs
on abandoned homes and hopes, faced the North and
whatever it might hold.
15
A Backward Glance.
Over the plains the slowly moving emigrant train
wended, scores of wagons, one after another — wagons
which for months, and in some instances for years,
were to be the only homes the trekkers were to know ;
their only tie with the civilized world ; their shelters
from summer heat and winter frost ; their refuge in
sickness and in peril ; their monuments and their
epitaphs when the barbarian attacked, and the trekkers,
having scattered in small bands, were slain ; derelict
wagons stranded on lonely plains, the ragged remnant
of their bucksail flapping dismally in the sighing winds,
and telling in after years the tale of what befell.
Ponderous, lumbering, groaning wagons, uncouth to
look at and unwieldy to handle, but the very tiling
for pioneering in a rough wild country : the wagons
which have made South Africa.
The trekkers travelled slowly, grazing their herds as
they went, hunting a little, repairing wagons and kit
when necessary, and camping where water and safety
suggested, for the village and the cultivated farm were
now far behind, and the pioneers had to fend for them-
selves, taking what came. Over the southern grass-
lands they passed into the higher altitudes of the
parched alkali flats of the Great Karoo, where water
is scarce and the air so thin and tonic that the mere
act of breathing is a joy. Finally, the Orange River
was behind, and when what is now the Free State was
well entered it was decided that of the more important
emigrant bands, which had converged, one portion
should branch off to what is now Natal, the other
continue north.
It was a pleasing if not beautiful country, a country
to warm the instincts of a rancher ; and, above all,
seemingly a peaceful country in which no powerful
i6
A Backtsard Glance.
enemy need be feared. A rest was therefore ordered,
and for a while the evening pipe of peace was
smoked in thankfuhiess beneath the Free State stars.
Refreshed, the trekkers resumed their journey. Theirs
was now a pastoral life of almost Biblical simplicity,
resignation tempering hardship, hope for the future
displacing discontent with the past. But it was not a
picnic. Moselekatse, the murderous, was on the alert
and had to be guarded against ; and nature, as well as
the barbarian, added trials. To traverse the desert or new
country in which the water-courses are undefined is to
know either the horror of thirst or the many and arduous
expedients necessary to locate one camping ground
before another is vacated. Whoever has been racked
by fever in a jolting wagon, far from skilled attention
and consolations, knows the despair of such a situation.
Those who have lain with the transport wagons by
the drift, in strange country, the waters rising steadily,
the rain beating in fury, night as dark as ink, cattle,
escaped somehow, running amok dazed by the lurid
lightning, know the tedium and discomfort of days
and even weeks of waiting ; when water oozes every-
where ; when earth and woods are sodden and all is
quagmire ; when fires will not burn and food spoils ;
when the dawn breaks grey and dispiriting, to reveal
the carefully placed wagons islanded by flood, nails
bleeding and limbs exhausted by the struggles of the
night, and tempers limp as the sodden clothes and
bedding in which one sleeps and wakes. Whoever
has experienced these things will appreciate some of
the minor difficulties the trekkers had to contend with.
And whoever by the restlessness of the animals has
been awakened, shuddering, to the awful sight of the
17
A Backward Glance.
autumn veld on fire, miles of lurid flame crashing
towards the camp, will realize another of the many
obstacles and discouragements the trekkers had to
encounter and surmount, without the playing of bands,
the flying of flags, or the cheering of crowds at the
end of the conquest.
It was, as we have said, no picnic. When the
country permitted the wagons to travel abreast, they
were so sent in three columns, which drew together
when camp was made and formed a triangle into which
the stock were, as far as possible, driven for safety.
In the spaces between the wagons thorn bushes were,
whenever practical and danger threatened, filled, so
that nothing might enter from without except at the
appointed place. Each man slept with his rifle by his
side. The powder and shot stood ready. And on the
outskirts the sentinels lay, guardians through the long,
still night.
And so, steadily but surely, in spite of every obstacle,
the emigrant parties progressed, some to find early
graves, some to found republics.
The party bound for Natal is not our main concern
in this sketch of the events which led to the founding
of Pretoria. The party which had elected not to go
to Natal again divided. One section, under Trichardt,
passed on to the extreme north of what is now the
Transvaal, to the Zoutpansberg. The other section of
the party, under Potgieter, obtained from a minor
chief a large portion of the Free State, and elected to
stay there, for the time being at all events. Mosele-
katse was now ripe for trouble. Convinced of his title
to the land, or, at any rate, not desirous that white
i8
A Backioard Glance.
settlers should have it, he sought what to him was the
only argument, and dispatched an impi. It fell on
the trekkers near what is now Kroonstad, and was
happily defeated with such severe loss that Moselekatse
retired.
So the Free State was by the trekkers accounted
theirs by right of conquest, and in 1837 Winburg was
chosen as the seat of government. Winburg is now
little more than a village, and the political importance
it once possessed has waned ; but historically it will
always be of interest, for it was mainly from there
that, as time went on, the trekkers, whose numbers
had yearly increased by additions from the Cape,
extended into the further north which the Zoutpans-
berg party had already entered, settling in small com-
nmnities in Potchefstroom, Lydenburg, and Rusten-
burg.
Thus settled, each little community had its own
head and its own aspirations. Each professed the
dignity but lacked the strength of a state. There was
jealousy between the leaders and danger from the
natives. To counteract the jealousy some government,
more regular than hitherto necessary, was required ;
to avert the native danger an amalgamation of white
strength was essential. Union was decided upon. In
1856 an attempt was made to join the divergent parties,
Martinus Wessels Pretorius being appointed President.
In the following year Pretoria was chosen as the seat
of government and Potchefstroom as the administrative
capital, but the I.ydenburg, Zoutpansberg, and Utrecht
burghers held aloof from the arrangement. In i860
renewed efforts were made to induce the settlers in
these districts to ratify the Union, but it was not
19
A Backward Glance.
until 1864, and after bloodshed, that all were incor-
porated, Pretoria became the sole Capital of the South
African Republic, and the last eddies of the much
disturbed Great Trek subsided.
30
Historic Pretoria,
CHAPTRR III.
3^
'^^^HE past of Pretoria has in a way been as romantic
^^ and the architectural growth in some respects
ahnost as astonishing as that of neighbouring
Johannesburg ; but in the early days there was Uttle
to suggest this destiny. The town,, though the Capital
of the Transvaal, was a very modest one in 1864, when
union between the Transvaalers was established.
Indeed, Pretoria was the merest village. It contained only
about three hundred white inhabitants. Building ma-
terial was costly, money scarce ; and the houses, hardly
three score in number, were consequently small, squat,
and unimposing — too few in number and too scattered
to form streets, too poor in structure and scant in
conveniences to afford much comfort. Mud floors, and
mud walls that softened and caved and fell under the
summer rains, were common ; the sanitation was
primitive, and of municipal services there were none.
Such, in an age when water-borne sewerage and gas
installations, trams and railways were common else-
where, was the principal town in a country destined
to be proved one of the richest in the world.
21
Hl$lorlc Pretoria.
It was a pioneer town of small pretensions, yet a
town not without its attractions. If there were little
animation and less kerbing on its paths, if no fine
buildings graced its embryo streets, there was at least
the minor compensation that the view of the natural
surroundings was unobstructed, surroundings not per-
haps strikingly impressive in their grandeur, but
certainly pleasing and inviting in their picturesque-
ness. No mighty mountains held the eye ; no stately
river or mystic woods or tended parks. But the hills,
though small, were during most of the year green and
soothing ; the valleys were wooded and watered and
filled with game ; the grassy plains were wholesome.
The setting, in short, was attractive. It was a setting
than which no finer had been encountered by those
who had come from the Cape. The climate was health-
ful, at times even delightful ; sport was abundant ;
and existence, if now and again monotonous and even
a little objectless, was on the whole so enjoyable, being
unconventional and healthy, that in after years many
meanwhile acquainted with the best elsewhere often
looked back with longing to the Pretoria of the later
sixties.
As a village the place had on the whole been delight-
ful; as a capital " City " it was at times destined to
be disappointing. The period of transition, during the
time the place was neither village, town, nor yet fine
city, was especially trying. Growth was slow. What
little prosperity had been attained fluctuated, waned,
and then threatened entirely to disappear. There was
no stability. This, under the circumstances, was
almost inevitable. There was nothing to give an
impetus to development ; nothing to sustain even
what development had taken place. Minerals, both
22
Plate XII.
Plate XIV.
23
Hhtorlc Pretoria.
precious and base, the country had in abundance ; and
the farming potentiaHties were good. But the minerals
had not yet been discovered, and in the absence of
railways, markets for farm produce were too remote
to be profitably catered for. The Boers, as a nation,
are essentially a pastoral people, and ostensibly farming
was the business of the community ; and catering for
the farmers' domestic and political needs was the
business of the town. But though the Boers all held
farms, there was little farming, demand for produce
being low ; and as there was little farming, there was
little spending power — little money for the traders,
little revenue for the officials. It was necessary to
turn to some additional means of support. Hunting
became a trade.
It was a trade after the Boer's own heart. Inheriting
the disposition which in earlier days had sent his
ancestors, the voortrekkers, into the unknown, he
retained the old roving instinct, was susceptible to
that peculiar South African visitation known as " trek
fever." Few so well fitted as he for the frugal, arduous,
danger-fraught, dexterous, exciting life of the hunter.
Few so inured to hardship, so calm in face of danger,
so patient amidst obstacles, so callous to personal
pain.
In those days hunting paid. Game was plentiful.
The elephant still roamed the country in herds of
mighty tuskers. The feather of the wild ostrich,
however inferior to what is now sold, found a ready
market at a time when the highly technical industry
of feather farming had hardly been started. The
rhinoceros and giraffe yielded valuable hides ; the horns
of the various antelopes fetched good prices, and better
prices when resold for the adornment of Parisian salons
24
Hlttoric Pretoria
and London clubs. The business of hunting, therefore,
gradually grew, became an important source of income,
and from time to time lured its devotees further and
further afield. They penetrated the malarial swamps
of the far interior, were, familiar with the natives,
fauna, and general conditions of Central South Africa,
and visited the Victoria Falls. But except around the
camp-fire, where a gesture or a grunt conveys much
to the initiated, little was said of these things, the
Boer of that day being a man of action rather than
of words, a man of wide sympathies but limited voca-
bulary, capable of feeling but not apt at describing
what he saw.
In such wise the knowledge of the country grew,
and the life of the Republic was eked out. The
quantity of tusks, hides, skins, horns, and ostrich
feathers brought to Pretoria for exchange was enormous ;
and a feature of the bartering between the hunter
and the storekeeper was the almost entire absence
of coin. There was, as a matter of fact, little
money in the Republic. For the average individual,
the farmer and the hunter, there was little use for it,
so simple were conditions, so remote the entanglements
of more complex societies. Theirs was the simple life.
Arcadian was their system. Were a commodity pur-
chased, its equivalent in some other commodity was
given in exchange. The burgher buying a length of
calico, a pocket of coffee beans, or a set of wheels for
his wagon, paid for his purchase a measure of grain, a
number of ostrich feathers, or a consignment of ivory,
hides, or skins, as the case might be.
These trophies were the only Transvaal products
that would bear the cost of transporting. They were
therefore the only exports, being sent principally to
25
Hiiforlc Pretoria.
Natal by ox-wagon, and then distributed to the eagerly
waiting world, which had nowhere a hunting field like
that in Africa. And in return the outside world supplied
the Transvaalers with sugar, coffee, and cloth.
Thus arose that traffic which some day will no doubt
have its epic poet to sing, in a style becomingly elevated
and heroic, the comedies and the tragedies of con-
veyance by ox- wagon. The days of South African
transport-riding, like the old coaching days of Britain,
had a picturesqueness of their own, but are now gone.
Along the highways, to centres such as Pretoria, Johan-
nesburg, and Barberton, the crack of the ox-whip, the
cries of the naked, sweating, odorous native drivers,
the rumbhng of the heavy wagons, are now seldom
heard. Railways carry all, and the romance has
departed from South African transportation. No
longer, in the intense blistering sunshine, do the plains
shimmer with the dust from many wheels, or in the
close and sultry night do the camp-fires glow around
the outspan. No more, in the keen and fragrant dawn,
does the subtle perfume of the veld assail the nostrils
of cosmopolitan hundreds — adventurers of all kinds,
good and bad — prospectors, speculators, storekeepers,
gamblers, ruffians, tenderfeet, ne'er-do-wells, and what
not from the world's ends. No longer do the placid,
slowly plodding teams wear out their lives to connect
the Transvaal with the world. But in the seventies it
was different. Ox- wagon was the principal mode of
conveyance. All goods were carried by it ; and twice
or three times a year every rural family took to the
road, and in the tent-wagon travelled, sometimes for
hundreds of miles, to celebrate Nachtmaal.
The bartering trip from Pretoria to Natal and back
occupied from two to four months, according to the
26
27
Historic Pretoria.
state of the weather, of the grazing, and of the veld
track which was oftener than not a quagmire or else
a dusty thing of singular annoyance. The dry season
was usualty selected for transport-riding, but was not
always convenient. When in the rainy season the
wagons sank to the axles, they had to be dug out,
sometimes several times a day. At flooded rivers they
were sometimes delayed for weeks. Travelling was
slow, but by no means monotonous, because for mutual
protection the wagons usually went in convoys, and
there was no knowing at what moment the transport-
riders might have to light for their lives — either in the
hunt against lion or elephant or in the dawn against
native attack.
So matters went on for a time. But evil days
were at hand. In a few years the hunting trade died
out, game becoming scarcer and scarcer in their
former haunts, then almost completely disappearing,
slaughtered or frightened north. The prosperity of the
Republic waned to its former level ; farming paid less,
trade was as slack as ever. A railway was essential
to development. With this idea President Burgers
visited Europe to raise sufficient capital for a line
between Pretoria and Delagoa Bay. The line was not
completed till many years later, when the least expected
of all romantic destinies — that of gold-supplier-in-chief
to the world — had befallen the Transvaal. Meanwhile
the outlook was gloomy and darkened when, on the
President's return in 1876, the Bapedi natives rebelled.
As strong a force as the resources of the country afforded
took the field, but was unsuccessful. There was no
money in the Treasury, no assets in the country on
which to raise the wherewithal to extend military'
operations. The country was suffering from depression
28
Historic Pretoria.
Discontent was rife, counsels were divided. One
section of the burghers desired outside aid, even annexa-
tion ; another section counselled delay. No course
required less effort than that of doing nothing while
events turned themselves, and as that course was
adopted it was perhaps unreasonable of those who
urged it to quarrel with the turn events did take. The
natives remained a menace to the Repubhc and an
incentive to natives in adjoining territories. So in
1877 the British Government intervened. Sir Theo-
philus Shepstone, accompanied by only a small
troop of mounted police, hurried to Pretoria and
annexed the Transvaal. Without bloodshed or osten-
tation, the flag of the Republic was lowered and
the Union Jack hoisted in its place. Some protested
formally, others concurred ; and so the voortrekkers,
who had suft'ered so much for their independence,
found the burdens of state too much for them,
and by sheer force of circumstance became British
subjects again.
The Zulus, however, had an old boundary grievance
against the Transvaal, and on the annexation of the
Republic transferred the dispute to Britain. It was
an unreasonable claim, and, being dismissed accord-
ingly, war resulted. The peace finally arranged with
the Zulus upset the Basutos. British forces sent to
subdue them met with little success. Hostilities
rapidly spread towards the Transvaal. And so,
from one cause and another, Pretoria became a
garrison town and the centre of quite an official
community.
It was a different Pretoria to that of the sixties.
The awkwardness of early growth had been replaced
by something of symmetry. The town had grov>rn
29
Historic Pretoria.
pretty, its amenities had become polished. Streets had
been evolved, and each street was bordered by delight-
ful gardens. Rose hedges separated the houses, and
the houses stood in spacious grounds, in gardens where
the violet and the honej'suckle ran riot with the rose
and lent to the town a colour and a fragrance wholly
charming. Cool shady orchards gave relief from
sunnner heats, and down each sidewalk crystal-clear
streams were led from the fountains.
And the environment, like the town, was pretty
Around, on all sides, lay the low and verdant hills,
dominated by the bolder outline of the blue and purple
Magaliesberg ; and the Aapies, though a small and
turbid stream, flowed through many a cosy picnic
glen.
The population, too, had increased to about 4000
and had grown more cosmopolitan. Added to the Boer
element were many English, Dutch, and Germans.
The patriarchial hospitality, kindliness, and manly
worthiness of the older population had been augmented
by the vivacity of the new-comers, among whom was
found much of general culture and social accomplish-
ment ; all of which added to the gaiety of the town,
a gaiety the more infectious for its novelty, and the
more novel for its peculiar setting. Theatres and other
places of amusement were, of course, absent, and
nobody went to the coast for the summer, the coach
being tedious and expensive ; but there was no lack
of recreation and pleasure — balls, dinners, and garden
parties for those in the whirl ; picnics, alfresco concerts,
and mild shooting for all.
Whatever of strife the outside world suffered, the
presence of the garrison assured the peace of Pretoria ;
and the burgher, in his wide orchard, beneath the shade
30
T>late XVIII .
^'^^</^^y^ ^^/lyy^ S^^^^o/^.
Olid ^n=]-ricDH y/=if^c:>-
Historic Pretoria.
of the fig and the walnut tree, though he might shake
hi? head at these newer ways, at last found that con-
crete quiet and security, if not the abstract indepen-
dence and contentment, for which he had sought and
suffered so long. For whatever the political aspect of
the situation, it was a pleasant and prosperous era for
the town. Under the aegis of Britain, confidence
returned. Money was again attracted and, by the
garrison and newly arrived civilians, freely circulated.
The farmer had a market at last. There was work of
some sort for all. Living was cheap. And so for a
while fortune smiled on Pretoria.
The Basuto war was long-drawn, and the continued
occupation of the Transvaal by the British became
irksome to a section of its former rulers. More money
was in circulation, trade had improved ; but it was for
independence that the Boers had laboured, and it was
their independence, whatever its cost, that many of
them now began to desire back. Deputations to
Britain were sent without result. An appeal to arms
was decided on. A small commando at Heidelberg
issued a declaration of independence, and towards the
end of 1880 hostilities commenced.
Potchefstroom, Rustenburg, and Lydenburg, as well
as Pretoria, were garrisoned by the British. In Pretoria
itself martial law was proclaimed. Those whose profits
depended on or whose sympathies were with the British
remained. Those who thirsted for a return of the power
they had tasted, who forgot the ills of the old regime,
or who in sheer and perhaps mistaken patriotism at
any cost desired the country back under the old
regime, sided with the burghers and were allowed to
leave.
31
Historic Pretoria.
The town settled down to withstand a siege. It
lasted three months. A cordon of armed burghers,
not strong enough to attack, but able to cut off the
town from the country generally, lay around Pretoria.
Further afield the Boers under General Joubert were
doing valiant deeds. In rapid succession the battles
of Laingsnek Bronkerspruit, and Majuba were
fought. In 1881 the Transvaal was handed back to
the republicans, Paul Kruger becoming President and
continuing in that office until, in igo2, the Transvaal
finally became a British colony.
As usual after almost every war, a period of depres-
sion followed the events of 1881 ; as usual in South
Africa, when the outlook seemed darkest it brightened.
Gold was discovered in payable quantities at Barberton,
and by 1886 in undreamt of quantities on the Rand.
This changed the position, and a development of the
erstwhile languishing state followed, so romantic and
so rapid that it has hardly a parallel anywhere. People
of every nationality flocked to the Transvaal from
every corner of the world. From the somnolence of
Devonshire lanes and the roar of London streets, from
the pits of Cornwall, the crofter's Highland patch, and
the Irish homestead ; from Indian heat and Russian
snow ; from gay Parisian boulevards, Continental spas,
American backwoods, and the sampans at Chinese
river mouths ; from ducal mansion and city slum ;
from the barrister's bench and the coster's barrow ;
from pulpit and from bar saloon, they came, all classes
and conditions of men. Yet all formed in the same
primary mould — all in the end having the same
passions and ambitions — all yielding to the potent
lure of gold.
32
Historic Pretoria.
On every side there was feverish bustle. The weak
and halt jostled the strong and hale : in search of
fortune and adventure, or both, and health. Jew and
Gentile, believer, unbeliever, and sheer pagan ; white,
yellow, and black ; on foot and in coach, in transport
wagon, private conveyance, donkey cart, crowded the
roads that led to the gold. There were found the
footsore, friendless, and forlorn, as well as the sleek,
the well financed, and the exultant.
At first lyydenburg, then Barberton, and then with
a hundredfold intensity the Rand, attracted. Of the
WW^^^^WT'^W^^f^^r^^.
Hutoric Prttorla.
three fields the Rand was, of course, by far the richest,
but the mining around Barberton was in many respects
noteworthy.
It was Hke a romance from Bret Harte. The scenery
was magnificent, the mountains grand beyond com-
parison. Only to see the place was to be thrilled.
The journey alone was enough to inspire the digger
with hope ; it was elevating, ennobling, sustaining.
The tortuous mountain road winds between botilders
and huge cliffs, alongside awful precipices. Mist-
wrapped, or tinted in all varieties of gorgeousness,
range upon range of mountains extend into the dis-
tance. Tropic trees and ferns and creepers fill the
gulleys. Beautiful waterfalls pour down in cascades.
For nine miles the road ascends the mountain side.
On top is the Devil's Office. It is well named : the
country around is extremely wild. Below, completely
surrounded by peaks, the De Kaap Valley lies, called
by the natives the Valley of Death. Opposite is the
little town of Barberton.
In such surroundings, amidst so much natural
nobility, the diggers cast their lot, erected their tin
huts unashamed, plied pick and dice-box, made and
lost fortunes, returned whence they came, or left their
bones in hostage with malaria. On that beautiful
scene the kerosene lamps of the ramshackle bar-saloon
nightly shed their brazen ra3^s, and in solitudes where
only fever and silence had reigned the balls of the
billiard table, the banging of the card-pack, the " tin-
pot " piano, and the ribald song resounded, as nightly
the bearded, sun-burnt, muscular diggers caroused.
Then the boom of Johannesburg came and the exodus
from Barberton commenced. Wealth in abundance
34
Historic Pretoria.
flowed into the coffers of the RepubHc. Projects long
in mind were carried out. Roads were made, railways
and telegraphs constructed, public offices and buildings
erected, and general improvements effected throughout
the country. It is from that era that modern Pretoria
dates, and commenced its rapid and in many respects
remarkable architectural growth and social, political,
and industrial expansion.
■^/'|V^!'l?l/Si>^f/'- ^/^
35
^^^^^
The Modern City.
m
CHAPTER IV.
[Y gradual steps, therefore, and through many
vicissitudes. Pretoria evolved to the status of a
city, and in 1910 became the Administrative
Capital of the Union of South Africa.
It has to-day much to recommend it. But it is not
a Manchester, a Boston, or a Cairo ; not even a
Johannesburg or a Capetown. It is not a populous
manufacturing town, a centre of fashion, an historic
health resort, a gold metropolis, or a world-famed spot
of singular beauty. Within its boundaries there is not
the throb of intense industrialism, the parade of a
nation's gaiety, the crumbling monuments of an age
when the world was young ; no roar of mining batteries
and incidental wealth ; no mist-wreathed peaks and
pine-clad slopes of a Table Mountain. Pretoria is not
remarkable for any of these. To represent otherwise
would be to mislead. It would even be unnecessary,
for after all manufacturing, fashion, old-world historical
interest, gold mining bustle, and singular natural beauty
are not the only criterions of a town's claim to attention.
They are not the only standards by which its importance
36
The Modern City.
and attractions may be judged. A place may have
none of these and yet be deservedly popular. It may,
to take an extreme case, have the haunting glamour,
the indescribable but all-compelling fascination that
sets at nought all shortcomings, hardships, and trial,
and lures again and again those who once have known
it, as do the Sahara towns and villages, the Drakens-
berg Mountains, and the wilds of Rhodesia. Or a
place may offer exceptional opportunities for found-
ing comfortable homes, as does Canada ; or it may
have an enticing quaintness, as has Japan. Or it
may have none of these characteristics pronouncedly,
but all or many of them to a minor degree, so
blended as to combine in an attractiveness as potent
as any.
That, as we conceive, is Pretoria's claim to attention.
It has not, perhaps, any single characteristic of out-
standing prominence, but it has a number of charac-
teristics which, together, make a stiong appeal to the
tourist, to the convalescent, to the investor, and to
the worker. Pretoria and district offer what after all
are the main considerations, means of comfortable
livelihood and even ultimate affluence to the man with
energy and a little capital, and many attractions to
the tourists. It is rich in unexploited mining and
farming resources. It is interesting historically and
scenically. It has a history that gives significance
and interest to even its unpaved back streets ; a chmate
the salubrity of which would make even squalor and
poverty endurable ; a prettiness that, though not
remarkable, is pleasing and refreshing. It therefore
has attractions which, if they differ from those sup-
porting the popularity of other cities, are in their way
as capable of sustaining a high reputation.
37
The Modern City.
Pretoria is, however, not a city of all the attractions,
or even a finished city bearing comparison with leading
cities oversea. To represent otherwise would be,
consciously or unconsciously, to be ironical. Its well-
wishers would be well advised to dissuade any such
attempt. There are blemishes on the general fairness
of Pretoria that no one can overlook, but the ^airness
of the place is such as can bear many blemishes and
yet on the whole attract, and the imperfections, such
as they are, are being gradually removed. Certain
disadvantages the place still suffers, but the advantages
so far outweigh the disadvantages as to make the latter
negligible in a final balancing. Everything considered,
Pretoria is a city in which a life-time or a holiday
might be happily and healthfully spent Little more
could be said for any place. Pretoria will therefore
gain most not by being misrepresented, however good
the intention, but by being shown exactly as it is.
Not by heightening the light and dispelling the shadow,
to produce a vivid but fanciful and misleading daub ;
but by so blending light and shade as shall give a
faithful picture, revealing what is good, and not hiding
what is otherwise.
Pretoria is on the whole not yet an impressive city,
because it is a very young city, the days of which
were once less palmy, the tendencies to expansion and
ornamentation fewer, than now. Consequently small
and humble dwellings, and small and even dingy shops,
rear their fronts on even the better streets. There
was little systematic tree-planting in the old dorp.
Until comparatively recently there was no well-con-
ceived town planning to harmonize the architecture
of the place. Much that detracts is accordingly met
at every turn : streets that lack balance ; streets that
38
Plate XXII.
The Modern City.
are miles long, but in height seldom rise above the
second story ; rambling streets in which beautiful
structures stand cheek by jowl with some pioneer
shanty ; gardens in disorder ; trees that one might
think were grown by chance, so irregular is their
arrangement, so various and often unhappy the taste
that guided their selection.
Trees there are in abundance, and beautiful gardens ;
but the trees are mostly climped according to the
unrestrained fancies of their planters, and such gardens
as are attractive are themselves heightened in beauty
by the proximity of desolate or unkempt spots, but
in turn emphasize how far the scene as a whole is from
the idyllic. There are no stately avenues, as in Stellen-
bosch or Keuilworth ; no acres of consistently beautiful
grounds, as in Parktown. In fairness to prospective
visitors this must be admitted. But when it has been
admitted the worst has been said. Suburbs such as
Arcadia and Sunnyside, though somewhat new and
straggling, contain many charming residences, have
been consistently well planned, and promise to be
delightful when older and fuller grown and the Jaca-
randa trees have had time to bloom. Streets like
Market Street contain some of the noblest structures
in South Africa, such as the railway station, the new
library and the museum, to say nothing of the Union
Building, which dominates the better part of the town.
Nooks like the area around the P'ountains and around
the Zoological Gardens are wholly delightful. And the
Square is beyond question the handsomest in the
country.
The fact is that the aesthetic sense of present-day
Pretorians is well developed and so well pursued that
on all sides Pretoria is showing signs of rapidly growing
39
The Modern City.
beautiful. Its natural environment and its developing
prospects are such that in a few years it will be second
to no South African city, not perhaps in point of size,
but in architectural beauty. But to describe it as
already a fme city of imposing streets, splendid suburbs,
and a general floral magnificence is to be either a
literary libertine — or a prophet.
However, the sterling efforts of the present regime
have been so whole-hearted, so courageous in spite
of disheartening obstacles, and on the whole so
successful, and the natural winsomeness of the
place is such, that criticism is disarmed. One
admits that in many respects Pretoria is incongruous,
but one is forced also to admit that there is a degree
of charm in that very incongruity, and that when the
city has attained its fuller splendour there may be
more to admire, but less to love ; more of the stately
and superb, less of the picturesque and winsome. One
therefore enjoys while one may the attractions found
in few cities, but which in their way are as potent
as any.
There is, for instance, a serenity in the atmosphere
of Pretoria. The chmate is nearly perfect. No doubt
trying spells occur in summer, but so they do even in
temperate Europe, and South Africans and Anglo-
Indians have before now been prostrated by the heat
of a summer day in London. Speaking generally,
however, the Pretoria climate is delightful, never too
cold and on the whole seldom too hot — a wholesome,
exhilarating, bracing climate.
The difference in altitude makes a sojourn in Pretoria
extremely beneficial as a change from Johannesburg.
The air is a soothing mellow air, breathed without
40
The Modern City.
effort ; an air that, as it were, relieves the tension
caused by higher altitudes and comforts the respiratory
economy of a man. And as a change from coastal
cHmates, the Pretoria air is positively tonic — abiding
and irresistible in its recuperative effect. If only for
the pleasure of feeling well, a trip to Pretoria is a
sound investment. But, as we shall soon see, it is
an investment that returns additional dividends, gives
various pleasures.
There are in Pretoria public buildings, private dwel-
lings, shops, cafes, hotels, and other places of public
entertainment as good as any in the country ; and
some are as bad. There are beautiful and there are
unkempt gardens ; there are tree-lined streets and
streets almost devoid of foliage. A Pretoria street
therefore presents pleasing or displeasing features,
according to how one views it. In detail, examined
closely, it is often unimpressive in many respects.
Seen in long perspective, it is otherwise. Seen from
the corner of Schoeman Street, for instance. Market
Street would command hardly a second glance. Seen
from the eminence on which the railway station stands,
it is far otherwise. Especially at early morning or at
sunset, the view is delightful if one can disregard the
immediate foreground. Below, in the farness, He the
same hills, the same trees, the same buildings, that
on nearer view prompted little notice ; but, such is the
illusion of the evening haze, the hills are raised to
nearly Alpine height, the dome of Government Building
is gilt, the church spires in the distance rise burnished
from the glistening foliage — all etherealized by the
sunset, all beauties heightened, all blemishes subdued
by the mystic haze of the afterglow.
The Modern City.
If, in conteaiplation of this scene from the railway,
one turn to the left, it is to be disappointed : the fore-
ground is disreputable and the distance indistinguish-
able. But to the right it is far otherwise. It is like
a slice from an Irish scene : low emerald hills and on
their flanks red-tiled villas girt with gardens.
|o'iliere is in this mixing of the urban and rural some-
thing wholly delightful, something peculiarly Pretorian.
One is in a city and yet, as it were, in a rural back-
water. In large towns elsewhere the consciousness of
being in a town is continuous ; one enjoys the advan-
tages, but suffers the disadvantages, of town life. In
Pretoria it is otherwise. All the conveniences, all the
comforts of a well-appointed modern town are there.
Except for one dispiriting corner. Church Square would
do justice to the modernity and architectural pre-
tensions of, say, Brussels. But even in Church Square,
in the heart of the city, there is something of rusticity.
In that centre of official and commercial stir there is
a constant suggestion of rural proximity. The green,
lonely slopes of the Daspoort and Magaliesberg Ranges
are quite close. One can feel that not far away the
herds graze, undisturbed by the city's nearness. Indeed
an air as of the countryside blows over the place. The
square itself is fresh, clean, and wholesome as the veld
from which it sprang, animated and bustling at times,
no doubt, but on the whole quiet and peaceful, like a
stately Spanish piazza during the midday siesta ; a
soothing scene beneath a blue, calm, sunlit sky ; no
smoke or dust or racket ; a delightful change from the
average town.
Pretoria, to be properly appreciated, should therefore
be compared not with what other cities are, but with
what it was ; should be judged by its romance and
42
The Modern City.
history, as well as by its appearance ; should be appre-
ciated not for qualities common to other towns, but
for unusual qualities in which the unvitiated and novel
predominate. For Pretoria, though now up to date,
has lost little of its pristine wholesomeness, retains
suggestions still of those moving pictures of the life,
actions, manners, and appearance of a pioneer people,
white as well as black, whose like has now practically
vanished from the earth. The Pretoria surroundings
remain as alluring as when they attracted the voor-
trekkers, and the breeze blows as cleanly as once it
blew across the kraals when the snipe rose from the
marsh where now the city stands and the warriors, in
greeting, reared lance and buckled shield as dawn
heralded day across the breasts of the brooditig IMagalies-
berg.
43
Tours Around Pretoria.
CHAPTER V.
-yO
HIvTHOUGH the age is an age of travel, the art
and object of spending a holiday on tour is
comparatively little studied. In the main the
tendency is to travel aimlessly, leaving much to chance ;
everybody who can afford it travels for pleasure, but
comparatively few take the pains to extract the utmost
pleasure from their travels. More and more they feel the
need for occasionally leaving the familiar to seek change
in the refreshment and inspiration of new scenes, new
faces, new thoughts and habits, but do not sufficiently
realize that the success with which this is accomplished
depends as much on the temperament of the tourist
as on the characteristics of the places toured.
As, therefore, the extent to which a resort will appeal
depends largely on circumstances and the individual, it
is unsafe to dogmatize about any place. Some people
are habitually unimpressionable, unmoved, if not
actually bored, by scenery and old associations, or at
best susceptible only to what is urban and stirring.
Others can enjoy themselves almost anywhere, having
44
Tours Around Pretoria.
the imagination, the quick perception, and the keen
appreciation to find satisfaction in every experi-
ence, however trivial, provided it is new and contrasts
with everyday routine experience. They find pleasure
in the suggestiveness of anything that is strange, in
the unfamiliarity of new places, new incidents, new
sounds, new fragrances, colourings, and atmosphere —
in the contemplation of nature away from the towns,
in the peace of tranquil wayside evenings, in the allure-
ment of voices that call from the veld.
With these reservations, and leaving tourists to
decide for themselves what their predilections and
capacities for enjoyment are, it may be affirmed that
for those with the eyes to see and the minds to com-
prehend, there are several places in the Pretoria Dis-
trict which well repay whatever exertion or expense is
incurred in reaching them. Situated at distances of
from three to twenty miles from the city and reached
by road or rail are such places as the outskirts of the
bushveld, in the vicinity of the Crocodile River and
Commando Nek ; The Fountains, Wonderboom, Hen-
nops River, Baviaans Poort.
None of these places aflord accommodation or are of
a nature to warrant a prolonged stay, but each is worth
visiting with the necessary lunch basket ; each has
some claim to attention.
There is not about this Pretoria environment the
almost endless variety found in the sea, mountain,
and woodland attractions of certain coastal resorts.
Indeed there is a degree of sameness about Pretorian
resorts, and especially about the roads that lead to
them, which at first is disconcerting. But gradually
the attraction grows. There is just sufiicient variety
45
Tours Around Pretoria.
to prevent ennui, but not sufficient to cause the rest-
lessness prompted by attempts to stir the mind to
fresh appreciations at ever>' turn. The verj' absence
of starthng changes becomes restful and comforting.
You feel 3'ou would hardly wish it otherwise. You
are lulled into a state of semi-somnolence, irritating
sensibility deadens, and for once you feel peace and
contentment.
That these resorts are not as much v-isited as inferior
resorts elsewhere is perhaps attributable to the bias of
the interested or the injustice of the irresponsible,
whose descriptions have been somewhat misleading
because conflicting, and conflicting because either
extravagant or inadequate. It has, for instance, been
claimed that the scenery compares with any in the
Transvaal, not excepting the mountainous glamour of
Barberton or the sub-tropical splendour of the low
veld : and as a counterblast it has been affirmed that
the rivers are sluits, the ranges insignificant, and the
plains and valleys on the whole uninteresting. The
tendency has been either unduly to laud or unfairly
to belittle. The result has been in the one case expecta-
tions few places could satisfy, and in the other case
apathy : not because the attractions of the district, if
justly assessed and temperately proclaimed, are on
their own unbolstered merits otherwise than well
calculated to appeal to visitors, but because of a certain
insensibility to the fact that just as in human beings
character influences more than appearance, so in tourist
resorts charm appeals more than even beauty. There
is an even natural beauty that leaves one cold ; there
never was a charm that did not stir. Excepting
ephemeral colouring, elusive light and shade efl^ects,
and the glow of cosmopolitan picturesqueness, there is
46
'Plate XXII!.
e.
'Plate XXVI.
MESl
Toun Around Pretoria.
little or no beauty about Egypt ; but there is a spell
and a suggestiveness even for those unversed in historj'
which is stronger in its appeal to the imagination, than
any scenery or modern pageantry could be.
This is the claim for the Pretoria District. It is not
without beauty, if rightly gauged ; not the vivid beauty
that astonishes one into admiration, but the subdued
beauty that by its very quietness compels one's liking.
But the district has charm rather than beauty ; it is
in many respects alluring, but its lure, properly under-
stood, does not arise from rushing waters, towering
peaks, or picturesque foliage. There is little that is
impressive about Pretorian streams, little grandeur
about the Magaliesberg, little sublimity about the
grassy or even the remoter wooded plains. But there
is about the Pretoria district, as there is about an
indescribable perfume or a plaintive melody, a certain
subtlety, a wistful something, a spell more vague,
more intangible, yet more potent, than concrete beauty
— a spell that stirs till you not only see, but for once
in a while feel, feel sensations exquisitely new, experi-
ence a mood that is singularly pleasing. It is not
perhaps happiness, but the emotions that constitute
happiness when fixed in retrospect and looked back
upon as remembrances. One realizes this when one
has toured the district, more than when actually in
it ; for having returned whence one came, it is to be
assailed by that loneliness even in cities, and that
restlessness and longing even in urban repletion, which
the veld, whatever its shortcomings and whatever its
hardships, breeds in all who have known it, so that
they return again and again, or live continuously in
the hope of doing so, from the sickly air of cities to
the tonic air of the wilds, from the leaden skies of the
47
Tours Around Pretoria.
North to the great snn-washed splendours of the South —
to the South African veld, and not least of all to the
veld around Pretoria and district. There those who
lived the life of the veld found that success was pro-
portionate to desert. The hardships and the reverses
were many, but so were the compensations — the clean
life, the swift eye, the clear brain, and subtle muscle,
rather than the length of the banking account, ancestral
prestige, or well-cut garments being the criterion of a
man's worth. It was a natural socialism possible only
in a land where a man's wants were simple, and, being
simple, were abundantly provided. There the big
game roamed in thousands, and the hunters, alluvial
diggers, and transport-riders led lives of adventure.
It was the home of the lion, the leopard, and the
elephant ; the land of the swollen rain-fed ford, the
dusty trail, and the shimmering plain where the hot
air quivered at noon. There, in the old days, death
lurked on every hand, carried by most living things,
from the lion in pursuit of the scudding giraffe to the
mosquito injecting malarial. But still it was a land
to rave about, a wonderland in which, while it lasted,
the full joy of living was felt. It was a land etherealized
when at evening the slender fingers of the setting sun
thrilled over kopje and krantz, and the stately koodoo,
the dainty impala, the bushbuck, and the minor ante-
lope, like noiseless wraiths from other worlds glided
in elfin beauty through the shaaow>' kloofs.
Such, in the summers of long ago, was the bushveld
around the Barberton and Lydenburg Districts. Such,
to some extent, were also portions of the Pretoria
District, as one realizes when, having crossed the
Crocodile River where it flows in an uninteresting
phase about fifteen miles from the city, one traverses
a8
Tourt Around Prelorh.
the cutting in the low-lying range and, through Com-
mando Nek, enters the silenced outskirts of the once
teeming bushveld. The shadows come and go as then
they did, and the sunbeams quiver through the per-
fumed dusk of the resinous foliage ; but the actors are
gone. They no longer outspan, those hardy pioneers
of old, by the creeks and the water-holes. No longer
does the evening lilt ascend from the digger's cabin or
the embers of the dying camp-fires glow by the wagons.
For the trekking, the hunting, and the digging days
are over or devoid of adventure ; the game paths are
empty, the wagon road deserted, and the bushveld, as
glimpsed from Commando Nek, is a solitude in which
deep silence reigns. It is a sunlit, bush-clad, hill-girt
land grown drowsy. A quiet restful land where nothing
stirs save the leaves that flutter in the hot still sun-
shine. Nothing more vocal is heard than the lulling
drumming of the tock-tockie beetle, nothing more
vibrant felt than the rustle of the tall tambuki grass
where a wandering wind sighs through it. It is a
lonely, wistful land lost in reverie and veiled in hazy
blue, a land of soft colouring and soft sounds, where
evening, in place of the old-time stir, now brings only
the whirring cadence from some partridge covey over-
head or the mournful cry of a belated khoraan home-
coming. Then the moon's white blaze pours on the
empty veld and the wide-flung plains lie hushed.
Far otherwise is the place known as " The Foun-
tains," three miles from Church Square. As Pretoria
gradually grows into the populous, outstanding city it
is destined to become, " The Fountains " will no doubt
become its Hyde Park, where in the cool of the evening,
beneath the willows and the soothing blue, under
branches that arch above the avenues where the
4q
Toun Around Pretoria.
diminutive river flows, society will take its daily outing
by the turbid but not unpicturesque Aapies. The
foliage is rich and pleasing, and the surrounding hills
intensely green for the longer part of the year, and
one can imagine them in the days to come crowded with
villas and sweet smelling gardens.
The Hennops River, about fourteen miles from
Pretoria, is a popular picnic resort. Not only the
place, but the journey to it is pleasing, if not thrilling.
One passes through a land of low green hills and
verdant pastures. It is somewhat tenantless and
lonely, no doubt, but has the charm of tranquil pastoral
homeliness — cattle and sheep upon the hillsides and
drowsy herd boys nodding in the noontide heat, \vith
here and there little farmsteads dotted, and a golden
ghnt upon the maize fields.
The river itself is unremarkable, small almost to the
point of meanness and far from cr>'Stal-like ; but it
flows through an extreme^ picturesque setting — through
a witchery of colouring, colour in the rocks, in the water,
in the foliage, in the atmosphere : and where the water
ripples musically, albeit somewhat turbidly, over the
pebbled shallows, a sense of charm pervades, and one
feels the place to be not perhaps outstanding, but a
place such as Wordsworth may have had in mind
when —
" Pleased if some souls (for such there needs must be)
Who have felt the weight of too much liberty
Should find brief solace there as I have found."
But perhaps the quaintest and in a way the most
insinuatingly suggestive place of all is Baviaans Poort,
about fourteen miles by road from Pretoria. It is a
place worth travelling further to enjoy. Excepting
the mile-long gum avenue half-way, at Silverton, where
50
Tours Around Pretoria.
a small stream flows through a sylvan retreat, the
country, until one reaches the hills, is flat and unex-
ceptional, but far from uninviting. It is an exhilarating
gallop across the plains, in the cool of an autumn day,
under the magic of mighty wind-swept spaces ; and
an even more delightful journey by motor, on a dewy-
summer morning, when the early rains have set the
grasses free, and on every hand mile upon mile of
refreshing green stretches into the distances where the
hills stand blue in the morning haze.
Then, leaving the roj^ i, one enters a cutting in the
hills, and suddenly the scene is changed. The place
within is wild and lonely. The hills themselves are
comparatively low, but so abrupt and startling in
their contours as to seem imposing, and so fantastic
in their arrangement as to appear a little weird. But
it is an inviting place on the whole, this one-time tavern
of the monkey folk, especially when the shadows fall
from the naked sun-kissed krantzes, and he around
the stunted bushes, and throw broad spokes across the
little stream that babbles and calls, babbles and calls
unceasingly, perhaps to those who once abode there.
51
General.
CHAPTER VI.
-rO
(1) THE MUSEUM.
®FTEN, no doubt, a museum is regarded merely
as a tedious array of exhibits : musty smelling
and possibly instructive to the interested, but
conveying little to the uninitiated. Rightly regarded,
however, it should be, to those with a little imagination,
a place of recreation and learning, almost as entertaining
and certainly as instructive as a theatre. For a museum
is history in the concrete, the record of man's achieve-
ment ; in it are the trappings of the past, somewhat
dingy at times, perhaps, and even inanimate, but
potent with significance for those who can take and
develop a hint. What, for instance, could be more
stirring than the train of thought aroused by the
contemplation, in the Pretoria Aluseum, of the
2000-years-old mummy suggestive of an age, of customs,
peoples, and scenes when the world was young, of
splendours and mysteries now unfathomable, of cities
and nations dead, buried, and forgotten beneath the
modern cities and nations of ancient Eg>'pt !
52
General.
A Venetian sequin or a vSpanish dollar, what romantic
adventures were not theirs, from the days when the
Cape was the tavern for all who fought, trafficked, and
intrigued between East and West to the day when
these relics found a resting place in Pretoria !
Or to come nearer our own history. Is there not
poignant suggestiveness and even tragedy equal to that
of any staged drama in contemplating the crude but
lovingly, laboriously-engraved little tombstone wrought
and erected by some lonely saddened survivor to the
memory of the first English lady who found an exile's
grave in the remote wilds of Matabeleland nearly a
hundred years ago ?
One visualizes, too, times that were passing strange,
and to a peaceable, security-loving generation almost
incomprehensible, when musing on the history of the
wonderful cannon made almost without facilities by
the voortrekkers, and the implements of destruction
used by the Dutch East India Company, maybe against
some Oriental slaver or European buccaneer. How
many hopes, how many fortunes, how many lives
depended on the efficacy of these rude weapons ?
Could they but talk, what acts of heroism and devotion,
what tragedies and comedies, would stand revealed ?
One can only surmise, but in the surmising there is
much that is profitable and entertaining, the only
cause for annoyance being that the collections, though
good of their kind, are far from complete and their
histories far from being thoroughly known and fully
proclaimed. For these omissions our ancestors are to
blame, but they had other and more pressing things
to think about. The moral is, however, plain : in a
country like South Africa, where so many of the old
53
General.
conditions and implements were so novel and are so
rapidly passing away, it cannot but be in the interest
of all, and therefore should be an object of all, thoroughly
to support national institutions like the Pretoria Museum
by saving for and presenting to the museum everything
worthy of such a destiny, or in assisting those who do
this by supporting the museum and taking a live
interest in it. It costs so little either in effort or money ;
it means so much for future generations, and even for
ourselves. It is desirable, so that those not exclusively
occupied by the mundane may for their refreshment
and enlightenment occasionally step from the modern
everyday world into the dim cloisters of the past, there
in imagination to live for a while as our forebears lived,
and see spread out, in a narrow compass, within high
walls and a roof, all that is redolent of early South
Africa — of the Bushmen and the Hottentots and the
game that roamed the veld, of the Kaffirs when they
lived in barbaric splendour, of early settlers on pioneer
farm and in pioneer tovv^n : the life of the kraal and
the camp and the mining hut, of a time when South
Africans were in many respects rougher and hardier
than now, but in other respects more romantic and
more picturesque. It is a national work, this con-
servation of what is of South African historical interest :
a work in which all should help.
The Pretoria Museum was commenced in 1892 \vith
a small collection of objects of national interest. Some
years later natural history' specimens were added. In
1896 faunistic work was started. Since then the object
has been to study the flora and fauna of South Africa
in general and of the Transvaal in particular, and to
make the collections as complete, as instructive, and
as generally interesting as possible.
54
Plale XXVII.
Plalc XXIX.
BAVIAANS POORT.
Plate XXX.
General.
The collections at present accessible to the pubhc
are exhibited in six halls. The first contains mounted
South African birds, their nests, and eggs ; the second
and third hall contain South African mammals, reptiles,
amphibians, and fishes, as well as exhibits of the more
important internal and external parasites which are
capable of causing so much damage to the live stock
and crops of farmers. The fourth room contains what
is perhaps of most general interest — the historical and
ethnographical collections and coins, and the other two
rooms foreign mammals and birds.
An important part, indeed the greater part, of the
historical and ethnographical collections is not on view,
being stored away owing to want of room in the present
premises, but when the new premises in Market Street
are occupied this will, of course, be remedied.
The entomological collections are also inaccessible to
the general public for the present. Over 125,000 South
African specimens have been named and classified, but
want of cabinets and space prevents the scientific
classification of thousands of exotic insects. The
important herbarium, too, is inadequately housed, and
the reference library attached to the museum scattered
variously. No doubt this all detracts from the general
usefulness of the institution, not only because many
valuable specimens are for the time being stored away,
but also because even the specimens on view are in
many instances so huddled through want of space that
their significance is dwindled. This will, however, be
altered when the palatial new building in Market
Street, which is to house the museum for the future,
is taken over. Accommodation there, if not ample,
will at least be sufficient ; and it may confidently be
55
General.
expected that with such improved housing the exhibits
will be displayed to proper advantage and catalogued
and classed so as best to facilitate inspection and
study.
(2) THE PRETORIA ZOO.
Of vSouth African zoological gardens that at Pretoria
is probably the most charming and the most interesting.
Few places are better worth visiting. The grounds are
extensive and beautifully laid out, and accommodate
a collection of animals that is both large and varied.
Just to saunter through the flower-brightened paths,
or to rest in the shade of the silver-oaks and palms, is
distinctly pleasurable ; and at every turn, in the cages,
paddocks and ponds, something to instruct or entertain
will be found.
The zoo is a miniature world, in which has been
gathered something suggestive of nearly every corner
of the outer world. There every rank and grade of
the animal world live, if not in amity, then at least
in toleration. There the aristocrat and the proletariat
from the forests, mountains, rivers, plains, valleys, and
seas of the known earth live in a kind of socialism, all
wants being provided and existence rendered effort-
less. The zoo is the acme of cosmopolitanism — a true
democracy, where artificial barriers, save in the matter
of bars and wire netting, have been levelled, all natural
fears and preying instincts so far allayed that the deer
suckle their young undismayed by the roar of the
adjacent lion, the doves, knowing the efficacy of netting,
coo openly in view of the eagle ; there the leopard
gambols with the baboon, the vulture preens the wing
of the Nile goose and, disregarding dietics, takes a
56
General.
friendly interest in the goslings.* Food and comfort
come automatically, and the incentive to kill is there-
fore largely reduced.
The environment of the Pretoria Zoo is so beautiful
that thousands of visitors are attracted yearly, and
so admirably adapted to the widely differing tempera-
ments and needs of the various denizens that they
make it their home and, with certain limitations of
course follow their usual avocations, chewing the cud
of utter contentment, bringing forth and rearing their
young, basking lazily in the comforting sunshine, and
dreaming, no doubt, of the jungle they once trod or
the seas they skimmed. Each cage and enclosure is a
lattice, so to speak, through which, with a little
imagination, one gets a glimpse of luxuriant forests,
snow-capped Himalayan peaks, mighty rivers, lonely
African plains, sun-scorched deserts, and sparkling seas.
Blue, 3'ellow, and red macaws flash their gorgeous
plumage in the sun-flecked shadows of the entrance
avenue, and a parrot in green screams its " Hello !"
to the visitor. Their surroundings are very different
to those of their native haunt ; but, perhaps because
they have forgotten, they are a contented party. The
overflowing seed dish and protection from kestrel,
puma, and jaguar are perhaps some compensation for
the absence of that lurid hot-house, their one-time
home, where in places the Amazon flows six miles
broad and forests sweep 3000 miles inland to the Andes.
The tonic, air and the brilliant sunshine of Pretoria
are perhaps some compensation, even to an exotic
bird, for the sweeping forests and tropic vapours where
the palm, myrtle, acacia, and mimosa, gnarled by the
centuries and shrouded by the heavy luxuriant climbers.
* " The next cage shows us a Cheetah and an East African Baboon, grown up together
When one considers that a baboon is always looked upon as one of the moMt exquisite
delicacies of a leopard's menu, one may really marvel at the absolute friendship of thege
two animals, who by their constant and funny play make one of the most attraotiva
•zhiblta In tb* (iektd»n»."—Sxtract from Curator t Report.
57
General.
close their ranks so densely that beneath the tree tops,
in the hot, miasmal atmosphere of the Amazon banks,
day is a dim affaii of faltering twilight and night an
awesome pall of utter black. It is a distant and, one
may suppose, an unregretted home, for on their Pre-
toria perches the macaws now drowse uncaring through
the slumbering afternoon of the African summer and
the Amazon parrot utters its scrap of English with
something akin to pride.
The pond close by, among other denizens, contains
a pair of seals. The day can at times be hot at
Pretoria, and the zoo pond is often discoloured. One
then pities the seals, taken from cool, wholesome,
sparkling seas and dumped a thousand miles inland
where even the smell of the ocean is denied them.
But it is misplaced pity, for suddenly their affectation
of lethargy vanishes and in a very whirlwind of admir-
able, if mistaken, zeal they swim, dive, and romp,
with a gusto and dexterity sadly disconcerting to the
other inmates of the pond.
Perhaps they, too, have their compensations, for
though accustomed to congregate, especially in the
breeding season, and though now isolated far from
their kind (in what at best is an artificial environment
sans ice floe, salt spume, dashing wave), the female
enjoys the attractions of monogamy, and the old male,
though deprived of the harem he would have had under
the old regime, is on the other hand spared the necessity
for continuously defending it from adventurous suitors
and himself from unceasing domestic squabbles such
as turn the natural breeding places of the seals into
places of din and turmoil.
The bear den contains, among other interesting
occupants, a denizen from the far-off Himalayas, who,
}«
Gtneral.
in the cool of Indian evenings, may have loitered once
by the banks of the Brahmaputra. Honey, roots, and
a little flesh formed his diet in those days and were
sought in divers and widely differing places, ranging
from the dry icy heights of the " snow abode " to the
lower, hotter, and wetter regions along the great plain
of Asia. His was the saunter from the aromatic pine
slopes and keen air of the upper altitudes down to the
palms, bamboos, tree-ferns, and orchids of the plains,
where the sunbird, the vividly coloured trogon, and
the beautiful kingfisher have their home with the cobra
and the python, the tiger and the elephant.
The elephant is a companionable brute. For pre-
ference, rather than for protection, it wanders in herds,
gambolling, when in jovial mood, with a lightness
that, considering its size, is nothing short of wonderful,
or lolling in the jungle shadows during the noontide
heat, or bathing. The solitary female at the zoo,
musing perhaps on such past jaunts, is inclined at times
to be pensive, when, in the absence of water, she may
be seen moodily squirting sand over ponderous shoul-
ders. Maybe her thoughts are with the calf which, in
happier circumstances, would be by her side amongst
the plantains and the bamboos of an Asiatic home.
But she is an amiable and gentle though a somewhat
heavy dame, and whatever her thoughts or ambitions
may be is inclined to sink them on the advent of a
banana which she nimbly but courteously filches from
the spectator.
The lion is, in a paternal sense, essentially a family
animal. He attaches himself to one mate only and
lives with her for life — that is to say, for her life, as
instances are on record where, in the stress of hunger
or wrath, Uons have killed and eaten their consorts.
39
General.
As a bachelor, too, he is in many respects sociable.
He hunts with other bachelors until, under the influence
of jealousy, discord ensues, when the weaker is killed
and the victor, suing the lithe one of the contention,
roars nightly in the wilderness till she, stirred by the
pairing instinct, slinks from her family circle and not
without a certain coyness joins her fierce-blooded
suitor in some rocky fastness of their own, killing with
him only when hungry or annoyed, rearing her cubs
while her lord hunts for their food. And when family
affairs have been eased and the young have been taught
to fend for themselves, she joins her savage mate in
social evenings ; when, as Gordon-Cumming has written,
the roar of the assembled lions at the water-holes, in a
unison that is extremely impressive, constitutes a
nocturnal concert inconceivably stirring and grand.
There are two lionesses and a lion at the Pretoria
Zoo. The elder of the former is somewhat aged,
extremely brittle in temper, soured either by spinster-
hood or confinement, her sociability so far destroyed
that on a companion being placed in her cage she
immediately broke his back.
The male, however, seems a placid animal, largely
given to basking in the sun with a dreamy far-away
look in his yellow eye, and a nervous, ceaseless twitch-
ing of his sinuous tail tip, as though in the farness he
saw visions that stirred his slumbering passions ; or
maybe some whimper or some whiff from the adjacent
cage, in which his fierce mate suckled her newly whelped
brood, may have roused his paternal feelings, stirred
instincts connected with freedom, the plains, and the
hunt.
Of Diana monkeys there are a pair in the zoo,
delicate, refined, almost human animals from the fetid,
60
General.
impenetrable, excessively rank vegetation of the
Equator, where the mahogany, the teak, and the
ebony grows, where the mighty Congo plunges in
gorges and rapids, and the Arab slave raiders once had
their loathsome strongholds.
So one wanders between cages, paddocks, and
aviaries, seeing continuously something to instruct and
interest, something to widen the horizon of one's out-
look by reminiscences and suggestions. Of all the animals
there, the hippopotamus is perhaps the most curious,
a huge ungainly brute like some relic from primeval
times, resembling nothing else that walks the earth
to-day. He is a full-grown bull, exceedingly ugly and
unwieldy, but capable of a passionate attachment to
his native keeper, whose frequent admonitions appear
to conve}^ something to whatever understanding lies
behind the absurdly small eyes in that wierdly ponderous
head.
Though the cemented pond in which this hippo,
spends most of his time is small and gives little oppor-
tunity for the dexteious diving and the perambulating
on the river bottom in search of adventure, for which
hippos, in their natural environment are noted, these
deficiencies are no doubt made up for by the fact that
the zoo rations are uncommonly good. Huge slabs of
moistened mealie meal slip down his capacious mouth
and are swallowed with the rapidity and ease of 03'sters
down a human throat, the while the ridiculously beady
eyes peer greedily for more, and the small flexible ears
twitch alertly as though to catch some distant sound,
some grunt, perhaps, to charm a lonely captive, such
as in the vicinity of the Zambesi is nightly heard when
the hippos, leave the water and walk the banks in
search of food and gallantry.
61
Ceneral.
To enumerate all the denizens of this zoo would be
to take up too much space and the place would still
be done less than justice. There are bisons from the
American prairies, bears from Japan, pumas, leopards,
and llamas ; camels from the burning deserts and
tamarisk-shaded oases of the Sahara ; scores of different
kinds of antelopes and birds innumerable, each single
specimen oi which is worthy of some individual atten-
tion.
(3) THE LIBRARIES OF PRETORIA.
Of the numerous departmental libraries for the use
of officials, to which public access is more or less
restricted, the library of the Agricultural Department
is one of the largest and most important. Other non-
public, though not purely departmental, libraries are
the Supreme Court Library and Legislative Council
Library, The one librarv is lodged in the Palace of
Justice and contains several thousand legal works,
access to which is limited to members of the Bar.
The other library, which was begun a few years before
Union, is in Government Buildings. It contains a
wide selection of books, principally of a reference
character, intended primarily for the use of members
of the Pro\'incial Council and officials.
The State Library, frequently styled the Government
Library, is the old " Staats Bibliotheek " of the Trans-
vaal Republic, and fulfils very successfully the functions
of a public library. It is also a depository for official
publications, and contains, among its 50.000 odd books
and documents, many valuable collections dealing with
the history of South Africa, and particularly of the
Transvaal, from the earliest times.
62
Tlate XXXI y
General.
This library has been housed for the past nine years,
after two previous changes of premises, in the Church
Street buildings formerly known as the " Staats Druk-
kerij " of the Transvaal Repubhc. The occupation of
these premises will, however, not continue long. The
library will shortly be transferred to the more imposing
and commodious building recently erected at the top
of Market Street.
This library was started in 1887 and has grown from
very modest beginnings into an important institution.
Its constitution and regulations, as now in force, were
approved and established by resolution of the Executive
Council in 1893 and confirmed by the Government in
1903.
(4) THE BACTERIOLOGICAL STATION.
A few miles outside Pretoria is situated the world-
famed institution for the study of animal diseases —
the Transvaal Bacteriological Station. It is a branch
of the Union Agricultural Department and was erected
at a cost of £60,000, which in an extensive stock-
breeding country, where without adequate protections
the ravages from stock diseases might entail the loss
of millions, is one of the best public investments ever
made.
The station is the headquarters for continuously
investigating and administering measures to check
stock diseases of all kinds, and under the aegis of some
of the most brilliant veterinarians of the age has done
remarkably good work.
63
General.
(5) THE CLIMATE OF PRETORIA.
The following statistics are the averages deduced
from seven years' ofHcial observations : —
Rainfall.
City : 29 -51 inches District : 27 -84 inches
per annum. Rain fell on per annum. Rain fell on
an average of 82 days an average of 72 days
per annum. per annum.
Mean Maximum Temperature.
Summer 81 -2° F.
Winter 72 -2° F.
Mean Minimum Temperature.
Summer 55-4° F.
Winter 41-3° F.
Sunshine (Town) — Mean.
Sum.mer mean : 66 per cent, of possible hours of
sunshine.
Winter mean : 82 per cent, of possible hours of
sunshine.
Humidity — 8 a.m.
Winter mean : 72 per cent, relative humidity.
Summer mean : 72 per cent, relative humidity.
Humidity — 7 p.m.
Summer mean : 65 per cent, relative humidity.
Winter mean : 58 per cent, relative humidity.
(6) EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES.
Transvaal University College.
This institution is the chief centre of higher education
in the Transvaal, and is fully equipped for preparing
64
General.
pupils for all university examinations above the Matricu-
lation and up to and including the degree of Master of
Arts. Although the college has not been long founded,
some of its students have found their way to Oxford
and the principal educational finishing centres of
Europe and America.
The college buildings, surrounded by ample recreation
fields, are situated near Rissik vStation. They consist
of two detached blocks, which, however, are only a
portion of a larger design to be completed when the
growth of the institution warrants. The front block is
Byzantine in style — two stories in height, and contains
classrooms, biological and geological laboratories, lecture
rooms, library, a large lecture hall, professors' rooms,
and offices. The back block is a single-story building,
and is occupied by the departments of chemistry and
physics ; it contains also two lecture rooms.
The institution is an autonomous body with an
independent council and constitution. For a full
degree course the fee is ;fi6 per annum, payable half-
yearly in advance, and for separate subjects it is £4. 4s.
per annum.
The stafi consists of professors in Latin, Greek,
English, philosophy, economics, history, Dutch,
mathematics, physics, and chemistry, and a com-
petent body of lecturers in other subjects.
Fuller particulars may be obtained from the Secretary
to the Council, Mr. D. G. Hafner.
Boys' High School.
There are two institutions in Pretoria which make
provision for secondary education — the High School
for Boys and the High School for Girls.
6.S
General.
The High School for Boys is situated on the side of
the kopje to the south-west of the town, in rural,
healthful surroundings. The main building of the
school consists of two floors : on the ground floor
there is a large assembly hall with a gallery, and round
it are grouped classrooms, laboratories, a gymnasium,
and excellent lavatory accommodation. On the first
floor are more classrooms, the school library, the head-
master's study, and a masters' common room. Every-
thing that experience could suggest has been provided
to make the school as convenient in plan and as fully
equipped for educational purposes as possible. There
are two detached wings to the building used as boarding-
houses. They are well designed and furnished, and
capable of accommodating eighty boarders.
The governing body of the school consists of eight
elected and four nominated members.
The course of instruction is planned to prepare the
pupils for the Cape University Matriculation Examina-
tion. The school fees range from £2 to £4 per term.
The boarding fees are £12. los. per term. Bursaries
are offered by the Transvaal Education Department.
The playing fields are extensive and athletics and
games are well organized. A railway station is within
a few minutes' walk of the school and a tram terminus
within easy access.
About 250 pupils attend regularly.
The headmaster is Mr. W. H. Hofmeyr, M.A. (Cam-
bridge).
High School for GirU.
The High vSchool for Girls is situated on a large plot
of ground bounded by Visagie and Skinner Streets, but
66
General.
the intention is to erect new buildings outside the town
near the University College. The new boarding-house
has already been commenced.
The present school building consists of two stories,
and contains airy and well-lighted classrooms, rooms
for music, drawing, science, and a gymnasium.
Connected with this school there is a preparatory
school for boys and girls under ten years of age. The
average enrolment of the two establishments is 320,
including between 60 and 70 boarders.
Great attention is paid in the school to physical
training in a way to help and not hinder the mental
training of the pupils. The curriculum is the same as
that of the High School for Boys and bursaries are
offered annually.
The fees for the day school vary from ;^i. los. in
the lower to £;^ in the upper school per term. Music,
singing, painting, and dancing are extras, but in no
case do the fees in any of these subjects exceed £^
per term.
The headmistress is Miss B. Aitken, an M.A. of
Dublin University and a graduate in honours of Cam-
bridge.
Pretoria Normal College.
The Normal College proper consists of a fine modern
range of buildings, which provide teaching accom-
modation for all students and residential accommodation
for women in two hostels. The buildings are well
designed, fully equipped, and attractively situated in
extensive grounds in Rissik Street, Sunnyside. Close
by boarding accommodation for male students is pro-
vided in the residence occupied by Sir Arthur Lawley
67
General.
when he was lyieutenant-Goveruor of the Transvaal,
hut additional quarters are to be erected to meet the
increased number of applications for accommodation.
The large number of Government primary schools
in Pretoria is a great advantage to the Normal College,
as the students are enabled to obtain a very varied
range of knowledge and experience in practical teaching,
while wthin easy range of the town there are schools
the conditions of which approach very closely to those
of the farm school.
Recreations and sports of all kinds are well organized.
From time to time courses of instruction are given
at the college during the winter school vacation for
teachers who are already in the service of the Trans-
vaal Education Department.
The principal of the college is Mr. E. Garnett, from
whom fuller particulars may be obtained.
Pretoria Trades School and Polytechnic.
This school provides technical education in trades ;
connected with it is a polytechnic in which a more
advanced curriculum is given. The school has a
governing body of its own, but is under the super-
vision of an officer of the Education Department.
Wagon-building, carpentry, plumbing, electrical
engineering, farriery, etc., are taught in well-equipped
workshops, and there are continuation classes in the
evenings. Classes are also held for literary and com-
mercial subjects, and lectures are given on the theoretical
side of technology.
Attached to the school is a Polytechnic Club, which
serves to bring the students together for outdoor as
well as indoor recreation. The curriculum aims at
68
General.
providing preparation for the examinations of the City
and Guilds of London Institute, the Sanitary Institute,
and the Johannesburg School of Mines and Technology.
The principal is Mr. Sidney Wood, B.vSc. (ist Class
Honours), I^ondon, M.E., C.E., from whom all par-
ticulars may be obtained.
Pretoria Manual Training Centre.
The Pretoria Manual Training Centre is on the
grounds of the Gymnasium School, Proes Street. It
is a centre for woodwork instruction and is attended
by all boys from Standards IV in the schools in the
immediate vicinity.
The object of the instruction is not the training of
future tradesmen, as in the case of the Trades School,
but simply to give a manual dexterity which will be
useful in any walk of life the pupil may afterwards
follow. A manual training centre has also been estab-
lished at the Boys' High School.
The principal in manual training in the Pretoria
(town) area is Mr. Daniel Linekar.
69
Pretoria Municipally.
CHAPTER VII.
ITS HISTORY FROM 1880.
^H^UNICIPAIvLY Pretoria already compares
|[^||^ favourably with many of the older towns of
South Africa, in spite of the fact that its
municipal vicissitudes have been as numerous and
varied as those of the voortrekkers themselves. It
owns its various public services, such as w^ater supply,
electric supply, and tramways, and will soon have its
public abattoirs, swimming baths, and cattle markets
which at the time of writing are under construction,
together with such public works as sewerage, storm-
water diains, kerbing and guttering, road-making,
All this has been accomplished in little more than a
decade, as the Municipal Charter of the City only dates
from 1903.
It was in 1880, or thirty-three years ago, that
responsible municipal government was first meditated
in Pretoria. A proclamation by Sir Owen I,anyon
gave a charter to the town and a municipal election
was held. A Dorps Raad was formed and the late
Mr. J. C. Preller was elected first MayoT of Pretoria,
but he never took his seat as such, the first Transvaal
war breaking out shortly afterwards.
70
Plate XXXV.
<^ pR£/ORlUS 3T ^ JOWH H-FfLL^
THiw II II II II I I ' Hjilii ••'• ' ' ,.
^
Plalc XXXVIl.
^3\nc xhX^^ad^
Plate XXXVUI.
^I'u'l'Mnifl !t
!^ 1^
< Mil 11 11 IKI II
Ipli'lil-.'.--: ":" !LU.(ttl'l-M
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
Pretoria Municipally.
Thereafter, until 1897, the municipal affairs of the
town were controlled chiefly by the I^anddrost, or
Magistrate, assisted by Commissioners, but in December,
1897, a Temporary Town Council (Tijdelik Stads-
bestuur) was appointed by proclamation of the late
President Kruger, dated 20tli December, 1897, and
published in the Staatscourant of 29th December, 1897.
The Council consisted of the following gentlemen, who
were nominated by the Government : —Messrs. E. P. A.
Meintjes, T. N. de VilHers, P. G. van der Byl, P. Botha,
R. K. Iroveday, E. F. Bourke, P. Beyers, P. Kruger,
P. Mare, Advocate F. W. Reitz, and Dr. G. W. S.
lyingbeek. The foregoing eleven gentlemen represented
the town, and were assisted by the following four
gentlemen representing the Government : — Mr. C. E.
Schutte, Captain A. Schiel, Dr. Messum, and Mr. E. Lutz
(Town Engineer).
Mr. T. N. de Villiers was appointed Chairman,
Advocate F. W. Reitz, Vice-Chairman, and Mr. J.
Bosch was appointed the first Town Clerk.
A grant of £1000 was made by Government in
December, 1897, to defray necessary expenses, and
thereafter two grants of ;£5ooo were made on 22nd
February, 1898, and 17th May, 1898, whilst ;^22,468
was paid by Government to the Landdrost during 1898
for repairs to streets, sanitation, salaries, wages, feeding
of mules, etc. Altogether there was provided for
Pretoria in the 1898 Estimates the sum of ;^6o,300.
In 1899 the Estimates for Pretoria for repairs and
maintenance of streets amounted to £40,000.
The only municipal revenue at this time appeared
to be the erf tax, which was an annual tax of los. on
a vacant erf and one of 30s. on an erf which was built
upon.
71
Pretoria Municipally.
The various services of the town, water supply,
electric supph% tramways, markets, and even the
sanitary service, had been granted to various persons
as concessions, and the town, municipally, was in
this position when the second Transvaal war broke
out.
In February, 1902, a Proclamation by the Military
Governor created a Nominated Town Council and
conferred upon them various powers, including that of
rating. In 1903 a Municipal Elections Ordinance con-
ferred responsible municipal government upon the city,
and a Municipal Rating Ordinance superseded the
rating powers of the 1902 Proclamation. A compre-
hensive Municipal Corporations Ordinance was passed
later in 1903, which would have given the newly elected
Council greatly enhanced powers had they chosen to
come under the operation thereof and abandon the
1902 Proclamation, as they were invdted to do. But
the adoption of the new Ordinance automatically
repealed the old Stads Regulaties (Town Regulations)
of 1899, which still remained on the Statute Book.
To these regulations, which prohibit the use of the
footpaths b}^ natives and coloured persons among other
things, the then Town Council attached so much
importance (and the ratepayers were with them in
the matt'^r) that they steadfastly refused to be brought
under the Ordinance, thereby sacrificing a revenue of
some ;f3000 per annum from erf tax, which was exacted
by Government, but which under the Ordinance was
created municipal revenue. The Council's application
to be brought under the Ordinance, minus the section
objected to, was refused, and the Council of Pretoria,
until November, 1912, remained without powers
possessed by every other municipaht}^ in the Transvaal.
72
Pretoria Municipally.
In spite of this disability, and with the aid of the
Hmited powers conferred by the 1902 Proclamation,
plus other powers acquired by private legislation, and
the application of portions of the various Municipal
Ordinances promulgated by the Government from
time to time, the City progressed rapidly. All the
services of a municipal nature concessioned away (with
the exception of the Market Concession) were actiuired
by the Council before the end of 1904, and an era of
real municipal activity and progress was entered upon,
which is continuing at the present day.
Population.
The population of greater Pretoria, including suburbs
at present outside the municipal area, MiUtary Canton-
ments, and other large Government institutions, as
estimated in December, 1912, is as follows : —
European 38,850
Coloured 22,550
Total 61,400
The civil population within the municipality, as
estimated in December, 1912, is 43,400, made up as
follows : —
European 26,000
Coloured , , . 17,400
ToTAi, 43,400
Valuation and Rates.
The total valuation of the town, including non-
rateable and Government property, with the exception
of the Union Buildings, which are not yet valued, i?
73
Pretoria Municipally.
£10,485,213. Of this amount £7,760,958 is rateable.
Rates are levied on the full vahie of land and buildings,
and the rates for the years 1911, 1912, and 1913 were
2d., 2jd., and 2M. in the £1 respectively. These rates
cover all general municipal services, such as street and
road making, street watering and cleansing, health and
fire protection, parks and pleasure groun.ds, etc., but
do not cover the personal services of water supply,
household refuse removal, and sewerage or sanitary
services, for which separate charges are made.
Water Supply.
The water supply of Pretoria is derived from a series
of dolomite springs, having their outlet on the portion
of the farm Groenkloof, locally known as the " Foun-
tains Valley," at an altitude some 150 feet above
Church Square, and in distance three miles from Church
Square. At present the approximate discharge of the
combined fountains is 6,000,000 gallons per diem.
About five years ago the combined discharge of the
springs fell to 5,000,000 gallons ; an increase, however,
took place after the great flood of 1909. During the
period covered from August to December the con-
sumption of the community is roughly 4,000,000 to
5,000,000 gallons per diem. There is practically no
restriction placed upon the domestic consumption of
water by the inhabitants of Pretoria. Domestic con-
sumption has come to be recognized as including the
watering of gardens, and in this direction water is used
lavishly, the consumption during the summer being
practically 100 gallons per head per diem, and for this
consumption the following charges are made : —
los. per quarter for dwellings (building value only)
valued at £250 to £3 per quarter for dwellings
74
Pretoria Municipally.
valued at £6000 and over. For gardens the
charge is ^i per annum for each 7000 square feet
of garden on which water is used.
Meters are only used on Government institutions,
hotels, and large business premises. Before any meter
charge is made against the Government they are entitled
to 100,000 gallons of water per diem free of charge.
The vSouth African Railways are entitled to 600,000
gallons of water per diem free of charge, but their
consumption at the present is far below this figure.
The charge to the Government over and above the
100,000 gallons is is. per 1000 gallons. Business
premises are charged at the rate of 2S. per 1000 gallons
up to a certain quantity, and thereafter is. 3d. per
1000 gallons. The Kent and Tyler meters, British
Positive, are used locally. Water is at present delivered
by means of three mains, varying in diameter from
18 inches to 10 inches, but this older scheme is being
rapidly abohshed. The total flow of the springs will
at an early date be delivered to a reservoir by means
of a 3-foot diameter reinforced concrete aqueduct, and
the water will be stored in a service reservoir, which
will have a capacity of 6,000,000 gallons. From this
point water will be distributed throughout the whole
municipal estate by means of steel and cast-iron pipes
to reservoirs in Arcadia, Sunnyside, and the western
town lands. Pumping is necessary to the higher areas
of Arcadia and Sunnyside, particularly that area
occupied by the Union Government Buildings. The
water is about 7° hardness and is perfectly clear and
absolutely pure. No filtering has at any time been
found necessary. An analysis of the water is made
weekly.
75
Pretoria Municipally.
Electric Supply.
The electric supply of Pretoria is D.C. at 250 or 500
volts, over a radius of about two and a half miles.
The charges per unit are as follows : —
Lighting, 6d. per unit.
To bona fide private dwelling-houses, 6d. per
unit for such number of units in one month as
is represented by i unit for each £100 valuation
of buildings plus 12 units, and for all in excess
of this, 2d. per unit.
Power rate. — First 500 units a month, 3d. per unit.
Next 500 ,, ,, 2d.
,, icoo ,, ,, id. ,,
All over 2000 units a month, |d. ,,
Two rate meters are installed for any consumer at a
charge of 2S. 6d. per month, when all day consumption
is charged at power rates.
Tramways.
The electric tramways cover about 11 J miles of
route, and radiate from Church vSquare to Railway
Station, West End, Hospital, Zoo, Sunnyside, Arcadia,
and Union Buildings. The fares are 3d. cash or 2d.
by coupon per stage. All routes from Church Square
are one stage, with the exception of Sunnyside, Arcadia,
and Union Buildings routes, which are divided into
two stages.
The cars leave the Railway Station for Church Square
and other routes at least every seven and a half minutes,
and extra cars meet all important passenger trains.
Special cars can always be provided to meet large
parties arriving by train, on notice being given in
advance to the Municipal Tramways Department.
76
Pretoria Municipally.
Sewerage System and Sanitation.
The sewerage system of Pretoria is that known as
the " Water-borne System," and has cost approxi-
mately a quarter of a milhon sterhag. The whole town
is saturated with sub-soil water, and this has necessitated
sub-soil drains being laid under all reticulation and
other sewers. About forty miles of reticulation sewers
have been laid, which constitutes practically the whole
of the reticulation system of Pretoria proper, the only
portion of the municipality as yet which has been
sewered. Stoneware pipes, having the Stanford bitu-
men joint, are universally used. The intercepting trap
on the street boundary is not provided. The recom-
mendation of the Departmental Committee, appointed
by the President of the Local Government Board, has
been adopted. No special arrangement has been made
with regard to ventilating the street sewers, and no
nuisance has so far arisen, and each nuisance as it
arises will be dealt wdth on its merits. The stoneware
pipes used are of Transvaal manufacture, and are
vitrified and glazed by the usual methods. The
reticulation system connects at various points with
3-foot diameter reinforced concrete outfall sewer,
which discharges its contents at the sewage outfall
works situated at the lowest portion of Pretoria proper,
and at the extreme edge of the northern boundary of
the municipality. The outfall works consist of Watson
detritus cone-shaped tanks, with automatic supply
tanks feeding continuous aerating filters. The medium
of aerating filters is composed of granite, graded from
I inch to 3 inches, resting on a false floor of aerating
tiles. The effluent from the filters passes direct into
the Aapies River. The sludging of the detritus tank
takes place daily and is discharged into septic tanks,
77
Pretoria Municipally.
which have no contact whatever with the aerating
filters. The septic effluent passes thence on to suitable
loamy soil, which is cultivated with lucerne. No part
of the septic effluent finds its way into the river.
The scheme as a whole is still in progress. The
effluent so far from the works has been entirely satis-
factory from every point of view. The manager in
charge of the outfall works acts jointly under the
control of the Town Engineer and the Medical Officer
of Health, and this officer has a knowledge of chemistry
and agriculture and is possessed of general business
aptitude. The daily chemical analyses are made by
the manager at the laboratory at the works. Samples
of sewage are analysed and a complete record kept of the
behaviour of the effluent. The works are capable of
dealing with 3,000,000 gallons per diem, which is based
on 30 gallons per head per diem on a population of
100,000, so provision has been made for nearly two
and a half times the whole population of the munici-
pality.
The charges for connections to the municipal sewers
are ;^i. los. per annum for each w.c. for Europeans
and each urinal space of 27 inches in width, and los,
per annum for each w.c. for the use of natives. In
addition to this, a rate of ^d. in the ^^i is levied on the
valuation of all property in the sewered area, whether
built upon or not.
Prior to the introduction of the sewerage system,
the Council were carrying out 8588 pail services, of
which 1500 were daily and 7088 tri-weekly. The
removals are performed between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m.,
and the service has been described as the cleanest and
most efficient in the whole of South Africa. The
78
Pretoria Municipally.
charges are — for daily services, £y. los. per annum ;
tri-weekly services, £^ per annum. About 4000 of
these services are ceasing as properties in the sewered
area are connected to the sewers.
The household rubbish removal service is carried out
daily or bi-weekly at the wish of the householder ; the
charges being — for a daily service, ;^5 per annum ;
bi-weekly service, ^Ti. los. per annum.
Fire Department.
The Fire Department is housed in a magnificent
building at the corner of Koch and Minaar Streets.
The premises were specially designed for the purpose
and give accommodation for —
Officers,
15 married firemen,
and a number of single men.
The building comprises —
Watchroom,
Engine-room,
Offices,
Gymnasium,
Billiard-room,
Reading-room,
Messroom,
Workshop, etc.,
and was erected during 1912 at a cost of ^30,000.
The equipment consists of —
53 Gamewell street fire-alarm boxes,
8 Circuit station instruments and recording
set.
17 Private fire alarms.
17 Private telephones.
79
Pretoria Municipally.
1 Motor chemical engine.
2 Motor turbine pumps.
I Motor turntable fire escape.
I Motor ambulance.
I Motor car for chief officer.
The whole of the fire hydrants throughout the muni-
cipal area are of the pillar pattern.
The Ambulance Department is under the control of
the brigade, and about 400 cases are attended to
annually.
The cost of upkeep of the department is approxi-
mately ;^8ooo per annum.
The brigade was established in 1902 and the fire
losses in that year amounted to £30,843. They have
steadily decreased year by year, and for the present
municipal year the fire losses amounted to £2000.
Great attention is accorded to the question of fire
prevention by the brigade, and separate inspections
are made. These inspections cover —
Theatres,
Public buildings,
Petrol and oil stores, and
Commercial buildings generally,
and the effect of these inspections has been consider-
able in reducing causes of fire, while the general influence
of the Fire Department's prevention policy is giving
fire protection that standing which it merits as a highly
important economic feature in municipal and national
life.
Roads, etc.
The condition of a number of the principal roads in
Pretoria is excellent, but much has yet to be done in this
80
Pretoria Municipally.
direction. The Council are considering the question
of raising a special loan of ^250,000 for this particular
purpose. The following statistics show some of the
permanent work accomplished since 1902 : —
Number of miles of road made
since 1902 —
ist class 25^ miles.
2nd class 62 J „
88 miles.
Kerbing and guttering 25 miles.
Storm-water drains 35 „
Sewers 25 „
Electric tram track 13^ ,,
Aapies River canalization.... 2-9 miles, complete.
Aapies River canalization .. . 1-3 ,, partial.
Total 4-2 miles.
Labour.
The supply of labour in Pretoria, white and coloured,
is generally sufficient for all requirements, with the
exception of trained female domestics, white or coloured,
for which there is always a demand.
The rates of pay of men in the municipal service
may be taken as a fair criterion of wages paid in
Pretoria : —
Natives, unsldlled — 35s. to 50s. per month, with
housing and rations.
Natives (sanitary service) — ^^3 to £$ per month.
Mule-drivers (white) — 7s. 6d. to 8s. 6d. per day.
81
Pretoria Municipally.
Steam-roller drivers (white) — i6s. per day.
Masons, fitters, carpenters, smiths, and other artisans
— 2S. 6d. per hour.
Gangers (white) — 7s. 6d. to 15s. per day.
Foremen and inspectors — 22s. 6d. to 25s. per day.
Book-keepers, cashiers, clerks, Hcence officers,
draughtsmen, and other officials on the permanent staff
have fixed grades, and their salaries range from £120
to ;f500 per annum.
82
)[^^^(^
The Architecture of Pretoria.
CHAPTER VIII.
" An honest tale speeds best, being plainly told."
(By V. S. R. P.)
"IIVrETORIA lies more or less in a hollow, sur-
n^ rounded by hills, of which Meintjes Kop is the
most important, and of considerable eminence, on the
northern side of the town.
The climate, although warm in summer, is during
the autumn and winter months as perfect as any in
the country.
Nature has been generous to Pretoria in many ways,
and the various opportunities afforded will it is hoped
be treated to give the town an added impetus towards
that future for which nature, its position, and the course
of politics and industrial development have combined
to single it out. I<ake and lay-out schemes are under
careful consideration, together with industrial and other
big propositions backed up by fine efforts in design
and architecture.
In setting out on this great enterprise, a start has
been made from a definite standpoint, directing efforts to
a single end, and labouring under no illusion as to its
aims and objects.
83
The Jlrchitecture of 'Pretoria.
Despots in ancient times made it one of their objects
to build on a big scale, partly to display their own
magnificence and power, yet recognizing the fact that
the beautification of their cities was the best method
of appealing to the people and attracting visitors, at
the same time giving the idea of civic and national
dignity and advancement.
Confronting us in every direction, we are made
aware of a modern daybreak in architecture, and the
great work of architectural education is being pro-
moted.
It is therefore the duty of each one to strive that
this heritage may pass on to our successors greatly
magnified and improved in beauty, and of no less
instruction to them than it has been to us, fighting
earnestly against the modern vanity which would
obliterate all traces of bygone days, when art was living,
with the dull imported present-day stamp of feeble
copyism or wilful falsification.
It is hoped that this modern garden city which has
had an auspicious start will have power to show
capacity to reject the bad and accept the good of
older civilization ; to build and lay out permanent
and beautiful records of faith in itself and for the
ultimate advancement of the nation.
As has been frequently said, true art is of national
growth, and the outcome and corollary of national life,
not only the concern of a special class or profession ;
we are on the eve of developments which, wisely
directed, will make our architecture a national art.
Those who are capable of looking boldly towards the
future will not be disposed to deny the fame the Capital
deserves and the redeeming influence already produced
by good work on the art and architecture of the country.
84
The Architecture of "Pretoria.
It may not be inopportune to take a general survey
of some of the most important architectural works
in Pretoria, which, when seen, will speak for them-
selves.
Upon entering the City through the Fountains Valley,
a picturesque panoramic view is obtained of the sur-
rounding hills and general outlay, stretching towards
the eastern suburbs and away beyond for miles.
Right across upon the opposite range of hills facing
the entrance to Pretoria rear the sister towers of the
Union Buildings, with bold unbroken skyline, in which
the opportunity to display genius for design has been
fully grasped. A most striking effect of this noble
building is obtained just before sunset, when it stands
up bathed in roseate glow, while all the surroundings
remain in deep shadow.
Railway Station.
Situated at the highest part of the town on the
south side is the newly completed Railway Station,
facing down Market Street. Of noble dimensions and
built in stone, this building certainly displays character
in the simple architectural treatment adapted for a
sunny climate. The roof has wide overhanging eaves
laid with red, local-made, pan-shaped tiles, and in the
centre rises a stone clock turret or fleche.
The various waiting and refreshment rooms have
wall linings of marble, each of different colours.
The furniture has all been specially designed and
made of South African woods.
Leading out from the main hall, which has a domed
and vaulted ceiling, supported by pohshed red granite
columns, is placed a wide loggia stretching almost the
8.5
The Architecture of "Pretoria.
whole length of the main fa9ade. A porte cochere
forms the central feature, above which forms a balcony
leading from the upper arcade.
A piazza spreads out in front of the building planted
with turf and ornamental evergreen trees, through
which run the trams, stopping in front of the main
entrance.
Museum, Library, and Art Gallery.
After leaving the Railway Station and half-way
down towards Church vSquare is placed the New Museum
Buildings.
The main fa9ade, which is built of stone, forms a
two-story colonnade on either side of central entrance.
Although the scheme is only partially complete, the
side wings having yet to be added, this block is massive
and dignified in appearance.
Fire Station.
The New Fire Station, which has just been opened,
is almost opposite the Museum Buildings, but in an
adjoining street. This building looks well with a red-
tile roof and white plastered walls, standing upon a
base of rough local stone.
Church Square.
The Church vSquare, which at one time was a barren
and uninteresting open space, now wears a vastly
improved and orderly appearance.
At the entrance from Market Street, on the south
side, a flight of steps, extending the width of the
street, leads down into the Square proper, bounded
on either side by massive carved " pylons," bearing
the arms of the Union and the Municipality. At the
foot of the steps are placed pedestals for lions, which
will be fixed in position in the near future.
86
5^
m
! ^'1 .a
Plate XLl.
COUNTRY CLUB, WATERKLOOF.
The Archileclure of 'Pretoria.
From the " pylons " the retaining wall is built,
forming an elipse on plan, in which recessed fountains
are placed.
A classic balustrade surrounds top of wall at the
pavement level. Pedestals occupy positions at each
entrance, upon which will be placed bronze statues of
eminent South Africans.
Upon the lower or northern side of the Square,
pillars are placed to receive bronze chains, and along
the pavements an avenue of trees {Lagustnen jafonica,
are planted, affording a shady and majestic walk)
at the same time giving a balance to the whole
scheme.
The centre of the Square is occupied by a large
circular flat spray fountain, with m.assive granite urns
at the angles, in which palms are planted. Opposite
these urns bronze lamp standards will be fixed for
illuminating purposes. A bronze figure will occupy
and form the central feature, with decorative bronze
reliefs in each panel. The footways across the Square
will be paved with granite, laid in patterns, and divided
by terra-cotta urns containing ornamental trees. The
remaining spaces within the vSquare have been planted
with lawns.
The two angles on north side above wall are occupied
by tramway pavilions, with offices in the basement.
The whole scheme has been carried out in local
granite, and a fine architectural effect has been obtained.
Po«t Office.
The New Post Office is of stone, built upon a granite
base, three stories in height, and occupies a corner site
upon the west side of Church Square. The " style "
87
The Architecture of 'Pretoria.
is bold and dignified in treatment, with a central
colonnade over an arched loggia on the Square
fa9ade.
From this arcade entrance doorways lead into the
stair hall and Post Office business hall.
These halls are lined with red Warmbaths stone,
and have pavings of black and white marble, laid in
patterns.
The building is splendidly equipped and finished,
and all the fittings to main counters are of bronze.
It is a great pity that all the buildings surrounding
the Square are not more uniform and symmetrical in
appearance.
It is hoped that buildings of a more monumental
character will be erected to replace the chaos of different
treatments existing to-day.
The Union Buildings.
The Union Buildings, which are situated within a
mile distance of Church Square, and about half-way
out towards the principal suburbs, occupy a grand
and commanding position upon the plateau below
Meintjes Kop.
On this range of hills, which form the Acropolis of
Pretoria, where the atmosphere is bracing and invigorat-
ing, the Government have erected a magnificent pile
of public buildings.
The building is approached by a tramway and
carriage drive, winding round and passing in front
of the main terrace.
A series of steps and terraces are necessitated, which
rise immediately in front of the central or amphitheatre
block.
The Architecture of T^retoria.
The rising tiers of the auditorium have been cut out
of the face of the hill, and this amphitheatre, which
was primarily designed to serve purely utilitarian
purposes, is certainly one of the finest possible com-
positions.
The buildings are grouped in three main blocks,
formed by the eastern and western wings and connected
by the great semicircular and amphitheatre block.
This central block is bounded on each side by sister
towers, crowned by figures of " Atlas " in bronze.
The space enclosed by the semicircular treatment
is terraced and formed with stone, at the bottom of
which is placed a rostrum with ornamental ponds,
stretching the whole length of amphitheatre and crossed
by bridges.
This magnificent pile has been designed to suit the
conditions of a southern climate, where large open
courts with fountains and loggias are necessary to
ventilate and cool the building.
The dominant feature characteristic of this style is
the long unbroken tile-covered roof, with heavy pro-
jecting eaves running the entire length of the building.
The great columnar pavilions, which project at the
ends of the blocks, give the necessary relief, together
with colonnaded porticos leading directly into the
atriums or open courts.
The archives department extends under the greater
portion of the buildings, wherein 43,000 superficial feet
of space is provided to store records.
In the sub-basements stationery stores, bookbinding
departments, heating chambers, and storerooms for
caretakers are arranged.
89
The Architecture of "Pretoria.
Access is obtained from the main road by a subway
under the end pavilions.
Each of the blocks has three floors of offices, pro-
viding in all accommodation for about 1500 officials,
including offices for Ministers and the Governor-
General.
The Ministers' rooms and Executive Council chambers
are placed in the projecting corner pavilions, and the
general offices in these blocks are grouped round the
internal courts or atriums.
The central block, which connects the eastern and
western blocks, contains the necessary common rooms,
which lead into an open stone colonnade overlooking
the amphitheatre.
On each side is provided conference rooms, library,
reading-rooms, and a tearoom.
The whole building is erected in freestone, resting
on a base of local granite. The approaches to the
" Capitol " have been carefully considered, and are
made as easy in gradient as possible. The 8o-foot-wide
roadway, which is 12 feet below main terrace, will be
planted with a double row of trees. Twenty feet below
the public roadway lies the tramway track, and placed
in the wall at convenient spots are recessed grottos
or waiting shelters for tram passengers.
From this level two subways lead to staircases in
each block.
The building will be approached from the railway,
the City, and the eastern suburbs by an easy winding
road, specially contrived to give facility of access,
and from the last by a high level road from Bryntirion
and Government House on the east side.
90
The Architecture of 'Pretoria.
The precincts are to be laid out on the principle of
the great Italian and French models in broad lines and
vistas.
The whole is a noble piece of architecture,
which has been wrought in the field of art through
hard and unceasing work, combined with genius, has
brought its designer fame and placed the Capital of
South Africa far up in the field of architecture.
The high standard which obtains in much con-
temporary work is due to the influence and funda-
mental principles which govern house planning in a
sunny climate and the beauty of its accessories, where
beauty does not depend on extravagant detail, but on
its subordination to simplicity of treatment and unity
of idea. This influence over the younger generation
is perhaps the greatest hope for our architecture in
the future.
Government House.
The Government House, which is situated on the
same range of hills as the Union Buildings, lies
further east, and about two and a half miles out of
the town.
The position it occupies is on the top of a stony
kopje and on the very edge of the ridge, and was
specially selected so as to overlook the valley on the
north and that of the south, in which the Capital is
built.
The sloping sides of the hills are covered with native
bush, and a very extensive view is obtained of the
surrounding country.
The building has been treated in the Cape Colonial
style, with whitewashed walls and curved gables.
91
The Architecture of 'Pretoria.
The roof is covered with red tiles, and the exterior
woodwork painted green, to suit the atmosphere and
landscape of the Transvaal.
The position on the edge of the kopje, allowing only
a small semicircular terrace on the northern garden
front of the house, rendered it necessary to have the
entrance hall, the vestibule, and the porte cochere at
a lower level than the ground floor. This treatment
gave opportunity for the extensive cloakrooms which
are required.
The chief feature in the plan is the large hall for
receptions, which has been made an integral part of
the house, instead of being, as in most of the large
Colonial Government Houses, a separate suite of enter-
taining rooms detached from the Hving portions of
the house.
Leading from the hall is a large vaulted peristyle,
open in the centre to give light and brightness to the
bay window of the hall, from the shady recesses in
which palms are placed a magnificent view is obtained
of the gardens and the distant hills.
Above the peristyle and loggias runs an open balcony,
which is much occupied of an evening during the
summer.
Although the hill site renders the building cool, it is
yet necessary that all the windows should be protected
by shutters from the direct rays of the sun, at the
same time giving a fine architectural effect of the green
woodwork against the white walls.
The gardens are beautifully laid out, and treated
in the Italian manner with pergolas and broad
vistas.
92
The Architecture of 'Pretoria.
Transvaal University.
Pretoria is rich in institutions which go to the making
of an important centre. Its educational faciHties are
as varied as they are complete. The Transvaal Uni-
versity for higher education has been placed on the
eastern side of the town, between the town and the
suburbs. The site is an open and healthy one, upon
rising ground, facing the new sports grounds. The
building is of stone, with a tiled roof, and is U-shaped
on plan with cloisters on the three inner sides.
A palm avenue is to be planted leading up to the
main entrance on similar lines to the famous Californian
examples.
Boys' High School and Boarding-houses.
These buildings have been erected upon the slopes of
a hill on the opposite side of the valley to the Union
Buildings. It is an imposing block of buildings, erected
in faced brick and stone, with a tiled dome rising
from the centre of the blocks, overlooking the new
public sports ground which lies in the valley below.
Normal College.
The Normal College, which is erected in the southern
suburb called " Sunnyside," is erected in faced brick
and stone, bounded on either side by residences, both
for men and women. This institution is intended for
the training of teachers.
The Site of a National College of Agriculture.
This magnificent property lies one and a half miles
from the centre of the town, and comprises acres of
valley, veld, forest, and hills. It is the most beautiful
and picturesque spot around Pretoria, and will form
one of the largest agricultural college grounds in the
world.
93
The Architecture of 'Pretoria.
It is intended to spend ;^ioo,ooo upon the first portion
of the buildings, which will give a fine opportunity for
a bold and suitable design, erected to suit and har-
monize with its vast and rugged surroundings.
There is much to be done, and as the pages are
slowly turned over it is hoped that architectural tradi-
tion will be worthily maintained by the rising genera-
tion ; at the same time look back with vivid pleasure
to those wrestlings which have taken place in the
years gone by to give Pretoria the position it holds
to-day. These privileges must be maintained, and to
those who have enthusiasm and interest this labour
will be a perennial delight to hand on the torch of
architecture, as in the old Greek game of lampadephoria,
where runners took torches, lit at the altar of Prome-
theus, Athene, and Hephaistos, and passed them from
hand to hand till they reached the winning post.
94
Flora.
CHAPTER IX.
B
OTANICALLY Pretoria and district form one of
On one side is the typical high veld flora, and
southwards the bushveld flora extends above its normal
altitude to the hmits of the Magaliesberg. The district
is therefore peculiarly rich in types of what are really
two distinct kinds of flora — that of the IJmpopo Basin
region and that of the central plateau region of the
Transvaal and Orange Free State.
The diversity of the geological formation also tends
to increase the variety in the local flora ; and as Pre-
toria is an important railway centre, excursions can
easily and quickly be made to points of widely differing
botanical interest, so that the botanist who is visiting
South Africa for the first time would be well advised
to make Pretoria his centre of operations for an extensive
portion of his stay in the country.
NOTES ON THE FLORA OF PRETORIA.
On the kopjes round Pretoria there are, in the first
place, the grasses of which the following genera and
species are predominant : —
Family Gramineae.
Agrostis lachnantha, Nees.
95
Flora.
Andropogon appendiculatus, Nees.
,, cerisiaeformis, Nees.
„ amplectens, Nees.
„ hirtiflonis, Kunth.
„ intermedius, R. Br., var. punctatvis,
Hack.
,, encomis, Nees.
Aristida aequiglumis, Hack.
,, barbicoUis, Tr. and Rupr.
Axonopus semialatus, Hook., var. ecklonii, Stapf.
Bromus unioloides, A. B, K.
Chloris virgata, Sw.
Cymbopogou excavatus (Hoclist.), Stapf,
,. hirtus (Iv.), Stapf.
Cynodon dactylon, Pers.
Digitaria eriantha, Steud.
Elionurus argenteus, Nees.
Eleusine indica, Gaertn.
Eragrostis brizoides, Nees.
chloromelas, Steud.
gummiflua, Nees.
major, Host,
plana, Nees.
superba, Peyr.
Lolium temulentum, Iv.
Microchloa caffra, Nees.
Heteropogon contortus, R. and S.
Panicum serratum, Spr.
Pennisetum cenchroides. Rich.
Perotis latifolia. Ait.
Setaria nigrorostris, Dur. and Schinz.
,, perenuis, Hack.
,, sulcata, Raddi.
,, verticillata, Beauv.
96
Flora.
Sporobolus festivus, Hochst., var. stuppeus, Stapf.
Themeda Forskalii, Hack. var.
Trachypogon polymorphus, Hack., var. capensis.
Tragus racemosus, All.
Tricholaena rosea, Nees.
,, setifolia, Stapf.
Trichopteryx flavida, Stapf.
Tristachya biseriata, Stapf.
Urelytrum squarrosum, Hack.
In vleis and near the water —
Imperata arundinacea, Cyr.
Phragmites communis, L.
Erianthus junceus, Stapf.
Between them grow annuals, bulbous plants, suc-
culents, low and tall shrubs, and small trees. Ihe
bigger trees are north of Pretoria at Wonderboom-
poort. Of these we have to mention, in the first place,
the Wonderboom, Ficus cordata, Thunb., consisting of
the old fig tree in the middle and younger ones around
it, looking at a distance as one immense tree. The
younger ones have sprung up from branches of the old
tree, which are bent to the ground and have rooted
there. In the second place, come all the mimosa trees,
the Kaffir tree, species ef Rhus and Combretum, etc.
Family Leguminosae.
Acacia arabica, Willd.
,, caffra, Willd. (Haakjesdoorn).
,, giraft'ae, Burch. (Kameeldoorn).
,, hebeclada, D. C.
,, horrida, Willd. (Wacht-een-beetje, Karroo-
thorn).
,, robusta, Burch.
Dichrostachys nutans, Benth. (Sikkelbosch).
97
Flora.
Burkea africana, Hook. (Wilde sering).
Peltophorum africanum, Sond.
Erythrina caffra, Thutib. (Kafferboom).
Family Anacardiaceae.
Sclerocarya caffra, Sond. (Maroela).
Launea dicolor (Sond.), Engl.
Rhus excisa, Thunb.
,, Gueinzii, Sond.
lancea, L,.f. (Karreeboom).
Family Combretaceae.
Terminalia sericea, Sond. (Vaalbosch).
Combretum glomeruliflorum, Sond. (Vaderlands
Wilge).
,, Zeyheri, Sond.
Family Sapota^'eae.
Mimusops Zeyheri, Sond. (Moepel).
Family Rhamnaceae.
Zizyphus mucronata, Willd. (Blinkbaar wacht-een-
beetje).
Rhamnus prinoides, I^'Herit.
Family Sterculiaceae.
Dombeya rotundifolia, Harv. (Wilde peer).
Family Sapindaceae.
Pappea capensis, E. and Z. var.
Family Ulmaceae.
Celtis rhamnifolia, Presl. (Gamdebo stinkhout).
Family Euphorhiaceae.
Croton gratissimus, Burch.
Smaller trees are : Ochna pulchra, Hook., f. (Ochna-
ceae) ; Protea abyssinica, Willd. (Proteaceae) [Zuiker-
bosch] ; Gymnosporia buxifolia (L.), Szys5\ (Celas-
traceae) ; Royena pallens, Thb., and Euclea lanceolata,
98
Flora.
E. Mey. (Ebenaceae) ; Chrysophylluni magalismon-
tanum, Sond. (Sapotaceae) [Stamvrucht] ; Gardenia
Rothmannia, L. f. (Rubiaceae) [Wilde katje-piering] ;
Combretum holosericeum, Sond. (Combretaceae) ; Rhus
flexuosa, Diels. ; Rhus Zeyheri, Sond. (Anacardiaceae) ;
Strychnos pungcns, Solered. [Klapper] ; ChiHanthus
arboreus, A. D. C. ; Nuxia pubescens, Sond. (Loga-
niaceae) ; Ximenia caffra, Sond. (Olacaceae) [the wild
plum] ; Pittosporum viridiflorum, Sims (Pittospora-
ceae) ; Acocanthera venenata, G. Don (Apocynaceae)
[Giftboom] ; Hetcromorpha arborescens, Ch, and Schl.
(Umbelliferae) ; Cussonia paniculata, E. and Z. (Aralia-
ceae) [Kiepersol]. Most of them occur at Wonder-
boompoort and are spread over the kopjes round
Pretoria.
Of the taller shrubs I mention : Buddleia salviae-
foHa, Lam. (Loganiaceae) [Wilde salie] ; Mundulea
suberosa, Bth. (Iveguminosae) ; Brachylaena discolor,
D, C. (Compositae) ; Pavetta Zeyheri, Sond., Vangueria
infausta, Burch., Vangueria parvifolia, Sond., Plectronia
Mundtiana (Ch. and Schl.), Pappe (fam. Rubiaceae) ;
Maerua caffra (Burch), Pax. (fam. Capparidaceae) ;
Xanthoxylum capense, Harv. (fam. Rutaceae) [Knopjes-
hout, Wild cardamon] ; Gymnosporia tenuispina (Sond.),
Szysy. (fam. Celastraceae) ; Grewia occidentalis, L.
[Kruisbesje], Grewia cana, Sond. (fam. Tiliaceae) ;
Ehretia hottentotica, Burch. (fam. Borraginaceae) ;
Clerodendron glabrum, E. Mey. (fam. Verbenaceae) ;
and some more.
The spring and early summer is the time for the
bulbous plants. Common are : —
Family Liliaceae.
Bulbine asphodeloides, R. and S.
,, narcissifolia, Salm.-Dyck.
99
Flora.
Anthericum Cooperi, Baker.
,, trichoplilebium, Baker.
Albuca pachychlamys, Baker.
Aloe arborescens, Mill.
„ Peglerae, Schoul.
,, transvaalensis, O. Ktze.
Asparagus plumosus, Baker.
„ stipulaceus, Lam.
„ virgatus, Baker.
Bowiea volubilis, Harv.
Chlorophytuin Bowkeri, Baker.
Dipcadi ciliare, Baker.
„ viride, Moench.
Drimia media, Jacq.
Encomis regia, Ait.
Kniphofia natalensis, Baker.
Ornithogalum Eckloni, Schlecht.
Scilla lanceaefolia, Baker.
„ rigidifolia, Kunth.
Tulbaghia alliacea, L-
Urginea multisetosa, Baker.
Family Amaryllidaceae.
Buphane toxicaria, Thunb.
Crinum longifolium, Thunb.
Haemanthus magnificus, Herb.
Hypoxis argentea, Harv.
,, rigidula, Baker.
,. ,, var. pilosissima.
,, Rooperi, Baker.
Family IriUaceae.
Gladiolus crassifolius, Baker.
„ permiabilis, Delar.
Homeria pallida, Baker.
100
Flora.
Lapeyrousia grandiflora, Baker.
Moraca ediilis, Ker.
Climbing and straggling plants are ; —
Clematis brachiata, Thunb. (fam. Ranunculaceae)
[Traveller's joy, Klimop] ; Landolphia capensis, 01i\-
(fam. Apocynaceae) [Wild peach] ; Triaspis Nelsoni
Oliv., Sphedamnocarpus pruriens, Planch., Sphedam
nocarpus galphimiaefolius, Juss. (fam. Malpighiaceae)
Rumex sagittatus, Thunb. (fam. Polygonaceae) ; Rhyn
chosia adenodes, E. and Z., Rh. crassifolia, Benth.
Rh. monophylla, Schltr., Rh. nervosa, Benth. (fam
Leguminosae) ; Vigna vexillata, Benth., Dolichos lab
lab, L. (fam. Leguminosae) ; Tribulus terrestris, L
(fam. Zygophyllaceae) ; Tragia cordata, Harv. (fam
Euphorbiaceae) ; Rhoicissus erythrodes, Planch., Cissus
lanigera, Harv. (fam. Vitaceae) ; Cryptolepis trans
vaalensis, Schltr., Pentarrhinum insipidum, E. Mey.
Orthanthera jasminiflora, N. E. Br. (fam. Asclepiada
ceae) ; Convolvulus sagittatus, Thunb., Conv. ulosepa
lus, Hall f., Ipomoea bathycolpos, Hall f., Ip. crassipes
Hook., Ip. oblongata, E. Mey., Ip. obscura, Ker., Ip
papilio, Hall f., Ip. sarmentacea, Rdle. (fam. Convol
vulaceae) ; Solanum rigescens, Jacq., Sol. supinum
Dun. (fam. Solanaceae) ; Aptosimum depressum, Burch.
Walafrida tenuifolia, Rolfe, Graderia subintegra. Mast
(fam. Crophulariaceae) ; Pretrea zanguebarica, Gay
(fam. Pedaliaceae) ; Thunbergia neglecta, Sond.,
Crabbea nana, Crabbea angustifolia, Nees, Barleria
macrostegia, Nees., Barleria obtusa, Nees., Blepharis
squarrosa, T. Anders., Justicia anagalloides, T. Anders,
(fam. Acanthaceae) ; Kedostris africana (Sond.), Cogn.,
Momordica balsamina, l^., Citrullus pubescens, Sond.,
Citrullus vulgaris, Schrad., Cucumis Zeyheri, Sond.,
Trochomeria Hookeri, Harv. (fam. Cucurbitaceae) ;
Dicoma anomala, Sond. (fam. Compositae).
lOI
Flora.
Poisonous plants occurring round Pretoria are : —
Dichapetalum cymosum (Hook.), Engl. [Giftblaar].
Homeria pallida, Baker [Geele tulp].
Buphane toxicaria, Thunb. (Giftbol].
Acocanthera venenata, G. Don [Giftboom].
Noxious weeds round Pretoria are : —
Pretrea zanguebarica. Gay. [Devil's dish, Schape-
doorns, Duivelsdis].
Tribulus terrestris, L. [Devil's thorns, Dubbeltjes].
Xanthium spinosura, Iv. [Boetebosje].
,, strumarium, L.
Bidens pilosa, L. [Black jack].
Nearly all plant families are represented in the
Pretoria flora. Most representatives have the families
Gramineae, Compositae (Senecio, Helichrysum, Nido-
rella,Dicoma,etc.),Lcguminosae (Rhynchosia,Tephrosia,
Indigofera, Acacia, etc.), Acanthaceae (Crabbea,
Chaetacanthus, Justicia, Barleria, etc.), Asclepiadaceae
(Asclepias, Schizoglossum, Pachycarpus, Raphionacme,
etc.), Scrophulariaceae (Sutera, Striga, Nemesia, Wala-
frida), and Convolvulaceae (Convolvulus, Ipomoea).
Showy flowers have the different species of Hibiscus
(fam. Malvaceae), the Orchids (Eulophia, Habenaria,
Satyrium), Gardenia and Pavetta (Rubiaceae), Ipo-
moea's (Convolvulaceae), many Asclepiadaceae, and most
of the bulbous plants. The most common ferns are :
Pellaea calomelanos. Link. ; Cheilanthes hirta, Sw. ;
and Gymnograrame cordata, Schlt.
102
Farming.
CHAPTER X.
BACK TO THE LAND.
^Jjf OUTH AFRICA, in proportion to its population,
J^^ has in its towns too many people who, whatever
their abiUty and financial resources, lead lives
that at best are not as profitable as they might be in
such a country. The country needs a rearranging of
its inhabitants' occupations. It needs producers of
commodities, not merely distributors ; it needs more
people on the land, fewer behind the shop counter,
the office desk, the lawyer's signboard, and the doctor's
stethoscope. Then, and not till then, South Africa
may be regarded with the large producers and may
hope to export as they do.
It is a consummation much to be desired, and one
not impossible of achievement. The Transvaal, for
instance, is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of
mining centres ; but rich as it is in minerals, it is
even richer in farming resources. The enormous
wealth which in a generation has been taken from
the mines constitutes a toll few countries have yielded
in a century, yet is less than what the farms, now
103
Farming.
largely idle, may be made to yield. And what in this
respect is true of the Transvaal generally is especially
true of the Pretoria District, in or immediately around
which are situated most of the best mines and many
of the best farms in South Africa. Fifty years ago
few realized the diamond wealth in and the gold and
coal wealth immediately around Pretoria District ; and
its vast farming potentialities are only now beginning
to receive attention. Progress there has of course
been. But the farming of the district is still in its
initial stage. Opportunities which in a few years may
be gone are now obtainable. Land which under tobacco
would be capable of returning £25 to £^5 per acre per
annum clear profit, and even more under citrus fruit, lies
largely idle, or at best supports a few head of unprofitable,
because nondescript, live stock. For every productive
acre twenty are fallow ; and in many instances the
productive acre 3delds only a fraction of what, under
improved methods, it could be made to yield.
The reason is not far to seek. The Transvaal is
essentially a farming country, but a large proportion
of its population is not a farming population. They
are not farmers in the intensive sense that the rural
populations of Denmark, Holland, and Switzerland are
farmers, because other matters have mainly occupied
them. The development of the country has not hitherto
depended on the farmers. In the past the man with
capital, and the man without, on the share market,
and on the prospecting field, found lures greater than
farming. The spirit of romance and adventure was
excited. To mining and its ramifications, rather than
to farming and its slower but surer returns, the people
mainly turned. The mines were developed and the
farms mostly neglected.
104
Farming.
But those days are past. Mining has found its
proper level as an investment, has become a stable,
prosaic industry, from which the element of chance
and the consequent gambling spirit have largely been
eliminated. Fortunes are not now made in a week at
a ratio altogether disproportionate to the capital and
labour entailed; gambling has ceased, and farming is
coming into its own. This it deserves. The soil
generally is capable of a more prolific yield of a larger
variety of crops, the climate on the whole is superior,
and good local and oversea markets are nearer than is
the case with many agricultural centres which have
nevertheless been made to flourish. The only reason
Transvaal farming is so largely undeveloped, and that
it is undeveloped cannot be convincingly denied, is
that its potentialities have not been sufficiently sought,
not sufficiently turned to account, perhaps not suffi-
ciently realized.
Of course, Transvaal farming is not all ease and
profits. There are obstacles and hardships, disadvan-
tages as well as advantages, failures as well as successes,
because there are technically bad and indifferent as
well as technically good farmers. There are those who
have made or are making fortunes out of Transvaal
farming. There are also those who, consciously or
unconsciously, regard agriculture as a game of chance
in which the seed are the counters on the random
scattering of which the farmer can afford to stake his
all, resignedly leaving to nature's vagary the point
whether a grudging yield or nothing shall result. They
do not do well, such farmers, in Pretoria or in any
other district. To be successful a farmer must be
capable. Farming is a profession in which, as in most
professions, energy, intelligence, and good business
105
Farming.
management, even more than money, count. With
these almost anything, agriculturally and pastorally,
may be done in the Pretoria District ; without them,
money will avail little.
Progressiveness in saving labour and reducing costs
by the use of up-to-date appliances is, of course, sound.
But it is not the expensive plough, cultivator, planter,
or sheller, so much as the intelligence and energy with
which they are used, the skill wHh which the soil is
prepared, the care with which adapted seed are selected
for prolific type and sure germination, the thorough-
ness with which the lands are weeded, and the enter-
prise in fertilizing, where possible — these are the con-
ditions which secure, for instance, a good stand of
heavy-yielding high-grade maize instead of the 40 per
cent, to 50 per cent, stand of inferior cobs so often
seen.
It is not the price of the land or the cost of the
fertilizer so much as the continuous pains taken in the
cultivation that ensures a field of high-class tobacco ;
and not so much expensive flue-barns as indefatigable
attention, careful regulating, and ripe experience in
the process of curing, grading, and packing, that secure
a shilling a pound for the leaf instead of fourpence.
The well-bred, carefully selected, high-yielding,
though small, herd, rather than the large herd of
randomly-acquired cheaply-kept cattle, is the herd
which, by careful observation to eliminate the unpro-
fitable and by proper feeding and housing, pays best,
either for slaughter or milking.
However good the farm, potato growing w4D be
unprofitable, whatever money is put into it, whatever
markets are at hand, if any kind of potato is planted
106
Farming.
and carelessly marketed. But if a smooth-skinned,
shallow-eyed, medium-sized, appetizing potato be grown,
and by judicious fertilizing be made to yield heavily ;
and if it be sold, not when the market is glutted, as
it may be one fortnight, but when prices are satis-
factory to the grower, as they may be the next fort-
night, then the possibiHties of potato growing should
be great, possibly as great as in Europe, where by
intensive culture upwards of £1000 per annum has
been made from a 30-acre plot.
Poultry pay, not by releasing on the farm a few
hundred head of even prize fowls to fend for themselves,
but by beginning modestly with a prolific strain,
eliminating those that eat more than they return,
breeding up from the acclimatized birds, feeding,
housing, and tending the resulting flock properly,
marketing the eggs quickly to preserve their bloom,
and direct to avoid middlemen's profits and deteriora-
tion.
Similarly throughout the whole gamut of farming :
hard work and deep thinking, rather than abnormal
capital expenditure, are the essentials to success. These
were the factors which in Denmark and Holland, where
the original farming difficulties were greater than they
are in South Africa, gave the small farmer a chance
and made those countries foremost. They are the
factors which by their presence will make, or by their
absence mar, the South African farming industry ; will
give to the man of small capital but good capabilities
a chance of rural livelihood, or will leave the land, as
at present, largely tied up and idle. For until the
average South African farmer abandons the idea that
anything under 4000 acres is contemptible, and learns
the economics of farming successfully on 400 to 800
107
Farming.
acres, and in instances even on less land, he will be
more a landowner than a producer, and South Africa
will import instead of export.
Money, of course, the beginner must have ; but in
districts like that of Pretoria he secures from farming
an immediate livelihood and the prospect of ultimate
affluence for less initial capital outlay than would be
necessary, for similar returns, in almost any other
undertaking anywhere.
A man putting, say, ;^8oo into a grocer's, chemist's,
draper's, or butcher's business would ordinarily be
content if it and his utmost exertions returned him
and his family a living. He could not reasonably
expect more. Combinations, competition, and trade
conditions generally being what they are, he could not
hope to expand his business much, at least in most
situations. It is different in farming. Put into the
soil, that capital would ordinarily give a much better
return. It would give as good an immediate livelihood
as in any business, and a surplus which in a few years
secures to the farmer his house and lands, and enables
him in time to expand his operations till something
like affluence is attained. The grower of produce is
producing the necessaries of life. He is always an
essential. The distributor of produce is in one of the
most overcrowded and largely artificial situations in
life, the butt of competition, the victim of combina-
tions and middlemen's cut profits.
When in South Africa this is more widely realized,
it will be apparent that for the intelligent, active man
with a little capital there are better opportunities in
farming, or in learning to farm, than in almost any
other occupation ; and in the Pretoria District the
1 08
Farming.
farming opportunities are as good as, and in some
respects better than, in any other part of the
country.
South Africa is naturally the richest and geographi-
cally the most favourably situated of undeveloped
countries. It is now entering upon a wonderful agri-
cultural era ; and the Pretoria District is the district
from which much of the ensuing prosperity will come.
In Pretoria are situated the headquarters of the Union
Agricultural Department, one of the best organized
departments of its kind in the world ; and in the
district will be situated the National College of Agri-
culture. Pretoria District, in addition to its great
natural endowments, has therefore the exceptional
advantages, not only of a large market on the Rand,
but of having within its boundaries the best of farming
education, expert advice, and progressive example.
This is worth remembering by those who, oppressed
by the contemplation of overcrowded trades and pro-
fessions, are troubled by the problem of how to improve
their own positions or provide careers for their youths.
It is worth remembering by farmers dissatisfied with
their present districts, and by farmers who, able to
sell their present farms at tempting prices, are on the
lookout for cheaper land which by development may
become as good as or better than the southern farms
they now occupy.
FACTS ABOUT PRETORIA FARMING.
The District of Pretoria is approximately 6525 square
miles in extent. Roughly it may be divided into three
zones, each of which has some farming peculiarity.
109
Farming.
The southern portion of the district, abutting on to
the Witwatersrand, is typical of open South African
sour veld, has a temperate climate, and somewhat
severe frosts. Nearer the city of Pretoria the climate
is warmer, the frosts later and less severe, and the
veld mostly open. The northern portion of the dis-
trict, cut off by the MagaUesberg Hills, is principally
law-lying bushveld country, over a great portion of
which the farming conditions are sub-tropical.
The rainfall for the whole of the district averages
27 inches per annum ; the compositions of the soil
vary ; there is a good supply of surface water (river
and spruit), as well as artesian water, which is generally
reached at depths of from 100 to 150 feet. The altitude
of the district slopes gradually from an average of about
5400 feet near Johannesburg to 3800 feet in the low-
lying northern portions.
Hailstorms occur in all parts of the district, but not
with the frequency or destructiveness characteristic of
many districts in which farmers nevertheless flourish.
Locusts are no longer a serious menace. For some
time they have given little or no trouble. Should they
become threatening in numbers, it is felt that the
Agricultural Department's Division of Entomology will
be able successfully to cope with them.
In an area containing such variations of altitude,
soil, climate, and on the whole such a sufficiency of
water, production is naturally good and varies much,
ranging from maize, oats, wheat, rye, lucerne, potatoes,
peanuts, tobacco, citrus and stone fruits, to bananas,
pawpaws, pineapples, cotton, fibre plants, oil-seeds,
chicory, and possibly coffee, sugar, and rubber, as well
as cattle, horses, sheep, ostriches, pigs, and poultry.
1 10
Farmtng.
Maize is a payable crop and, according to variety,
grows well throughout the district. Mainly along the
northern slopes of the Magaliesberg, but also elsewhere
in the district, first-class citrus fruit is grown. Magalies-
berg leaf is the premier pipe-smoking tobacco in South
Africa, and in most parts of the district excellent
Virginia tobacco for cigarette making can be grown
and sold at profits highly satisfactory to the farmer,
lyucerne, especially where slightly irrigated, flourishes
throughout the district. So do cattle, horses, pigs,
ostriches, and poultry. Sheep may be farmed on a
moderate scale in certain areas where the veld is well
grazed by large stock ; and stone fruits, including
excellent table grapes, are profitably grown in the
southern portions of the district.
The question of which portion of the district to prefer
is therefore one requiring too many qualifications for a
dogmatic answer to be safe. It depends upon the
kind of farming to be undertaken.
Equally unsafe is it to suggest what kind of farming
to undertake. That, again, depends on the farmer.
The man whose capital runs into four or five figures
has considerable latitude of choice. He can follow his
natural bent, because he can afford either to wait for
his returns, so long as they are ultimately good, or
force returns from sources not open to the man with
little capital. He could, for instance, sink the bulk of
his capital in citrus orchards ; and, until in three or
four years his orchards started returning him tenfold
what he had put into them, he could keep cattle or
ostriches, breed horses, donkeys, or mules, or grow
tobacco or innumerable other crops.
The man of small means cannot do this. His
resources would be strained to make a start anywhere,
III
Farming.
and he must make his start within the Hmits of those
resources. He must not sink the whole of his capital
in anj' one branch of farming that, through exceptional
circumstances, may prove unprofitable in the ensuing
season. His first returns must be quick and sure,
rather than large. He shotild therefore start with
maize as his main crop, and with mixed farming as
his objective. For instance, he should during the first
year or two grow, according to his means, 80 to 150
acres of maize, including a few acres for the ensilage
pit ; 10 to 15 acres of lucerne, beans, monkey-nuts,
or similar minor crop ; keep a few first-class milch
cows, in a manner later to be indicated, and some
poultry.
The return from citrus or tobacco is, of course,
greater in the long run than from the other sources.
But a citrus orchard yields nothing for the first few
years, and tobacco culture necessitates considerable
initial outlay for curing appliances, labour, and fertilizer
to produce even 10 acres of leaf.
Whereas the man who has his land, either bought
or leased ; who has his ploughs, cultivators,
and teams, and a moderate supply of native labour,
personal energy and intelligence, by starting with
maize, a little up-to-date dairying, a few small auxiliary
crops, and some poultry, can secure a quick return
that, though not affluent, is yet the means of immediate
livelihood and something over. In the Pretoria Dis-
trict that something over will, if returned to the land
year after year, increase faster than in any bank or
other investment, and in a surprisingly short time
enable the small farmer to launch out in such fortune-
making branches as citrus and tobacco growing.
iia
Farming.
Whilst, therefore, the man of large capital, who is
wise enough to put it into Pretoria fanning, may follow
his own inclinations and by intelligent application be
assured of excellent returns, the man with small means
would, in proportion to his means, have as good oppor-
tunities by starting modestly in minor branches of
farming. What those opportunities are the following
pages show in detail.
ENORMOUS PROFITS FROM FRUIT GROWING.
The Pretoria District may be divided, for fruit
growing, into two zones : that which lies north, and
that which lies south, of the Magaliesberg Range.
The southern area is less suited for citrus than for
stone fruits, such as apricots, peaches, plums, and
nectarines, as well as excellent table grapes, apples,
pears, and figs. The stone fruits raised in this area
are equal to the best from any other part of the
country. So are the pears. The table grapes are
excellent of their kind, and have the additional merit
of being marketable, at good prices, early in the season
before supplies from the Cape Province reach the
Transvaal in large quantities. The apples, though
possessing the desirable qualities of fair size and good
flavour, do not keep as well as those grown in the
eastern areas of the Province.
Over a considerable portion of the northern parts
of the Province, notably on the slopes of the Magalies-
berg Range, high-grade citrus fruit is largely grown,
and can be grow^n in much larger quantities. For
oranges and lemons the climate is as near perfection,
and the soil as good, as could be wished for anywhere.
113
Farming.
Were water more plentiful in this area, these fruits
might be profitably grown in almost unlimited quanti-
ties, and as they ripen locally at the time of year when
most of the oversea orchards are not yielding, there is
an almost unlimited oversea market, and the Sout"h
African facilities for reaching that market are good.
As it is, there is sufficient water to warrant the assertion
that nearly every farmer within this area and in several
other areas of the Pretoria District will find citrus
culture, on a large or small scale according to his
means, extremely lucrative.
The citrus fruit which commands the best local and
oversea prices, and is admirably suited for the district,
is the Washington navel and the Valentia late orange.
Both are hardy fruits and well suited for exportation.
On the lyondon market they have realized, wholesale,
up to 6s. per dozen. This, of course, was a high price.
But at a conservative estimate the average price may
be calculated at i8s. per 150 well-grown and attractively
packed oranges.
Compared with these selling prices, the cost of pro-
duction is low. The initial expense of laying out an
orchard and the cost of maintaining it subsequently
are well within the means of most farmers. Assuming
trees are planted 25 feet apart, 75 will be required to
the acre. Young trees, yielding their first crops within
four 3'-ears after planting, cost about ;^I5 per lOO.
The preparation of the land entails the expense only
of ploughing deeply and cultivating, laying off for
planting, and digging irrigating furrows.
Irrigating is essential. It is, in the Pretoria District,
quite useless attempting to grow satisfactory citrus
fruit for sale without a sufficient water supply. On
114
Farming.
the subject of irrigating the citrus orchard no hard
and fast rule can be laid down. To a large extent the
irrigating necessary depends on the rainfall during the
wet season. But it may be said, in a tentative way,
that the soil should never be saturated with moisture.
The roots of the trees should never stand in water, nor
be allowed to dry. Possibly some six irrigations per
annum should be sufficient, but it depends largely on
how the irrigating is done.
The best way of applying water to a citrus orchard
is by means of furrows led between the trees, the
furrows nearest the trees being approximately not
nearer than the off-side farthest spreading branches.
On no account should water be applied to trees on the
basin system — that is, accumulated in a hollow around
the tree trunk. It is improper to irrigate the trunk
of a tree, because the feeding roots are not near the
trunk, but extended for a long distance in all direc-
tions ; and when water is concentrated in a basin
scooped around the trunk it draws the roots to the
surface, whereas they should descend deep into the
soil for their moisture and plant food. Otherwise they
are enfeebled, and in time of drought die or at best
diminish the fruit yield.
The furrow system is therefore the best. It has been
proved. When irrigating is done by this system, the
water should be made to soak into the ground as deeply
as possible, the cultivator being then used to produce
a mulch to shield from evaporation the water which
has been applied.
In the Pretoria District the cost of maintaining a
citrus orchard may be estimated at £;^ to £4. per acre
per annum, provided the grower does his own work,
115
Farming.
with his own animals and with such labour as can
from time to time, when circumstances permit, be
detached from other operations on his farm. The hire
of labour solely for the orchard is, except in the case
of large orchards, comparatively costly and would
considerably increase expenses.
Fruit in small quantities may be expected in three
years after planting the orchard, if trees of the size
indicated by the price of £1$ per 100 were commenced
with, if they were properly looked after, and if no
untoward circumstances arose. In five years after
planting, each tree should yield about 150 oranges or
lemons, the yield thereafter increasing yearly until the
twelfth or fourteenth year after planting, when the
tree should be in full bearing, yielding 600 to 1200
oranges or lemons, according to circumstances.
Lemons also pay the grower well, but on the whole,
perhaps, not as well as oranges, as the oversea demand
is not so large and invariable. By lemon is meant the
ordinary commercial lemon or lime. In most parts of
the Pretoria District the tree is hard}' and a prolific
yielder. Many instances are on record of local trees
producing in third year crops that averaged 30s. per
tree, and as they mature they become still more pro-
fitable.
Naartjes have not been exported to any considerable
extent, but there is a large local demand at prices
satisfactory to the grower.
The grape-fruit is another citrus fruit from which
good returns are obtainable. It is in large demand in
Europe and America, and stands handhng well. Pre-
toria samples were classed with the best of their kind
on the oversea market.
116
Farming.
A grower raising two or more kinds of citrus fruit
is, of course, careful not to plant them indiscriminately
in the same orchard, cross-fertilization being capable
of confusing the peculiarities of each, so that the
Washington navel orange may acquire the seed and
properties of the lemon, and the smooth-skinned lemon
the navel and less acidulous properties of the Washing-
ton navel.
With these reservations it may be stated, with a full
sense of the responsibility incurred, that of the many
money-making opportunities which the Transvaal has
presented to investors, none have been more promising
than those of the citrus industry. The fitness of such
portions of the country as the Pretoria District for
growing citrus fruits on a large scale, at huge profits,
is nothing short of wonderful. This is not merely
theory. It has been proved. The excellence of the
fruit, the prolific yield of the local orchards, and the
almost insatiable oversea and local demand at high
prices have been fully demonstrated on commercial
lines. At the time of the year when Pretoria orchards
are yielding, the London market can take, in addition
to the supplies from Australia, as much high-grade
citrus fruit, at top prices, as the whole of South Africa
can produce for many years ; and there then remains
the even larger European markets, and the fact that
South Africa is nearer these markets than Australia
or other similarly seasoned citrus producing rivals.
The glowing outlook for South African citrus culture
is being realized. In the Pretoria District large orchards
are being laid down, but much good land is still avail-
able at reasonable prices ; at prices, indeed, startlingly
low, when compared with prices in California and
Florida or Spain, where similar and even inferior but
117
Farming.
1 aid-out land, and land worked under climatic and
labour conditions less favourable than in the Pretoria
District, has fetched up to £200 per acre ; whereas in
Pretoria District it may still be obtained for from £2
to £6 per acre, virgin soil, of course.
So enormous has been the appreciation of citrus land
outside South Africa, and so easily and cheaply may
such land still be obtained in the Pretoria District,
that those who invest now, and use the land to advan-
tage, cannot but reap enormous returns. There is no
longer any need for capital to lie idle or at best return
from 6 to 8 per cent, from house or mine property.
Invested in Pretoria citrus growing, it, under good
security, returns much more.
FORTUNES IN TOBACCO.
The rapid and enormous mining development of the
Transvaal made practical, as perhaps no other develop-
ment could have done in the time, the extensive rail-
way construction without which such great internal
expansion could not have taken place. To the enter-
prise, ability, and success with which the mines have
been developed the advancement and prosperity of
South Africa must, therefore, largely be attributed.
Mining is, and long will remain, our main industry.
But the advancement of the country would probably
have been greater, the prosperity wider spread, had
that enterprise and abihty been devoted less to mining
and more to farming. For no mining profits, however
gratifying, can compare, if the basis of comparison be
initial capital outlay, working costs, and risks, with the
profits, for instance, from tobacco growing. In the
Pretoria District there are fortunes for the tobacco grower.
118
Farming.
With iSverage effort he can secure from 800 to looo lb.
of leaf per acre ; under intensive culture and expert
handling, acres have yielded up to 2000 lb. of leaf
each under conditions identical to those in Pretoria
District.
When it is added that the total cost of growing and
curing the leaf is from ;^io to ;^I2 per acre ; that from
8d. to lod. per lb. is iisually obtained for good but not
best leaf ; that this means a profit of from ;^20 to ;^35
or even more per acre, and that at these figures the
local demand for good leaf exceeds supply and is likely
long to do so, it will be apparent that no ;riooo put
into mining ever returned, save under abnormal risk
to the investor, dividends anything like those accruing
to the Transvaal grower of tobacco.
Rustenburg, Piet Retief, Barberton, Zoutpansoerg,
and Potchefstroom are at present the principal tobacco
growing districts in the Transvaal, producing large and
increasing crops every year. The tobacco output of
the Pretoria District does not yet equal in quantity
that of these others, not so much because the Pretoria
District is less well suited for tobacco growing, as
because other almost equally lucrative branches of
agriculture have in the past mainly occupied its farmers,
and because much of its land is wholly undeveloped.
The Government experts are emphatically of the opinion
that over a large area of the Pretoria District tobacco
can be grown as well as in the best districts
outside.
No doubt instances are on record where tobacco
growing in the Pretoria District has not been all that
could be desired. Where failure has occurred, however,
it should often be attributed rather to inexperience or
119
Farming.
lethargy in the farmer than to inherent defect in the
farm. For tobacco growing and selling is an art. It
is an art for which only those with specialized training
are fitted. It is not sufficient to grow a crop. The
kind of tobacco crop for which there is a demand must
be grown. The tobacco most required, at good prices,
and of which large quantities are still imported, is a
high-grade, bright yellow Virginia leaf for cigarette
making.
That is the tobacco the grower, to make large profits,
must grow successfully ; and to grow it successfully
he must know his business well. He must know how
to produce a leaf of certain length and breadth, in
which waste fibre is reduced to a minimum. He must,
by proper fertilizing and irrigating, to the extent he
does irrigate, know how to infuse into that leaf the
essential oils which give the aroma and the pHability
that permits handhng in the warehouse with a minimum
of powdering. And when the crop is reaped, he must,
by assiduity and experience, know how to control the
temperature in his flue-barns, know when to raise and
when to lower that temperature, when to harmonize
it with the fluctuating temperature outside and with
the gradually dwindling moisture content of the
leaf.
Hardly less important than the growing and curing
is the packing of the leaf for sale. Many a grower
two-thirds of whose crop was worth 8d. per lb, and
the rest 4d. received the latter figure for the whole
crop through neglecting, when baling the leaf, the vital
precaution of sorting it into grades. Grading is of
prime importance. The tobacco in each bale should
be of uniform quality throughout, so that buyers may
easily estimate the value of such bale. Otherwise a
120
Farming.
bale is judged, not by the best leaf it contains, but by
the worst. If the grading has to be done by the buyer,
the expense of sorting and the deterioration through
handling devolves on the grower as the}'- would in the
first instance, and in addition he gets a much lower
average price than if he had undertaken that expense
and labour at the outset.
But if the necessary precautions are observed, if the
buyer's requirements and preferences are studied and
met, and they are easily ascertained from tobacco
growers' associations, average high prices may be
expected by the experienced grower. And any energetic
man of average intelligence can become a successful
tobacco cultivator. If he has had training in other
countries, it needs only to be shghtly adapted for
Transvaal conditions. If he has not had training, he
can obtain it, at nominal cost, with Transvaal growers
of repute, on Government farms, or in agricultural
schools.
Where the prospects in tobacco growing are so good
as in the Transvaal, it is natural to inquire why every
farmer in suitable localities does not grow tobacco.
The reason is clear and detracts nothing from the case
for increased tobacco growing. In the first place,
every farmer, assuming he has the right kind of soil,
has not the experience, or the initiative, or the leisure
to acquire experience to grow and cure tobacco suc-
cessfully. And, in the second place, every farmer has
not the rather considerable capital required to commence
tobacco growing.
At the outset he must erect curing barns, either flue
or air ; they cost about the same, if properly built.
If he can build his barns himself, they wiU cost about
121
Farming.
;^200 ; if he cannot build, he must pay a contractor
probably more. For such an outlay, barns with a
capacity for lo acres of leaf could be erected. In
addition the grower must employ at least one native
labourer per acre, at a cost of from 20s, to 30s. per
native per month. Then there are ploughs, cultivators,
draught animals for tilling, fertilizers, and living ex-
penses. So that, apart from the cost of his land, the
tobacco grower must have at least ;^8oo capital to start
even on a small scale. In other branches of farming a
small start, leading gradually to bigger operations, and
culminating in tobacco growing, can be made with
less capital ; but the man who has the means can
hardly find anywhere better returns for his money and
labour than in Pretoria tobacco growing.
MAIZE: THE STEPPING STONE TO AFFLUENCE.
Pretoria District is admirably suited for maize
growing, and where this can be said few farmers can
afford to disregard the possibilities of the crop. It is
a crop on which thousands of South African and over-
sea farmers depend mainly for their livelihood. The
general demand for South African maize is enormous ;
and when, as sometimes happens, supply exceeds
local demand, the oversea markets can be catered for
at prices satisfactory to the grower.
In maize growing, as in most farming, there are
ways of making and wayc> of losing profits. Some
farmers obtain from three to five bags of maize per
acre ; others, under identical natural conditions, obtain
from eight to twelve bags : instances have been known
where an average of from fifteen to twenty bags per
122
Farming,
acre over a considerable area have, by exceptional
skill, been obtained. It depends mainly on the
farmer.
The three to five bag per acre farmer may have done
his best, but it was a poor best. He may have had
a bad season ; but in farming, estimates should be
made over an average of, say, five years, taking the
good seasons with the bad. On such a basis it may
be said that if the three to five bag farmer did his best,
it might well be improved upon, with a little experi-
ence, a little thinking, and a little extra exertion. A
maize grower needs to know what his soil is capable
of, and then needs to exert himself to get the utmost
it will yield. He needs to handle his soil intelligently.
It pays. This is as true in maize growing as in tobacco
growing. Wliere, as in this country'-, most farmers have
sufiicient land to permit part of it to lie fallow, it is a
mistake to use the same plot year after year for maize.
It is a mistake, in the Transvaal, to defer ploughing
until after the spring rains. It is better to plough
after the late autumn rains, and to leave such ploughed
land fallow until required for maize planting in the
following spring. It may entail more labour and
expense, but the increased crop v/ill more than cover
that.
If the ploughing be deep and thorough, say 15 to
20 inches instead of 6 to 10 ; if the seed be pains-
takingly selected to secure a prolific, good-selling
strain, adapted to local conditions and of proved
germinating powers ; if care be taken to guard against
cross-fertilizing from adjacent kaffir or other inferior
fields ; if trouble, even much trouble, be taken to
replace infertile seed when the young plants are up
(at least in small fields), and so secure a good full
123
Farming.
Stand, instead of the frequent 40 to 50 pei" cent, stand ;
and if cultivating be skilful and frequent until the
cultivator can no longer be passed between the rows —
then in the Pretoria District generally, as in the maize
belt of America, there is no reason why an average
ten to twelve bags per acre should not be obtained,
and an even larger yield by fertilizing. Certainly
these methods, whilst more productive, are also more
expensive and more troublesome than methods which
leave to nature responsibilities and exertions which
rightly the farmer should assume. But the extra out-
lay is so much below the increased return that there
can be no question of whether it pays to acquire skill
and exert pains in maize growing ; and when, as during
months of 1912-13, maize sells locally for upwards of
i8s. per 200 lb., there can be no doubt that in instances
it pays to fertilize judiciously.
It pays, in fact, to go in for intensive culture. The
difference in return from careful, as compared with
careless, culture is enormous. The same amount of
land is occupied ; the amount of extra labour is, on
an organized farm, hardly 50 per cent, different ; the
yield may be increased from 200 to 300 per cent.
When this is realized and acted upon, it will be clear
that maize growing on a much larger scale than at
present can be satisfactorily undertaken. Of course,
selling prices fluctuate. But at a conservative estimate
the Pretoria District farmer can generally rely on
getting not less than los. 6d. per 200 lb. He
should, as has been shown, obtain an average
of at least ten bags per acre. Often he should
get more. The cost of production varies, as the abilities
of farmers vary ; but, speaking generally, it should not
be more than 4s. 2d. per bag of 200 lb., including price
124
Farming.
of sack. At a low estimate, therefore, the profit should
generally be not less than 6s. 46.. per 200 lb., or a little
over ^3 per acre. In many cases it should be up to
£4 or £5 or even more per acre, if the crop is well
grown and marketed with discretion.
There are, of course, risks. So, however, there are
in nearly all enterprises. In the larger portion of the
Pretoria District, however, the maize grower runs less
risk than elsewhere. His growing season is longer
than in most maize districts. Even when the rainy
season commences late, he can generally reap his crop
before the frosts. Or, if the rains commence very
late, or if for some other reason early sowing is deferred
or fails, he still has his chance with one of the rapid
maturing varieties of maize adapted to the Pretoria
District by the Government experts. Such types
mature in from eighty days. They may not yet have
been evolved to yield as prolifically as types taking
upwards of 160 days to mature, but they turn into
some degree of profit what in bad seasons and in other
localities would be complete loss.
The acreage a Pretoria maize grower should handle
depends, of course, on circumstances. Where his land
and resources are limited, it should, however, be possible,
by intensive culture of 80 to 150 acres of maize, and
by mixed farming on the rest of his land, to make a
comfortable living. It has not been proved practical
in many cases, simply because it has not been properly
tried. It is done oversea, notably in the United States,
and has not been proved impractical in Pretoria
District.
125
Farming.
COTTON POSSIBILITIES.
Crops of excellent cotton have been grown variously
in the Transvaal. The crop requires, during the five
months' growing season, a rainfall averaging about
4 inches per month, decreasing as the bolls ripen, and
succeeded by a warm, dry season for the picking.
With such a climate, cotton grows well in almost any
good or even moderate soil.
These conditions exist throughout the Pretoria Dis-
trict, and cotton growing on commercial lines is judged,
by experts with oversea experience, quite feasible.
The demand for cotton is world-wide and practically
unlimited. Probably three times the world's present
output of cotton could be marketed, at prices satis-
factory to growers on a large scale. So pressing,
indeed, is the demand for more cotton that British
manufacturers and cotton associations have become
assiduous in fostering the increased growing of cotton
within the Empire.
In Pretoria District cotton growing would yield a
profit of about £4. per acre, from lint and cottonseed,
which latter product yields a commercial oil and is
excellent for feeding to cattle. As labour and transport
became organized on the local cotton plantation, and
the grower's experience increased, the profits would, no
doubt, be greater. In some countries they are upwards
of ;{io per acre.
The picking of cotton, though entailing the greatest
expenditure the grower incurs, is light work, and on
oversea plantations is largely undertaken by women
and children. Of course, there are cotton pickers and
cotton pickers. The picker of experience may gather
ia6
Farming.
upwards of 250 lb. per day, the inexperienced only
40 lb. Still, where a South African grower is near a
kaffir kraal, or where the labour supply is not abnormally
low, the picking should not be an insuperable difficulty
any more than it is in East Africa. The local labour
may at first not be efficient, but it would be very cheap.
The labour is light and congenial and hkely to attract
workers.
Ginning for export could be done at one or other
of the ginneries already in the district, and as the
cotton production increases, so no doubt will the
ginning facili'aes.
That large Quantities of cotton are not grown in and
around the Picloria District is therefore not attribut-
able to any insuperable obstacle, but merely to the
fact that most farmers are embarked on a variety of
mixed farming which, though it entails a larger initial
outlay of capital, also returns a profit proportionately
greater than that from cotton. Cotton, like maize, is
a crop for the farmer starting with little capital. It
is a good soil renovator, and in normal seasons entails
little risk. And as the chances of failure in farming
lessen proportionately to the variety of crops from
which the farmer may chose when calculating the
conditions, market and climatic, of the ensuing season,
the potentialities of cotton growing deserve the atten-
tion of Pretoria farmers.
GENERAL CROPS.
Among other crops proveJ^ payable in Pretoria
District —
Sisal hemp grows well ; maple peas yield heavily in
127
Farming.
winter, and could be grown as a rotation crop between
plantings of maize. Wheat is grown successfully on
the irrigable lands north of the Magaliesberg. Malting
barley for beer has been tried successfully. Linseed
thrives on the high veld. Mangels, sweet potatoes,
winter oats, buckwheat, peanuts in the sandy soil of
the north, soy beans, velvet beans for silage could all
be made to pay.
PASTORAL.
Speaking generally, and taking as l criterion the
percentage of mortality in live stock, the Pretoria
District is singularly free from serious disease, and
may be regarded as, on the whole, one of the healthiest
portions of the Transvaal.
There is a certain amount of gall-sickness, especially
in spring, after the first rains ; but the district has
been entirely rid of East Coast fever, although, of
course, dipping is optional ; and redwater is no longer
a menace.
There is no glanders in the district, and little anthrax ;
and horses, as well as mules, are now successfully
treated by Dr. Theiler's inoculation for horse-sickness,
loss in the infrequent event of mortality being insured
against by the Government on payment of a nominal
premium calculated on the value of the animal ; and
bihary fever is now easily treated if taken in time.
The sheep of the district do not suffer from 1am-
ziekte, but are susceptible, especially when pastured
128
Farming.
on rank sour veld, to internal parasites ; and blue-
tongue is prevalent to some extent.
Less loss from stock disease will be found in hardly
any district. In other respects, too^ the larger portion
of the district is admirably suited for the raising, on
a large or small scale, of cattle, horses, mules, ostriches,
pigs, poultry, and, to a moderate extent on occasional
areas, sheep. Where, however, soil and climate are
so conducive to agriculture, the land, by being put
under crops, can generally be used to better advantage
than for natural veld grazing ; and no progressive
farmer would be so insensible to his opportunities as
to leave a Pretoria farm undeveloped and used mainly
for grazing. He would devote to stock only that
portion of the farm beyond his resources to handle
und«. r crops ; and he would, if progressive, not rest
until he had enhanced the grazing value of that portion
of his farm by sowing it as far as possible with the
various excellent pasture grasses, many of which are
drought resisting, and which the Government expert
has now adapted to the district. In addition, if the
farmer grew, as with little extra expense most farmers
can grow, root crops for auxiliary feeding, and some
acres of maize for the ensilage pit, he would no doubt
make of his ranching a lucrative source of income.
He would make profits beyond the highest conception
of those who, content to let their stock depend on such
sustenance as the natural veld affords throughout the
year, run only that hardy native or slightly crossed
type of stock in which productiveness is sacrificed to
endurance— cattle which during the unfavourable con-
ditions of winter and during,-t?r^es of drought have
such a struggle for existence that for the best part of
the year their energies are so absorbed in obtaining a
129
Farming.
livelihood as to leave little capacity for produc-
tiveness.
The farming of such stock is farming of a kind, but
it is not progressive farming. The farmer who expects
profits from his ranching must avail himself of the
dearly bought experience of oversea contemporaries.
He must learn that ranching is a science. He must
learn the wisdom of starting, on however small a scale,
with only good stock. He must feed such stock,
however distasteful the exertion, with something
besides natural and often parched, unpalatable grasses,
or he must esteem himself incompetent of farming
successfully, incapable of meeting the stress of modern
competition.
When he has acquired and applied this spirit ; when
by the expenditure of effort and intelligence he has
secured and learnt how to maintain a good class of
stock in good productive condition, whatever the
season of the year, and whatever the nature of the
season, he will have learnt the advantage of the ensilage
pit, of growing root crops and pasture grasses and hay ;
and he wiii have become largely independent of droughts ,
and largely master of disease. He will have learnt
that, whether for dairying or slaughter, it pays best
to carry well-bred stock, though such stock require
careful feeding, careful housing, and careful attention.
The proof of this Hes in a Uttle reflection. Like the
implement through which maize is converted into the
higher-priced commodity maizena, a cow, though not
a machine, is the medium through which, in a com-
paratively cheap manner, todder is converted into the
more valuable commodity milk. The profitable cow
130
rarming.
is therefore the cow which does this converting well,
eats heavily, and, within reason, milks heavily. It is
poor economy, if a cow has this capacity, to begrudge
it the best of all it can eat. It is poor economy to
acquire, however cheaply, a cow that has not this
capacity. Only the high yielding cow should be kept.
Such a cow certainly costs more to keep, even when
its fodder is grown by the keeper, than the cheap,
veld-fed cow. But it also yields more than the latter.
The money spent for the cheap cow's purchase lies
largely idle ; the veld devoted to the animal's susten-
ance could be turned to better advantage. The one
cow costs comparatively little to buy and keep, and
yields proportionately less. The other cow digests
large quantities of comparatively costly fodder, but
turns it into the more valuable product milk, and the
aim should be to grow and put through that cow as
much as it can safely take. The success with which
this is done depends as much on the farmer as on the
cow. If the cow be defective, or if its food or housing
be, the business is unprofitable, however good the
farm ; and the fault lies not with the farm but with
the farmer.
Similarly for slaughter purposes it pays best to buy
and properly feed well-selected stock. Such stock, by
yielding a better quality and a larger quantity of beef,
and by doing so in much less time than poorly bred
stock dependent on veld grazing, give a return so
much greater, and do it so much quicker, that the
extra initial outlay, pains, and maintaining expense
are more than amply repaid.
It is better to pay ;r40 a^^a^ properly house and feed
a cow yielding thirty bottles of milk per day for the
Farming.
best part of the year than to pay ;fio for a cow which,
however fed, has not the capacity to yield more than
six bottles of milk a day, for a few months a year,
when milk is plentiful and proportionately cheap.
And it is better to breed from expensive, but in the
long run cheap, stock that will give a calf which, by
proper feeding and care, will in from three to four
years scale from 1600 to 1800 lb. of prime beef than
to breed from initially cheap, but in the long run dear,
stock, producing a calf which, on natural veld feeding,
will in from six to eight years scale 1000 to 1300 lb. of
inferior beef. Pound for pound of initial outlay, the
return from good stock is proportionately greater than
from poor stock ; and the capital takes only half the
time to produce that return.
The poorer method may have suited conditions when
land was cheap and abundant, when stock were left
to thrive or die as nature dictated, when the farmer
took life easily, content with small or no profits, markets
being few and remote, so long as he might live at peace,
exertionless. But times have changed, and with them
methods. The age is a progressive one, and none but
the progressive can hope to succeed in it. vSwit/er-
land, Holland, and Denmark could not have become
the dairy countries they have become but for the
fact ;tl;iat there has been a rigid elimination of mediocre
stoc^c.-; The heids have been graded up to return the
most for what they cost. South African farmers,
excepting in the remoter districts, must do the same
or succumb to the competition of progressive oversea
farmers. Already the position is that, a pastoral
people though we pretend to be, we do not supply
our own needs in milk products, such as butter, cheese,
condensed milk, and cream. We allow oversea farmers
132
Farming.
to do SO. Not because vSouth Africa is less suited for
dairying than other countries, but merely because its
grand potentialities are not, excepting in a compara-
tively few cases, propeily handled.
The oversea dairyman captures not only surrounding
markets, but actually competes in South Africa, not
because he has some Divine assistance, nor because
he has better natural resources, but because he works
hard and understands his business. He has realized
that it pays to work only first-class stock, and he has
learnt how to handle them. He works and thinks
and compels every one associated with him to work
and think. And until more than a small minority of
South African dairymen do that, their efforts may
be regarded as recreation, hardly as serious business.
Until they work and understand their business, until
they select their herds for specific purposes, cows that
will give milk, not acquire fat, steers that will fatten,
not meditate and languish ; until they feed and house
such stock to force them to their utmost yield within
reason, and study each individual animal to eliminate
the unprofitable ; until they do that, instead of taking
what stock chance or heritage has entailed on them,
and leaving it to the vagaries of nature, to the inclemency
of the veld, and the inconsequence of the Kaffir herd
and milk boy, they will continue to find the large local
butter and cheese market not worth wrenching from
the outsider, and the selling of milk at excessive prices
in adjacent towns only just worthy of attention.
But if vSouth Africa i cattlemen will profit by the
experience of other countries, will by the discriminate
purchase and the scientific handling of herds produce
the quality and quantity of milk and beef desired,
instead of an absurd quantity of milk per cow and
133
Farming. , ,
beef that is endured but seldom enjoyed, they will make
cattle pay on even small holdings, for they can then
capture not only the South African market, but face
competition oversea, as New Zealand and Australia
do. Then, but not before, we may expect to see beef,
butter, and cheese being exported instead of imported.
The laden dairy trains will then resound through our
railway depots, the countryside, partitioned into small,
instead of 5000-acre, farms, will then respond to the
industry of the many instead of being silent and largely
unproductive.
For those who have realized and will act upon these
prece]^ ts, the raising of cattle in the Pretoria District
offers excellent opportunities. For those who require
20 to 30 acres for each head cf stock, the opportunities
are not so good.
SHEEP.
In a country like South Africa, many portions of
which are so admirably suited for the production of
wool and mutton, the Pretoria District cannot be
pronounced as eminent for sheep farming. For sheep
the district may be divided into two areas. The
southern area, abutting on the Witwatersrand, consists
mainly of sour veld, and is on the whole unsuitable
for sheep farming on a large scale. The northern area,
abutting on the Middelburg District, carries a fair
amount of sheep where the veld, is open. In both areas
the grasses, especially in the wet season, are liable to
become very rank for sheep ; and the sheep, unless
very well cared for, are liable to blue-tongue and
internal parasites.
134
Farming.
On the whole, therefore, the district is not noted
for its wool or mutton possibiHties. But sheep breeding
on a small scale may be made profitable on some
farms, especially if, as recommended, teff or similar
grasses for general purposes, including sheep pasturing,
are laid down.
POULTRY FOR PROFIT.
Where so many kinds of stock and crops can be
raised, and mixed farming is the consequence, it
pays, especially the small farmer, to keep poultry.
The capitalist, who has the means of taking up
extensive citrus, tobacco, or stock raising ; who deals
in thousands, not in hundreds, when calculating
his returns, is working on a scale which places poultry
beneath notice. There are few, if any, local cases
on record where large poultry' farms have paid, but
the farmer whose financial limitations resign him to
contentment with a livelihood as a start, and better
things gradually, will in most cases find that, as an
auxiliary to his main branches of farming, a few hundred
head of poultry considerabty accelerate progress.
Fowls, especially, are or can be made profitable for
laying or for table use. Good eggs and good table
birds are always in demand, whatever the importations.
It is the small, the watery, the partly discoloured egg,
not the large, well-flavoured egg with the bloom still
on, that does not retail above the shilling per dozen
which long-stored eggs fetch. It is the stringy, non-
descript bird that depreciates the price of the coop to
little above what the railage cost. But such eggs and
such birds are not produced by farming. They are
the products of chance — the yield of flocks which, by
^35
Farming.
incessant inbreeding and by the necessity for feuding
for themselves, have been so enfeebled or are so occupied
in scratching that the forming of succulent flesh has
become an impossibility, and egg-laying passed from
a regular business to merely a spring pastime.
Throughout the country poultry keeping has often
been found unprofitable. vSo it is when carried on, not
as a business, but as an affair that can look after itself
or at best be tended by the incompetent. Unselected,
unadapted, unattended poultry will not pay ; but
neither would citrus or tobacco farms if mismanaged.
It takes experience and skill to produce good eggs and
good table birds, but not more than the average farmer,
with the assistance of his household, can usually spare
from his other branches of farming.
It is well to start on a small scale, to select even as
few as twenty or thirty birds, of a prolific laying strain
like Leghorns for eggs, or Cochins for the table.
They must first be adapted to the particular locahty.
They must then be studied. The hen is an egg-laying
apparatus and should be regarded and regulated as
such. Some hens, whatever their condition and breed,
lay worse than others. Only the birds, therefore, with
active habits, a large food capacity, and the ability
regularly to turn that food into good eggs should be
kept. The others, however fine their plumage or gait,
should be rigidly excluded.
From the eggs of the hens so selected the flock proper
should be incubated ; it will then be born to its environ-
ment, and fitted for it. The resulting flock should be
kept to such a size as can be handled efficiently. Hens
shoxild be pen-fed and fattened for table use after
laying for two years, except those with unusually good
136
Parmhg.
laying characteristics, which might be separated and
kept in the breeding flock to replace the drain from
the laying flock.
The laying hens should be separated from the male
birds when the eggs are for sale, so that, unworried
by untimely attentions, they may the better devote
themselves to the business for which they are kept.
Eggs for consumption are in any case the better for
being unfertilized.
The laying, as distinguished from the breeding,
hens should then be forced, within reason, to their
utmost laying powers. Those powers should be con-
siderable, if a prolific strain has been bred from, and
may be maintained all the year round by creating the
conditions of the natural laying season, i.e. spring.
This is possible by feeding and housing the hens
properly ; by feeding with the food peculiar to spring —
a good and varied assortment of grains, plenty of
green stuff, wholesome shredded meat in place of
worms and insects, and an abundance of pure water,
not too cold and not too warm. An egg contains a
large percentage of water, which the hen must drink,
and drink, if its productiveness is not to be disturbed,
without having its egg-laying economy impaired by
chill or filth.
The runs should be quiet and secluded, shaded from
the summer glare, and sheltered from the chills of
winter.
The collecting and the handling of the eggs is hardly
less important than their production. They should be
gathered as quickly as possible from the nest, stored
in a dark, cool place away from all taint. They should
be dispatched to the consumer as soon as possible, not
^37
Farming.
packed in sawdust or other contaminating material,
but in partitioned boxes. Eggs, as their shells are
porous, are easily contaminated. In improper packing,
or when kept long, or exposed to the light, or handled
much, they deteriorate, lose their bloom, and fetch
poor prices, which are further reduced by middlemen's
charges and by the competition of similar deteriorated
eggs from abroad.
By producing a good egg, by ensuring that that egg
shall reach the consumer at its best, fowls can be made
to pay in a district like that of Pretoria, which has
the large Johannesburg market practically at its door,
where good eggs fetch good prices from consumers
such as hospitals, nursing homes, the better-class
hotels, and restaurants, as well as from private house-
holds, all of whom may be reached cheaply and quickly
by the " Collect on delivery " system of the Railway
Department.
PRETORIA DISTRICT: FARMING STATISTICS.
The following figures from the latest (191 1) Census
help to substantiate (as far as they go) the various
conclusions drawn in this chapter : —
The arable land of the district was occupied as
follows : —
Cultivated 82,306 morgen.
Fallow 15,162 ,,
Grazing 1,160,027 >>
Of the cultivated land the following areas were used
for the crops mentioned : —
Wheat 3,829 morgen.
Oats 4,952
Barley 325
138
Farming.
Mealies 25,749 morgen.
Kaffir corn 568
Rye 13
Peas 61 ,,
Potatoes 956 ,,
Sweet potatoes 94 ,,
Pumpkins 391 ,,
Tobacco 206 ,,
Lucerne 365 ,,
Ground-nuts 44 ,,
The yield was as follows : —
Wheat muids 35,690
Oats „ 8,531
Oat-hay lb. 17,069,176
Barley. . . muids 1,067
Green barley bundles 269,197
Mealies muids 273,793
Kaffir corn ,, 37,491
Potatoes ,, 36,905
Pumpkins No. 331,517
Tobacco lb. 558,884
Lucerne tons 1,500
In addition, the following fruit was produced
NUMBER.
Apricots 7,451,272
Peaches 32,189,976
Plums 1,840,344
Nectarines 63,890
Apples 1,983,282
Pears 764,420
Oranges 4,612,118
Naartjes 891,048
Lemons 540.934
139
Farming.
NtBIBER.
Pompelmoes 39.070
Citron MA^5
Banana 15,600
Almond lb. 1,032
Walnut ,, 3,246
Figs •. .- Qi,357
and about 40 tons of various dried fruits.
The district contained the following live stock : —
Cattle 152,020
Horses 5=732
Asses 11,082
Mules 2,999
Ostriches 427
Sheep 150,727
Goats 141,235
Pigs 33,610
Of the cattle, 15 head only were imported ; of the
goats, only 5168 were Angora ; and of the sheep,
35,822 wooUed, and of those only 8893 were Merino.
The herds were made up as follows : —
Bulls 4,490
Cows 58,740
Oxen 44,769
Other 44,021
152,020
The yield from the cows was as follows : —
Milk gallons 136,000
Butter lb. 36,160
Cream ,, 17,321
and only
Cheese „ 15
140
Farming.
Farm workers employed : —
Males 9,478
Females 1,293
10,771
Of these 3489 were white males, 855 white females,
5656 South African native males, 406 females, 365
other coloured races.
LAND AVAILABLE.
There are as good farming opportunities in the
Union as anywhere outside, and no one need go else-
where for land. Such are the farming potentialities
of the Pretoria District, however, that most of the
farms have been taken up by private owners ; but
there is still some Government land obtainaT)le, or
likely to be obtainable in the near future, and privately
owned land is obtainable at prices which, considering
the productiveness of that land, are extremely low.
When desired, the Government assists farmers to
acquire such privately owned land. Section 11 of the
Land Settlement Act, No. 12 of 1912, empowers the
Government to purchase such land at the request of
an intending farmer, provided the intending farmer is
prepared to contribute at least one-fifth of the purchase
price of such land. He may then pay off the rest of
the purchase price, plus incidental expenses, in forty
equal instalments, payable half-yearly.
This Act also contains a provision whereby the
Government may allot Crown lands to applicants who
possess, in the opinion of the Minister of Lands, suffi-
cient working capital to enable them to develop and
141
Farming.
work such lands beneficially. Each allotment will be
made on a lease of five years, with the option of pur-
chase during or at the expiry of that period. No rent
will be payable in respect of the first year, but in
respect of the second and third year 2 per cent, per
annum, and in respect of the remaining two years
3^ per cent, per annum will be payable on the purchase
price of the holding. WHien the option of purchase is
exercised, the purchase price, together with interest
at the rate of 4 per cent, per annum, will be payable
to the Government half-yearly in advance by forty
equal instalments.
Full particulars in regard to the land to be allotted
will from time to time be published in the Union
Gazette ; a notification will also appear in the principal
newspapers.
Under this Act the Government may also advance
to lessees of holdings an amount not exceeding 50 per
cent, of the total value of the improvements effected
by them on their said holdings for the purpose of
purchasing stock, seeds, implements, and other farming
requisites, such advance not to exceed ;^500. Each
advance is repayable within five years at 4J per cent,
per armum interest.
LABOUR.
As in the rest of South Africa, so in this district,
there is no surfeit of native labour ; but the Pretoria
District has this advantage, that owing to the natives'
preferences for working on the mines and railways,
which pay good wages, natives from all parts of the
country trek through the district to the adjacent mines
and railway bureaus, with the result that they may
142
Farming,
often be diverted from their original intentions and
recruited by the local fanners. There is also a con-
siderable native population resident in the kraals of
the district, and this large potential labour supply is
largely protected for the local farmers to draw upon
by the fact that the recruiting of outside native labour
agents is to a considerable extent debarred.
LAND BANK.
The great boon which the establishment of a Land
Bank has been to South African farming is very
noticeable in the Pretoria District. The loans from
the bank have enabled local farmers to make many
improvements ; the stability of farming has increased ;
land values have improved, and a degree of prosperity
has resulted that, without the aid of the Land Bank,
would have been deferred for many years.
The object of the bank is to aid deserving farmers
in the development of their farms. The business of
the bank is —
{a) to advance money to farmers on mortgage of
land within the Union ;
(b) to advauce money to, and to guarantee the per-
formance of contracts by, co-operative societies ;
(c) to advance money to farmers holding land under
agreement of purchase from the Crown, or holding
land from the Crown under a lease the unexpired
period whereof is ten j'^ears or more ;
and generally to make all such advances and do all
such acts as the bank may be authorized to make or
do by Act of Parliament.
10
FaTming.
Advances are made by the bank for all or any of
the following purposes : —
(i) Improvements, in which term shall be included
farm buildings, fences, tanks and other structures
for the dipping or spraying of stock, the clearing
of land for cultivation, the blocking of sluits,
dongas, and water-courses to prevent denudation
of soil, and the planting of trees, orchards, vine-
yards, sugar-cane, and tea.
(2) The'purchase of stock or plant of all kinds and
of agricultural requirements generally.
(3) The discharge of existing liabilities on land or,
in special circumstances, any other existing
liabilities.
(.-I.) The payment of costs incidental to the sub-
division of land held in undivided shares.
(5) The establishment and promotion of agricultural
and rural industries, including, in addition to
other such industries, tobacco, doiry, and like
industries, and the cultivation, sale, and exporta-
tion of fruit.
(6) The purchase of land for any of the purposes
described in paragraphs i, 2, and 5 of this section
by a person or group of persons whose financial
resources are deemed adequate to carry on a
purpose described in any of those paragraphs.
But no advance shall be made by the bank for the
purpose of any such irrigation, water storage, or boring
work as may be made the subject of a loan under any
loan relating to irrigation or conservation of water.
Ivoans are made [a) upon the security of freehold
and quitrent land, to an amount not exceeding 60 pet
cent, of the agricultural or pastoral value thereof
144
Farming.
(6) upon the security of Crown land, to an amount not
exceeding 50 per cent, of the purchase price already
paid ; (c) upon the security of land held under lease
from the Crown, to an amount not exceeding 50 per
cent, of the value of the lessee's interest in the lease.
In every case the vahie will be determined by the
Board.
Loans under {a) are granted for a period of thirty
years. During the first five years interest at the rate
of 5 per cent, is payable, and the capital may during
that period be reduced by instalments of £^ or any
multiple thereof. At the end of five years the balance
of the loan will be repayable within a period of twenty -
five years, by half-yearly instalments, consisting of
capita] and interest, each instalment, except the last,
being at the rate of ^3. los. for every ^100 of the loan.
I/Oans under (5) and (c) are repayable within a period
of five years.
Except in special cases, no advances are made for
amouDts of less than ;^5o or more than ^^2000.
The headquarters of the bank are at Pretoria. Its
officials, and magistrates throughout the Union, will
furnish fuller information on application, and render
all necessary assistance in the completion of forms of
application, etc.
145
Mining.
CHAPTER XI.
TO
/flREAr though the Transvaal mineral output has
^^ been for years, it has by no means reached its
maximum. It increases every year, and shows
every tendency of increasing at a more rapid ratio as
the deposits worked show no signs of petering out,
speaking generally, and the deposits unworked and
untested are many.
It has been shovsm, in a previous chapter, that large
though this mineral wealth is, the farming potentiaUties
are even greater, but largely undeveloped, as the
tendency has been mainly towards mining. This
tendency has resulted in widespread prospecting
throughout the country, and in the vicinity of Pretoria
deposits have been discovered of diamonds, tin, iron,
gold, silver, lead, coal, and calcareous formations for
making lime and cement. Millions are now taken
annually in diamonds from the vicinity of Pretoria,
hundreds of thousands in tin and in coal ; and the
recent discovery of a large deposit, not of titanium
iron, but of a superior more easily worked iron-ore
suggests an additional mining industry of considerable
importance.
146
MMng.
But considerable though the prospecting has been,
and satisfactory though the results, it has been neither
systematic nor conclusive. Many portions of the dis-
trict are still unproved geologically. There may be
near Pretoria undiscovered diamond mines as rich as
the Premier Mine, or tin and coal fields as valuable as
those of Potgietersrust and Witbank. There is still
considerable need for mineral research in the Pretoria
District, as the details giv^en under each of the following
specific headings will show.
Diamonds.
A diamond pipe gives no surface indications of its
presence, except the actual diamonds and garnets near
it, and is therefore extremely difficult to locate ; and
so infinitesimal is the proportion of diamonds to the
tonnage of earth worked to disclose them, even in a
payable mine, that when a pipe is located it is almost
impossible to judge its payability conclusively, except
by extensive working.
The result was that, though ten years ago there had
been a good deal of diamond prospecting in the dis-
trict without a payable mine being located, this was
not evidence that such a mine did not exist, as the
subsequent discovery of the Premier Mine proved.
And though to-day the Premier Mine remains the only
payable diamond mine in the district, this by no means
proves that there are not other payable pipes waiting
to be discovered. On the contrary the inference is,
as experience has taught in Kimberley, that where one
payable pipe exists others are probably in the locahty,
requiring only operations sufficienth' extensive to prove
their payability.
147
Mining.
There is consequently little doubt that more pipes
than ha\'e been proved payable exist in the Pretoria
District ; that some of them may be extremely rich ;
and that, therefore, increased diamond prospecting on
systematic, scientific hues would be justified.
The Premier Diamond Mine, situated twenty-four
miles from Pretoria, is to-day one of the largest mining
ventures in the world. Probably more tons of ground
are handled in it than in any other single undertaking
except the Panama Canal construction. As much as
40,000 loads (i.e. tons) have been worked in one day.
During 191 2, 9,979,716 loads were handled, yielding
2,047,185 carats, valued at /i, 909,564.
Upwards of 1200 white men and 17,000 Kaffirs are
employed by the company.
The mine is worked open-cast and is approximately
996 yards long by 483 yards wide and of a depth
ranging from 200 to 300 feet.
Apart from this mine, some twelve diamond pipes
have been located in the district, but up to the present
none have been proved payable. Alluvial diamonds
are also found alongside most of the streams flou-ing
from the neighbourhood of the Premier Mine. From
these various sources and the mine the total output
for 1912 was 2,049,767 carats, valued at £2,207,700,
an increase over the pievious year of 244,563 carats,
valued at £569,803.
It is figures such as these which emphasize the
mineral progress and the vast potentialities of the
Pretoria District.
Tin.
As in the case of diamonds, so with tin, prospecting
has been extensive, has resulted in the location of large
148
Mining.
deposits, some of which are at present yielding hand-
some returns, but the district as a whole has not been
exhaustively prospected. The tin deposits found are
probably only an iota of -what may yet be found.
New discoveries of tin-bearing rock are continuously
being made, and with incicased operations, both mining
and prospecting, there is ever>' likelihood that the tin
industry is destined to become one of the important
permanent assets of the Transvaal.
Red bushveld granite, the miatrix in which the
celebrated Transvaal tinfields occur, begins at the
Pyramids, some twelve miles from Pretoria, and
stretches northwards indefinitely. The tin mines now
worked are situated about seventy miles north of
Pretoria, where they form a line beginning at Rooiberg
on the west and ending at Potgietersrust on the east,
a zone about lOO miles long. The output for 1912
was 2948 tons of concentrates (cassitarites), valued at
;f370,ooo.
At the Rooiberg end of the zone the tin occurs
mostly in veins and fissures, as in other countries, but
in the Potgietersrust locality it occurs in a very peculiar
pipe-like formation which has given rise to much
geological controversy.
Iron.
Much has been written, and more talked, about the
potentiaHties of the Transvaal iron industry. The
general contention is that our large deposits of iron-ore
could be profitably worked, being situated, as they are,
if not near, then at least within, economic reach of
satisfactory' coking coal and lime deposits. It has
been urged by many that, whilst no doubt the per-
centage of titanium in much of this ore makes it too
149
Mining.
refractory for blast furnaces, the difficulty has in
Europe been overcome by using electric furnaces ;
that such a plant, though costly, should not be imprac-
ticable in a country importing annually shoes, dies,
steel rails, trucks, wheels, and fencing standards to
the value of more than a million sterling ; that the
power for such furnaces could be generated cheaply
where coal is so cheap, or possibly along some stream ;
and that, therefore, enterprise only is required to
establish a local iron industry on substantial lines.
The argument is neither conclusive nor convincing.
In it the point is overlooked that while the suggested
electric furnaces, though not tested with our refractory
ores, might be successful in the Transvaal, the large
initial outlay for their installation would be prohibitive
in a country where markets are so restricted. However
successfully refractory ores might be turned into pig-
iron and steel by costly electric processes, it would be
impossible, without protection, 1o compete, except in
a very restricted area, with steel and steel products
from America, Great Britain, and Europe, where
manufacturers work on so much larger a scale than
would be possible here, that in open competition, or
in face of our present Customs tariff, they wouJd con-
tinue to hold, against a Transvaal ironmaster seeking
returns for his huge outlay on electric furnaces, the
vSouth African market as far in nearly as the Free
State border on the one side and the Natal border
on the other. And by reducing prices, as they
doubtless would do, they could hold probably the
whole market.
Certainly the duty on imported steel might be raised.
But it would have to be raised much to be effective.
And such a necessity would be the proof that our
150
Mining
titanium iron, even if it can be successfully treated
in electric furnaces, can be worked only by bounty.
Of course, a kind of bounty is being given in Canada
and Australia to support the young iron industries
there, and something of the kind might be feasible in
South Africa. That is a national question on which
opinion is divided. But to protect the iron industry
through the Customs wjuld be to bolster it at the cost
and to the detriment of more important local indus-
tries, at least until sxich time as the economic
position of South Africa becomes very different to
what it now is.
The whole matter was thoroughly inquired into at
the instigation of the Transvaal Government in 1910
by Mr. F. W. Harboard, one of the leading r,uropean
experts on iron smelting. His report was unfavourable.
It may be found in full attached to the 1910 report of
the Government Mining Engineer.
But that does not dispose of the possibility, nay,
probability, of starting an early Transvaal iron-ore
smelting industry. Since those reports were issued a
very superior ore has been discovered some sixty miles
north of Pretoria, in the vicinity of the farm Leeuw-
kraal, showing, again, the almost infinite mineral
possibilities of the district if adequately prospected.
Considerable development is confidently expected
from this discovery, as the quality of the ore is excellent
and the quantity visible very large. Such an ore will
prove workable if it can be smelted in blast furnaces,
because such furnaces can be erected as small or as
large as the market warrants the output being. Such
an industry would not require a capital altogether out
of proportion to the probable dividends.
151
MMng.
Gold.
Near Pretoria one or two small gold mines are being
worked in quartz veins in the dolomite, but though
of geological interest, they are unimportant com-
mercially.
Silver .
The above remarks apply also largely to silver.
\'ery rich bonanza of argentiferous copper-ore was at
one time worked at the Willows, six miles east of
Pretoria, but work has long since ceased.
Argentiferous lead ores also occur in the dolomite
south of Pretoria and at Edendale, fifteen miles east.
At the latter place a mine has been working more or
less successfully for several years past. During 1912
it was worked for only a few months and yielded
141 tons of lead, valued at ;{i436.
Still further west another argentiferous lead mine
was at one time worked under the name of the Trans-
vaal Silver Mine. It has been shut down for some
twenty yea.rs and the sides have completely caved in ;
but its richness may be judged from the fact that
dumps which were washed over in igi2 ^-ielded 1979 tons
of lead, valued at £yooo, and silver valued at £5000.
Coal-
Coal has been located twelve miles north of Pretoria,
immediately on the far side of Pyramids, and from
there extends, with breaks, all over the bushveld, up
to the Waterberg Range.
Up to date these coal deposits have not been worked,
as supplies from Witbank are of better quality and can
hardly be undersold.
152
Mining
The Witbank Coalfield starts at Balmoral, east
of Pretoria, and stretches as far as Belfast.
It is, however, not a continuous sheet, as erosion
has exposed the underlying formation in valleys ;
but, speaking generally, the tops of the bults or downs
are covered by coal, while vleis or valleys lie beneath,
giving a curious lace-like pattern to a geological map
of the area.
The coal from this field amounted in igi2 to
3,587,481 tons, valued at £yyy,225, being an increase
of 250,000 tons, valued at £ig,8^y, over the previous
year. Over 35,000 gallons of tar were also obtained,
and used mainly for street repairing in Johannesburg.
400 white men and 7149 natives were employed
during the year.
Coking Coal.
It was former!}' thought that South African coal
was entirely unsuited for coking purposes. This
theory has now been proved wrong. In 191 1 the
Government sent to Britain six samples of 10
tons each taken from representative collieries of
the Province. These were tested under ordinary con-
ditions at Middlesborough, in England, under the
personal supervision of Mr. Harboard. the eminent
expert formerly mentioned. The results were sur-
prisingly favourable. Details may be found in a
pamphlet issued in 191 1 by the Department of Mines,
entitled " Coking Tests of Transvaal Coals."
Cement.
The only cement factory in South Africa is estab-
lished in the Pretoria District. It produced 62,745
tons of cement during 1912.
153
S4Mng.
The cement equals in quality any imported Portland
cement, though it requires slightly different treatment.
That the industry is profitable is proved by the fact
that for several years past the company has paid
dividends of nearly 40 per cent, per annum, and is
now establishing subsidiary factories at points nearer
the coast to compete more extensively with the imported
article ; for, as in the case of iron, cement can be
brought from London to a South African inland point
as far north as Beaufort West, in Cape Province, as
cheaply as from Pretoria to that point.
Attached to the cement factory is an industry known
as the Concrete Construction Company, which produces
concrete shapes of every description, from sheep troughs
to pulpits, but chiefly hollow blocks for building pur-
poses. The company possesses the most advanced
American plant obtainable, and its manufactures are
equal to any imported.
Clays.
At Olifantsfontein, eighteen miles south of Pretoria,
the ConsoHdated Rand Brick, Tile, and Pottery Works
are situated. These turn out not only ornam.ental
brick and tile work, but eveiy description of domestic
earthenware and chiuaware.
Salt and Alkali.
What is known as the Pretoria Saltpan is situated
twenty-five miles north of the city. It is one of the
geological enigmas of South Africa. To all appear-
ances it is the crater of an extinct volcano, the bottom
of the crater being some 400 feet below the rim and
200 feet below the surrounding country. The floor of
this crater-like depression is occupied by a pan, covered
154
Mining.
in the dry season by an incrustation of salt and alkali,
which is sub-layered by a lo-feet deposit of pure
natron or native carbonate of soda.
A borehole sunk 170 feet in this pan disclosed nothing
but alternate layers of mud and salt. The banks of
the pan and the crater itself consist of bushveld granite,
and not a trace of pumice or other volcanic ejector
can be found in the neighbourhood. Apart from its
geological significance, the spot is an extremely pretty
and interesting one, well worth visiting by ever}' one
in search of the picturesque.
An alkali industry is now being started in Johannes-
burg to absorl) the natron excavated from this pan in
dry season.
Chrome Iron-Ore.
Beds of chrome iron-ore have also been found near
the Pyramids. Up to the present no serious work has
been done on these beds, as the visible outcrop contains
less than 40 per cent, of chromic acid. It is, however,
possible, and even probable, that richer beds ma^' be
found by prospecting beneath the sub-soil, as has been
the case in Rhodesia.
Manufacturing.
As Pretoria is exceptionally central, is extensively
connected by rail, is the centre of an extremely rich
mining and farming area, has a huge market on the
Rand, is within economic reach of Natal and Rhodesia,
as well as the port of Delagoa Bay, the opportunities
it offers for industrialists of all kinds are unusually
good. There, if anywhere in South Africa, manufac-
tures of certain kinds may be established successfully.
Splendid sites, abundant water supply, and electric
155
Mining.
power if desired will be supplied by the Municipality
to manufacturers at reduced rates. L-arge quantities
of raw materials are produced in the districts ; huge
quantities will soon be produced, especially if there
are local factories to absorb such raw material. To
Pretoria, therefore, manufacturers should turn atten-
tion.
156
SOUTH AFRICAN
RAILWAY MAP.
--On
.J
/
/
\ PORIUOUESE
f EAST AFRICA
BJCmMHALAKI
UUIlUALAnD
KIMBERLCYi
WEST
L
^
uunn ffsr 1
~A
I K»tQyflttST<tWH{f;.<^ /JP
KUWJUT J^^;jL^ ^^
-7
\
V/ ^OKMnrno
■v^^
*&S^xaM£n
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Plate.
I — Panorama.
II — Union Buildings.
HI- ,.
IV- „
V- „
VI— „
VII — Pretoria Scenes — Early Days.
VIII — Old Pretoria Residences.
IX — Modern Pretoria Residences.
X — ,, II ,1
XI— Jess's Cottage, Pretoria.
XII — Church Square.
XIII— „
XIV — Post Office and Government Buildings.
XV — Governor-General's Residence, Pretoria Club, etc.
XVI — Market Squaie.
XVII— Burgers Park.
XVIII— New Railway Station and Old Station Yard.
XIX — Museum.
XX— Typical Street Scenes.
XXI — Lovers' Walk, Pretoria.
XXII— Street Scenes.
XXIII — Aapics River and Fountain GroTC.
XXIV — In and near Fountain Grove.
XXV — Hennops River.
XXVI— To Hennops River.
XXVII — River Scenery — Aapies and Hennops River.
XXVIII— To Haviaans Poort.
XXIX— Baviaans Poort.
XXX— The Wonderboom.
XXXI— At the Zoo.
XXXII— The Zoo.
XXXIII -In the Zoo.
XXXIV— At the Zoo.
XXXV— Pretorius Street and Town Hall.
XXXVI— Town Hall.
XXXVII— Fire Brigade Station.
XXXVIII— Education Institutions.
XXXIX— Union Buildings, West Block, etc.
XL — Railway Station.
XLI— Country Club, Waterkloof.
XLII — Plant Pathologist's Laboratory,
I N DEX.
A
Page
Agricultural College 93,109
Annexation of Transvaal 29
Arcadia 39
Architecture 83
Church Square 86
Fire Station 86
■ Government House 91
■ M useum 86
Post Office 87
Railway Station 85
Schools 93
Transvaal University 93
Union Buildings 88
Around Pretoria 44
Art Gallery 86
B
Back to the Land 103
Backv^ard Glance, A 5
Bacteriological Station, The 63
Bapedi Rebellion, The 28
Barberton 33,34
Basutos, The 29
— War 31
157
II
Index.
Page
Baviaans Poort 43
Boer, The
— as Colonist 8
— as Hunter 24
— as Pioneer 13
— as Ruler 28
— War, The 31
Boys' High School, The 65,83
British Annexation ol Transvaal 29
Burgers, President 28
c
Cattle Farming 128
Cement 153
Chrome , 155
Church Square 86
Clays 154
Climate of Pretoria 40,64
Coal 152
— Coking 153
Commando Nek 45
Cotton possibilities 1 26
Crocodile River 45
Crops, General 127
D
Dairying 128
Daspoort 42
Diamonds 1 47
E
Early 'Eighties in Pretoria 29
Educational Facilities 64
Electric Supply 76
Farming ;
F
Back to the Land 103
Cattle 13!
158
Index.
Farming : Page
Cotton, Possibilities of 126
Crops, General 127
Dairyi 129
Facts about Pretoria 109
Fruit, Enormous Profits in 1 13
Labour 142
Lank Bank 143
Maize and Aflluence 122
Pastoral 128
Poultry 135
Sheep 134
Statistics 138
Tobacco, Fortunes in 118
Fire Department, The 79,86
Flora 95
Founding of Pretoria 7
Fountains, The 45
Fruit Growxng, Enormous Profits in , 1 13
G
General Crops 127
Girls' High School 66
Gold 152
— Discovery of 32
— The Rush for 32
Government H ouse 91
Great Karoo, The 16
Great Trek, The
Causes of 8-11
Commences 12
The Journey 16
Obstacles of 13-18
Growth of Pretoria , 22
H
Hennops River 45
High School, The Boys* 65
„ „ The Girls* 66
Hunting becomes a Trade 24
159
Index.
I Page
Introductory 3
Iron 149
J
Jacaranda, The 39
Johannesburg 33, 34
Joubert, General 32
K
Kafir. The 9
Kroonstad 19
Kruger, Paul 32
L
Labour 81,142
Land Available 141
Land Bank, The 143
Lead 152
Libraries of Pretoria, The 62,86
Lydenburg 19,31,33
M
Magaliesberg 42
Maize 122
Majuba 32
Manufacturing 155
Mining 146
Moselekatse 17, 18
Municipal :
Electric Supply > 76
Fire Department 79
History 70
Labour 81
Population 73
Rates 73
Roads, etc 80
i6o
Index.
Municipal : Page
Sanitation 77
Sewerage 77
Tramways 76
Valuation 73
Water Supply 74
Museum, The 52, 86
N
Natal 16
Native Raiders 8
Normal College 67,93
O
Olifantsfontein 154
Orange Free State 16, 18, 19
Orange River 16
Ox-wagon Transport :
■ Comedy and Tragedy of 26
Value of 16
P
Past and Present 6
Pastoral 128
Post Office 87
Potchefstroom 19-31
Potgieter 18
Poultry 135
Pretoria :
1864 21
Administrative Capital 36
Architecture 83
Climate 40
Compared 36
Early 'Eighties 29
Educational Facilities 64
Electric Supply 76
i6i
Index.
Pretoria : Page
Farming Opportunities 108
Garrison Town, A 29
Growth of 22
Land Available Around 141
Manufacturing in 155
Modern City, The , 36
Municipality of 70
■ Population of 73
Rates 73
■ Siege of 32
Tours Around 44
Valuation of 73
Pretorius, M. W 19
R
Railway Station, The 85
Ranching 128
Rand, The 33
Rates 73
Roads 80
Rustenburg 19-31
S
Salt and Alkali 154
Sanitation • 77
Schools 65-69
Sheep 134
Shepstone, Sir T 29
Siege of Pretoria 32
Silver 152
Slave Emancipation 8-11
South African Republic 20
Early Days of 25
Statistics :
Farming 138
Land 141
Land Bank 143
162
Index.
Statistics : Page
Mining 146
■ Weather 64
Stock Farming 128
Streets 80
Sunnyside 39
T
Tin 148
Tobacco, Fortunes in 118
Tours Around Pretoria 44
Trade School, The 68
Tramways 76
Transvaal Annexed 29
Handed Back 32
Transvaal University College 64, 93
Trichardt 18
Trek, The Great :
— Causes of 8-11
— Commencement of 12
— Journey, The 16
— Obstacles of 13-17
U
Union Buildings :
Opening of 4,88
Union, The First 19
University College, Transvaal 64, 93
Utrecht 19
V
Valuation of Pretoria 73
Voortrekkers, The :
Obstacles of 13
Qualities of the 13
163
Index.
Page
War of 1880 31
Water Supply, Pretoria 74
Winburg 19
Witbank 153
Wonderboom 43
z
Zoo, The 56
Zoutpansberg 18
Zulus, The 29
— War 29
^
164
If anything is required by you when on a
VISIT TO PRETORIA,
-YOU WILL FIND THK —
BEST CLASS OF GOODS
— AT^
REASONABLE PRICES
— BY CALLING AT —
JOHN JACK, Ltd,,
CHURCH STREET.
Gent.'s and Youths' Outfitting.
Ladies' Drapery m Latest Fashions.
Household Ironmongery.
TRA YELLING REQUISITES,
— AND- -
All kinds of Grocery and Sweets, etc., etc.
HENWOOD'S,
Church Street, Pretoria,
Is a large, well-equipped Modern Store devoted to
the necessaries for outdoor and indoor wear, the
Home, the Garden, the Farm.
A Visit of Inspection is cordially invited.
A Splendid Range of
exclusive Novelties
in ALL Departments.
Oi ic II zno nt ir II in
Gowns,
Blouses,
Hats.
oc
DOC
Men's Wear,
Boots and
Shoes.
lOI
lO
Hardware,
China and Glass,
Furniture.
ni ir
"II in
Pretoria's Lowest Prices Always.
THE
WORLD OF DRESS
)
ALWAYS :
:: SHOWING
The Newest Styles
for
LADIES' AND ::
CHILDREN'S WEAR.
SPECIALISTS for Household Linens,
FURNISHING DRAPERY,
Blinds, Carpets and Linoleums,
Store Bros., p'RETORlt
^^^ Private Hotel, ^^
PRETORIA,
Box 548. 185 Schoeman Street. 'Phone 631.
CENTRAL. CLEAN. COMFORTABLE.
Excellent Table, Up-to-date Sanitation.
TERMS: lOs. PER DAY. K. GROENEVELD,
£2. 10s. per Week. Proprietor.
&
Pretoria Shopping Centre.
i
?T. W. BECKETT & Co. A
Ltd.,
Church Street, PRETORIA
o o o
The leading store
^'I'fi
For High-grade Drapery, Outfitting,
Boots, Shoes, China and Glass,
Hardware, Furnishing and Furniture,
Provisions, and all Household
Requisites. :: :: ::
&■
^
UC SOUTHERN REGK/.'AL LIBRARY FACILITY
81 5
000 979 1
University of California
SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
305 De Neve Drive - Parking Lot 17 • Box 951388
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90095-1388
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