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30'JTH AFRICA" TELLS YOU EVERYTHING ABOUT SOUTH AFRICA.

A WEEKLY JOURNAL FOR ALL INTERESTED IN SOUTH AFRICAN AFFAIRS.

S . - Voi LX.j ,. ;• = n R '/

The Story of

"SOUTH AFRICA"

NEWSPAPER

& its Founder

TOLD

LJB

I LLU STR AT E D

fss \jeclfrom
TKe He&d Office

SOUTH AFRICA^

39 OLD BROAD 5T
LONDON E

"Sa'iTH AFRICA" IS UdPARALLELEP-AUTHOR|TY~iiw

—I

31
n?

"SOUTH AFRICA'1 GETS COMPLIMENTARY LETTERS EVERY DAY.

c^tory o*r "SeGttC A-frx/aa. newspaper a iTs £*uvi«k •< .

FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT

OF "SOUTH AFRICA"

V F \\

The Programme of its Aims as
Advertised broadcast through-
out South Africa in 1888

xi-

AKI.Y in the year iSSS the prospectus of "SOUTH AFKICA" was advertised very boldly in all

the leading papers in South Africa. The following were its main clauses, and t;

and proprietor now leaves it to others to say how he has kept faith with the terms of his
original manifesto.

"SOUTH AFRICA"

A NEW WEEKLY ENGLISH NEWSPAPER

ice of recent times — more particularly since the development of the Gold F. in —

liown that the necessity exists for the establishment in LONDON of a paper
in the interests of all classes of South Africans.

Mr. EDWARD P. MATHERS, who is now closing a period of ten years'
African journalism, is completing arrangements for shortly issuing and conducting in LONDON a paper
with the- registered title of "SOUTH AFRICA."

"SOUTH AFRICA" will primarily be devoted to the
: of events anil matters in which

Sonh Miners and Mer-

. rowers. Stock Brokers and Store-
nionc Dealers, Journalists, and
interest.

" SOUTH AFRICA " will know no politics save such as may
it-; motto : " Tin; lood of the

"SOUTH AFRICA" will be ih. ed link of com-

munication brr, • an Import'- .orters.

" SOUTH AFRICA " will contain the lat<-st and most reliable
information upon tin- Social, ' I, and I':

nf the clay.

" SOUTH AFRICA" will pay attention to all that makes for

in brief, it will
the inturiists of al! pioneers in the States

"SOUTH AFRICA" will devote special attention to all

16 Gold Fields, and will aim

Kept

orres-

. the paper
will I ,| llritisli money

in the directions mutually beneficial to t
the Gold Fields Commun

"SOUTH AFRICA" will fearles-

bi>KUs < iol es on the I :rket.

"SOUTH AFRICA" will have Special Fresh Articles

on the ( lold I- ;

"SOUTH AFRICA" will contain full n

of South African Compai ngland, as also of all

[a in Parliament li
African affairs.

"SOUTH AFRICA," I

journalistic experien- i, and his inn

flieiilelt, svill ( •

mation upon matters pertai-

"SOUTH AFRICA" will contain K

•-ts and Stock Kxchamje <
Financial \e\\s will .

"SOUTH AFRICA" w

which will ensure ii : the l)an.

African Colonists

"SOUTH AFRICA" will contain the Latest
Political, Commercial, and Financial News
up to the eve of the Departure of the
Weekly Mail for South Africa.

TO ADVERTISERS. "South Africa," besides having a large Circulation throughout
the Colonies and Republics of South Africa, will be extensively read in the Mother Country.
It will, therefore, form a unique and unexcelled medium for the announcements of Manu-
facturers and Shippers, Hotel Proprietors, and Shipping Companies, Post-cart and Road
Conveyance Owners, and all doing business in and with South Africa.

pr-

" SOUTH AFRICA" IS THE SOUTH AFRICAN'S CONSTANT COMPANION.

CONTENTS

FROM PROSPECTUS TO FIRST NUMBER

The South African Press on The Projected " SOUTH AFRICA." —
Brief Extracts from the Fraternal and Flattering send off
Notices.

" SOUTH AFRICA " AND BOGUS COMPANIES

Public Discussion on Mr. Mathers' Schemes.

How THE IDEA OF "SOUTH AFRICA" WAS WELCOMED

IN ENGLAND

Dinner to its Founder at the "Star and Garter "—Some Speeches
by Mr. E. P. Mathers.

THE FIRST NUMBER OF "SOUTH AFRICA"

Published on January 4th, 1889. Its Opening Speech.

THE ENGLISH PRESS ON THE FIRST NUMBER OF
" SOUTH AFRICA "

THE SOUTH AFRICAN PRESS ON THE FIRST NUMBER
OF "SOUTH AFRICA"

WHAT WAS WRITTEN ABOUT " SOUTH AFRICA " IN 1899
WHAT WAS WRITTEN ABOUT "SOUTH AFRICA" IN 1891
" SOUTH AFRICA'S " SECOND ANNIVERSARY

What was said at its Annual Dinner.

A GREAT EXTRA ISSUE OF " SOUTH AFRICA "

Mammoth Special Zambesian (Rhodesian) Number.

"SOUTH AFRICA" AFTER THREE YEARS

What the Late Mr. Rhodes said of the Paper.— The Third Annual
Dinner of the Workers who produce " SOUTH AFRICA."— A
Guest's Testimony to the Great Position the Journal Had
Attained.

WHAT "SOUTH AFRICA" HAD ACCOMPLISHED IN FIVE
YEARS

The Fifth " SOUTH AFRICA " Annual Dinner.

COMMENDATORY COMMENTS IN 1894-5

" SOUTH AFRICA'S " SIXTH BIRTHDAY

PRESS BITS ABOUT " SOUTH AFRICA" AFTF.R 1895
" SOUTH AFRICA'S " INTERVIEWS WITH NOTABILITIES

ONE OF " SOUTH AFRICA'S " MANY INCIDENTAL
PUBLICATIONS

A Map of Mashonaland and Matabeleland. — Sheaves of Laudatory
Notices.

PUBLIC OBJECTS WITH WHICH " SOUTH AFRICA "
NEWSPAPER HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED

The Paper Advocates and Accomplishes its Purpose of Presenting
a Wedding Gift from the South Africans in England to the
Princess May of Teck( now Princess of Wales. — Other Objects
with which "SOUTH AFRICA" was Associated-

THE FOUNDER OF "SOUTH AFRICA" — SKETCHES OF
THE CAREER OF MR. E. P. MATHERS

A Johannesburg Paper in 1892. — Some Terse Notes in 1892. — The
"New Budget' in 1895. — "Scottish Life" in 1900. — Extract
from "The Prominent Men of Cape Colony, South Africa." —
Extract from "The British Empire in the First Year of the
Twentieth Century and the Last of the Victorian Reign : Its
Capital Cities and Notable Men." — What the Portuguese
Have Said about Mr. Mathers. - From " Who's Who," 1903.

THK SOUTH AFRICAN DINNER

A Useful and Popular Social Function Founded by Mr. E. P.
Mathers and Celebrated Annually in London. — Mr. Mathers'
Advocacy of a South African Club.

SOME OF THE OTHER SOUTH AFRICAN MOVEMENTS
WITH WHICH MR. MATHERS HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED

MR. MATHERS' INTERVIEWS WITH PAUL KRUGER

He makes the President talk in 1887, 1892, and 1896.— He tells him
emphatically that he had stated his views more broadly to him
than he had ever done to a Journalist. — A well-known
Transvaaler says he had never known anyone so lucky in
drawing Remarks from Paul Kruger. The Ex-President says
to Mr. Mathers, " I select you to give that Message to
Kuropean Shareholders."

OTHER INTERVIEWS WITH NOTABILITIES

What Umbandine, the King of Swazieland, said to Mr. Math«i.s in
1884.

5
6
13

14
18

22
23

33
34
36
39

5°

64
67

A TALK WITH TIPPOO TIB

What the wily old Slaver had to say to Mr. Mathers at Zanzibar.

MR. MATHERS IN EGYPT

A Forecast of the Conquest of the Soudan.

SOME OF MR. MATHERS' SPEECHES

What He said at the Banquet given in his honour at Johannesburg
in December, 1902.— Why Mr. Mathers founded the Trade
Journal of the Gold Industry.

PUBLIC DINNER AT JOHANNESBURG TO MR. MATHERS
MR. MATHERS' LETTERS TO "THE TIMES"

The Questions of Swazieland and Gazaland.

PRESS INTERVIEWS WITH MR. MATHERS

What London Newspaper Men Have Asked the Editor of " SOUTH
AFRICA," and what He Has Told them.— Interviewed in Paris.

THE SHANGANI DISASTER

A Talk with a Pall Mall Catttti Reporter.

A RACILY-DESCRIBED CHAT WITH MR. MATHERS ABOUT
THE LIQUOR TRADE IN SOUTH AFRICA

THE JAMESON RAID

Mr. Mathers' Views Sought from all Quarters.

THE SUICIDE OF " BARNEY " BARNATO

The Daily News asks Mr. Mathers some questions about him.

A PRESS PAPER DESCRIBES MR. MATHERS IN HIS
OFFICES

An interesting illustrated interview. — A Talk about the Press of
South Africa.

MR. MATHERS ON THE WAR : London Dailies Head Their
Interviews with Him as follows : —

" Impressions at the Front." " By the Editor of ' SOUTH AFRICA.* "
"The Colonial Point of View." "An Interview with Mr.
Mathers." " Probably the Latest Arrival in England from
Ladysmith." "Some South African Facts.'' "Mr. E. P.
Mathers, of South Africa, on Some of the Realities of the
Situation." " Home from Ladysmith." "The Beginning &f the
End." " Neither Ladysmith, Mafeking, nor Kimberley will
Fall."

MR. MATHERS' FIRST BOOK

Some Press Opinions on "A Glimpse of the Gold Fields."

"THE GOLD FIELDS REVISITED"

Press Opinions on a widely read Book by Mr. Mathers.

"GOLDEN SOUTH AFRICA"

Some Press Opinions on the Standard popular Book on Gold in
South Africa, written by Mr. Mathers.

"SOUTH AFRICA AND How TO REACH IT"

What the Press said about another Book by Mr. Mathers.

"ZAMBESIA: ENGLAND'S EL DORADO IN AFRICA"

By E. P. Mathers: A remarkably Successful Work. — Opinions of
the Press.

THE WRITINGS OF MR. MATHERS

How he Foretold the Greatness of the South African Gold Fields. —
The Race of (he World's Fields for Premier Gold Output.—
What Mr. Malhers wrote many years ago — " In and Around
Africa."

MR. MATHERS' VISITS TO SOUTH AFRICA, AND His
LETTERS TO "SOUTH AFRICA"

"THE PASSING OF KRUGERISM"

"UNDER THE UNION JACK"

A Visit to Mr. Rhodes's Tomb. — Progress in the New Johannesburg.

"SOUTH AFRICA" PUBLICATIONS

Popular Maps and Handbooks. Some Press Opinions on the
"SOUTH AFRICA" Map of South Africa.

SIR HENRY M. STANLEY REPRESENTS "SOUTH AFRICA"
IN SOUTH AFRICA

A Notable Series of Letters afterwards Reprinted in Book Form.

THE "SOUTH AFRICA" HANDBOOKS: SOME PRESS
OPINIONS RESPECTING THEM...

THE "SOUTH AFRICA" ATLAS OF THE RAND

74
75

76
79

85
89

90
92

95
96

1 06

121

128
I30

148

'5'
162
1 66

>73

'79
185

r 4

EUROPE

A FEW
WORDS

TURKEY IN ASIA

i OUTH AFRICA'

PERSIA

ARAB)

newspaper was
fc~x founded in London in
the beginning of J889 by Edward P.

Mathers, a British journalist who emigrated to South Africa in
It has the largest circulation of any South African newspaper, and
occupies a position of authority, renown, and commercial stability absolutely
unique in the Anglo-Colonial Press. It links the Mother Country with her South
African Colonies, and those of the highest rank in England and downwards
have expressed the pleasure and profit they have experienced in reading the paper. '
Nothing like it has ever been produced, or can be again, for the reason that the
circumstances which gave it birth cannot arise again. Its field is an enormous one,
but it fills it. Its founder was the only man in the world who for years in the early
eighties persistently foretold the coming greatness of the South African Gold Fields, and
he established "SOUTH AFRICA " with three main objects in view: (J) politically to
champion British freedom in South Africa ; (2) financially to tell European Investors about
the South African Gold Fields, and the opportunities they present for the lucrative employment
of capital ; and (3) commercially to inform the British Manufacturer that the most profitable of
the world's markets lies in South Africa. The first end has been gained ; the second purpose ha
been partially achieved, British and Continental Capitalists already drawing handsome interest on the many
millions they have sunk in the world's greatest gold-producing centre ; and the third object is being

attained, inasmuch as the leading British Manufacturers, after adopting the
pages of " SOUTH AFRICA " for their advertising announcements, have
obtained the British Lion's rightful share of the great and

expanding trade of South Africa. The matter set
forth in the following pages is frankly of an advertising
1 character. Pithy extracts from what they have written
indicate the opinions of the best newspapers in the
world regarding our great enterprise and its allied
publications. It is a consensus of praise of which
we are deeply appreciative, indicating as it does
a record of success of which we are proud. In
brief, the story of "SOUTH AFRICA"
L newspaper and its founder and conductor,
is an epitome of the history, during its
most momentous years, of the great country
from which it takes its name.

has

OFFICES OF

"SOUTH

AFRICA'

OLD

BROAD

STREET

LONDON

H O D E S/l

' BECHUAN/
LAND

•SfG

ftTAL

if Town

From a Photo by

Elliott & Fry

. Mr. EDWARD P. MATHERS

Founder, Conductor, and Proprietor of " SOUTH AFRICA "

From Prospectus to First

Number.

THE SOUTH AFRICAN PRESS ON THE
PROJECTED "SOUTH AFRICA."

Brief Extracts from the Fraternal and Flattering Send-off

THE project of " SOUTH AFRICA" was warmly taken up by the South African Press, which
unanimously hailed the new Paper with a welcome as encouraging to the Proprietor as it
proved convincing to the public at home and beyond the seas that the new journal was
wanted. The following are a few extracts from some of the references made during 1888 by the
leading South African Newspapers to "SOUTH AFRICA," in embryo: —

Potchefstroom Budget.

There is no doubt such a newspaper will do much good in
England, and we wish Mr. Mathers every success in his new venture.
His qualifications for the undertaking1 are undoubted,

and his special knowledge of the Gold Fields, acquired by personal
inspection, will be found extremely valuable to subscribers.

Gold Fields Times.

The South African press is unanimous in wishing Mr. E. P.
Mathers success in his new venture. So mote it be.

Newcastle Herald.

Mr. E. P. Mathers' venture- -the publication of a newspaper in
London which will be representative of South Africa — is sure
to prove successful; and the notion has rather surprised all who
have heard of it — it seems so strange that it has not been put into
practice before. However, Mr. Mathers is a most fitting
man to carry it out.

Times of Natal.

Mr. Mathers is taking a very bold step. His experience in
England and South Africa will prove of great advantage to him
in his new venture, and we wish him God-speed in the arduous
undertaking.

Times of Natal.

Mr. Mathers is returning home with his ten years' experience in
South Africa to start a paper in the interests of the Dark Continent,

which is now made bright with glittering gold

Mathers' venture will go on for ever.

Times of Xatal.

Mr. Mathers passed thn nigh the city on Saturday on his way to the

Gold Fields He is entering upon a bold venture, and I am

glad to learn that he is meeting with liberal encouragement. His
paper, " SOUTH AFRICA," will be in touch with the present life of
South Africa through Mr. Mathers' intimate knowledge of the
country, its requirements and aspirations. Metaphorically I fling
"an auld bauchel " after him, as his countrymen would say, and
wish him every success in his new enterprise.

Friend of the Free State.

Before leaving Natal for England Mr. Mathers is going to have
another look round the Gold Fields.

Port Elizabeth Spectator.

Mr. Mathers, the editor of the Natal Advertiser, will shortly
establish a new paper in London, to be called " SOUTH AFRICA." It
is to be devoted to the interests of Africa in its varied aspects.
Gold, commerce, agriculture, social and general matters are all to
come within the scope of the paper, and, from what we hear, bogus
companies or doubtful concerns will be dealt with unsparingly.

Eastern Province Herald.

" SOUTH AFRICA " will be devoted to the interests of those
living in this portion of the Dark Continent, and those living in
England who may be interested in our doings.

Port Elizabetk Telegraph.

It will be under the editorial management of

Mr. Edward P. Mathers, a gentleman of ten years' experience in
journalism in Natat, and a writer of recognized ability. His recent
work on the South African Gold Fields, to which we have referred
in a previous issue, gives the fullest and most complete information
in regard to those regions of any publication yet issued. The new
journal will be named, appropriately, " SOUTH AFRICA."

Port Elizabeth Weekly News.

A new Home-Colonial journal will shortly be established irr
London by Mr. Edward P. Mathers, a capable journalist who has

achieved a good reputation in the sister colony, Natal

Will be welcomed by all colonists, and is certain to prove a
splendid financial success.

Johannesburg Diggers News.

Mr. Mathers is thoroughly competent for the task he has set

before himself We heartily wish the venture

every possible success, and trust that it will prove a valuable aid
towards lifting the veil which has hitherto hung over the Dark
Continent.

Cape Argu*.

Mr. E. P. Mathers, editor of the Natal Advertiser, whose pains-
taking work on the Gold Fields has won much commendation, is
completing arrangements for issuing shortly and conducting in
Ltindoji a journal to be devoted to news in which South African
colonists take special interest. The paper is to be called " SOOTH
AI-KICA." The present undoubted revival of interest in South
Africa, especially in the Gold Fields, should give such a venture
every chance of success.

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

Barber ton Herald.

Mr. E. P. Mathers, author of " The Gold Fields Revisited," and
editor of the \,ititl Advertiser, is relinquishing his connection with
that paper and goes to England to establish and run a new weekly
paper to be called " SOUTH AFRICA," whose programme, though an
ambitious one, will probably be fully carried out by this
well-known and energetic journalist. "SOUTH AFRICA"
is going to fearlessly expose attempts to float bogus companies on
the London Market ; and being on the spot and able to speak out
before the mischief is done, it should become a powerful check on
unscrupulous promoting gentry. They will laugh you in the face
and applaud with the rest when exposure comes after the money is
safe in their pockets ; but when it antedates that consummation
there is nothing but gnashing of teeth amongst them. Mr. Mathers
will pay another visit to the Transvaal before he goes home.

Gold Fields Times.

In the journalistic line perhaps no gentleman in the country
has contributed more to the good of these Fields than Mr. Mathers,
whose recent publication, " The Gold Fields Revisited," proved
such a success that in a very short time the Colonial issue was out
of print, and the work is going to be republished immediately in
England. He has now in view a work of even greater magnitude,
namely, the publication of a new journal, " SOUTH AFRICA," which
will be devoted entirely to South African matters. The advertise-
ment of this new paper will be found in another column, and fully
sets forth the extent of the labour which Mr. Mathers takes upon
his shoulders. We are glad to know that the venture is most
likely to prove successful, and that the encouragement already
promised Mr. Mathers will be ample reward for his energy and
enterprise. Mr. Mathers has, we believe, other schemes on hand for
the benefit of the Gold Fields when he has settled down to work in

London It is in order that he may know the exact

position of affairs here at the present time that Mr. Mathers is making
a final visit to the Kaap and Rand Gold Fields. He arrived here
last week, and has since been busy visiting properties around
Barberton. We wish him a pleasant sojourn in this neighbourhood,
and God-speed when he takes his departure from the country to
start in fresh fields and pastures new.

Cape Times.

Mr. E. Mathers leaves for England for the purpose of starting in
London his promised newspaper, " SOUTH AFRICA," which will take
up a new line, we believe, in its department of journalism. " The
Gold Fields Revisited," by Mr. Mathers, is the most interesting and
complete guide to the Transvaal Eldorado yet published. As Mr.
Mathers is certain to put not less industry in collecting information,
judgment in presenting it, and vigour of style, into his English work,
we may safely predict that prosperous future for
"South Africa" in London which we hope for its eponym
here.

Komatie Observer.

We have had a visit from Mr. Edward P. Mathers, the well-
known author of two valuable works on the Gold Fields, and who
has relinquished the editorial chair of the Natal Advertiser in
order to start a new paper in London, to be called " SOUTH AFRICA."
Mr. Mathers spent three or four days in looking over the district,
with a view to recording his observations in a new edition of
" Golden South Africa." It is Mr. Mathers' intention to spend two
months on a trip of observation, first taking the Komatie, then
De Kaap, Witwatersrand, Potchefstroom, Kimberley, Grahams-
town, the Knysna, Capetown, Port Kli/abeth, &c. He will then
return to Durban, and sail for London with Mrs. Mathers and

family We wish Mr. Mathers, who leaves to-day

for I'.arbcrton, every success in his new and important undertaking-

Gold Fields Times.

"SOUTH AFRICA" will be the name of a new journal which is
about to be started in London, under the management of Mr. I I'
Mathers, the present editor of the t\,ilitl . \dv<-riiscr, and author of
the excellent readable articles " The Gold Fields Revisited."
In a prospectus, which we have now before us, he promises to

produce a newspaper that will be full of interest and supply
exactly what we want to read about from the " Old Country."

Pretoria Volksstem.

We beg to call attention to the notice appearing in our
advertisement columns of a new English newspaper, to be called
" SOUTH AFRICA." As Mr. Mathers has a special knowledge of the
Transvaal Gold Fields, being the author of a well-known work on
the subject, the newspaper will be calculated to enlighten the
English public on that subject so important for our country. We
wish the new venture all success.

Transvaal Advertiser.

Under the title " SOUTH AFRICA," Mr. E. P. Mathers, at present
the editor of the Natal Advertiser, proposes to publish a weekly
newspaper in London to be devoted to South African affairs. The
paper is to be conducted solely with the view to diffuse accurate
information with regard to South African affairs. As Mr. Mathers
has had long experience of men and things South African, has
visited all parts of the country, and is generally well acquainted with
the needs and aspirations of the various races of the Colonies and
States in this part of the world, he is eminently qualified
to undertake the conduct of such an enterprise as
he proposes. An intimate personal acquaintance with the Gold
Fields of this Republic will enable him to make his new venture an
authority in the monetary and commercial world at home, and be
a guarantee for the accuracy of his statements upon matters so
deeply interesting to this part of the African continent. We
heartily wish Mr. Mathers even' success in his venture.

Komatie Obsen<er.

" SOUTH AFRICA, "according to the comprehensive pro-
spectus which appears in another column, is just what is wanted for
the elucidation at Home of the political, commercial, and mining
questions of that bright line which lies to the southward of the

" Dark Continent." It is absolutely necessary that

the geographical and practical existences of the different Gold
Fields should be correctly understood of the investing public in
England ; and if we had been asked to pick out one man
who would be calculated, by personal knowledge and
tried capacity, to make those facts plain to the
stranger, we should point to Mr. Mathers as that man.
The author of two valuable guide books to the Gold Fields of this
Republic, Mr. Mathers has travelled everywhere where a reef was to
be seen, and in his many journeys he must have gathered more
about the values of the different districts, and of their specific mines,
than any other journalist we know. It is on this account, perhaps,
more than any other, that we hail with satisfaction the issue of
" SOUTH AFRICA." We do not forget, however, that Mr. Mathers is
also a keen student of the many devious paths of South African
politics, and these and kindred questions have always been closely
and exhaustive!}' debated by him with a ready pen. We hope
that he will succeed — we have no doubt he will — in his new
journalistic enterprise, and we shall welcome " SOUTH AFRICA " as
the beginning of a new era in our connection with the lands across
the sea.

Natal Witness.

GOOD. — Mr. E. P. Mathers is off to London to conduct a paper
devoted to the interests of South Africa. The journal is to run on
perfectly independent principles.

Natal Mercury.

After being connected with Natal journalism for the past ten
• years, Mr. E. P. Mathers, at present editor of the Advertiser, is
making a great change. As our readers are aware, Mr. Mathers
has taken particular interest in the Gold Fields, having acted as
special correspondent and published a large and useful volume of
over 350 pages detailing his impressions. It is largely in con-
nection with the Gold Fields, of which he has a great opinion,
that Mr. Mathers is shortly going to establish a new paper — not in
.Vital or Sou'li Africa, but in the metropolis of England. The
paper is to be called " Soi; m Ai-uic.v," and is to be devoted to the

and its Founder, told by others

The

Advertise-
ment
Depart-
ment

Advertising

Manager's

Room

The

Waiting

Roan

The

Editor't

Chair

The Editor's
Uen

THE HEAD OFFICES OF "SOUTH AFRICA"

B 2

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

interests of this continent in its varied aspects. Gold, commerce,
agriculture, social and general matters, are all to come within the
scope of the paper, and, from what we hear, bogus companies or

doubtful concerns will be dealt with unsparingly

The scheme is a big one, and Mr. Mathers will have the good
wishes of a large number of people in his undertaking. Before
leaving for London, we hear Mr. Mathers intends paying another
visit to the Transvaal, and running over the various fields.

Natal Advertiser,

We are glad to learn that Mr. Mathers is already receiving very
substantial support for his new paper— " SOUTH AFRICA." Durban
has subscribed in large numbers towards a journal which is bound
to be of service to the colony, as indeed it will be to all this
great continent. Advertisers are also showing the value they place
upon the newspaper by freely drawing up permanent announce-
ments to appear in its pages Mr. Mathers leaves

Durban shortly for a tour in the interior with the double object of
establishing his paper and of collecting the latest information
about the Gold Fields for " SOUTH AFRICA." He visits first Steyns-
dorp and the Komatie Fields, and may again have an interview
with Umbandine at his kraal. He then proceeds to Barberton, and
may go on to the Lvdenburg Fields. He will then visit Pretoria
the Rand, and the Potchefstroom district, and will take a rapid
run through Kimberley and other Old Colony centres, returning to
Durban for embarkation to England. The Colonial Press of
South Africa loses one of its best all-round Pressmen,
the loss is lessened, however, by the fact that it is as a South
African journalist Mr. Mathers is going to London. The reward
we wish him is widely wished.

Natal Advertiser.

Mr. Mathers will be gratified to learn on his return to Durban
that F. Pindar's agency for getting advertisements in the Colony
for " SOUTH AFRICA " has proved very successful.

A Pretoria Paper.

Under the heading " Ithuriel's Spear," a prominent Pretoria
paper had a leading article from which the following extracts may
be given : — A new English weekly, devoted to the interests of all
classes at this end of the African continent, will shortly be brought
out in London under the title of " SOUTH AFRICA." This new con-
tribution to the Colonial Press published in the great Metropolis
will be conducted by Mr. Edward P. Mathers, whose ten years'
connection with South African journalism is about to be severed.
In the programme which he proposes to follow, the chief items
which attract our attention are those which have reference to our

gold fields, and to company flotation in England Such

is the by no means Liliputian task which Mr. Mathers has stoutly
proposed to enter upon, and from what we have seen and know of
his labours in this part of the world, we should have no hesitation in
considering him quite cut out for the Brobdingnagian job. His
" Gold Fields Revisited " has stamped him as an authority on the
auriferous actualities or essentialities of " SOUTH AFRICA," and a
shrewdly informed judge of its potentialities as well. The testimony
of the rocks, from personal inspection, will stand him in good

stead amongst his London contemporaries His

integrity is untarnished Then may " SOUTH AFRICA"

be looked upon as the ItJiuru'Ts Spcnr of South African gold
mining company flotation. On such a mission of rectitude we
wish Mr. Mathers God-speed with all our hearts.

Natal Witness.

Some extracts from a lengthy article are here given : —

We have now before us, however, the prospectus of a

journal that is to be started in London b\ Mr. E. I'. Mathers, and he
has hit upon the happy title of "Sorm AFRICA" for his venture.
Mr. Mathers has had ten vears' experience of South African
journalism on the ll'i/Hcss and Mercury, and latterly as editor of
\<h'frtist-r. He took a trip to Moodie's in the early days
of the Kaap Fields, and published a pamphlet of his " Sojourn in
the Will' 'W out of print. He arrived amongst a lot of

hard-working, but dishenitened men, and roughed it with them on

" mealie meal." In his " Trip to Moodie's," however, Mr. Mathers
spoke with confidence on the future of the Fields, and prophetically
indicated that the whole region was evidently auriferous. At a
later stage Mr. Mathers took a second trip to the Transvaal Fields,
and found the one-time lively camps at Moodie's had vanished,
leaving in their stead the ring of the miner's pick, the chant of
Kaffir labourers, and the thud of the battery stamps ; while in the
valley below, nestling under the mountain, reposed the white roofs
of a town of some thousand inhabitants. This was Barberton, the
capital of Kaap, a town that had arisen in the short space of
twelve months on a site that, when Mr. Mathers had last trod upon
it, was covered with lovely creeping plants, delicate ferns, and
clumps of mimosas. Every property at De Kaap, from Moodie's
heights down to Jamestown flats, and from Eureka City and the
far-famed Sheba to the Golden Valley and the Three Sisters beyond,
was visited by Mr. Mathers, who also took a flving visit to Swazie-
land. He also went to the Witwatersrand Fields, in the Heidelberg
district of the South African Republic, and made a minute
inspection of the mines there, and while in Pretoria he paid a visit
to President Kruger. The result of that trip was published, to-
gether with a reprint of his first little work, under the title of the
" Gold Fields Revisited." Such has been the run on the book that
a visitor remarked the other day, taking up a copy from our desk
" This is worth ten shillings a copy at the present moment." Reviews
of the book still appear in the English press. Mr. Mathers is
thus peculiarly adapted to start a journal devoted to
the interests of South Africa, and he starts it at a

critical juncture in South African history

We want to advertise "our" Fields to the world, and Mr. Mathers
has hit upon the happy idea of starting a journal in London. He
is just the man to run it with success, and without undue " puffing "
will be able to show the English investor what a golden land

South Africa is Before leaving these shores Mr. Mathers

will take a last glance round the " diggings," and if time permits he
will go on from the Kaap or Witwatersrand to Zoutpansberg,
Malmani, and other fields, and return via Kimberley, taking a note
or two about the diamond mines en route. It is probable that he
will start by way of Zululand and the Natal fields. The " Gold
Fields Revisited " is to have a new edition under the title of
" Golden South Africa," and will be edited up to date. It will be
at once seen that such a journal as " SOUTH AFRICA" will be con-
ducive to the best interests of the colony, and will serve to
continually keep the eyes of monied men in England on ourselves,

our mines, and our industries It is to the interests

of every South African to support " SOUTH AFRICA."

As an advertising medium for the mercantile centres in all parts of
South Africa, Mr. Mathers' paper will have no equal. We hail
with sincere satisfaction the proposed advent of " SOUTH AFRICA,"
and trust that both it and the country it is named after will
reap a golden harvest.

Natal Witness.

In the course of a very exhaustive article on the Gold Fields
running over three long columns, Mr. Mathers and his writings were
frequently referred to. One excerpt from the article may be
given: — The result of that trip was a book entitled, "A Trip
t" Moodie's." This book attracted the atten-
tion of the Cape and Australia to the Transvaal Fields. At a
later stage Mr. Mathers, then editor of the Natal Advertiser,
persistently wrote up the Gold Fields, and towards the end of 1887
he took a second trip over all the new and old Gold Fields in the
Transvaal. His book, " The Gold Fields Revisited," met with such
a lar<;e demand that it is now re-published under the title of
"Golden South Africa," and is the only good work extant on the
South African Gold Fields of to-dav. For these works Mr. Mathers
has received the highest encomiums of the Colonial and English
Press. "Moses Moss." in Truth, advising ever)' investor in South
African mines to study " Golden South Africa." Mr. Matheis has
been ovi-i everv inch of the ground, and that is whv his opinions of
the articles a, pearing in the \iitiil U'ifit, xr are quoted. Mr. Mathers
has now departed on his third tour of the Fields, and leaves these
shoies shortlv to start a mining and financial journal in London to
be called " Sor-fii AFRICA."

a?id its Founder, told by others

SOUTH AFRICA" and Bogus

Companies.

PUBLIC DISCUSSION ON MR. MATHERS'

SCHEMES.

ONE of Mr. Mathers' aims in establishing " SOUTH AFRICA"
will be gathered from the following extract from a report
in the Gold Fields Times of May 23, 1888, of the proceedings
of the Mining and Commercial Chamber, held at Barberton.
Those who suggest Vigilance Committees —which in themselves
would require close watching- have arrived many a day after the
fair.

Gold Fields Times.

The Chairman said that there was another subject which was
on the agenda paper which has been passed over. Mr. Mathers,
while in Barberton, brought up the suggestion that he should
become London correspondent for the Chamber, and open up
relationships betwixt the Chamber and himself as representing the
newspaper " SOUTH AFRICA" ; the object being to communicate by
cable (code to be arranged) the fact of any new company being
placed on the English market, and for the Chamber to reply giving
its opinion on the project.

Mr. Woods and several members : It is the old question in a
new guise.

The Chairman : It would involve a very considerable outlay of
funds.

Mr. Walker : Are we to understand that we are to assume the
censorship of prospectuses ? This Chamber has already said
emphatically that it will not do anything of the kind.

The Chairman : It would involve the rescinding of the resolu-
tion already arrived at by the Chamber on that question, and that
can only be done on proper notice being given.

Mr. Adler : The sooner we do so, the better !

Mr. Watkins : I can't agree with the Chairman in his ruling.
I saw that he was very careful to try and shelve the matter, by
asking whether there was anything else before the meeting, having
passed this on the agenda paper.

The Chairman : I beg your pardon, sir. It was not on my list
at all, and as I did not think it an important matter it had entirely
slipped my memory.

Mr. Watkins: I cannot agree with Mr. Walker either. Mr.
Mathers asks us to give our opinion when asked, whether a scheme
is good or bad ; whether the project is feasible or not ; whether the
ground actually exists or not. The prospectus iteelf would not be
before us. and the previous resolution only bars us from considering
prospectuses ; we can all the same give our opinions on new
ventures if we like. We ought to do so, if we are to stop the
swindles which do us so much harm.

Mr. Munnik said it would be a nice and profitable arrangement
for Mr. Mathers, but it would place the Chamber in an invidious
position. "SOUTH AFKU A " would come out with a flaring leading
article by way of sensation, and giving the Chamber's report. He
proposed that the consideration of the matter be postponed
sine die.

Mr. Woods seconded. It was merely the old question in a new
guise. It had been thrashed out and proved to the satisfaction of
the Chamber that it was most undesirable that the Committee of
the Chamber should in any way render themselves liable for an
official opinion, one way or the other.

Mr. Watkins : Well, I stick to my game, and I move as an
amendment that the Chamber decide to give to Mr. Mathers infor-
mation if they think it necessary.

Mr. Adler : If no one else seconds, I will.

Mr. Ochse : I should like to know why Mr. Adler supports Mr.
Watkins. (Laughter.)

Mr. Adler : If you are very anxious to know I will tell you. I
will not go into the question of discussing prospectuses again, but
I am at one with Mr. Watkins, and I would be quite willing to
contribute a fair proportion of the cost of acquainting the public at
home with the nature of a large number of South African Gold
Mining ventures perpetually put before them. The principal cause
of the present depression is due to fraudulent prospectuses and the
fraudulent flotation of companies. (Hear, hear.)

The voting was partly taken, when it became apparent that Mr.
Watkins would have a majority.

Mr. Woods : If you carry this amendment, you are rescinding,
without notice, the Chamber's previous resolutions.

Mr. Adler : So much the better.

Mr. Woods: I protest against such a right-about-face being
carried by surprise. Notice must be given.

Mr. Brown thought it would only be right to give notice of
motion, as the meeting would otherwise rescind a previous resolu-
tion of the Chamber arrived at after yen- much discussion.

Mr. Watkins agreed not to press the matter to-day, though he
thought it hard lines, seeing that he had virtually carried his point.

The subject was accordingly postponed till next meeting.

Natal Witness.

We believe that Mr. Mathers is going to propose to the
Chambers at Witwatersrand and Barberton that he should cable
from London the name of any new company and the amount it is
to be floated for, and that they reply, either in favour or otherwise,
and he will publish the information in the orthodox manner of
financial guardians. The idea is a good one. For instance, the
prospectus of the " Ballyhooly " Company comes out with a capital
of £200,000. The Barberton Chamber cables to England, "not
developed sufficiently for capital asked," and " SOUTH AFRICA"
comes out that day with a warning to investors that will, at any
rate, go far to stop the rush for shares ; or, the Rand Chamber may
wire, supposing the property is on the Rand, " Property fishy, bad
hands, unsafe," and " SOUTH AFRICA" then gives a somewhat
ominous growl, that may cause certain promoters to remain in
dark corners for awhile. If the Chambers at either Barberton or
the Rand fight shy of this question, their members should be told
that they have not the courage of honest men, neither have they
the welfare of the mining industry at heart. A gold mining
prospectus is a document that should be treated as publicly as the
recent Conference proposals.

Transvaal Observer.

Extract from leading article : — It is, therefore, with great
satisfaction that we observe from the \atal Witness that Mr.
Mathers has proposed, or is about to do so, to the Chambers of
Mines at Barberton and Johannesburg, that he should cable from

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

London the name of every new gold company floated, which
appears at all fishy, and the amount it is being floated for ; and
that the Chamber wired to should reply favourably or otherwise,
when he will publish in " SOUTH AFRICA" the information received
in the orthodox manner of financial guardians.

Johannesburg Standard.

Extracts from leading article :— Mr. Mathers, late of the Natal
press, and author of "The Gold Fields Revisited," who is about to
start a paper in London dealing with South African affairs, is at
present endeavouring to make arrangements which, if successful,
will be a great benefit to these fields. He proposes to cablegram

from London to the Chamber of Mines here, and the Chamber at
Barberton, all companies with a shady appearance about them, so
that inquiries may be made, and if they are found to be what they
seem, the Chambers are to inspect and report for publication in Mr.
Mathers' journal. The Chamber in Barberton have at once fallen
in with the scheme, and are willing to co-operate. It now remains
for the Chamber here to show themselves a true public body bv

making arrangements for doing the same It is

most important that some such scheme as Mr. Mathers proposes

should be accepted We trust, however, that whether

through the Chamber or through private enterprise, Mr. Mathers
will succeed in his venture.

How the Idea of "SOUTH AFRICA
was Welcomed in England.

DINNER TO ITS FOUNDER AT THE
"STAR AND GARTER."

Some Speeches by Mr. E. P. Mathers.

ON his arrival in England in the middle of 1888, Mr. Mathers
was entertained at a number of private and semi-public
functions, when " Success to ' SOUTH AFRICA ' and its
Founder," was repeatedly and heartily drunk. Reports of one of
these gatherings appeared in many of the leading London and
provincial papers, and extracts from one or two of the accounts
in the City Press may be printed.

Money.

The other evening Mr. Edward P. Mathers, F.R.G.S., late editor
of the Natal Advertiser, and author of " Golden South Africa,"
etc., who has come to England with the object of starting a
newspaper, to be called " SOUTH AFRICA," was entertained to dinner
at the " Star and Garter " Hotel, Richmond, by a large number of
gentlemen representing London and South African financial,

mining, and journalistic interests After the usual

loyal and patriotic toasts had been duly honoured,

The Chairman proposed " Our Guest." They were met, he said,
to welcome back to England a journalist who had had great
experience of public affairs both in England and South Africa, and
who had won his spurs in more than one department of literature.

They had not much idea of what the gold fields were

until Mr. Mathers wrote his books on them. He had read, and he
was sure they all had read, his book, "Golden South Africa " and
knowing the country as he did he was free to say that the book
was a very faithful reflection on the gold fields. (Applause.) It
was a terse and graphic account of the fields, not in any way
exaggerated, and he was sure they were all much indebted to Mr.
Mathers for his book. They had come together to do honour to
a worthy and deserving writer, and it was a source of much
satisfaction to them all to know that Mr. Mathers was now going
to remain among them and give them the benefit of his knowledge
and advice in the paper he was about to start. (Loud applause.)

The toast was very heartily drunk with musical honours.

Mr. E. P. Mathers, on rising to respond, was received with

prolonged applause. He said : Mr. Chairman and friends, the
Wizard of the North somewhere calls down a curse on the man
who, returning from a foreign strand to his native land, does not
feel his heart within him burn. By your kindness to-night you
have saved me from that curse. When the other day at Plymouth,
in the steel-grey dawn of an English midsummer morning, I gazed
on the shores of England, after an absence of ten years in South
African climes, I must confess to you that my heart did not burn
within me. The weather was against it. (Laughter.) It was
unconscionably cold, and I returned to my bunk, piled on some
blankets, and fell asleep again, thinking that Sir Walter Scott was
rather hard upon home-returning exiles. But when I awoke I had
reason to change my mind. (Hear, hear.) A letter was put in my
hand telling me of this dinner, and my heart took fire. It has been
burning ever since, and to-night it is at white heat. (Loud
applause.) I feel I am not the double-dead wretch of whom the
poet sings, and that I can say with a heart full of gratitude, in his
own words: "This is my own, my native land." (Applause.) I
thank you from the bottom of my heart for this very generous
welcome back to scenes of former toils and former pleasures, and I
say with all sincerity that I look upon such a gathering as that
which I see to-night as the highest honour to which any pressman
can aspire — expressive as it is of the goodwill and the good
fellowship of the brothers of his craft and the sustained confidence
of his friends. (Applause.) After detailing some of his experiences
in South Africa, the speaker proceeded : The Chairman has been
good enough to refer to what I have done to bring the goldfields of
South Africa to the world's notice. I am not going to weary you
by giving you all the reasons for my profound faith that these
gold fields will not only make South Africa a greater country than
it is, but will help to increase in a very substantial manner the
world's supply of a metal of which there will never be too much.
(Applause.) My books supply all these reasons. But if I have
done anything to call the attention of the world to the immense
deposits of gold in South Africa, it is not enough. In the presence
of representatives of the home press, I should like to point to one

and its Founder, told by others

Printing
"SOUTH
AFRICA "

A Bit
of the
Composing
Depart-
ment

Where
"SOUTH
ArmcA "
is printed

Passing

Final

Proofs

Printing
' SOUTH
AFRICA "

Printing " SOUTH AFRICA"

THE FLEET STREET OFFICES OF "SOUTH AFRICA"

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

or two broad facts. During the first five months of this year only
one of the gold districts of the Transvaal — the Witwatersrand
fields — turned out two and a quarter tons of gold, of the value of
nearly a quarter of a million. It was thought a great thing in the
early days of Australia that seven tons were shipped home in a
year. (Applause.) Each month's output at the Witwatersrand
fields has shown a steady increase on that of its predecessor. In a
short time the crushing power there will be doubled, and then the
out-turn will be doubled. The gold for May from that locality
alone— -and there are many others — was about 20,000 ounces, worth
more than £70,000. That gives a yearly output of not far off
a million ; so that with doubled stamping power there will, it is
fair to say, ere long be a turn-out of two millions sterling from
Witwatersrand. (Loud applause.) In the De Kaap district one
mine alone — the famed Sheba — is turning out about £10,000 worth
of gold every month. Their power has just been increased, and
we shall hear of the amount being doubled, trebled, and quad-
rupled. The Chairman has told you to-night of the recent
adversity in South Africa. The gold fields have given an immense
impetus to a languishing trade in South Africa. (Hear, hear.)
The imports and revenue of the Cape Colony and Natal of 1887
show a very substantial increase over 1886, while the gold fields
trade has also enabled the Natal railways to earn the highest
interest of any railway in the British Colonial Empire. (Applause.)
To the Transvaal the gold fields came as the saviour from national
death. (Applause.) Last year they got about £70,000 for mining
licences alone ; in 1885 they had not as many sixpences. Their
total revenue in 1885 was not £162,000 ; last year it was over
£700,000. I was reading only to-day that the estimates for the
current year show that after all expenditure is allowed for there
will be a surplus in the coffers of the Transvaal Government of a
quarter of a million. (Applause.) Over ten millions of British
and Colonial money, and over twenty thousand English-speaking
people, have been absorbed by the gold fields during the last few
years. The South African gold fields have quite passed the sample
stage. There is a settled industry there, which will grow as the
months and the years roll on. Every steamer from South Africa
brings gold in bulk. (Applause.) The vessel I arrived with the
other day, the Pembroke Castle, brought £20,000 worth. One bank
alone- -the Standard Bank — shipped to England during the first
five months of this year £140,000 worth of gold. The long-
suffering investor in the wrong thing may say what he likes, but
there is no getting behind these facts. I have no hesitation in
declaring my conviction that in two or three years the value of
gold sent from South Africa will exceed the value of diamonds.
As diamonds are yielding between four and five millions of money
annually, and as the total supply of gold from all parts of the
world only comes to twenty millions annually, I need say no more
to show that I am a firm believer in the great immediate future
of the South African gold fields. (Great applause.) I am not
surprised that the English investor has lately fought shy of South
African gold stocks. Burnt children dread the fire ; and so many
bogus gold concerns from South Africa have been successfully
launched in London — launched principally by the aid of London
speculators and London gamblers. (" Oh, oh," and applause.)
Well, there are black sheep at both ends — (applause and laughter)
— that the English speculator more often than not says: " I pass"
when any South African gold investment is now offered to him.
He forgets that the Australian and Californian fields were much
more notorious for their bubble companies and ingenious swindles
than ever South Africa has been, and yet no one will deny that
Australia and California have produced a little gold. (Applause.)
But for all that, I do not think that the memory of some of the
Transvaal bubbles some of us know about will be satisfactorily
blotted out until gold in substantial quantity is shipped from
South Africa. I have shown, I think, that that era has at last
begun. (Loud applause.) After again returning thanks for the
splendid hospitality of which he was that night the recipient, and
saying that his feelings then were summed up in a paraphrase of
the good old song, " 'Mid Colonial pleasures and straw palaces,
wherever we roam, be it ever so humble, there is no place like
home," Mr. Mathers resumed his seat amid cheering.

Alderman Sir Henry Isaacs (afterwards Lord Mayor of London)
delivered an eloquent speech in proposing " SOUTH AFRICA. " Pro-

ceeding to dwell on the importance of the gold fields of South
Africa, Sir Henry passed a high eulogium on Mr. Mathers for what
he had done for them, and he pointed with timely emphasis to the
fact that what was required to do the fields justice was the exposure

of the bogus company promoter He could have said

something about the Australian gold output, and the South African
being not far behind it, and on other points, but Mr. Mathers had
taken them all up much better than he could.

Mr. Geo. Wolf, ex-Member Legislative Assembly for Kimberley,
responded for the British Colonies of South Africa, maintaining
that the gold fields had been developed by British money and
enterprise. (Loud applause.)

Dr. Clark, M.P., replied for the South African Republic, and
contended that during the British occupation of that country the
gold fields had not advanced, but under the Boer regime they had.
(Applause.)

Mr. S. Crowder proposed "South African Mining Interests."
He said that much that he could say had been better said by their
Chairman and their esteemed guest, whose book gave them facts
and figures more clearly than he could hope to do. For twenty
years he had been convinced that the largest gold field in the world
was in Southern Africa. (Applause.)

Messrs. H. W. Struben and Harry Graumann replied to the toast
in interesting speeches.

Mr. Struben, speaking for the Witwatersrand fields, said that
among the friends of the gold fields their worthy guest, Mr. E. P.
Mathers, was the foremost. (Applause.) He spared neither time
nor trouble to make himself thoroughly conversant with the matter
in hand. He visited all the fields more than once, and his writings
showed honesty of purpose, truthfulness, and a shrewd compre-
hension of the situation. (Applause.) The gold fields of South
Africa and the country at large owed much to Mr. Mathers for the
great pains he had taken to advance the interests of the community.
(Applause.)

Mr. Graumann, as one of the pioneers of the Kaap gold fields,
said he well remembered the time when Mr. Mathers, their esteemed
guest, came there to take his notes for that lucid and faithful work
now universally popular as " Golden South Africa." (Applause.)
He was confident that he, in common with himself, now marvelled
at a development which they then would have hardly thought
possible. In spite of all the drawbacks from which the fields had
suffered, the large quantity of gold now being produced was the
best and most conclusive proof of the coming greatness of the
South African gold industry. (Applause.) It was impossible to
respond to that toast without making very special reference to
Mr. Mathers, than whom no man had ever contributed more to their
present position. He had published to the world a work of which
he might be justly proud — a work which could only be designated
as a fair, honest, and faithful production, one which set forth the
circumstances and condition of the fields in years past, and bristled
with nothing but wholesome facts and sound advice. He most
emphatically declared that they owed to Mr. Mathers a debt which
they could never repay. (Applause.) Mr. Mathers had persistently
championed the cause and advocated the claims of the gold fields
through good and evil report ; and when in the early days the
world refused to believe that a bright future was in store for them,
his was the fearless pen that boldly told the truth. (Loud
applause.)

Mr. Corbet Woodall proposed " The Press," referring in lauda-
tory terms to Mr. Mathers' connection with it ; and Mr. Chas.
Marvin replied, saving it was the duty of all who wished well to
South Africa to help on Mr. Mathers' paper, "Sorrn AFRICA.''

After other speeches, a very pleasant evening was brought to a
close.

Financial World. (With a portrait of Mr. Mathers.)

It was scarcely what might be called a South African evening
par excellence when last week a jovial company of diners met in
the "Star and Garter," at Richmond, to welcome back to his
native land a South African journalist and author. But the
palatial hostelry overlooking the classic Thames was gay with
illuminated rose-tinted lamp-shades and the soft light of wax
candles. The guest, whom half a hundred of the cream of our

and its Founder, told by others

financial and journalistic circles had gone all the way to Richmond
on a wet, bleak evening to honour, was Mr. Edward P. Mathers,
F.R.G.S

Mr. E. P. Mathers had some fame ere he left these shores for the
land of the Zulu and the haunts of the Swazie and the zebra. It is
not the first time he has been dined in England, and had addresses
and what not presented to him. He has come back with more
fame among us. His passport to a higher step on the ladder
of success has been that remarkable book "Golden South
Africa." He has done good journalistic work in South Africa,
having, for example, represented the Daily News and the Sio/snin/i,
<&c., during the Zulu war. But it is his gold book which has given
him sucli a "lift" into prominence.

Mr. Mathers, in responding to the toast of his health, of course
had a lot to say, and he said it well. Our preference, so far as gold
is concerned, lies in the direction of the minted impressions of the
gracious ruler of Imperial Africa ; but there was a fascination,
notwithstanding, in listening to Mr. Mathers, as he reeled off his
news about the thousands and the millions' worth of gold coming
from South Africa.

It has often been hinted that there will, ere long, be a big
boom in all South African gold stocks that are genuine. He said,
" \\V stay-at-home folks have very little notion of what is going on
at the gold fields of South Africa." Mr. Mathers has brought us
some precious nuggets of knowledge, and he distributes them
freely. He told us how the output of gold from one auriferous
district in the Transvaal, the Witwatersrand fields — and there are
many others— would shortly be two millions per annum, and he
said he " had no hesitation in declaring his conviction that ere two
or three years have passed over our heads the value of the annual
output of gold from South Africa will exceed the value of the
annual output of diamonds, and that, as my hearers know, is at
present between four and five millions." May we all, including
Mr. Mathers, get a bigger share of it.

Mining- World.

(The report in this paper was headed, " Return of Mr.

Edward P. Mathers, F.R.G.S.— His Faith in the Gold

Fields.")

On Wednesday night, at the " Star and Garter " Hotel, Rich-
mond, close on fifty gentlemen sat down to a well-served dinner
given as a " welcome home " to Mr. E. P. Mathers, the author of
"Golden South Africa," &c., and a well-known South African
journalist, who has come to London to start a weekly newspaper to
be devoted to the interest of South Africa, and to be called " SOUTH
AFRICA." .... A large company embraced many prominent
representatives of the financial and mining worlds, as well as of the
metropolitan Press.

Eiiropean Mail.

On August ist a dinner was given at the " Star and Garter,"
Richmond, to Mr. E. I'. Mathers, F.R.G.S., a gentleman who is
well known in journalistic circles in South Africa. ......

Mr. \Voolf, late M.P. for Kimberley in the Cape Parliament, and
Mr. H. W. Struben both delivered sensible speeches upon South
African topics, and bore testimony to the excellence of the woik
accomplished by Mr. Mathers in promoting the interests of the
gold-mining industry.

Weekly Bulletin.

We have not time this week to write a long article on this
locality (The Transvaal). But Mr. Mathers' speech at Richmond
(see elsewhere) renders such a course almost supererogatory. Mr.
Mathers knows as much about South Africa as does anybody in the
world, and we gladly welcome him to London.

THE interest which French speculators take in South African
mining enterprises, is shown by the appearance of the best and most
comprehensive book on the South African Gold Mines in French,
" Les Mines d'Or de 1'Afrique du Sud," by Henry Dupont, of Paris.
The book is an extension of a smaller work on the subject,
published in iSSS by the same author, who in the present treatise
has drawn largely on Mr. E. P. Mathers' excellent work, " Golden
South Africa." Mii»i'hcst,~r

The South African Press
on the Dinner.

Transvaal Observer.

It is gratifying to learn from recent English journals that the
Transvaal Gold Fields have at present a most capable and powerful
advocate of their claim to supremacy of notice on the London
bourse, which possesses such a potent influence for good or ill ovei
Continental and foreign money markets, in the matter of mineral-
producing properties in various parts of the globe. Mr. Edward
P. Mathers, F.R.G.S., late editor of the Natal Advertiser, and
author of " Golden South Africa," has made good use of his time
since his arrival in England in championing the resources of this
Republic. From several of the leading financial organs published
in London, we read accounts of a complimentary banquet given in
his honour at the " Star and Garter " Hotel at Richmond ....
The I-'iiiiiitcinl World and the Star each publish woodcuts of
Mr. Mathers' likeness, which are both speaking portraits, and the
latter journal reports an interesting interview with the author of
" Golden South Africa."

Gold Fields NcWS (From a leading article).
' A complimentary dinner has been given in honour of Mr. E. P.

Mathers, at the " Star and Garter," Richmond There

was a goodly gathering of notabilities connected with South Africa.
It is not often a journalist is so highly honoured, and we con-
gratulate Mr. Mathers accordingly.

Gold Fields Times.

At the dinner given to him on his arrival, he very truly said
that the stay-at-home folks in the Old Country little know what is
going on at the Gold Fields of South Africa. But few ever see a
Barbertoa or Johannesburg paper, and the Press at home seldom
quote from South African journals. There is little doubt, however,
that Mr. Mathers' new paper, " SOUTH AFRICA," will have a wide
circulation. Attention has now been called to it in the Press, and
the universal interest now shown in this country, and especially in
the Gold Fields, will undoubtedly ensure for it that success which
we feel sure it will deserve.

North Kaap Telegraph.

The hearty welcome which has been accorded in London to
Mr. E. P. Mathers, the journalist who was foremost in bringing
these gold fields before the notice of the investing public, shows
that the labours of pressmen are not altogether without their reward
in a country where honest merit never fails to find a gratifying

recognition It is, however, gratifying when English

journalists find that in their native land their labours meet with
due recognition. Such a welcome as Mr. Mathers has had must
not only be flattering to himself, but give encouragement and
pleasure to the many home pressmen amongst whom he so long
and successfully laboured in South Africa.

Kimberley Paper.

Mathers, the Natal journalist, has been dined and wined at the
home of Whitebait- -the "Star and Garter," Richmond. Mathers,
who has spent a decade in this country, built up a splendid story of
the prospects of its Gold Fields, he went into raptures about the
Rand, and predicted gigantic things, he dilated on his own ex-
periences, and had his health drunk " with musical honours."

I'inics of Natal.

I am glad to see that Mr. Mathers has been introduced to London
Society by a dinner at the " Star and Garter," Richmond. What
pleasant memories that spot recalls ! From London to Richmond
on a four-in-hand, a row on the Thames, and dinner at the " Star
and darter" ! Life was then worth living for. Edward, I envy
you, though it is breaking one of the commandments. Great luck
to you, mv old friend ! You need not fear another snowballing — at
least so long as there are seven thousand miles of salt water between
us. Here's taevc. in utyala. Pledge me in the "Star and Garter's "
favourite brand. We may yet meet again. May " SOUTH AFRICA "
flourish.

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

Selections from Preliminary
Pars.

Barber/on Herald.

The London correspondent of this paper wrote on October lath,
1888: — 'Mr. Mathers expects to get his ' SOUTH AFRICA' under
weigh in about two months. It is being anxiously looked for here
in many quarters."

Reading Mercury.

A correspondent writing from Barberton to the Reading Mercury
on the Gold Fields savs : — "The importance of the subject has
induced a friend of mine, who is well acquainted with all the
present gold-producing districts in South Africa, to quit journalism
here and establish a paper in London, which will be devoted to
mining matters in this part of the world. Mr. Mathers, in starting
' SOUTH AFRICA,' will only be continuing the services which he has
rendered to the Transvaal Gold Fields."

Financial Critic.

We are pleased to learn from Mr. Mathers that his new paper is
to make its first appearance the first week in the New Year. It will
be known under the name of " SOUTH AFRICA," and will no doubt
prove a useful and reliable addition to financial literature.

Financial World.

I have been favoured with a prospectus of Mr. E. P. Mathers'

forthcoming paper, " SOUTH AFRICA." " SOUTH

AFRICA " bids fair to be a success.

The Statist.

The new weekly paper, " SOUTH AFRICA," will appear with the
opening of 1889. It will be conducted by Edward P. Mathers, who
for ten years has been connected with the South African press.

Capitalist.

A new weekly journal, devoted especially to the interests of
South Africa, will commence with the opening of 1889, to be con-
ducted by Mr. Edward P. Mathers, F.R.G.S., author of •' Golden
South Africa."

Citizen.

A new weekly journal, entitled " SOUTH AFRICA," will shortly
be started in London to acquaint commercial men with the
progress of affairs in that country. Mr. E. Mathers is the editor.

City Press.

In the first week of the new year will be published the initial
issue of " SOUTH AFRICA," a weekly journal for all interested in
South African affairs.

Glasgow Herald.

A new weekly journal, entitled " SOUTH AFRICA," which makes
its first appearance in London this week.

Manchester Guardian.

Mr. E. P. Mathers, who has recently written a good deal about
the gold fields in " SOUTH AFRICA," is preparing, I understand, to
publish a weekly newspaper to be devoted entirely to all interests
and questions connected with that region.

Khulosos German Trade Review {Berlin}.

A new weekly journal, devoted especially to the interests of
South Africa, will commence with the opening of 1889, to be
conducted by Mr. Edward P. Mathers, F.R.G.S., author of " Golden
South Africa." Mr. Mathers' long connection with the South
African press and his intimate knowledge of mining matters in
that quarter of the world will assure the success of the enterprise.
Considering the rising importance of South Africa, its mines,
and its agricultural and pastoral interests, there is room for a
fearless and honest medium between the capitalist community on
this side and the industrial community on the other side. The
title of the journal will be •' SOUTH AFRICA."

Speech on the Mail Steamer
" Nor ham Castle?'

ON August I4th, 1888, a dinner was given at Blackwall on the
Norham Castle, to celebrate the installation of the electric light on
the steamer. The following is from a condensed report of the
proceedings in the Empire : —

Mr. J. R. Chapman, in the absence of Sir Donald Currie,
presided, and gave the usual loyal toasts, referring to the fact that
the Prince of Wales started the Jubilee Yacht Race last year from
the Norham. He then proposed the toast of " Cape Colony and
Natal," or he would say of South Africa, for he believed they
would agree with him that there would soon be a united South
Africa. (Cheers.) He would couple with the toast the name of Mr.
Mathers, author of " Golden South Africa," and they had possibly
gathered from that book that if they wanted wealth they must go
to South Africa. (Hear, hear.) He proposed " Golden South Africa."

Mr. Mathers, who was well received, said they had all reason to
be gratified at the strides which the trade of South Africa had
made within the past nine months. It had been well said by Lord
Beaconsfield that "South Africa was a country of surprises," and
he would remind them how the great depression of 1870 had been
relieved by the discovery of the diamond fields, and how the sub-
sequent stagnation had rapidly disappeared under the recent
discovery and development of gold fields, giving way to a state of
increasing prosperity. The gold fields of South Africa were a great
and valuable reality, which would not only make South Africa a
greater country than she was, but would add considerably to the
world's supply of a metal of which she cannot have too much.
(Cheers.) To give them some idea of the development of the fields,
he could tell them that the output from the Witwatersrand Fields
alone for the last five months reached 2j tons, and when they
considered it was a great thing in the early days of the Australian
mines to return seven tons within the year, they would comprehend
the possibilities of expansion in the Transvaal fields. (Hear,
hear.) The output from Witwatersrand was increasing steadily,
had reached 20,000 oz., of the value of £70,000, for one month,
and with the rapidly increasing number of batteries the output
would continue to grow. The output at present from the whole
mines was placed at one million per annum, but this would be
soon increased to two millions when the batteries were at work.
The opening of the fields had saved the Transvaal from bankruptcy,
and from being so low that paper currency was decided upon by
the Government a few months ago to pay the salaries of its
officials ; £70,000 were paid into the Treasury last year from
mining licences alone, and the revenue had increased from £162,000
in 1885, to £700,000 in 1887, leaving a surplus of a quarter of a
million. He referred to the danger to genuine mining interests in
the flotation, whether in London or in South Africa, of bogus
concerns, but took comfort from the fact that there were more
bubble companies and ingenious swindles in the early days of the
California and Australian diggings. Finally, he had no hesitation
in declaring that two or three years hence the value of the gold
output would exceed the present output of diamonds, which was
valued at seven millions a year, and wound up with a complimen-
tary reference to Sir Donald Currie, whose name was a household
word at the Cape, and a fervent hope that the ocean steamers
would not be again turned into barracks, but that they would
continue to take out happy passengers to a peaceful and prosperous
country. (Cheers.)

Daily News.

The London Daily News, in reporting the proceedings, said : —
" Mr Mathers, author of a work on the auriferous regions of
Southern Africa, dwelt upon the great development that is likely to
be made in the gold diggings recently exploited. The total
output of gold in the world he estimated at £20,000,000. The
Kimberley diamond mines produce an equivalent of £5,000,000,
and Mr. Mathers has no doubt that the yield of gold in Southern
Africa will shortly reach that amount.

References to the speech were made in the Daily Chronicle and
in the South African press.

and its Founder, told by others

A Cold Day

Throgmorton Street

UffittATION

SYNDICATE

MRHANAU
CIVfS

Our Camera
Man creates a
sensation in
Old Broad
Street

A Snap in

Lombard

Street

SELLING "SOUTH AFRICA' IN THE CITY OF LONDON.

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

An Interview with
Mr. Mathers in 1888.

THE London Star, at that time edited by Mr. T. P. O'Connor,
M.P., adopting as a heading Mr. Mathers' title, " Golden
South Africa," published an interview with, and portrait of
Mr. Mathers on the nth of August, 1888. The interview was taken
over by other papers in parts. Following are extracts :

The Star. (With a Portrait.)

The immense mineral wealth of the Transvaal is fast trans-
forming the land of the Boers into a prosperous country, and
opening up the whole of South Africa as a field for emigration and
commerce. As everyone is anxious to know the latest and most
reliable information about this country, we gladly publish the
following interesting interview which one of our representatives
had with Mr. Edward P. Mathers, F.R.G.S., at the Star office the
other day. Mr. Mathers is a Scotchman, who, after having been
connected with the Press in this country, has spent ten years on the
Press in South Africa, and for some time before he returned was
editor of the Natal Advertiser. He has spent a large amount of
his time in journalistic expeditions over the country, more
especially in the Transvaal, and had, therefore, excellent opportu-
nities for estimating the importance of the auriferous deposits
of the Republic, and of judging its prospects. He has written
several important books on the subject, and his last work, entitled
" Golden South Africa," has been very successfullv published in

SELLING "SOUTH AFRICA" AT JOHANNESBURG.

London recently. He has now returned to London to start a paper

; " SOUTH AFRICA." Mr. Mathers was entertained to dinner at

the "Star and Garter," Richmond, the other day

BOERLAKD BECOMING BRITISH.

" This," said Mr. Mathers, unrolling a photograph representing
a straggling town, " will give you an idea of how the
country is growing. This shows the town of Johannesburg,
in the South of the Transvaal. Two years ago there was
not a house there. To-day it is a town and district of 20,000
inhabitants. Yes, they are principally British ; in fact, the

whole country is gradually becoming British. As you know, the
Government of the Transvaal is Dutch : the official language is
Dutch, but the wave of immigration which has been pouring into
the country is overwhelming the Boer influence, and is practically
making the Transvaal a British country. Everything in connection
with the commerce of the country is British — the coinage is British,
the measurements are British, the newspapers are in English, and
many Boers are gradually assimilating English manners and
customs.

GOLD HAS DONE ALL THIS."

" Then the last war has left no hostile spirit toward the British
among the Boers ? "

" Nothing to speak of," answered Mr. Mathers

"The Boers are an illiterate and uneducated, but intensely patriotic
people. They are not so much an agricultural as a pastoral people.
The British population in the country work in the gold fields, and as
little as possible in the field of politics. The Boers do not seem to
possess the adventurous spirit necessary for gold prospecting. They
have, however, made a great deal of money by selling their land. The
gold mines are in the hands of British people, and £10,000,000 of
British and Colonial money has been invested in the gold fields.
There seems to be

NO LIMIT TO THE AURIFEROUS DEPOSITS

of the Transvaal and the adjoining territories. In a very short
time a fourth of the world's gold supply will be obtained from there.
The gold fields have saved the Transvaal from National death.
The Government last year obtained £70,000 from mining licences,
and in 1885 they did not get as many sixpences. The revenue,
which in 1885 was only £162,000, rose last year to £700,000. The
gold fields have given an immense impetus to a languishing trade
throughout the whole of South Africa. The Rand gold fields turned
out in the first five months of this year 2j tons of gold, the value of
which is nearly a quarter of a million. Each month's output shows
a steady increase. The output for May from the Rand fields
reached £70,000, which gives a yearly output of nearly a million.
But as the erection of more batteries is fast progressing the annual
output will ere long be doubled. In a few years the value of the
annual output of gold from the country will exceed the value of
the annual output of diamonds, which at present is not far off five
millions. The value of the gold exported from Natal and Cape
Colony during the first six months of this year was £387,345,
while the total export for last year was only £236,457. These are
official figures, but do not represent much more than half of the
;_;<>], l exported, as much of it is smuggled abroad without the value
being declared."

" Have there not, Mr. Mathers, been a great many companies
floated in London to run gold mines in the Transvaal which never
existed at all ? "

" Unfortunately that has been the case.

SWINDLING AND BOGUS COMPANIES

Have done more to keep back the development of the gold fields
than anything else. I have no doubt that there are at least fifty
schemes pigeon-holed in the city ready to come out whenever there
is a Transvaal mining boom, and not ten per cent, of these schemes
are genuine concerns."

" The stone extracted at the Rand mines," resumed Mr. Mathers,
" is an auriferous conglomerate. It is pulverised into sand, and then
the gold is taken out by mercury. The local name of the ore is
' banket,' the Dutch word for almond rock, the almonds being repre-
sented by pebbles and the sweetstuff by cement. At the Kaap

and its Founder^ told by others

fields, in the north-east of the country, the gold is found in quartz.
The Sheba mine in this district alone is turning out gold to the
value of £10,000 a month. There is a greater proportion of gold
found in the stone at the Kaap mines than was ever found in the
best days of Victoria.

ALLUVIAL GOLD

Is found near Barberton. The miners pay a pound a month
for a piece of land 400 ft. by 150 ft., and dig on their own
account. If they are fortunate in finding nuggets they make a
good thing of it, but this kind of mining is all chance work."
Mr. Mathers produced specimens of gold from the different
mines. He had a nugget from Barberton way which as found was
ready for the mint. The " banket " from the Rand showed little

streaks of gold, but gold was shown more prominently in the
pebbly rock from the Kaap. Mr. Mathers was of opinion that there
is an excellent field for Cornish miners in the Transvaal. The
Boer labourers are not successful miners, but Cornishmen would
make double the money they do at home. The Transvaal is badly
off for railway communication, but there is some prospect of an
improvement, and this will do much to further development.
Mr. Mathers estimates the Boer population of the Transvaal at
25,000, and thinks that the Britisli rather outnumber them now.
But they have as yet no political influence, as the Volks Raad
recently passed a law prohibiting anyone from voting who had not
lived many years in the country. Matters are, however, improving
in this respect.

The First Number of

SOUTH AFRICA."

PUBLISHED ON JANUARY 4TH, i

Its Opening Speech.

IN its first number, published on the 4th of January, 1889,
" SOUTH AFRICA" had the following as its "Opening Speech": —

In presenting the first issue of " SOUTH AFRICA " to the public, it
is our grateful task to congratulate the country it is our mission to
represent on the prosperity and progress which have rendered our
appearance necessary. Steadily and surely within the past decade,
Smith Africa's stupendous mineral wealth and her immense general
resources have been developed in the face of almost unprecedented
difficulties. Wars and rumours of wars, misrule and misunder-
standings, of the most unhappv description, have hampered her
growth, baffled her efforts, and nullified the labours of her colonists.
Despite all these hindrances, each year as it passed has seen her
raised to higher and broader levels of usefulness and commercial
importance. Each year has by its revelations and its successes,
served to convince the outer world of the great natural value of the
country, and to secure to it that consideration which it so richly
and eminently deserves. It will be our steadfast aim to still further
cement the daily increasing goodwill which now exists between
the motherland and her prosperous and robust offspring beyond the
seas. To better do this, no effort will be spared by us to bring out
in strong relief the capabilities of South Africa as a mining, com-
mercial, and agricultural country. We feel that our self-elected
work is no trivial one. Turn which way we will, responsibilities
of the most weighty description confront us. Yet will we, relying
on the cordial support uf the colonists and the able co-operation of
responsible men in England, win our way to the success which the
name we have chosen must command. The objects of " SOUTH
AFRICA " have already been so freely explained that it is unnecessary
to dwell upon them now. By our appearance to-day we are
content to be judged. We are keenly sensible of our shortcomings,
and that being so our readers may indulge the hope that we are
well on the way to overtake them. Our scope is epitomised on our
title page. We profess to be a well-informed "weekly journal for
all interested in South African affairs." All such matters as are
calculated to advance the well-being of our readers will be carefully
and exhaustively treated, while our digest of news will be as varied
and interesting as the cours? of events and the exigencies of space
will permit. \Ye know no partv politics. It will be our endeavour

to avoid any extreme platform in dealing either with South African
or more purely Imperial concerns. In a word, we shall always
strive for the greatest good for the greatest number. We have to
thank many correspondents for their letters of sympathetic
encouragement, and our acknowledgments are specially due to
our confreres of the South African and English Press for their
kindly references to our project. To our readers generally we can
only express the hope that we have to-day begun a long and
mutually pleasant and profitable connection.

The English 'Press on the First
Dumber of <"- South Africa?'

Complimentary references to the first number of " SOUTH
AFRICA" appeared literally by the hundred in the British and
Continental papers. It is possible to give only a few specimens
of these : —

The Financial News.

The new journal, " SOUTH AFRICA. " the size and compre-
hensiveness of which have attracted some attention, has, we hear,
achieved a very considerable success in its first issue. In the hands
of Mr. E. P. Mathers this success should be amply maintained.

Evening Post.

A weekly journal for all interested in Soutli African affairs
is issued to-day under the title " SOUTH AFRICA." Besides articles
of general interest, it contains full reports of all proceedings in
connection with gold and diamond companies. Its leading features

are Mr. K. 1". Mathers, whose experience in the

colony is well known, is the editor.

The Star.

"SOUTH AFRICA" is the title of a new journal conducted bv
Mr. Edward P. Mathers. It is a large weekly journal, and is
intended to supply all interested in South African affairs with fiesh
and trustworthy information.

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

Glasgow Herald.

Likely to be of value both to colonists and to the vast body of
people at home who are interested, either through family ties or
through financial connections, in the South African settlements.
It proposes to give a full chronicle and criticism of current events
in all departments of activity in the colonies, and will pay special
attention to the Gold Fields. It aims also at filling the position of
a general newspaper. Mr. E. P. Mathers (author of " Golden
South Africa "), who has had extensive journalistic experience in
South Africa, is editor.

Bristol Times and Mirror.

A robust and healthy child.

Glasgow Evening Times.

Appeals to a rapidly increasing class in this country

Well got up and reads well.

Western Daily Mercury.

" SOUTH AFRICA " is edited by Mr. Edward P.

Mathers, who is well known as the editor of the work " Golden
South Africa." I must admit that I experienced considerable
surprise that so substantial a newspaper should have been placed in
my hands, showing, on its front page, that it is the first number
sent out to the public. There is already an air of wealth about it
which if sustained must necessarily bring much profit to the
proprietors. The contents of the paper are well revised with a
view to the interest of a large body of readers who must necessarily
be interested in South African news.

The Statist

"SOUTH AFRICA," another source of information on South
African affairs, is a weekly journal edited by Mr. E. Mathers, the
author of "Gold Fields Revisited."

Financial Critic.

The mines of the Transvaal have become so important that Mr.
Mathers, whose work on " Golden South Africa " is well known,
has started a weekly paper called " SOUTH AFRICA," in which he
proposes to supply all the latest information. The first number
was published yesterday, January 4th, and met with a very large sale.

The new journal should fill up a want which has

for some time been felt, and we have little doubt of its success.

Financial Chronicle.

"SouTH AFRICA" will be of great interest to all who are in
any way connected with South African affairs ; and since the late
boom in the South African gold shares, their name is legion.
The new paper is to be edited and conducted by Mr. Edward P.
Mathers, a gentleman of many years' connection with the South
African press, but perhaps better known here, both in literary and
business circles, as the author of "The Gold Fields Revisited " and
" Golden South Africa."

Money.

It is rarely that the first number of a new publication shows
such promise of permanent and substantial prosperity as Mr. E. P.

Mathers' new paper, " SOUTH AFRICA." We can

truthfully say that it reflects great credit upon its editor, who has
evinced tact, energy, and perseverance.

City Press.

Its conductor is Mr. E. P. Mathers, a gentleman who has lately
arrived in England after a ten years' connection with South
African journalism.

Mining Journal.

Amongst the first to put in an appearance after the exit of the
old year was " SOUTH AFRICA," a paper dealing mainly, as its name
implies, with South African affairs. It is conducted by Mr. E. P.
Mathers, who resided in Natal for many years, and was editor of
the Natal Advertiser, one of the most influential and widely-
known of South African papers. Mr. Mathers knows, probably,
as much about South Africa and South African affairs as anv man

living, and may especially be regarded as an authority on matters
concerning the gold fields. His " Golden Soutli Africa " is regarded
as a standard work upon the subject it deals with. The new
journal is well put together, abundantly newsy and informatory,
and treats comprehensively on questions affecting the social,
political and industrial welfare of the vast territories embraced
within the scope of its title. We are pleased to note that our
contemporary seemingly "caught on " from the first day of its pub-
lication, and we hope that its future success may be commensurate
with the manifold interests it represents.

Staffordshire Sentinel.

"SouTH AFRICA," a weekly journal for all who are interested in
South African affairs, the first number of which lies before us, has
put in its appearance as if it had quite made up its mind to claim
and obtain its share of public support. It is a goodly magazine.
We wish the promoter much success in his enter-
prise

Continental Times.

Under the title of " SOUTH AFRICA," Mr. E. P. Mathers, the well-
known authority on all matters connected with the southern
portion of the Dark Continent, has published the first number of a
voluminous weekly journal which is devoted to the interests of the
country it represents. The continued prosperity and progress of the
country are such that " SOUTH AFRICA " comes in time to fill a
want that has long been felt.

The following welcome to Mr. Mathers was published in the
first number of " SOUTH AFRICA " : —

WELCOME FROM ODEAN.
Welcome to thy cherished home land,
Oh, thou wanderer from the desert !
Welcome to the Queen of Cities !

What though the skies be leaden,

And the cold winds moan
O'er the mountains and the valleys

Of thy English home.

Warm hearts are here to greet thee,

Loving hands to clasp ;
So forget the cruel weather

In true friendship's grasp.

The South African 'Press
on the First Dumber of
" South Africa?'

The initial number of " SOUTH AFRICA" was received by its
South African contemporaries with a chorus of gratifying praise.
Room is found for a few of the expressions used in noticing it : —

Gold fields Times.

We have to acknowledge receipt of the first issue of

Mr. Mathers' new journal bearing the above title

It may fairly be claimed that in this instance
expectation has been amply realised. The paper is well
got up and neatly printed, and — which is satisfactory from the
financial point of view — boasts a very fair show of advertisements.
The letterpress consists of all and every topic connected with South
African affairs that is likely to prove of interest to the colonial as
well as the home reader, and the news supplied by correspondents
from the most important South African centres is of the most

desirable kind The first issue contains an interesting

article on the De Kaap Fields. The editorials and occasional
paragraphs are well written, and the whole production, besides
doing infinite credit to its originator, will, we hope, be the means
of imparting a more accurate and more reliable knowledge of the
country it represents. We wish " SOUTH AFRICA " a long and
rous career The above notice was written

and its Founder, told by others

REDUCED FACSIMILES OF "SOUTH AFRICA" PLATE SUPPLEMENTS

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

some weeks ago, but, owing to press of other matter its insertion lollCinncsbui'O' Standard.
has unfortunately been delayed. We may, therefore, mention
that we have also received the second and third issues of
"SOUTH AFRICA," and that they enhance rather than
maintain the reputation and success of that journal.

Barberton Herald.

Owing to an oversight the receipt of the first number of Mr. E. P.
Mathers' new London journalistic enterprise was not acknowledged.
The mail on Friday brought the second number, which is equal in
every respect to the first. " SOUTH AFRICA " appeals to two worlds.
Its South African news, gathered directly from its own correspondents
in this country — and there are an army of them — is eagerly perused
by English readers anxious for the latest reliable intelligence

from the Gold Fields It is welcomed as a weekly

courier of European news most ably collected and
collated. We are glad to note that the demand for the first
number in London appears to have exceeded the most sanguine
expectations of its editor and proprietor, Mr. Mathers.

Gold Fields News.

Our post-bag yesterday brought us a welcome addition to our
London list of exchanges in the shape of the first number of Mr. E. P.
Mathers' newly started weekly journal on matters connected, as its
name implies, with the southern portion of the African continent —
especially the Gold Fields. Although neither time nor opportunity
has been vouchsafed us to do more than glance hurriedly through
its pages, we cannot suffer the occasion to slip by of extending
our hearty congratulations to its enterprising editor,
compiler, and projector, upon its excellent appearance
in every respect. The printing is neat and clear, the paper
good, and the pabulum of great interest, and vigorously written.
The gold-mining intelligence is plentiful, and, as far as we can
gather from a cursory perusal, carefully collected and discriminately
presented to the public. Its whole get-up vouches for the vast

amount of pains that have been taken in its compilation

It supplies exactly what residents in this country, as well as the
English reader, whose interests are wrapped up in gold, silver,
diamond mining, or any other local industry, are desirous of
learning on these matters. The contributions from correspondents,
and the emanations from the editorial brain-pan, are always
readable, generally terse and to the point, whilst the style is
frequently vigorous and crisp. It is interspersed with wood-cut
headings suited to the classification of the subject. The illustrated
title-cover depicts the voyage of two argosies laden with the
produce of South Africa - gold, silver, diamonds, wool, ostrich
feathers, ivory, &c.— sailing under a complete stretch of canvas
across the Atlantic Ocean from Table Bay, the last port of departure,
to the City of London - the great mart for the commerce of the
world — represented by an outcrop of St. Paul's, and sundry ware-
houses by the Thames. The coats-of-arms of the United Kingdom.

Cape Colony The argosy is declared " well and

truly launched " ; we cannot wish for it a greater meed of prosperity,
nor a more lasting one, than we do for the land which has given it
a name. Flourish " SOUTH AFRICA " !

Johannesbiirg Mining Argus.

We are glad to notice by our files of the London Times, Daily
News, Morning Post, and other papers, including the special organs
devoted to Mining and Finance, that Mr. E. P. Mathers, the talented
author of " Golden South Africa," is active still as before, pushing
Hand interests in the great world's arena of competing claimants

for capital The other papers contain Rand news

from Mr. Mathers' pen. Mr. Mathers has opened offices in Throg-
rnorton Street, alongside the Stock Exchange, and is therefore in
the very thick of inquiries upon the merits and demerits of the
respective Rand stocks. Those who have read Mr. Mathers' terse
and lucid writings upon our Gold Fields will recognise \\ itli us Un-
it to both buyers ami seller* of our gold shares of having at
hand in London one so qualified to advise for or against. As Mr.
Mathers' connection grows and grow it must his usefulness will
also increase.

I have been favoured with a specimen copy of Mr. Mathers' new
production, " SOUTH AFRICA," and its general style and get-
up immediately suggest success. Advertisements find
plenty of scope for display in its pages, and there can be no
question as to its utility to advertisers. The matter
contained in the articles can at once be voted solid, thorough,
comprehensive, reliable, unbiassed and just, and one can scarcely
say more in its praise if one were to rake up the dictionary for terms
of eulogy. A rather clever article on the Kaap Gold Fields singles
itself out for criticism, and the letter by the Kimberley correspondent
is simply a masterpiece. If continued in its present style, " SOUTH
AFRICA" will become indispensable to South Africa.

Komatie Observer.

We have received the first number of " SOUTH AFRICA," the new
journal which has been issued by Mr. E. P. Mathers, the well-known
author of " Golden South Africa." As was anticipated, the journal
is a regular vade mecum of news, while, as a matter of course, the
Gold Fields interests occupy a prominent place. We are cer-
tain that " South Africa " cannot fail to be a success,
and as time goes on it will be found that Mr. Mathers' journal will
have an influence for good for South Africa, and especially on
South African mines, of which we at present have no conception.
The paper is got up in handy form, and should be read by all who
are interested in South Africa at home, as well as residents here.
We wish Mr. Mathers every prosperity in his venture, and trust that
his financial success will be commensurate with the success which
he foretells in respect of the gold-mining industry of this part of
the continent.

Lydenburg Transvaal.

" SOUTH AFRICA," the long-looked for paper, has come at last ;
it has exceeded all anticipations, and will undoubtedly be a
success. We honestly recommend our readers to lose no time in
subscribing to this journal.

Cape Town Excalibiir.

Mr. Edward P. Mathers, the author of " Golden South Africa,"
makes a capital show in his new London journal. " SOUTH
AFRICA " consists of forty-eight neatly printed pages, thirty-four
of which are literally crammed with reading matter, all of which
is newsy, bright, and instructive. All matters relating to this
country are carefully noted and emphasised. It ought to
become a great favourite out here.

Kimberley Independent,

" SOUTH AFRICA." As its name implies, this new

candidate for public favour is to be devoted to the promotion of
South African interests, and if its subsequent issues are turned out
of hand as well as the one now under review it will be a very
acceptable addition to the home press dealing with
Colonial matters. It is conducted by Mr. E. P. Mathers, who,
&c.

Eastern Province Herald.

" SOUTH AFRICA." — The first issue of this paper has reached us.
It is conducted by Mr. E. P. Mathers, author of " Golden South
Africa," and for some time associated with the South African
press. " SOUTH AFRICA " is a readable paper, and we wish
our young contemporary every success.

Port Elizabeth Weekly News.

" SOUTH AFRICA," the new paper now being engineered in
London by Mr. E. P. Mathers, is in every respect a credit-
able production, and contains forty pages of well-printed,
readable matter.

Grahamstown Journal.

" SOUTH AFRICA " is the name of the new weekly journal
published in London by Mr. E. P. Mathers, F.R.G.S., late of Natal.
The recent astonishing development in South African affairs fully

and its Founder ', told by others

OUTHRilFRICA

- ,^^ AIV' v\\ m m m «

G S.rRGS. AUTHOR Of GOLDEN SOUTH ATRICft;7AMBE

ffliOUTH

•-.

itapwE

Weg&&&&:.

REDUCED FACSIMILES OF HEADINGS USED IN "SOUTH AFRICA"

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

justifies the starting of another newspaper to elucidate them ; and
we wish every success to Mr. Mathers, who is an experienced
journalist, and well acquainted with this part of the world. The
first number is full of interesting matter ; and it looks
likely to live.

Grahamstown Penny Mail.

A very excellent publication indeed is the new London
weekly journal of this name, conducted by Mr. E. P. Mathers,
F.R.G.S., author of " Golden South Africa," and erstwhile special
commissioner on the staff of one of our leading Natal contempo-
raries. It extends and all the other hundred

and one concomitants that go to constitute a first-class newspaper.
As its name implies, it is essentially South African in tone, and we
congratulate both Mr. Mathers himself in particular and the Cape
reading public in general, upon the launching on the journalistic
sea of so staunch and taut a little craft. There is an encouraging
and appreciative ring in the editor's " Opening Speech," as witness
his introductory remarks

East London Dispatch.

We acknowledge with pleasure receipt of the first number of
" SOUTH AFRICA," the new weekly periodical for which Mr. Edward
P. Mathers, F.R.G.S., stands sponsor — fortunate literary child,
" SOUTH AFRICA." If we are to judge of its merits, as Mr. Mathers
in his editorial invites us to do, by the number before us, this
journal will quickly take and hold a similar position
in South Africa to that held by the most popular
reviews at home. The scope of " SOUTH AFRICA " is a very
wide one, and its able and exhaustive treatment of all matters
closely connected with the advancement or the well-being of South
African affairs will at once commend it to the hearty appreciation
of Colonial readers. It knows no party politics ; its principal aim
is the greatest good of the greatest number. Valcat Mathers, et
floreat " SOUTH AFRICA."

Wynberg Times.

The first two issues of Mr. Edward P. Mathers' new paper,
" SOUTH AFRICA," are now before the public. After carefully look-
ing through their pages we are able to express the opinion that
" SOUTH AFRICA " will prove what is claimed for it in its sub-title,
a well-informed " weekly journal for all interested in South African
affairs." In size it is handy, the printing is neat and clear, and the
editorial arrangements admirable. The great variety of news
contained in it is bound to please the general reader, and
ensure a large circulation in the country after which
it is named. Upon special subjects, as the Transvaal Gold Fields,
Natal, and Zululand, the information given will possess something
more than the ordinary newspaper character, because of the large
and useful experience the editor of " SOUTH AFRICA " has had in
those regions. We heartily wish Mr. Mathers the success he
honestly deserves by his new venture.

Kokstad Advertiser.

The necessity for a paper with sound principles, and capable of
obtaining and publishing exact information with regard to South
Africa, has been long felt. To this opinion, not confined to this
continent, but amongst South Africans in the Mother Country, may
be attributed the success that has attended the publi-
cation of the early numbers of the new paper, " South
Africa." Thus early in its career pressure on its space is largely
in excess of that available, and at home and in the colony all are
interested in supporting the new venture. A perusal of the first
number gives satisfaction, not only for the general get-up and style
of the paper, the variety and interesting character of its news, but
also for the absence of all ultra radicalism and nationalistic bosh.
Mr. Mathers, the editor, long known to South African journalism,
and as author of the interesting " Gold Fields Revisited," lays
himself out specially to disseminate exact information regarding
gold and other mining ventures, with the object of protecting the
British investor from having unpayable properties foisted upon him
by unprincipled promoters. Such information appears to be some-

what unavailable at present, judging from the frequency with
which poor or indifferent properties are floated. The objects are
good and well deserve the support the paper is receiving. We
offer our sincere congratulations to Mr. Mathers at having got to
press after surmounting all the difficulties attendant upon the
issuing of a new paper. We wish him every success, and trust that
he will not, in the multiplicity of his new duties, forget the friends
and associations of the shores of Sunny Africa

Times of Natal.

Everyone will welcome it. " SOUTH AFRICA "

is published weekly, and will be of great value to investors at
home on account of the ample gold news and general comments
on South African affairs which it contains. It is at the same time

a valuable addition to our exchanges There is

not a single dull or uninteresting item, and if Mr. Mathers keeps
up to the standard of the first and second issues, " SOUTH AFRICA "
is bound to be a big success. It is well printed on good,
substantial paper, and the general get-up is neat and stylish. The
most noticeable feature in the issue is the attention paid to the gold
news from this part of the world. Mr. Mathers has secured
correspondents at the various gold centres, and these keep him well
posted on all matters pertaining to the various companies and all

new discoveries " SOUTH AFRICA" is now fairly

launched, and may it prosper is our wish.

Natal Advertiser.

The first issue of Mr. Mathers' new journal, " SOUTH AFRICA,"
which was issued on the 4th January, has now reached us, and
exhibits all the enterprise that might have been
expected from its energetic conductor

The show of advertisements speaks well for the financial prospects
of the undertaking.

What was written about
' c South Africa " in 1889.

A prominent London daily had the following in 1889 : —

" SOUTH AFRICA " is the title of a journal the first number of which
came before the public at the opening of the current year. It is
devoted to the affairs of South Africa, and is edited by Mr. Edward P.
Mathers, F.R.G.S., who won his spurs as a journalist in this country
before he went out to Africa, and added to his reputation for
literary ability by writing and publishing there " A Glimpse of
the Gold Fields," a work which is now regarded as a classical
authority at home and abroad on the subject with which it deals.
" SOUTH AFRICA," although one of the latest productions of news-
paper literature and enterprise, possesses journalistic merits of a
high order, has received considerable and encouraging support
from advertisers, is admirably printed, and is generally a credit to
all concerned in its production. We feel warranted in
predicting for it a successful career, alike in the
Colonies and the Mother Country. Every year the de-
pendencies of England are brought into more intimate relationship
with her, and their interests become more closely interwoven in
the texture of her national or, rather, imperial life. Journals
like " SOUTH AFRICA " play an important part in strengthening
the federal bond between the various portions of the Empire by
diffusing a knowledge of their requirements, achievements, aims,
purposes, and progress throughout the lands occupied by teeming
millions of English-speaking people. " SOUTH AFRICA " is destined
to prove a boon both to the settlers and native population of the
vast territories in course of being developed by the energy of the
Anglo-Saxon race.

A prominent South African paper wrote in 1889 : —

" SOUTH AFRICA " is the title of a new weekly journal for all
interested in South African affairs, printed for the proprietor,
Edward P. Mathers. It is a new journal, the seventh number of

and its Foimder, told by others

which has reached us. It is almost wholly devoted, as its name
implies, to South African news. It is very well got up, and
contains much that is interesting to South African people. Mr.

Mathers has had considerable experience of South Africa

The paper ought to have a good circulation in South Africa, as it
is the only journal which deals almost exclusively with South
African affairs, political, commercial, and mining. We extract
some of its news.--

The Standard and Transvaal Mining Chronicle

had the following in the course of a leading article discussing
"SOUTH AFRICA" in 1889:--

The new paper (" SOUTH AFRICA") — thanks to the specialist
knowledge and energy of Mr. Mathers- -has secured a strong

foothold in England and abroad as a Gold Fields

organ " SOUTH AFRICA " has a large and

important audience, and an audience in which the Gold Fields
have a large interest.

Natal Advertiser.

In the same year the Natal Advertiser had the following : —
Readers will be glad to learn that " SOUTH AFRICA " is, in the
opinion of the proprietor, a gratifying success. " A great big hit,"
wrote Mr. Mathers in a private letter received in Durban by the
last mail. The paper deserves success, for it is smartly written, and
as full of all kinds of news as an egg is full of meat. Virtue is
thus for once in a way rewarded, as an exception to the rule.

IOUTHQFRICA

•am

REDUCED FACSIMILES OF HEADINGS USED IN "SOUTH AFRICA"

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

South Africa

' '

'/"//<• South African Rambler

had the following homely and appreciated reference to ourselves :— -
\Ye have received from the courteous proprietor, Mr. Edw. P.
Mathers, the 54th number of the above publication. It is indeed an
exhaustive compendium, if the Paddyism may be allowed, of
even-thing of any importance concerning South Africa, dished up
in the spicv and albeit workmanlike style of E. P. Mathers, who
possesses an endless fund of information on matters pertaining to
his title, and who has, as I say, a racy and practical manner of
detailing them. Mr. Mathers I have long known as a pressman,
and a genial social companion, and one of the few Scots who
laughs at a good joke immediately, instead of keeping you five
minutes. Everything you get in this multiim in pan'o — all
advertisements giving information to business men — columns of
" News from South Africa," "The Gold Fields," "The Market,"
" The Man of the World," " Special for the Ladies," " Our
Note Book," "Produce," " Correspondence "— •" Cablegrams " in
character — advertised in the little woodcut as on and thro' the
waves — " Mining Share List," " Index to South Africa," and
numerous other et ceteras, as the auctioneers say. Altogether
forty pages of most interesting and valuable matter, which improves
as the numbers run on. It will be seen that Mr. Mathers is a
painstaking and hard-working man, besides being a jolly fellow,
and all South Africans, and their connections in England, should
back up the enterprise evinced in this spirited attempt to have a
paper devoted entirely to " South Africa."

A well-known South African paper wrote in 1890 : —

It is always a grateful task to chronicle success, let it be in
whatever department of art or industry. The news to hand this
week, touching the wonderful progress made by our London con-
temporary, " SOUTH AFRICA," is pleasant reading. We have
followed the course of that journal with the keenest interest, and
have noticed its steady advance week by week. The genial editor,
Mr. E. P. Mathers, richly deserves all the good that can come to
him, for these fields have not in the wide world a champion and
advocate so able as the author of " Golden South Africa."
The better understanding which is daily springing
up between South Africa and home is to be in a
great measure attributed to his much read and
widely-circulated paper.

At Our First Dinner.

The first annual dinner to the chief members of the staff of
"SOUTH AFRICA" was an unqualified success. The following is
a condensation of the report of the proceedings, which appeared
in " SOUTH AFRICA," the event being chronicled by other papers : —

In commemoration of the establishment of " SOUTH AFRICA,"
the first number of which was published on January 4th, 1889, the
first annual dinner was, by the kindness of the proprietor, Mr. E. P.
Mathers, given to the members of the literary staff, the heads of the
printing department, and others, at Anderton's Hotel, Fleet Street,
on Saturday evening last. Mr. E. P. Mathers presided, Mr. R. J.
Railton occupied the vice-chair, and the company numbered about
thirty, who much enjoyed the capital dinner placed before them.

The Chairman having first given, and the guests having very
heartily honoured, the usual loyal toasts, proceeded to give the
toast of the evening, "Prosperity to ' SOUTH AFRICA,'" alluding
with satisfaction to the unprecedented and altogether phenomenal
success which had attended the paper from its start. The success
was such as had exceeded his most sanguine expectations, and was
not a little due to the loyalty to himself and esprit <tf for/is the
staff had from the very first displayed. He hoped that their first
anniversary was but one of many similar occasions on which they
wnuld have the opportunity of assembling in like manner, and
that as the years rolled on they would have to congratulate
one another on continued and increasing success. (Hear, hear, and

cheers.) He asked them all to join him in drinking " Prosperity ti>
'SOUTH AFRICA.'"

The toast was very heartily received.

Mr. Railton, in giving the " Health of the Chairman," said that
it was a pride and a pleasure to his firm and to himself to be
associated with such a paper as " SOUTH AFRICA," and such a man
as Mr. Mathers. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) From the first he had
felt the paper was bound to be a success, when he recognized
that it had at its back a man who was in every respect so
" thorough " as was the gentleman who was in the chair, and
was the founder of the feast that night. With this feeling
animating them he and his staff had set to work, and in the same
spirit they still worked, endeavouring to do all they could to carry
out Mr. Mathers' wishes and orders, feeling sure such wishes and
orders would be of a thoroughly practical nature. (Applause.) He
asked them to join heartily with him in drinking the health of
Mr. Mathers, as well as of Mrs. Mathers and family, not forgetting
the last member of the family, born on the previous day. (Loud
cheers..)

The toast was drunk with musical honours, and amidst hearty
" hurrahs " again and again repeated.

Mr. Mathers, in the course of a feeling reply, remarked that he
began to think they had had almost enough of birthdays ; for first
they had had Christmas Day, then the previous day was not only the
birthday of his wife, but he had also had on that day born to him
another little daughter, and then, lastly, they were assembled that
evening to celebrate the birthday of the paper. (Cheers.) He
thanked them most sincerely for the hearty cheers with which they
had greeted Mr. Railton's kindly mention of himself, his wife, and
his family ; and he was reminded by their enthusiasm of the
dinner — at which the present Lord Mayor was present — given him
on his return to England after ten years' absence, the hearty greeting
he received then doing not a little to cheer him on in the task he
had undertaken in starting " SOUTH AFRICA." (Cheers.)

Ourselves.

Under the heading of "Ourselves," " SOUTH AFRICA" of January
4th, 1890, contained this article : -One year ago " SOUTH AFRICA"
saw the light. This paper has now passed from the experimental
to the permanent and practical stage. The anxieties of the launch
are over, the rocks and the shallows are passed, and, with her sails
ballooned by a full steady breeze of popular favour, the good ship is
well on a voyage which in all human probability her builders and
her crew will not see the end of. Such a record of success as we
can show — in we hope not too boastful a spirit — is given to very
few journals to achieve at such an early period of their career.
The fact has surprised some people ; we cannot say we are among
the number. We believed in the legitimateness of our enterprise,
and relied on our own purposefulness to prove it. One eminent
English pressman, speaking to us not long ago, said he had only
known one other instance of such rapid journalistic success as ours,
and that was the instance of the Graphic. We blushed, and raised

our fan, or whatever passes for that in an editorial den To

what has the paper reached in a short twelvemonth ? It is eagerly
read in hut or hall, in the newly-born mining camp or towns
of staider and slower growth, in the bureau of the new fashioned
broker, or the office of the old-fashioned merchant to whose
sagaciously-directed energy the country owes its being ; it is
looked for as a welcome guest wherever the post penetrates within
the confines of the illimitable Continent from which it takes its
name. But, more than this, " SOUTH AFRICA" has taken an
honoured place in the world's Press. It has a circulation in the
City of London equal to that of nearly any half-dozen of those
fearfully and wonderfully sustained prints called " financial "
papers, while the constantly increasing weekly supplies required by
the great Emperors of the bookstall realm form one of the latest
themes of gossip in "the trade." Throughout Great Britain,
Ireland and the Continent, the paper has secured an ever-widening
clientele. In Paris alone it circulates as many copies as some of
the French papers do, and it would appear as if it must soon have
its branch office in the gay capital. The paper helps to mould the
opinions on Soutli African affairs of Members of Parliament, and
many sections of the English Press, while we are not too modest to

and its Founder, told by others

hide our knowledge of the fact that it is a counsellor in the higher
places of the nation. It is proving a trusty companion- at least
we hope it is -in Governmental departments beyond these shores.
We know the Portuguese Foreign Minister has read it very carefully
during the past few months, and no doubt he has done so with
profit to himself and his country. But enough of what we have
accomplished ; we should scarcely have dwelt upon the theme,
but that in thus describing our own success, we but advertise the
fact that is now gaining wider and wider publicity, that South
Africa is coming with a fast rush into the very front rank of the
countries of the globe. Such results as our efforts have obtained
are but an earnest of what yet remains to do. Needless to say, our

conviction of the far-reaching usefulness of our mission remains as
deep-seated as it did when we delivered our opening speech this
day twelve months ago. We have again to congratulate the great
country we represent on the wonderful prosperity and progress
which " rendered our appearance necessary." We still feel keenly
the responsibilities of the power entrusted to us; but as we also
said a year ago, " Yet will we, relying on the cordial support of the
Colonists, and the able co-operation of responsible men in England,
win our way to the success which the name we have chosen must
command." We are grateful to all who have assisted in the
fulfilment of our confident prophecy, and we wish them and our
readers everywhere, " A Happy New Year."

«f- jr

"SOUTH AFRICA" IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN WILDS

(Reduction of a sketch in the /),iily Gnipliif accompanying one of the late Lord Randolph Churchill's letters to that paper,
by permission of the Proprietors. — Vide Letterpress on the following page.)

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

What was said about

South Africa " in 1 89 1.

Needless to say " SOUTH AFRICA " has been quoted from and
referred to very extensively by the British and South African press
ever since its first publication, but a few of the further references
may be given in chronological order.

The Evening News in the course of an article said :—

" SOUTH AFRICA " has vindicated its name by interviewing
Lord Randolph on the subject.

The Brighton ArgUS remarked :--

Those possessing an interest in South African and financial

affairs will find " SOUTH AFRICA " exceedingly useful

With the present week's issue an excellent portrait of Lord
Randolph Churchill is presented.

Daily Graphic,

The following is an extract from Lord Randolph Churchill's
letter in the Daily Graphic of September 28th, 1891, sent from
Bechuanaland to that paper : — '

Sequana is about 15 miles from Maripi, our last halting place.
It is on the banks of the River Mariko, which provides good
water. We are outspanned about 200 yards from the river by the
road side. This afternoon a lot of Kaffir women came round with
milk, pumpkins, etc., for barter. They were a very good-natured
looking lot. I happened, at the time, to be reading the special
number of " SOUTH AFRICA," which contains many excellent

pictures of this part of the world and of the various tribes. I
showed them to the women, and they recognised several specimen
portraits. The first was a picture of Matabele women — correct in
detail, because it was copied from a photograph by Surgeon-Major
Melladew. One woman immediately recognised it, and clapped
her hands, calling out, " Ha, ha ! Matabele, Matabele ! " Then
came some pictures of soldiers, which they also recognised, and
with which they were equally pleased. A pleasant half-hour was
thus spent. (Sec Illustration on the previous page.}

The Review of Reviews,

in the course of a very interesting article entitled " Our Journalistic
Journals," inserted our familiar title block and said : —

A very different class of periodical is " SOUTH AFRICA," a weekly
journal for all interested in South African and financial affairs. It
is edited by Mr. Edward P. Mathers, and it distinguished itself this
year by issuing an admirable extra, copiously illustrated, describing
Mashonaland and the men who are building up the Empire in
Zambesia. It was from the pages of the " SOUTH AFRICA" extra
on Zambesia that I last month was allowed to transfer the insignia
of the sovereignty of the British South African Chartered Company
which illustrated my sketch of Mr. Rhodes.

The Bltllionist had the following : —

Our contemporary, '' SOUTH AFRICA," has certainly acquired the
knack of getting itself noticed. Lord Randolph Churchill, in his
letters to the Daily Graphic, informs the reader that on the nth
June, on the banks of the River Mariko, he was looking at a special
number of " SOUTH AFRICA," containing many pictures of natives,
when he was surrounded by several women, who recognised in the
wood-cuts the portraits of themselves and their relatives. This is
indeed a feather in the cap of the artist.

" South Africa " Title Block.

With the opening of 1902, the following article appeared in
" SOUTH AFRICA" :---

In entering our fourteenth year we are making a change
in our title block. The reader may, with a shrug of polite in-
difference, suggest that he is not concerned in the matter. But he
is. The part removed stood in its place for thirteen years as a
landmark setting forth the division of South Africa into five States
and Colonies, and its removal is of direct concern to all whose
interests are in South Africa. On the part now removed were the
arms of the Cape, Transvaal, Natal, Orange Free State, and
Rhodesia, with columns between entwined with scrolls bearing the
names of the principal towns in the five States. Crowning these
were the Imperial arms, conveying the idea that the British monarch
was over-lord of South Africa. The Imperial arms remain, enlarged
in the full path of the golden shaft that is thrown across the ocean
by the rising sun, and stand as a sign that the predominance of the
British rule in South Africa has been firmly established. The
argosies with bellying sails continue their untroubled passage from
the Cape of Good Hope across the calmest of the seven seas to Old
England, laden with gold, diamonds, wool, and other products of
the land awakening to its true destiny. We say, therefore, that the
alteration in our title is not a matter between us and our printer.
"SouTH AFRICA" has grown with the growth of the country with
which it has been identified. It has witnessed the extension of a
vast network of railways, the discovery and development of the
richest gold district in the world, whose expansion it has faithfully
followed, and whose fortunes it has had no mean share in directing ;
it has watched and recorded the creation of a new state out nf the
wilderness, and anticipated the bold genius who is running a
railway through the length of the Continent, who will throw a
bridge across the Zambesi and chain the Victoria Falls ; it has
traced the rise of the Dutchman's ambitious schemes to wrest the
country from the English, and now in modifying the pictorial
style of its title it does so in the full conviction that the country,
freed from the drag of a reactionary influence applied with all the
force of a dogged race, will enter, under the flag of the freest people
and mightiest Empire on earth, upon an era of unexampled

prosperity. South Africa has been the Cinderella of the Colonies,
but now that she has found her Prince she will take her proper
position as the great land of a great people. In the arms of the two
Republics, now returned to the Herald's College as relics of the
past, there figured an ox-wagon. This also is a hoary relic of a
time when the progress of the country was marked by the slow gait
of the trek ox, and its disappearance from our title with the rest
has a significance to those who are inclined to see no importance
in the change we have made. Now we have no intention of
deriding the ox-wagon. If has served its purpose well in beating
nut roads all over the wild country, and in carrying the hardy
voortrekkcr into the remotest parts.; and it will still for many years
be held in great favour as the best vehicle for holiday parties ; but
the ox-wagon bred a slow race of men- -a race who were always
ready to apply the r/icimsc/wcn, who resented new ideas, who
would sit down on the banks of a river to wait for the floods to
subside--a week, a fortnight, a month, what matter? The ox has
also played his part with a long-suffering patience that deserved
another end than internment in the maws of rapacious aasvogels,
or of providing biltong or tough steak, to the end that dentists
might flourish. The ox-wagon gives way to the saloon carriage,
and the ox to the locomotive. The buck- wagon which groaned over
rough roads and stuck in mud holes will now be relegated to more
suitable work than the hopeless task of attempting to carry the
traffic of a country in its full vigour, and the ox will go to the
plough or tlie field to be in the end suitably hung up in refrigerators.
As for the inch of space that has been freed by the removal of this
ancient gear, we will find excellent use. Already at the rumour
that there would be a little more room on our-title page, leading
export houses have tumbled over each other in their anxiety to
secure the strip for the display of their advertisement, and we have
been obliged to compromise by making provision for alternate
announcements. We do not wish to disguise our pride in the
knowledge that " SOUTH AFRICA " has done such service that it is
recognised as the best medium for advertisements, and from many
letters from readers at points wide apart we select two as specimens,
indicating that we rest our satisfaction on the opinion formed of
our work by the public.

and its Founder, told by others

" SOUTH AFRICA'S"
Second Anniversary.

WHAT WAS SAID AT ITS ANNUAL DINNER.

REPORT of the proceedings at the second annual dinner of
the " SOUTH AFRICA " staff appeared in " SOUTH AFRICA "
of January loth, 1891, and may be thus abridged : —

The literary, commercial, and printing staffs of " SOUTH
AFRICA " were entertained at dinner on Saturday night last at that
well-known Press rendezvous, Anderton's Hotel, Fleet Street, the
occasion being the anniversary of " SOUTH AFRICA'S" birth. Mr.
E. P. Mathers, F.G.S.. F.R.G.S., editor and proprietor of the paper,
occupied the chair, and Mr. R. J. Railton (Messrs. King, Sell and
Railton) was in the vice-chair. Full justice having been done by
the large company to a capital repast,

The Chairman remarked that, as the clown said at Old Drury,
" Here we are again." Not that there was much harlequinade
about their lives, but he thought that was all the more reason why
they should have such gatherings as that to round off the angles of
the somewhat sober drama in which they all had to play their
part. He could only say he was very glad to see them there,
and he hoped they would all have a very pleasant night of it.
(Hear, hear.) After some further observations the Chairman, who
was accorded a hearty reception, gave the toast of " The Queen
and Royal Family," saving that in all assemblages of loyal
Englishmen that toast was always drunk with very great enthusiasm
and delight. (Hear, hear.) He thought in a company of that
description, which might more or less be considered to represent
one of the most important parts of Her Majesty's empire, it had a
special significance, and should be received in a specially hearty
manner. (Applause.) To eulogise the Queen was to paint the
lily and gild refined gold. In Her Majesty he thought, and he
believed they were all of the same opinion, met all the virtues of a
wise Queen and a good woman. As for the rest of the royal
family, though born in the purple, some of them had shown that
they had good stuff in them. The Prince of Wales had recom-
mended himself to South Africans and Colonists generally by the
manner in which he conducted the affairs of the Imperial Institute.

The toast was very heartily drunk.

" Prosperity to ' SOUTH AFRICA' " was next given by the Chair-
man, who said if a journalist by any stretch of imagination could
be supposed to be either diffident or modest he would plead guilty
just then to a rather strong sense of diffidence and modesty in
getting up to propose that toast. The toast, in other phraseology,
was simply that of " Our noble selves." (The Vice-Chairman : A
jolly good toast.) Every one there was concerned in getting out
" SOUTH AFRICA," and so it was that the toast would have had to
go by the board altogether if some one of " our noble selves " did
not propose it. It might be that it would be different in future
years, when perhaps they might have the ladies among them.
(Applause.) It might be, he said, when the ladies came to grace
the scene they might also have present some of the more prominent
of the many friends of the paper, in which case they might have
the pleasure, or the reverse, of hearing some nice things, or the
reverse, of themselves from the lips of an outside critic. In the
meantime, there was nothing else for it but that he should inflict
the toast of the evening upon them. Had his esteemed friend
and relative, Mr. W. Y. Campbell, been present, as he fully hoped
he would have been, he would doubtless have had something to siy
to them on "SouTH AFRICA" the paper, and South Africa the

country. Though he regretted that Mr. Campbell was not
amongst them, he had very much pleasure in saying that he had
received the following telegram from him from Dartmouth, before
he sailed in the Roslin Castle to South Africa : " I wish you and
your able staff every success. Let them duplicate everything they
have done, and both South Africas will be, as heretofore, much
bettered. God speed." (Applause.) With their permission he would
reply to that telegram so that Mr. Campbell should receive it at
Li'sbon, and he would say that his wishes were cordially reciprocated.
(Applause.) But to turn to their toast, there was as little doubt about
the success of South Africa the country as there was about the success
of " SOUTH AFRICA " the paper. (Applause.) South Africa the coun-
try was going ahead with leaps and bounds in a remarkable way.
No matter what the share market might tell them, he emphatically
affirmed that industrially and commercially South Africa was
forging ahead on a sounder and more genuinely progressive basis
that day than it had ever known before. (Cheers.) Everybody
who really understood the circumstances of the country would tell
them that — but that was hardly the place to dilate upon the
grandeur of South Africa's destiny in the near future. Who only a
few short years ago could have foretold the greatness of the South
African Gold Fields, or who then would have been able to tell
them that the veil was to be lifted so soon from that land of
shadow and romance to the north of the Transvaal, and that it
would already be on the eve of being intersected with telegraphs
and railways, and of enjoying all the fruits of civilisation which
these mighty influences brought in their train ? He would now say
that there was as little doubt about the success of " SOUTH AFRICA" the
paper as of South Africa the country. (Great cheering.) That
success was apparent to the most casual observer. Their circula-
tion had progressed during the last year in a very gratifying
manner. They had had a very successful year all round, and this
notwithstanding the very natural depression that had existed in
South African affairs, a temporary depression which was but the
reaction after a period of wild gambling. But things were righting

themselves fast A recovery in values of genuine

South African stocks was taking place and would go on surely, if
intermittently. They had suffered in common with other people
during the twelve months since last they met ; but, nevertheless,
they had forged ahead, and had been more successful in the past
year than in their first year, which was saying a very great deal
indeed. (Applause.) The paper was a Welcome guest in
every village, town, and mining camp in South
Africa, and its familiar title- illustration was to
be seen throughout the length and breadth of
England and the Continent. Its circulation in
London alone was far greater than he ex-
pected the whole publication to reach within a

year or two at any rate

To return to what he had been saying about the very extraordinary
circulation which the paper had now attained among all who took
any interest at all in the affairs of South Africa— and that was now
a very large circle — he thought that, perhaps, his remarks might
more fittingly be addressed to advertisers. They had only
to look at the paper to see that a very large number
of shrewd advertisers had taken full advantage of it

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

and shown they appreciated its value. They could fill
the paper with advertisements from the very first page to the last
if they budged from their scale, which he admitted was rather a
high one, and be content with the prices which some papers
seemed satisfied to accept. But he had marked out a policy
of what he contended was a fair scale of charges in
return for the highest possible value of its class, and
by that policy he intended to abide. He hoped their
prosperity would still increase from year to year, and that
he would have the same tale of success to unfold to them as
the years rolled on and they took their seats around the
festive board. (Loud applause.) Before he sat down he had
another personal matter to refer to. It was a curious fact that
some people who had once lived in South Africa could not live out
of it — (hear, hear) — and so it was, he supposed, that another
member of their staff was going to pack up his traps and be off
again to the land of gold and diamonds and sunshine. He referred
to their honoured friend, Mr. A. C. Dulcken, who had been
associated with him almost from the establishment of the paper,
and whose very able services he had always appreciated.
(Applause.) He was sure the literary staff would bear him out in
saying they could not have had a more genial comrade to work
with. They wished Mr. Dulcken ever}' success that could possibly
attend him in his new undertaking. Life was full of changes, and
these partings must be felt in all its relationships ; they could,
however, perhaps console themselves in this case with the reflec-
tion that whatever was their loss must be Grahamstown's gain.
(Applause.) He concluded by asking them to honour the toast as
they felt it should be honoured.

The toast was most enthusiastically pledged.

Mr. U. F. Swindale, in proposing the toast of " The Literary
Staff," said he was afraid he must shield himself from saying very
much in its praise behind the lines —

" To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,

Is wasteful and ridiculous excess."

He did not think he could add anything as to their virtues, and
as to vices he was not aware they had any. (Laughter.)

Mr. Dulcken said he felt very much flattered by responding to
the toast, though he could not but feel that perhaps the reply
would come more appropriately from the Chairman, who was
Editor of the paper and Literary Director, and to whose
intimate knowledge of African affairs and shrewd sense
and appreciation of public feeling at home and in the
Colonies they were indebted for the admirable line of policy
which was always held by South Africa. He was sure it was an
encouragement to the literary staff to know that their efforts were
appreciated, and to feel that in working for South Africa their
labour was usefully and valuably employed in a way that was
wanted at the present time, thus doing a service both to the old
country and the Colonies, which could only be performed by such
a paper as " SOUTH AFRICA." The speaker went on to say that
with regard to the gentlemen with whom he had been associated
since the commencement of the paper, they had always worked
together in the most harmonious way ; there had always been a
willingness to help each other, and to combine for the benefit of the
paper. Before he sat down he could not but return his sincere
thanks to the Chairman for the exceedingly kind remarks he had
made about him. He was extremely sorry to terminate his
connection with the paper ; and he should always remember in
conjunction with it those very pleasant reunions. (Applause.)

Mr. R. J. Railton, the Vice-Chairman, with whose name the
toast of "The Printers" was coupled, in replying, thanked the
company most heartily for drinking the toast in sucli an enthusiastic
manner. When Mr. Mathers first started the paper, he (the speaker)
felt an immense amount of personal interest in it, and thought
" Here's a cocksure thing ; this is going." Since then he had never
had occasion to change his mind, and he was sure he never would.
He felt that the whole of the members of the firm, working and
otherwise, should consider it a very high honour to have tin-
publishing of such a paper, a paper which reflected credit upon the
proprietors and staff. As far as the personal relations were con-
cerned, he could say honestlv that he had never wcrked with a

gentleman whom he appreciated so much as Mr. Mathers. He was
sure the printing staff all felt a very profound interest in " SOUTH
AFRICA. In all parts of England he had heard the paper spoken of
in laudatory terms, and it thoroughly deserved to be so, and it
showed that the efforts of Mr. Mathers and his staff were fully
appreciated. The paper had a tremendous individualism about it,
and that was Mr. Mathers. Mr. Railton went on to say that he
would take the liberty of inserting another item in the toast list,
and would give them the toast of " The Chairman," observing that
Mr. Mathers was a gentleman with whom he was proud to work
with as a practical printer and a literary man. He said that in no
flattering sense, for Mr. Mathers was like the captain of a storm-
tossed vessel — not that that was a storm-tossed vessel -and gave
the right touch just when it was wanted. He had the knack of
getting good men to work for him. He hoped Mr. Mathers might
long remain at the head of " SOUTH AFRICA," and if he did it would
not remain what it was ; there were big things in the future. So long
as Mr. Mathers had the control and driving of it there was no limit
to what it might attain. Its success had been phenomenal ; he did
not suppose that out of the whole of the papers established in
London there was one that had had such a success in such a
short time, and it was all through Mr. Mathers, supported by the
very able staff he had had the nous to select.

The toast was received with musical honours and cheers for Mr.
and Mrs. Mathers and family.

The Chairman thanked them from the bottom of his heart
for the extremely gratifying, most enthusiastic, and very fraternal
way in which they had drunk his health. Touching the
laudatory remarks which had been made with regard to him-
self, he really disowned the praise which Mr. Railton had showered
upon him. Had it not been for the cordial assistance he received
from all hands and many friends they would never have attained
the position they had. He hoped they would continue to work
harmoniously in the same spirit — have the same esprit de corps ;
if that was ever interrupted he could assure them it would he
through no fault of his.

Other toasts having been given. " Auld Lang Syne " was sung in
true Scottish fashion, with clasped hands, the Chairman singing the
solo and the company joining in the refrain.

" SOUTH AFRICA" put forward the following claims in advertin--
ments in 1891 : —

"SouTH AFRICA" is the English organ of the South African Gold
Fields.

Its articles, being written by a staff of experienced South
African journalists, will be found sound and trustworthy. Letters
and notes from reliable correspondents in all parts of South Africa
form a feature of its columns.

"SouTii AFRICA" is the recognised link of communication
between South African importers and exporters.

" SOUTH AFRICA " stands unrivalled in its field of journalism.
Its great and rapid success is without a parallel in the history of the
City and Anglo-African Press. The special attention of advertisers
is drawn to the unique and valuable facilities which " SOUTH
AFRICA " offers for the prominent display of their announcements
over an immense stretch of ground in the United Kingdom and
South Africa. The paper, being read by all classes interested in
and resident in South Africa, presents unexampled advantages to
the shrewd advertiser. Manufacturers of mining machinery and
other goods suitable for export to South Africa will fail to reach
the customers they wish to secure till they advertise in " SOUTH
AFRICA."

The public favour extended to " SOUTH AFRICA" is such that it
enjoys by far the largest and most influential circula-
tion of any journal of its class. The publishers are constantly
receiving flattering proofs of the great popularity it has won, not
only in the Mother Country and on the Continent, but in all the
large centres of commercial and mining activity in South Africa.
" SOUTH AFRICA " is no sheet of merelv ephemeral interest, cast aside
when glanced at. Each copy is eagerly and carefully perused by
several readers, and in many cases it becomes the constant com-
panion of its possessor, ultimately taking its permanent place in
the library.

and its Founder, told by others

A Great Extra Issue of

" SOUTH AFRICA."

MAMMOTH SPECIAL ZAMBESIAN (RHODESIAN) NUMBER.

WHAT was called the Special Zambesian Number of " SOUTH
AFRICA " was issued early in 1891, and it gave the world
all that was to be known at that date of the territories to
which the British South Africa Company had fallen or were about
to fall heir to. The production, which was a very costly one,
was reviewed very favourably by the English and South African
press, and keen advertisers were only too glad of the opportunity to
pay exceptionally high prices for positions in the number, about
which "SouTH AFRICA" had the following:- -

We have been well repaid for the trouble we took and the expense
we incurred in issuing our Special Number dealing with Matabele-
!and, Mashonaland, and the surrounding territories. We have to
thank a number of our contemporaries for their kindly references
to the work, which we are glad to be able to state has been bought
up by the public in a manner exceeding all anticipation. Although
we printed what we considered would be a sufficient number, the
supply was exhausted last Saturday, when, for several hours, there
was an exciting scene at our office, the crowd of purchasers having
to take line of formation to be served in turn. Such was the great
extra demand that it was found necessary to go through the
laborious and costly work of reprinting the massive publication.
A large second edition is now ready ; but it also bids fair to be
quickly disposed of. It will be manifest that it is impossible to
keep the type of such a work standing any length of time. About
two tons of type are in use for the publication, and that is now
about to be broken up. We print a few of the press references to
the work.

The following Preface to the Special Number may be re-
called : — When a work of the pretensions of the present one is
printed it is considered proper to honour the custom of setting forth
in a Preface some justifying reason for its publication. The purely
commercial mind will readily grasp the fact that a potent
impelling motive existed when we state that on the announcement
of our intention to issue the work the mightiest distributors of
journalistic products in the world ordered well on to a thousand
copies, and, no doubt, that was but a first instalment. Other
orders have been pouring in in such numbers from the trade and
from our own great army of subscribers that, although we have
printed largely, a second edition is already called for ; and that is
not a small mechanical detail, as a glance at the work will show.
So much for the commercial aspect of an arduous undertaking. As
regards its raison ttctre in a literary sense, it will be found in
the rapid northern expansion of British South Africa, and the
consequent accompanying general desire for further information
respecting the territory brought recently under the control and
civilising influences of the great royally-chartered corporation
which sways the destinies of Zambesia. There seemed to us, also,
a special appropriateness in the appearance of the book — firstly, at
the close of the visit to Europe of the High Commissioner and the
Cape Premier ; and, secondly, during the progress of the negotia-
ti'in^ between England and Portugal, so that politicians might the
better understand such official or other references as may be made
to these from time to time. For the rest we need only remark
that we have used all due care in the preparation of the work,
which is, necessarily, to a large extent, of a collatitioua cbaracti ;.

To those who have ungrudgingly assisted us to produce the only
effort of its kind, we hereby tender our grateful acknowledg-
ments.

Offices of " SOUTH AFRICA,"

Warnford Court, London, E.C.
March, 1891.

The following are some specimens of the Press notices with
which the " SOUTH AFRICA " " Special " was greeted : —

Trade and Finance,

In connection with the doings of the British South Africa
Company, there is just now considerable interest in Matabeleland
and Mashonaland, but information about them is not altogether ,
easy to obtain. To meet this want our contemporary. " SOUTH
AFRICA," has issued a Special Number of 146 pages, containing a full
account of those regions, and of the efforts now being made to open
them up. The value of the number is very much enhanced by clear
maps and good and numerous illustrations.

Weekly Jiitlletin.

Many thanks, Mr. Mathers, for your Special Number of " SOUTH
AFRICA," which we have not yet had time to go through. \Ve
should think those interested in South African matters generally,
especially in the Chartered and Gold Fields of South Africa
Companies, should certainly buy a copy of your book, the price of
which, we notice, is as.

5V. James's Gazelle.

A full and extremely interesting account of Matabeleland and
Mashonaland, regions which are now being as much discussed
by investors and speculators as by politicians and geographers.
Handsomely illustrated with maps and woodcuts, and the letterpress
abounds with useful and interesting information, not only about
the character of the country and its various races of native inhabi-
tants, but also about the different missions and explorations which
have been, and are in course of being, conducted, and about the
work of that very successful and enterprising concern, the British
South Africa Company, which is making haste to absorb and
civilise what is called "the Golden Country.

The Statist.

Our contemporary, " SOUTH AFRICA," has published a Special
Number — of no mean size either-- containing an account of
.Matabeleland and Mashonaland, with illustrations and maps. The
work is both interesting and instructive, and naturally has a special
interest for all persons who are watching the progress of events in
that quarter of the globe.

Financial Times.

A Special Number of " SOUTH AFRICA," published at 2s.. is of
great bulk and corresponding interest. It is, in fact, an admirable
production, and one which will be hailed with delight bv all who
li.ive any reason for turning attention to the south-eastern portion
of the Dark Continent. The whole history of Matabeleland and
Mashonaland is graphically traced, thrilling accounts are given of
tin expeditions into both countries, and much of the reading

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

entertaining as a novel. Portraits and illustrations are both
numerous and excellent, and two well-executed maps will prove
very serviceable to students of African geography.

Money.

'•9 We have received from the office of " SOUTH AFRICA " a Special
Number of that publication, containing an exhaustive account of
Matabeleland and a full description of Mashonaland, the ': Golden
Country " occupied by the British South Africa Company. This
Special Number is copiously illustrated with highly finished
engravings, and contains several maps. A separate plate is issued
as^a supplement, giving excellent portraits of the Board of Directors
of the British South Africa Company.

Evening News and Post.

City men and others interested in the movements and under-
takings of the British South Africa Company will find an admir-
able guide to the doings of that concern in the Special Number,

masterly manner that carries the reader on from chapter to chapter
till, to his great regret, he has reached the end. There are two
useful maps, several appropriate illustrations of the text, and a
sheet of finely-executed portraits of the Directors of the British
South Africa Company.

The Star.

Everybody who is interested in Mr. Cecil Rhodes and his
pioneering mission over our new British possession, Zambesia,
should buy the Special Number of " SOUTH AFRICA," which has
just been published. There you have a concise and graphic history
of the country since the reign of the Queen of Sheba in the far-off
ages down to the foundation of the British Soutli Africa Company,
not very long ago. A lot of interesting information is given as to
the exact nature of the Company's concession and the prospect of
its further development. The leaves of the number are brightly
interspersed with portraits of the pioneers, scenes on the march,
native costumes, and maps on an extended scale. Accompanying

TH •>

MILTII AI-RICA AT THI- I.MI'liRIM. INSTITl'TI:.

REDUCED FACSIMILE OF A "SOUTH AFRICA" PLATE SUPPLEMENT

just issued, of our financial contemporary, "Sorm AFRICA." The
number gives an exhaustive description of Matabeleland and
Mashonaland, with numerous maps and illustrations ; and a special
supplement furnishes portraits of the Board of Directors of the
British South Africa Company.

Capitalist.

Mr. Mathers has taken the measure of the occasion. He regards
the Chartered Company as having a career equal to that of the
grand old East India Company that gained Hindostan for the
British Crown. He foresees the gathering hosts flocking almost
daily in larger numbers to the golden valleys of Matabeleland and
Mashonaland, and he has prepared the way for the eager adven-
turers by this timely publication of a thoroughly good guide,
historical, typographical, political, and commercial. Mr. Mathers
makes the road easy for those who have decided to go, and no
doubt he will be the means of inducing many to start who never
before contemplated such a thing. The narrative is full of life and
pictures from a strange world, portrayed with a charming and

the issue is a large engraving containing excellent likenesses of the
English Directors. Altogether a more useful contribution to the
records of Mashonaland and Matabeleland could not have been
compiled.

Financial Critic.

Our contemporary, " SOUTH AFRICA," is this week issuing a
Special Number of the paper, containing an exhaustive account of
Matabeleland, together with a full description of Mashonaland,
the country now occupied by the British South Africa Companv.
From start to finish the work, which contains as much reading
matter as is to be found in a large-size volume, is of a most
interesting and instructive character, and leaves no ground un-
covered in the march of events in, and a description of, that part
of Africa now swayed by the British South Africa Company.
There seems a special appropriateness in the appearance of the
book at the close of the visit to Europe of the High Commissi. nn i
and Cape Premier, and we commend Mr. E. P. Mathers for his
enterprise.

and its Founder, told by others

Investors Guardian.

We have to congratulate our contemporary, " SOUTH AFRICA,"
on its Special Number just issued. Containing over 150 pages, the
publication gives an exhaustive account of Matabeleland, and a full
description of Mashonaland, the country now occupied by the
British South Africa Company. It is excellently printed with clear
type, on good paper, and not a little of its interest and value
consists in the useful maps, copious illustrations, and interesting
portraits with which it is embellished.

The Echo.

To all who care for the great theme of South Africa, we com-
mend the exhaustive account of Matabeleland and of Mashona-
land, contained in the Special Number of " SOUTH AFRICA"
(Warnford Court, London). Mashonaland, the " Golden Country,"
occupied by the British South Africa Company, has lately been the

recent explorers, Thomas Baines did his work without the accom-
paniments of big drums and rear guards.

The Mining Journal.

Our enterprising contemporary, " SOUTH AFRICA," has just
issued at a price of 2s. a Special Number containing an
exhaustive account of Matabeleland, together with a description
of Mashonaland, the coming possessions now under development
by the British South Africa Company. The work comprises some
account of the history of Ancient Africa, and a large amount of
information is embodied in it concerning the work of the early
explorers. Minute descriptions are given of the country, its
inhabitants, and their customs, and a mass of facts relating to the
rise of the gold industry have been collected. A full account is
given of the formation and ramifications of the British South
Africa Company, and portraits are given of the Board of Directors.

ffi"

THE CAPE AT THE CHICAGO EXHIBITION.

REDUCED FACSIMILE OF A "SOUTH AFRICA" PLATE SUPPLEMENT

scene of one of the most adventurous and prosperous feats recorded
in the history of colonisation. In this special number of a most
useful publication every kind of information regarding the South
of the Dark Continent is clearly and succinctly put forth. It is
very fully illustrated. It deals with the history of exploration as
well as with problems of immediate practical moment. It contains
a most interesting chapter on the architectural and other remains
of a past civilisation that have been discovered in regions into
which the Anglo-Saxon race is now overflowing. We are extremely
glad to find a notice and portrait of Mr. Thomas Baines among
the biographical articles. Mr. Baines was for a time a colleague
of Livingstone, and was not too fairly treated by him. He was a
brave, modest man, who did not live to reap the rewards of his
discoveries — bv which discoveries so many of his countrymen are
now profiting. He was a magnificent draughtsman and water-
colour painter. Some of his drawings of the Zambesi Kiver are
reproduced on a small scale in " SOUTH AFRICA." Unlike more

The work is copiously illustrated with maps and engravings, and
is well worth the price asked for it to all interested in South Africa,
which is now becoming one of the most important of our
possessions beyond the seas.

Fa i rp lay.

This Special Number consists of 146 pages, well illustrated and
supplied with maps — also with a sheet containing photographs of
the gentlemen who compose the Board of Directors of the British
South Africa Company. The number contains a great deal of
useful and interesting information.

I<"inancial Xcius:

A Special Number of " SOUTH AFRICA" has just been issued,
containing an exhaustive account of Matabeleland, and a full de-
scription of Mashonaland, the country occupied bv the British South
Africa Company. The maps and illustrations are exceedingly

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

well done, and the number runs into close upon 150 pages of
interesting matter.

New York Herald.

A Special Number of " SOUTH AFRICA," just out, is one of the
most interesting papers on South Africa issued in a long time. It
contains an exhaustive account of Matabeleland, and a full de-
scription of Mashonaland, occupied by the British South Africa
Company, accompanied by maps and splendid illustrations.

The Journalist.

The Special Number of " SOUTH AFRICA," just issued, is a very
desirable contribution to current literature. Its accounts of
Matabeleland and Mashonaland, " the Golden Country occupied by
the British South Africa Company," are as good reading as can be

found in most volumes of travel. They have also the merit of
giving information destined to have a special value for English
speculators and capitalists, as well as a special interest for those
who read merely to be amused or informed.

Journal des Mines.

Contains maps, views of the country, portraits of the principal
personages, and of the chiefs of the tribes of these regions ; and
also reproductions of the ruins and monuments which belong
without doubt to the Biblical epochs of Ophir and Saba. The
whole is very full of interest. After having passed in review the
ancient history of the country, it shows clearlv the history of recent
events, and gives a long account of the voyage of Mr. Rhodes, and
of his interviews with Lord Salisbury.

" SOUTH AFRICA"
after Three Years.

What the late Mr. Rhodes said of the Paper.

THE THIRD ANNUAL DINNER OF THE WORKERS
WHO PRODUCE "SOUTH AFRICA."

A Guest's Testimony to the Great Position the Journal had

attained.

SOUTH AFRICA of April i6th, 1892, contained an interview
with the late Mr. Rhodes, which closed thus: —

Finally, it would be untrue to say that we were displeased to
hear Mr. Rhodes speak so highly of " SOUTH AFRICA." When he
reads any paper he reads it, as he thinks it is the
only paper of its kind that deals properly with
South African events and questions. He thinks it most
thoroughly deserves the great circulation it has. Even on this
question we find ourselves in complete accord with Mr. Rhodes.

Standard.

The Johannesburg Standard had the following in December
of 1892 : —

Mr. E. P. Mathers, editor of " SOUTH AFRICA," left the Rand
homeward bound by this morning's Natal coach. Mr. Mathers
proceeds home by the Suez route. He hopes to meet Mr. Rhodes
on the way out. Mr. Mathers does not expect to arrive in London
before the end of February.

Natal Mercury.

The Natal Mercury printed the following leaderette in its
issue of December 2oth, 1892 : —

We are glad to welcome in Durban an old townsman and
fellow journalist in the person of Mr. E. P. Mathers, the author
of "Zambesia," and the founder and editor of " SOUTH AFRICA,"
a paper that has helped to popularise the name
and existence of South Africa to an extent that
only visitors to the Mother Country can realise.
"SouTH AFRICA" was the direct product of the mining era, and
it is characteristic of tin- energy and ability which Mr. Mathers
brought to bear in its establishment, that he should seek to refresh

his mind and memory by personal observation of the changes that
have taken place during his five years' absence from the country.
After visiting everv centre in South Africa he returns by the East
Coast, calling at Delagoa Bay and Beira on his way, and seeing
for himself the latest developments of commercial activity there.
Mr. Mathers' first South African experiences began in Durban, and
we trust that his brief renewal of acquaintance with this town and
seaport will be productive of pleasant impressions.

South Africa.

"SouTH AFRICA" of January gth, 1892, contains a report of
the proceedings at the third annual dinner of the chief members
of the staff of " SOUTH AFRICA." It is headed " Interesting
Evidence of the Progress of the Paper," and an extract or two
from it is given : —

Salon No. 19 of the Holborn Restaurant was the scene, on
Saturday evening last, of the third annual dinner of the literary,
commercial, and printing staffs of " SOUTH AFRICA." Mr. E. P.
Mathers occupied the Chair, and Mr. R. J. Railton carried out the
duties of Vice-Chairman. There was a large company, and the
proceedings were of an enthusiastic character. The tables having
been cleared,

The Chairman, after some preliminary observations, went on to
say that the first toast upon the list was well known to them, and
to his mind it almost savoured of affectation to say much in
support of it. " Familiar in our mouths as household words," the
toast was "The Queen," God bless her. The loyalty of all
Colonists, South African and otherwise, was proverbial. Wherever
throughout that great and wonderful Empire, in which the morn-
ing drum ever rolls, and upon which the sun never sets, this toast
was proposed, it was always responded to with the greatest
enthusiasm— (hear, hear) -and for his part he would say that the
man who ever did aught than pledge the toast, might "go

and its Founder, told by others

down to the vile dust from whence he sprung, unwept, un-
honoured, and unsung." (Applause.) As long as the fierce, light
which beats upon a throne beat on a throne of the unsullied
purity of that occupied by our gracious Victoria, so long would
there be no fear for the monarchy of England, and so long would
there be no fear for the loyalty of Colonists towards the throne.
As for the rest of the Royal Family, they filled their spheres with
general acceptance. The Prince of Wales was, perhaps, one of the.
hardest worked men in the realm, and he thought His Royal
Highness claimed a special share of attention and gratitude from
South Africans for the very hearty and able support and encourage-

FAR 1IIGI1KR Sl'CCl-.ss THAN ANY OTHER.

I think I may claim, if long years of work will entitle any-
one to claim, some right in passing an opinion with respect to
South African journalism (hear, hear) — and I say that I
regard with very great pride the success of " SOUTH
AFRICA," for the success of "SOUTH AFRICA" in
England, Europe, and South Africa is the success
of South Africa itself. Although my work has been the
endeavour to make people understand South Africa written
from a South African standpoint and up to very lately I

REDUCED FACSIMILES OF "SOUTH AFRICA" PLATE SUPPLEMENTS

ment which he had given to that valuable Colonial enterprise, the
Imperial Institute, and to enterprises of a similar character.
(Cheers. !

The toast having been ;icc. .rded musical honours,
Mr. R. \V. Murrav n^r ;ind said : It gives me infinite pleasure
in being present to-night, and being able to propose to you

" PROSPERITY TO ' SOUTH AFRICA.' "

I would take the toast to have a double meaning, that is, the
prosperity of South Africa the country, without which the prosperity
of " SOUTH AFRICA " the newspaper could not exist. I think the
experiment which Mr. Mathers has made, and has carried out so
wonderfully successfully, is unequalled. There are other news-
papers in Kngland giving information with respect to the colonies
generally, but Mr. Mathers, like the able man he is, lias achieved

wrote on the other side of the water Mr. Mathers has come
on this side and has worked up all those many subjects of
S. nuh African interest, and has dealt with them, so far as my
judgment enables me to say, most conscientiously and ably.
When men do their work honourably, straightforwardly, and
justly, they deserve to have behind them all the support which
right-minded and influential men can give them, and I am glad
to hear that you think that I have had the opportunity of con-
tributing in some small way in this din \pplause.i The
Chairman warned us not to make long speeches. I did not come
here to make a speech, less a long one, but one or two points have
"ccurred to me, and. perhaps, you mav allow me to point out one
or two matters affecting Smith Africa, which are of great im-
portance at the present moment When you consider

3°

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

the amount of topics which the great London dailies have to deal
with, you can hardly expect them, with all our knowledge of
South Africa, to devote so much attention to South Africa as we
would wish. Therefore it is that Mr. Mathers has

STRUCK THE RIGHT CHORD

in bringing out a paper in London which shall represent South Africa,
which shall tell people what is going on there, which shall tell
them all about that country. It is of essential importance to the
large number of people who are investing their money in South
Africa that they should have some paper in London upon which
they can rely. I, with my knowledge of South African affairs, do
say that I have the utmost faith and the utmost confidence in the
management of " SOUTH AFRICA," and the proof of it I have

given very lately Mr. Murray proceeded to give

instances of the ignorance of supposed authorities on South Africa,
and proceeded: — Here you have another raison cfetre for " SOUTH
AFRICA." Mr. Mathers will be enabled to tell you, through his
paper that machinery is imported free of cost into Cape Colony

and Natal South African questions are most

difficult questions to understand beyond a doubt, and therefore it is
that we require in London people who know and can explain all
the intricacies of South African politics and South African interests.
It is, therefore, I say, a very great thing for us that
we have such a paper as "SOUTH AFRICA" being
published in London. I think you will find, as time
goes on, that "SOUTH AFRICA," this newspaper of
Mr. Mathers, will have an extraordinary influence
in this country. (Hear, hear.) It has a great circulation
in South Africa as I can testify to. (Applause.) With
my knowledge of newspapers I should not be at all surprised to see
before long that it is something more than a weekly newspaper.
(Hear, hear.) Look for one moment and see the amount of work
which has been done this very week in this paper in the reports of
meetings. (Hear, hear.) It must have occurred to you that people
who want to be kept informed of what is going must desire to have
the reports as soon as possible, and no other newspaper which
I see gives such accurate reports of these meetings as does
" SOUTH AFRICA." Many of the newspapers who do deign to pay
any attention to South Africa, print reports in all sorts of fashions,
sometimes leaving out the important points, whilst you find in
"SouTH AFRICA" all the essential points preserved for the in-
formation of those interested. For these reasons I have very great
pleasure in proposing "Prosperity to ' SOUTH AFRICA,'" and as, a
South African myself I give my thanks to Mr. Mathers for the
excellent work which he has done. I wish him all success and
ever greater prosperity. (Loud cheers.)

The toast, it is almost needless to say, was drunk most
enthusiastically.

The Chairman, in responding, said : I thank you very heartily
indeed, gentlemen, for the kind manner in which you have
responded to this toast, and I thank you, Mr. Murray, for the very
kindly and fraternal sentiments you have expressed towards me
and the paper. As regards the warmth of feeling which has
been expressed by the company in responding to this toast, I think
it would be somewhat unnatural if they had responded in any
lukewarm manner. For what is the toast ? It is that of " ourselves,"
and we are only human after all. We know on which side our
toast is buttered. Mr. Murray, with his accustomed generosity,
has buttered the toast very thickly. (No.no.) What he says about
South African questions is true enough ; but if half what he said
about our paper were true, then indeed we should be well satisfied.
However, we have no reason to be dissatisfied with our progress —
far from it. The year opens very auspiciously for us, for to-day we
have touched

THE HIGHEST POINT IN OUR CIRCULATION

we have yet attained. (Applause.) That is a very gratifying fact.
In past years, I have expressed the hope that as the years rolled on I
should be able to tell you this tale of success. Needless to say I am
proud and pleased to tell you to-day that our hopes are more than
fulfilled. (Cheers.) 1 value very highly what Mr. Murray has said
in regard to the paper, for Mr. Murray is no ordinary critic and
observer. Besides being one of the most prominent and most

popular pressmen in South Africa, he is a South African traveller
of no small experience and note. He is a persona grata in the
bureaus and the homes of all the leading men of South Africa, and
as such he has been able, in his last trip especially, to note and
chronicle very closely and intimately the latest phases of men and
affairs in South Africa. Thus it is that I esteem his verdict on the
work of the newspaper " SOUTH AFRICA" very highly. This
criticism comes to us all with an added value, in that it falls from
the lips of a man like Mr. Murray, and it comes to us also as an
incentive and encouragement to pursue the same path we have
trodden so successfully to this point. (Applause.) We have now
reached a very high figure in our circulation, a circulation which,
I think, we have every reason to be proud of. (Applause.) As
regards the influence and popularity of the paper, I am glad to say
that much of what you have said, Mr. Murray, coincides with the
many proofs of that influence and popularity which come to us on
all hands. The best and most eloquent proofs, however, are the
machines which throw off the papers. (Loud applause.) The
position we have attained is due, first of all, to the support of the
public, but I also attribute it in a large measure to the continued
enthusiasm and loyalty of the staff, which I am proud to see
around me to-night. (Applause.) It was a big task I set myself
when I resolved to establish a paper like " SOUTH AFRICA," but
thanks to the fidelity of you in your various departments, and a
generous appreciation and support on the part of the public, I
claim to have succeeded. (Cheers.)

Mr. Atkins, of the advertising department proposed " The
Printers," in a neat speech.

The Vice-Chairman, in responding to the toast, said he had had
the great pleasure of responding to this toast at each dinner since
the establishment of " SOUTH AFRICA,", and he hoped he might have
that pleasure for many years to come. (Hear, hear.) He had
always felt very proud indeed to be connected with " SOUTH
AFRICA," even although in the minor and mechanical degree as the
printer. He should never forget the starting of " SOUTH AFRICA."
He thought to himself, " That paper is bound to go," and he knew
that it would from the way in which Mr. Mathers went to work
the first night. He was very proud to work with him shoulder to
shoulder, and things had always gone on remarkably well. The
paper had been such a success as he did not think had occurred in
London journalism for very many years past. (Applause.) He
had had 30 years' experience of newspaper work, and he never
knew a paper which had jumped so quickly and deservedly into
popularity as " SOUTH AFRICA " had. They got some very heavy
work connected with it sometimes ; but he always felt this, that
whatever had to be done, they were working for a man who knew
what he wanted, and who meant to have it. " SOUTH AFRICA "
was a very large paper to be got out in such a short time, and for
the two editions, which had to be printed in very large numbers,
they employed 14 or 16 machines which were kept
constantly going as hard as they possibly could.
He was happy to say, and he thought Mr. Mathers would bear him
out in this, that they had never failed him at a pinch. He felt a
little proud of that. He had heard of the paper in the North,
West, and South of England, and he always heard it well spoken
of, the opinion always being expressed that it was printed very
well. (Hear, hear.) He had also heard that whatever was in
" SOUTH AFRICA" might be depended upon. One man said to him
one day, " Yes, ' SOUTH AFRICA ' is a very good paper, but you
cannot get behind them." It was that reputation that had made
the paper. If the chairman would allow him he would interpolate
a toast, and here propose his health. (Applause.) During the year
they had had some excessively heavy work to do for him in
printing " Zambesia." It was a book that had had a very large
circulation. It was a large book, and he could only say, with the
number of years' experience with book and newspaper work which
he had had, there never had such another work been published in
London that had been so well noticed and talked of by the Press.
They all knew there was a little jealousy in the Press, and he
thought such a fact as the one he had just mentioned, reflected a
very high honour on the Chairman, and he certainly ought to feel
proud of it. Mr. Mathers was well known in the city in connection
with South African affairs as an honest and straightforward

and its Founder, told by others

journalist. (Hear, hear.) There was a great amount of satisfaction
to be derived from being connected with such a gentlemen as
Mr. Mathers; he had always found him a good friend, ami a
straightforward business man, and he was sure he was a very good
employer. After some further observations in a similar strain, the
speaker said he had frequently heard the remark made that
" SOUTH AFRICA " should come out oftener, but Mr. Mathers knew
what he was about.

The toast was enthusiastically responded to with musical
honours and cheering.

The Chairman rose and said : You have, Mr. Railton, taken
some advantage of me by ploughing with Mr. Murray's heifer.
However, seeing that you have been so generous and kindly in
your reference to me, I should be the last to complain. I thank
you very much indeed, gentlemen, for the hearty manner in which
you have responded to this toast, and all I can say is that, as
regards the printers, I most heartily reciprocate every sentiment
that has fallen from Mr. Railton. We do sometimes get into tight
places, but somehow or other we manage to get out again without
hurting ourselves. As regards the work we have done this year,
it has certainly been very heavy. The getting out of that special
number was a task almost as big as starting a paper itself. We
got through that admirably from the printers' point of view ; I
think they deserve every credit for the way in which they got out
" Zambesia." It is true it was not got out for nothing. The
" oof " bird has flown away on a long journey, and I am hoping
that it will soon come back to roost in 23, Austin Friars. (Hear,
hear.) Whether we may or may not become greater than a weekly
newspaper I shall not vaticinate. It is sufficient in the meantime
that we are at present a strong weekly, and I thank you very
heartily for the way in which you have drunk my health.
(Applause.)

Mr. Adam (of the Union Steamship Company) proposed " The
Commercial Staff." He remarked that, with a paper like " SOUTH
AFRICA," he could well understand that, apart from the literary
department, it must be worked up by gentlemen who pushed its
interests in various ways. There was no doubt that the paper was well

issued, and he thought it was an authority which was listened to by
everybody ; he had heard it remarked upon, times without number,
by the passengers by their steamers who read it ; he was responsible
for his copy going to at least three towns in Scotland after he had
done with it, so that he might almost be considered to be on the
commercial staff himself. (Laughter.)

Mr. R. W. Murray, junr., responded to the toast of "The
Contributors and Visitors," and in the course of his remarks said it
was an intense pleasure to him when he came back from Pondoland
to the various towns in South Africa, to hear lots of people say to
him, " Yours are a capital series of papers in ' SOUTH AFRICA.' "
He had not seen them for some weeks, and it was very surprising
to him when he came back to the South African towns, to find
" SOUTH AFRICA" being talked about wherever he went. It showed
that

THE PAPER MUST HAVE A WONDERFUL CIRCULATION THROUGHOUT
SOUTH AFRICA.

It was because he thought " SOUTH AFRICA " was doing its work so
well that he contributed to its columns, and hoped that he might
be numbered amongst its contributors for many years to come.
(Loud applause.)

There were other speeches.

South Africa.

" SOUTH AFRICA" of January gth, 1892, referring to the increasing
prosperity of the paper, said :—

Time but the impression deeper makes,
As streams their channels deeper wear.

The testimony which Mr. R. W. Murray, the well-known South
African pressman, bore the other evening to our usefulness, and to
the greatness of our circulation in South Africa and Europe, was as
welcome as it was disinterested and extraordinary. It was the
testimony of no ordinary observer ; it was the verdict of one who has
rare opportunities of coming to the conclusion he so kindly and so
emphatically gave expression to at the annual dinner of " SOUTH
AFRICA."

KAvJOR W. HUDSOr/ HAfJD,
e-B

and

Jf^ToT)r//ER .f THE Ws of COURT HOTEL

'ff- 'Entrance IINCOLMS INK FIELDS)

--"TO MEET RHOOESIAKS VISITING THIS

p.m.. .Dinner 7-30

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

What " SOUTH AFRICA" had
accomplished in Five Years.

THE FIFTH "SOUTH AFRICA" ANNUAL DINNER.

South Africa.

Some quotations may be made from an article entitled " After
Five Years," which appeared in "SOUTH AFRICA " on December 30,
1893:--

It may be considered natural that to-day we should have a pre-
ference for retrospect over prospect. Perhaps our position is unique.
When we reflect on the past, we need to bury no memories, to re-
tract no mistaken or misleading dicta. We say this in no vain-
glorious, but in a grateful, albeit a proud spirit. For we have
established as the years have passed that entente with our readers —
they have in fact become in the most thorough reality our col-
laborators— which alone could ensure for us, and for those we
sought to represent, the full fruition of our aims. It is, perhaps,
the most pleasurable reflection of all among the many happy
memories and associations which crowd in upon our mental vision
at this closing of the year, that the appreciation of our readers has
shown itself all along in the form of many helpful acts, some small,
but none the less esteemed. We take leave to claim that central
feature of our past five years' career as the best tribute to the success
of our mission that we could have hoped for or attained. With
to-day's issue we close our fifth year of public effort in the cause of
what is just and of good report in South Africa. We have lived
as a journal but a lustrum : still the facts upon which we have
just dwelt warrant our assertion that there are few South Africans
who would not say that our existence has now become a public
necessity. The great strides which South Africa would make after
the opening up of the Transvaal Gold Fields, and the expansion of
the Empire Zambesi-wards, were for a long period before others
diagnosed the situation, objects of our solicitude and in some sense
of our prophecy. Our confidence in the eventuation of what we
foretold was not reckless. What we had seen rather than what we
had heard ; the legitimate inductions from observation and ex-
perience of the true inwardness of what was manifested to those
who in the earlier days sought the sign and were not disappointed ;
by these alone did we divine what has now been established in
all its magnificence of marshalled facts as plainlv proved. We
wrote about Matabeleland and its destiny long before concessions or
charters were so much as " in the air ;" and in this respect, as all
others, we have little reason to regret the working out of our re-
solve to represent the understanding and the sentiment, and the
sturdy work of South Africa at the centre of the world's commerce
and the world's endeavour. Our letter-bag, if its bulk and contents
could be daily revealed, would furnish solid testimony to the use-
fulness of our mission, and would exhibit the fact that our sphere
of influence is not alone British, but extends widely over the
European Continent, and claims allegiance from Western readers
across " the herring-pond." This extension of sphere amounts, in
fact, to a perplexing problem. Every editor knows and grieves
over the limitations of space. The chief complaints of our staff is
not merely that there is not room, but that the issue is not frequent
enough. Time and again the suggestion has been made that we
should publish oftener ; but those who make the suggestion wot
not of the difficulties of carrying it out. And besides this, we are
free to believe that our objects are, for the moment, amply
realised in our present shape. Our main object is to spread far
and wide in the Northern hemisphere information about our
adopted country. We may without boast lay claim to have
successfully educated in this way our F.nglish contemporaries on

points hitherto but slightly understood and scarcely appreciated by
them. Our readers hardly require to be reminded of what we said
in the early days we would do. Our original prospectus is still a
work of reference. But we point to-day to what we have done,
and when we say "we," we mean " SOUTH AFRICA" and Soutli
Africans, our real staff comprising, as we have hinted, all our
readers and all our friends.

And to further enlarge upon this mutual service in behalf of
our loved country, what does it tell us of during the past half-
decade ? Turn we to the Gold Output Lists, and note the growth
of the yearly returns from 34,897 ozs. at the close of 1887, to one
million and a half ounces at the close of 1893. Five millions will
not cover the sterling value represented. As great, nay, much
greater in as yet half-hidden value is the fruit of that work which
has had, and always will have, our most serious consideration and
strenuous support, England's advance in Africa, which we claim to
have watched and fostered from its renaissance. We were the first
to preach to the public of what now rings in everybody's ears -the
expansion of the Empire in Zambesia. Our special Mashonaland
number, published three years ago, is our testimony in this respect.
At the time we claimed for our treatment of the subject a special
appropriateness as its appearance was almost immediately con-
sequent upon the close of the visit to Europe of the High
Commissioner and the Cape Premier, and synchronous with the
progress of the negotiations between England and Portugal, which
eventuated in the scheme of delimitation of the Hinterland agreed
upon by Lord Salisbury. The rise and growth of the Chartered
Company and the colossal character of this Empire-builder had
also received our attention, and " Zambesia " was one of several
allied efforts. That it ran through more than one edition in a
marvellously short time is sufficient to indicate its service to the
cause of England's advance in Africa. Justified indeed by sub-
sequent events as we have traced them, was our suggestion of
those days : " Book from Cape Town to Cairo via the Victoria

Falls." Meanwhile our own great success as a

journal and the marvellous and steady progress of the country from
which we take our name give us great encouragement to hope that
our readers every where (and they include South Africans every where)
will have, as we certainly wish them with all cordiality, a Happy
New Year.

The Fifth Annual Dinner.

The fifth annual dinner of the employes of " SOUTH AFRICA "
was held on the 6th January, 1894, at Anderton's Hotel, Fleet Street.
Mr. E. P. Mathers occupied the chair, and Mr. R. J. Railton the
vice-chair. The company numbered about thirty.

After some observations from the chair, and the drinking of the
loyal toasts,

Mr. Frank Watkins (Transvaal Volksraad member for Barberton)
rose and asked the company to drink "Prosperity to 'Sorm
AFRICA.' " He did so, he said, because he considered that paper was
an able expounder of the best views concerning Soutli Africa. If
South Africa was able to dn anything to maintain harmonious
relationships between the British Colonies and the two Republics
it would be doing a great work of good for South Africa. He
therefore had very great pleasure in proposing success to the
venture started by Mr. Mathers, whom lie had known a long time.
It was a plucky thing for Mr. Mathers to come to England and

T ra'SOUTH HFKICK'Jwe 7.™

DIAGRAM SHOWING TONS MILLED, GOLD OBTAINED & DIVIDENDS PAID BY PRODUCING COMPANIES ON THE

WITWATERSRAND GOLD FIELDS FROM 1887 TO 1899.

LJU TOHt UIILID LJ COiO OITAIMIO (,njCt!rrl,,.9!

DlVtOtMDI MIO fajrvrH.iyl

THE WITWATERSRAND GOLD FIELD S .

DIVIDEND PAYING COMPANIES. 1895.

555

e ~Socr« inttt ' OCT If 1896

THE WITWATERSRANO COLD FIELDS

REDUCED FACSIMILES OF COLOURED DIAGRAM SUPPLEMENTS

ISSUED WITH "SOUTH AFRICA."

5wnw.r ,,'SOUTH AFRICA " J,*,ur U™ 1903.

THE OUTPUT FROM THE WITWATERSRAND GOLD FIELDS.

SHEWING THE MONTH! V OUTPUT OF GOLD IN OUNCES WITH THE AVERAGE QUARTERLY FLUCTUATIONS 'N THE PRICE OF SHARES IN
SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL SOUTH AFRICAN COMPANIES

• ill I III -INdMM »M» T«W WMIMr M.I|M.t 1.000 •».-', •" * •« luck.- 0>»fUrtJ fWnt!4Mit In ItM ptol rf Itant. lh« nwflfMl MlM MM OMrtkr»d w 100 » n»lt»- "V of » Inon

Suwlrmtnt to 'SOUTH AFRICA' January 31* 1303.

THE OUTPUT FROM THE RHODE5IAN GOLD FIELDS.

Diagram showing the Monthly Output of Gold in Ounces.

Vtrt.cal Scalt 2.500 ozs. . I inch

1899 _ 1900' ' ~ _J9pi " 1302..'

Si-mi

MINT TO 'SOUTH Anne* ~ No*

THE

' 7~ /ass
WITWATERSRAND GOLD FIELDS.

DIAGRAM SHEWING MONTHLY PER CENTAGES REALISED IN I89i FROM DIFFERENT PROCfcSSES

OF 1894 AND IS95 RESPECT! VEUY

goUTHQFRICA

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and its Founder^ told by others

isi.iblish ';SouTH AFRICA," and by his energy and ability he had
shown that he thoroughly deserved the great success which lie had
.achieved.

The toast was duly honoured.

The Chairman, in reply, dwelt on the fact that the circulation
of '' SOUTH AFRICA" had increased very much during the last year
or two, not only in South Africa and the Mother Country, but all
over the Continent of Europe, where a great and growing interest
was being manifested in the affairs of South Africa, especially gold
and diamond mining affairs.

Mr. J. W. Nolan asked permission to give them the toast of the
" South African Press." After paying a compliment to " SOUTH
AFRICA," he proceeded to speak of the spread of the newspaper
press in Zambesia. He coupled with the toast the names of Mr. W.
J. Vause, of the \ntiil Mercury, and Mr. Frank Watkins, who was,
as they had heard from their Chairman, an old pressman, having
run the Gold l-'ields M,-rcury in the early days of Pilgrim's Rest.

Mr. Yause, in acknowledging the toast, said that it had given him
much pleasure to meet them that afternoon round that board. He
had not been long in good old England, but still he might say that
he had had a good many social functions of that kind to attend ;
but the gathering he was assisting at then had given him more
pleasure than any he had attended, because, as they had been told,
he had been connected for many years with the South African
Press. He was very thankful to the gentleman who had proposed
the toast of the Press of South Africa. Although he was only a
young man, 25 years out of his 40 had been spent in journalism.
iHear, hear.) He started as a humble printer's "devil"; he was
proud now to say that he was near the head, at all events of the
commercial department, of a newspaper, and, therefore, he could
appreciate the difficulties which the chief of a paper had to contend
with, although he might add that Mr. Mathers had not had to sur-
mount anything approaching the difficulties with which they had
had to fight in the Colonies. His old friend and himself had been
connected in the Colony of Natal ; he was with him in the good
old Natal ^Mercury office. Mr. Mathers' good fortune led him to
England, where he had established " SOUTH AFRICA," and what
was Natal's loss had been London's gain. But speaking personally,
he would say that what had been London's gain had been his gain
also, because though latterly his friend had been in very pleasant
•opposition in Natal, still he was glad he was now giving London
the benefit of his ability and energy, as he must confess he was
very relieved when he" heard Mr. Mathers had made up his mind to
leave Natal and come to London. They also knew that his worth
would be more appreciated here, where there was such an enormous
population to assist a paper. As he had said before, it gave him
great pleasure to be with them on that occasion : he felt at home.
They out in Natal liked "SOUTH AFRICA." They were
proud to see and congratulate Mr. Mathers on the
great success which his paper had achieved. They
looked upon "SOUTH AFRICA," although published in
London, as a Colonial paper. In the editorial portion it
took up all sides. It was not a paper of Cape Town, or of
Natal, he was pleased to say, or of the Free State, or of the Trans-
vaal ; but from what they could judge, its aim was to bring all
the Colonies and States together. (Hear, hear.) He thought one
<if its objects was to do what it could towards bringing about
the unification of the Colonies in South Africa in the futuie. This
might take many years; indeed, many of them might not see it
accomplished, but it was certain the time would come when there
would be a united South Africa. He thanked the company
.assembled for the way in which they had received the toast.
[Applause.)

Mr. F. Watkins, in also responding, said he felt sure that all

lit would agree with him that by the publication of good and

jinirtieal newspapers, like " SOUTH AI-KK A," the whole world would

become better acquainted with what had hitherto been known as

the I >ark Continent.

Mr. K. J. Uailton, in replying to the toast of " The Printers,"
spoke of the greatly increased work which the rapidly growing
"SOUTH AFRICA " entailed on the printers. (Cheers.)

The health of the 'Chairman was prop ,s,,|. and enthusiastically
drunk.

Pars in 1894.

The Times

thus headed a column quotation from the paper on January agth : —
The current number of " SOUTH AFRICA" contains an exceed-
inglv interesting account of the operations against the Matabele
from the date on which the Salisbury column stalled from Port
Charter, Mashonaland — October 2nd -until the beginning of
November, when the battle of M'Bembesi took place.

In October, 1894, "SOUTH AFRICA" had the following: —
"Interviewing by the Acre" is how our lively friend Money
heads the following reference:- -

Prodigious ! That is the only word we have for the interviewing
process to which our vigorous contemporary, " SOUTH AFRICA," has just
subjected Mr. Carl Hanau. How many interviewers were exhausted in
the process of obtaining Mr. Carl Hanau's opinion on all the varied
subjects dealt with is not quite clear, but Mr. Hanau was game to the last.
The conversation ranged from mining to politics, from engineering to
personalities ; it soared from deep levels into high levels. There are tips
for speculators and hints for investors ; there are prophecies and retro-
spects. In short, Mr. Hanau has been interviewed indeed.
Yes, and the interview had a very visible and tangible influence on
the market.

Westminster Gazette.

In the same month the \\'estininster Gazette, under the heading
" What is ' South Africa ' ? " had the following :-—

" Delagoa Bay is the one harbour of South Africa which does
not belong to Great Britain," says the Times. " What about Beira,
Mozambique, Quilimane ? " cries " SOUTH AFRICA." Which shows
that it is quite time we came to a conclusion as to what South
Africa really is. We are inclined to give a verdict for our weekly
as against our daily contemporary Clearly, there-
fore, " SOUTH AFRICA'S " case for Greater South Africa is a
strong one.

/W/ Mall Gazette.

During November, 1894, alluding to the comprehensive accounts
of Mr. Rhodes and Dr. Jameson's arrival, published in " SOUTH
AFRICA," the Pall ^[all Gazette last Saturday remarked : —

"SouTH AFRICA" deals excellently well with the arrival of Mr.
Rhodes and his party.

Natal Mercury.

About this time the Natal Mercury said : —
We are indebted to that excellent compendium of news and
views—" SOUTH AFRICA " — for, &c.

An Edition de Luxe.

On occasion, the contents of " SOUTH AFRICA" are by arrange-
ment reprinted by those who find it profitable to do so. In April,
1894, the Castle Packets Company ordered a good many thousands
of a special edition de luxe reprint of an illustrated descriptive
report of the trial cruise of one of their steamers.

Pars in 1895.

Money.

The following, from ^[oiiey during May, 1895, is a specimen
of the English Press references to " SOUTH AFRICA'S " gratuitous
map of the Witwatei>rand gold fields: —

The last issue of " SOUTH AFRICA" contained a valuable
supplement in the form of a map of the gold fields, which is likely
to prove very popular. Like everything of the kind issued from
the office of this journal, it is distinguished by its singular
accuracy.

La Petite Cote.

Parisian contemporaries had several notices of the map. That in
1 <t I'etite Cote was as follows : —

I.e journal " SOUTH AFRICA" public de magnifiques cartes
de 1'Afrique du Sud, territoire des mines d'or

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newsfiafier

World.

In December of the same year the World had the
following i—-
The twenty-seventh volume of " SOUTH AFRICA " consists of the
weekly numbers of the paper from July 6th to September j8th,
1895, inclusive, bound together in a substantial form. There is

also an excellent index, which we have tested many times without
its once failing to direct us to the information required. The
bright comments upon current subjects connected with South
Africa, and the varied information published regularly while it is
fresh, together with the copious reports and carefully executed
maps and plans, give this volume distinct value as a permanent
book of reference.

" SOUTH AFRICA'S"
Sixth Birthday.

SOME INTERESTING SPEECHES BY GUESTS AT

THE ANNUAL DINNER.

THE sixth annual dinner of the employes of " SOUTH AFRICA "
and friends was held on January 5th, 1895, at Anderton's
Hotel, Fleet Street. About 30 were present, and the pro-
ceedings were very enthusiastic. Mr. E. P. Mathers presided, and
he was faced in the vice-chair by Mr. R. J. Railton.

The usual loyal toasts were proposed and responded to.
Mr. R. W. Murray said he took it to be a privilege that night to
propose the toast, " Success to ' SOUTH AFRICA.' " Whenever and
wherever possible he always did all he could to help " SOUTH
AFRICA," for the paper was admirably managed, and splendidly
conducted by Mr. Mathers, the editor. Mr. Mathers and he were
very old friends. It was a friendship which he cherished in every
way, for he found that his friend had brought into this great
London, this modern Babylon, a newspaper representing a country
— or rather something more than a country, almost a Colonial
Empire- -which told to all the people of this land most truth -
fullv and honestly the affairs which were going on out in South
Africa. Literature was a great boon when it was properly
conducted ; it might be something else if it were not, and they,
South Africans — they claimed to be South Africans from the
Cape of Good Hope up to the Zambesi now — held in great
respect this paper which so straightforwardly and fearlessly
represented them. The reason Mr. Mathers had been able to
make " SOUTH AFRICA" such a great success was because he
was courteous, straightforward, and a hard worker. No newspaper
was ever successful unless there was very hard work put into it.
"SOUTH AFRICA" was bound to be a great paper;
in fact, nothing- could stop its being so unless
South Africa ceased to be a great country. As long
as South Africa existed and progressed so long must
the newspaper " SOUTH AFRICA " exist and progress.
He trusted that for all time the paper would be conducted with the
same temperance, with the same regard for the people, and without
anv arrogance on any subject whatever. So long as it faithfully
reflected public opinion in the same way that photographs reflect
our faces, then as sure as he was standing there that night " SOUTH
AFRICA " would be one of the great powers in the development of
thought, and it would be appreciated by many thousands of people
connected with the country from which it took its name. (Great
applause.)

The toast having been duly honoured —

" Beyond the Necessity for Charity, and ]>eyond
the Power of Malice"

The Chairman rose and said that although Mr. Murray had not
coupled his name with the toast, yet he could not allow his very

hearty and kindly expressions to pass without saying something in
reply to them. After remarking that he would never forget the
starting of " SOUTH AFRICA," the speaker discoursed on the trials
and troubles of newspaper launching. He got out the first number
in a room once occupied by Dr. Johnson, and whether that had
anything to do with the fact or not, he was of opinion that their
first number was as good as any they had since published. Since
that time the many difficulties he had had to contend against were
now all things of the past — a dream, or should he say a forgotten
nightmare ? He had always been proud of the paper, but never
more so than now, when many thousands of people looked to it for
that guidance which he always tried to give, honestly and well.
Commercially speaking, the paper was very successful ; indeed, it
was even more successful than in the early days he had reason to
hope for. Those who knew the trials of struggling journalists
would appreciate what he said when he informed them that
"SouTH AFRICA " had now reached a stage when it was beyond the
necessity for charity and beyond the power of malice. (Cheers.)
So far for the commercial aspect. As regarded the literary point of
view, although he could assure them that

THE SMILES OF APPRECIATION MIGHT CHEER HIM ON HIS WAY, HE
COULD ALSO HONESTLY SAY THAT NOBODY'S FROWN HAD ANY FEARS

FOR HIM.

(Applause.) But if they had reached a high stage of commercial
success, it was not by his efforts alone. Far be it from him
to take all the credit for the success of " SOUTH AFRICA."
He had been most ably seconded by Mr. Railton in all the
troublesome duties he had had to perform as printer. He
had also been fortunate in having round him a staff whose
loyalty had been unequalled by that of any other paper with
which he had ever had anything to do. He had also to acknow-
ledge the very great assistance which he had received from a number
of valued contributors, among them the gentleman who had so
kindly proposed that toast. It was about fifteen years since
Mr. Murray and he first became friends, at a time when the former
was doing good work for his paper, the Cape Times. Mr. Murray
had been up to Zanzibar, and had called at Natal on his way
south ; and what he did then would no doubt some day be more
fully written, for Mr. Murray had made a mark on the history of
that country which would not soon be forgotten. Mr. Murray, with
his late respected partner, Mr. St. Leger, and the Prime Minister of
Natal, Sir John Robinson, were very properly regarded as the three
leading newspaper men in South Africa, and he hoped they would
each of them live long to be ornaments and guards of their adopted
country. (Applause.)

Mr. W. Y. Campbell, in giving " The Printers," coupling with the
toast the name of Mr. Railton, said that as a typographical produc-
tion " SOUTH AFRICA " was unique amongst the papers of this city.

ami its Founder, told by others

For its get-up, for its general neatness, for arrangement- -in fact, for
everything it took a very prominent place amongst the weeklies
published in this great city, and he took it that typographical art
found, perhaps, its best expression in London. The firm which
printed " SOUTH AFRICA " to-day was the same which printed it when
it first came out, and this fact alone testified to the excellence of
their productions. He well remembered the time when Mr. Mathers
took the resolution of coming home to start the paper " SOUTH
AI-UICA." He was one of his strongest dissuaders. Mr. Mathers had
made his name in journalism in South Africa, but his ambition was
to start a paper dealing with South African matters in London.
He {Mr. Campbell) thought the task a hopeless one ; but
not so Mr. Mathers, who came, and saw, and conquered.
(Applause.) He started the paper, with which, as they
had heard, he was now satisfied commercially. This
was a strong position to be in. Speaking on behalf
of himself and on behalf of many thousands of
South Africans, he might say that "SOUTH
AFRICA'S " success had been to them in South
Africa a great boon, because it had become
necessary, owing to the very novelty of the
country, and to the fact that ten years ago
but very few people knew where South Africa
— the Cinderella of the Empire — was, that the
people of this country should be educated in
regard to it. It was not only Rand gold which
had brought the country into prominence ;
but "SOUTH AFRICA" had had a great deal
to do with it by giving reliable news, not only
of that gold, but of the general progress of the
country. Outside, however, of the ordinary purveying
of news, the paper had an educational value which they
in South Africa were quick to perceive and loyally to
recognise. When Mr. Mathers was out in South Africa
eighteen months ago, he was entertained by the leading
citizens in Johannesburg at a dinner which was presided
over by Mr. Phillips, the chairman of the Chamber of
Mines, the toast of the evening being " Mr. Mathers and
' SOUTH AFRICA.' " (Applause.) He (Mr. Campbell) was
very pleased that such public and emphatic expression
was given to the services rendered by Mr. Mathers to South
Africa and South Africans. In conclusion Mr. Campbell
proposed " Prosperity to the Printers," coupling with the
toast the name of Mr. Railton.

Mr. Railton, in returning thanks, said that as regarded
the printing of " SOUTH AFRICA " he personally took a
great deal of pride in its production, which he knew was
conducted in a thoroughly satisfactory manner. He had
had over thirty-five years' practical experience of news-
paper work in all departments, and he could honestly
say that never in the whole course of his experience had
he worked in such unanimous accord and heartiness with
anyone as he did with Mr. Mathers.

Mr. A. J. Macphail, in responding to the toast of " The
Visitors," said that although he had had a previous engage-
ment for that evening, yet he had so managed things that
he was able to accept Mr. Mathers' very kind invita-
tion to be present at the dinner that night. He had lately
had the good fortune of travelling in Rhodesia along with a
party whose object was to ascertain whether this new country
offered those advantages for investment which capitalists might
consider to be satisfactory. After a three months' sojourn
he was quite at one with expert opinion already given, tha"t
both Matabeleland and Mashonaland offered very good pro-
spects. Referring to "SOUTH AFRICA," of which he had
been a reader for several years, the paper was one for
people at home as well as for those on the other side
of the water. On board the steamer going out, at
Capetown, at Johannesburg, Bulawayo, Salisbury,
indeed at every town at which their party stopped,

the familiar yellow covers of "SOUTH AFRICA" were
very much en evidence. (Hear, hear.) He recollected
paying a visit to a store-keeper on their road up
to Salisbury. He had a copy of the paper dated some-
where in 1893, and, although he visited him in
August, 1894, he was still perusing the pages. It
fairly took away his breath when Mr. Macphail
showed him a copy about five weeks old, and he had
to make him a solemn promise he would send him back

1898.

%r-

•I'f*.

A GREETING TO "SOUTH AFRICA"

that copy from Salisbury. He could assure them that
there was no paper published which was more eagerly
sought after in South Africa than "SOUTH AFRICA."
The Salisbury Club was in receipt of two copies
weekly, to obtain a glance at which on the arrival of
the mail there was always a regular scrimmage. Not
only was the paper circulated there, but coming down
the Beira Railway one of the railway officials lifted
up the lid of a box and produced — what ? the latest
copy of "SOUTH AFRICA." They could, therefore,
imagine that the paper was at a high premium every-
where throughout South Africa, it being a great boon

D 2

T/ie Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

to all who were eager for news from " Home, sweet
Home." (Applause.)

Mr. J. H. Rait, also responding to the toast, said that he had
just recently returned from South Africa, and he could
heartily endorse the remarks made by Mr. Macphail,
for he always saw " SOUTH AFRICA" everywhere—
in houses, in stores, in hotels, in offices, and in clubs,
and elsewhere — and he could say that its arrival
was always looked forward to with eagerness.

Mr. Murray then rose and said that he was always ready and
willing to help anybody that did anything for the advancement of
South Africa. They had present that night Mr. G. Rait, the Chair-
man of the Crystal Palace, who was inaugurating the South
African Exhibition this year, and, in asking those present to ilrink
his health, he expressed the hope that the Exhibition would be one
which would worthily represent their great country. (Applause.)

Mr. Rait, in rising to reply, was received with loud applause.
He said the responsibility of the Exhibition rested entirely with
himself, and he accepted that responsibility in the most cordial
manner. He had been long interested in the paper " SOUTH
AFRICA," and had followed what Mr. Mathers had been doing with
very great interest. Referring to Mr. Mathers, he said he had
watched the growth of his paper from the very beginning, and was
a constant reader of it, and was perfectly amazed at the informa-
tion given in " SOUTH AFRICA." He would say, without any
flattery at all, from the bottom of his heart, that, as a Scotchman
hailing from Edinburgh, and knowing something of Mr. Mathers'

father, he felt very proud indeed to find that they had such a paper
as " SOUTH AFRICA." He considered the information that was col-
lected within its pages within sucli a short period was perfectly
marvellous. He referred to " SOUTH AFRICA'S " description of the
arrival of Mr. Rhodes, whom they could congratulate upon the
honour which had been just conferred upon him. When he took
up " SOUTH AFRICA " and saw the promptitude with which its
readers were all posted up as to Mr. Rhodes's arrival, they could not
fail to appreciate the energy of Mr. Mathers. In " SOUTH AFRICA "
were also given the meetings of every public company connected
with South Africa which had been held in the City during the
week, and he had no hesitation in congratulating them all on
being connected with such a very worthy enterprise. He had been
looking at the clock and thinking how dependent it was on its
main-spring. " SOUTH AFRICA " was an excellent clock, but it
would be nothing without Mr. Mathers, and he had great pleasure
in asking them to drink his health.

This having been done with three times three and musical
honours,

The Chairman responded. In the course of his remarks he said
that he worked for his paper with all the energy he could com-
mand. Though his lot was necessarily cast in the Mother Country,
not till the end of his days would his feelings of devotion to his
adopted country, South Africa, begin to grow dim.
Time but the impression deeper makes,
As streams their channels deeper wear.

The proceedings closed with " Auld LangfSyne" by the
company.

Press Bits about
" SOUTH AFRICA" after 1895.

SIR H.

M. STANLEY'S LETTERS TO
"SOUTH AFRICA."

INDICATIONS of the manner in which " SOUTH AFRICA"
continued to be referred to by its London contemporaries
may be given. Its gold output diagram in January, 1897,
was referred to at some length by its City brethren :~

financial News.

To-day's issue of " SOUTH AFRICA" contains as a supplement
" The Output from the Witwatersrand Gold Fields." The diagram
is alike interesting and instructive, and shows

Financial limes.

To-day's number of " SOUTH AFRICA" is accompanied by a
chart showing the monthly output of gold from the Rand
since 1887, together with the average quarterly fluctuations in the

shares in some of the principal companies We

congratulate our contemporary on its enterprise in producing so
useful a record.

Truth said: -

The current issue of "SOUTH AFRICA" contains a diagram

Well got up, and enables the comparison with

different periods to be easily made.

Mining World.

Our valued contemporary, "SOUTH AFRICA," is, as usual, to the
fore with its maps. It has just published a chart showing the
monthly output of gold from the> Rand in ounces between 1887
and 1896 inclusively, with the average quarterly fluctuations in the

price of shares in some of the principal South African Companies.
This should be to many persons a most useful chart.

Portrait of Mr. Rhodes.

There was a great run on " SOUTH AFRICA " of January 2jrd,
1897, on account of the presentation with it of a very fine plate
portrait of the late Mr. Rhodes.

Financial News.

With to-day's " SOUTH AFRICA " is presented a capital picture
of Mr. Rhodes, which, framed, makes a really handsome portrait of
the newly-arrived South African statesman.

Financial Times.

From " SOUTH AFRICA " we have received a framed copy of the
portrait of Mr. Cecil Rhodes published by our contemporary as a
supplement. It is an admirable likeness, most artistically executed,
and is a very opportune publication at the present time.

H. M. Stanleys Letters.

Many of the papers of the United Kingdom in November, 1897,
commented on the enterprise of " SOUTH AFRICA " in securing the
services of Mr. 1 1. M. Stanley, M. P., to write it special letters from
Rhodesia.

Dundee Advertiser.

H. M. Stanley, M.P., is at present in South Africa, and has
arranged to write a series of articles dealing with the prospects and
resources of Rhodesia exclusively for " SOUTH AFRICA," the leading
weekly journal devoted to South African affairs.

and its Founder, told by others

Long quotations from, and comments upon, Mr. H. M. Stanli \ s
description of Paul Kruger, which was published specially in
"SOUTH AFRICA," appeared during January, 1898, in many of the,
leading London and provincial papers.

Christian World.

The Christian World, a journal of great circulation, had
the following : —

The hopes of those interested in Rhodesian properties have
been raised to a high pitch by Mr. H. M. Stanley's letters to
" SOUTH AFRICA."

Alining World.

In June, 1898, the Mining World had the following: —
Our contemporary, " SOUTH AFRICA," has produced a most
admirable photograph of the Chartered Company's Board of
Directors. Of course, the central figure is Mr. Rhodes, of whom an
exceedingly good portrait has been secured.

Finding Lost Relatives.

The following letter to the Editor was published in " SOUTH
AFRICA " on October 1st, 1898 : —

MY DF.AR SIR, — Many thanks to you and your valuable paper in
helping to find my father, for you can tell it has set my mind at rest
after so many years, for it is now a very long while since he went away —
it was in 1887. And now once more I heartily thank you for your kind
service, closing with my best wishes for your paper.

I remain, yours faithfully,

W. BROWN.
7, Bow Lane, Poplar, 1C.,

September 26.
P.S. — You can make what use of this you like.

And this one a few weeks later : —

DEAR SIR, — Having seen in your paper, "SOUTH AFRICA," of
September 17, 1898, an inquiry for W. Thompsett, who left Tunbridge
Wells in 1858, and as I am that person, I enclose my address. If you
would kindly forward same to my brother's children, I shall feel obliged.

I am, Sir, yours faithfully,

W. TlIOMPSETT,
Newcastle, Natal, South Africa.
Newcastle, October 13.

Madras Sentinel.

The Madras Sentinel, in devoting some remarks to one of its
recent articles, said during October, 1898 :—

" SOUTH AFRICA " takes a very sensible view of the decision
arrived at by the Transvaal High Court in the test case
about the restriction of Indians to " locations."

About a Diagram.

On January nth, 1899, " SOUTH
AFRICA " thanked many of its contem-
poraries, from the Times downwards,
for the kindly reference they made to
the diagram showing the gold out-
put from Witwatersrand, published in
" SOUTH AFRICA." " Usual enterprise,"
" very useful," " ingenious chart,"
" sh< iwing at a glance in an attractive
manner," "excellent explanatory dia-
gram," "no Kaffir speculator or investor
should be without it," were among
the Haltering remarks made about the
strikinglv suggestive supplement.

St. fatness Gazette.

In February the .S7. James's Gazette
reprinted in full and with due
acknowledgment, an important inter-
view '' SOUTH AFRICA" had witlr Sir
Charles Metcalfe.

West m i nster Gazette .

The Westminster (iazette also
qufited from it.

The Rate Light Travels.

It has heroine rather a trite truism that what "Sorm AFRICA"
says about South African a flairs other papers say months and
sometimes years after. In September, 1899, " SOUTH AFRICA "r had
the following : —

WTsat we wrote Three Tears ago.

WHAT "Tun TIMES
"SiH-ni AFRICA," May 2, 1896.
KRUGER v. VICTORIA.

SAID YESTERDAY.

" Tin: TIMKS," September 8, 1899,
A wider issue has been raised and in-
Mst<-d upon in the despatch which its
authors profess to hope may still !<-;id n>
a good understanding. The issue now,
as we pointed out yeMt:rd;i\, i^ nothing
less than that of British supremacy in

South Africa

Before an issue like this, r
of the Transvaal franchise, the a!
the dynamite monopoly, the deKnidittimi
of the High Court, the iniquities of the
liquor system, and all the other wrongs
and scandals of Boer misgovern merit
fade into insignificance.

UNDER WHICH?

It really has come to that now. We
are at the parting of the ways, and a very-
few months must settle the question
whether Queen Victoria is to remain the
paramount power in South Africa or

not England must make up

her mind therefore either to betray or
shield her children in South Africa. . .

The issue must come, and the sooner
the better. Paul Kruger already esti-
mates that he can rely on the services
of 40,000 rifles from the dominions of the
Queen in South Africa. He reckons in
vain ; but, none the less, he does so
reckon, and uses figures himself in con-
versation in justification of his vain boast.
He thus brings before us sharp set the
proposition whether Paul Kruger or
Queen Victoria is to be the dominating
power in South Africa or not ; whether
for Boer and British alike the J'a.\
Hritannica is to exist over the whole
area of South Africa as the one essential
for progress and decent living. Again
we say, let a truce be called to all the
meaningless platitudes and reckless ad-
jectives used in exaltation of Paul Kruger,
in his clever but unscrupulous conspiracy
against England in South Africa. Let us
now take a leaf out of his own book, and
claim what we want in unmistakable
language. It will be the truest kindness
to the Boer, and it is the incumbent and
imperative duty of the Imperial Govern-
ment to the English race in South Africa.

Natal Mercury.

In November, 1899, the Natal Mercury had the following : -

The Durban Anglian Club is dormant, and I believe before

these notes appear the Secretary (Mr. J. Wallace-Bradley) will be

at the front, using his camera on behalf of " SOUTH AFRICA."

Mr. Mathers having secured his services for his paper.

•"<£)•

BRANCH
Oaa<A

A BIG CHEQUE

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

Cape Argus.

The Cape Argus in the same month said :- -
A literary competition of interest to refugees has been organised
bv the proprietor of the newspaper " SOUTH AFRICA."

Daily Telegraph.

The Daily Telegraph's correspondent concluded a letter written
from Cape Town on December 3ist, 1899 : —

Poor Leyds has enough to do manufacturing canards, in
addition to this new and awful task. " SOUTH AFRICA " calls
Leyds' telegrams " Brussels sprouts." They are intended solely for
Continental consumption.

Our War Pictures and Neivs.

\ correspondent writing from the Cape to " SOUTH AFRICA " in
March, 1900, remarked : —

As a weekly reader of your popular weekly, I must congratulate
you on the excellent war pictures and war news contained in your
paper, which is very popular in South Africa.

Newcastle Leader.

In the same month the Newcastle Leader discussed " SOUTH
AFRICA'S " Special Commissioner's article on the Robben Island
lepers, calling it " a gruesome but very interesting one."

Evening Wisconsin.

In March, 1900, the E^>ening Wisconsin, published in Milwaukee,
U.S.A., referred to " SOUTH AFRICA " as follows: —

The existing war between Great Britain and the Boers has
given increased vogue to " SOUTH AFRICA," a weekly magazine
published in London (39, Old Broad Street, E.G.) under the
management of Edward P. Mathers. It is always well filled with
South African news, including war notes and stories by soldiers
and refugees, and is illustrated with photographic pictures.

In the following month the American paper was also good
enough to say : —

" SOUTH AFRICA " continues to give more interesting news from
that portion of the world than can be found in any other weekly
journal

Our Influence.

The following paragraphs appeared in " SOUTH AFRICA " in
December, igoi : —

A correspondent, writing to us under date November nth from
Bloemfontein, says :--

Your paper for some time past has been a source of very great
interest to me, and the great things for South Africa therein fore-
shadowed is gratifying to one who for some years has been
identified with the country, especially after the dark days of the
immediate past. Now that under the liberal rule of the British
the Gold Industry of the Transvaal will prosper, and that redoubled
efforts to discover the yet unfound mineral wealth which must
exist in this Colony will naturally follow, the future presents many
grand possibilities, and towards that end I think " SOUTH AFRICA "
has contributed not a little.

The St. James's Gazette of Tuesday had the following : —
With the current number of " SOUTH AFRICA " is given away an
excellent railway map showing all the lines working, under
construction, authorised, or proposed, in every part of South Africa.
The map is clearly printed and is most useful.

A contemporary writes : —

" SOUTH AFRICA " for last week is worth securing, if for nothing
but the large coloured map of the country.
So said thousands who got extra copies.

The following paragraphs are from " SOUTH AFRICA " during May
and June, 1902 : —

Citizen.

Last Saturday's Citizen had the following : —

My excellent contemporary " SOUTH AFRICA" contains in its
current issue an illustrated account of the funeral of the late
Mr. Cecil Rhodes, which is very interesting reading.

London Stock Market Report.

The London Stock Market Report has the following, in the
course of a very interesting retrospect of "The Kaffir Market " : —

The publication of " The Gold Fields Revisited," by Mr.
E. P. Mathers, F.R.G.S., followed by the journal " SOUTH
AFRICA " at the end of the year named, forcibly directed attention
to the Companies newly formed in the Witwatersrand, with the
result that several of the more important were at once introduced
on this market.

South Africa.

The Press noticed our last Gold Output diagram very favourably.

Morning Post.

The Morning Post said : —

With to-day's " SOUTH AFRICA " is presented a most graphic and
admirably arranged diagram, showing at a glance the tons milled,
the gold obtained, and the dividends paid by the producing
Companies of the Rand gold field from 1887 to 1899.

Financial News.

The Financial News remarked : —

Among the numerous diagrams and charts now being issued for
the benefit of those interested in South African gold mines,
favourable mention may be made of the diagram supplement
presented with the current issue of " SOUTH AFRICA." It shows, &c.

Westminster Gazette.

The Westminster Gazette of Monday says : —

"SOUTH AFRICA" supplies a vivid coloured diagram indicating
the past records of all the principal Rand mines; the Robinson
Company's column, though it rears its head " like some tall bully,"
to the very verge of the chart, does not, " like a tall bully," lie, as
the shareholders are happy to acknowledge.

Later references to " SOUTH AFRICA " up to the date of going to
press with its "Story" will be found scattered through these pages.

IN last Monday's Daily Graphic there is a picture of Surgeon
Rayner showing the special number of " SOUTH AFRICA " — which it
will be remembered, was devoted to an exhaustive description of
the resources and prospects of Mashonaland — to some Kaffir
women. Perhaps Mr. E. P. Mathers will take the interest which
the women showed in the pictures, and the readiness with which
the portraits of Matabele women and soldiers were recognised, as
the greatest tribute that has yet been paid to the pictorial accuracy
of his excellent work. By the bye, the more we read of Lord
Randolph Churchill's letters the more the impression grows upon
us that his lordship has found the special " SOUTH AFRICA " a useful
crib to the art of descriptive letter-writing on the subject of
Mashonaland.' City Leader.

A NEW field for our surplus population is strongly recommended
to the public in "Zambesia : England's El Dorado," by Mr. E. P.
Mathers. Mr. Mathers is an enthusiast about South Africa, and is
filled with the conviction that everything may be found there
which the heart of man can desire. He supplies an ample fund of
information, by means of which intending emigrants may be able
to form an idea of the prospects before them. The book has the
further advantage of containing some excellent maps. — New York
Herald.

MR. MATHERS is a firm believer in the future of the South
African Gold Fields. He is an explorer and investigator, who in
person writes of that which he has seen. His book is well illus-
trated by maps and statistical tables.- Saturday AVrvVvv.

and its Founder, told by others

.s'«/y./,v«,7,/ i,' "SOUTH AFRICA" )'•<>«'< tjth

DE BEERS CONSOLIDATED MINES, LIMITED.

>^Q:

REDUCED FACSIMILE OF A "SOUTH AFRICA" PLATE SUPPLEMENT.

" SOUTH AFRICA'S"
Interviews with Notabilities.

A DISTINGUISHING feature of "SOUTH AFRICA" are the
interviews with leading personages on important topics
which appear in its pages from time to time. These inter-
views have taken place chiefly in the Editorial sanctum at 39, Old
Broad Street. The names of a few of those who have kindly
answered questions put to them by " SOUTH AFRICA " are now
given, together with the dates of the papers in which interviews
with them were published : -

Hon. J. X. Merriman September 21, 1889.

Sir Frederick Young ... ... ... ... October 5, 1889.

Mr. E. Lippert November 9, 1889.

Mr. F. C. Selous ... ... ... ... January n, 1890.

Miss Colenso ... ... ... March i, 1890.

Mr. 15. I. Barnato March 22, 1890.

Mr. \V. Y. Campbell March 22, 1890.

Rev. S. J. Du Toit ... ... ... ... March 22, 1890.

Sir I). Currie ... ... ... March 29, 1890.

Mr. \V. F. Lawrence, M.P. ... ... ... April 26, 1890.

Mr. James Butler, A.M.I.C.E ... ... May 10, 1890.

Mr. J. B. Taylor ... ... June 7, 1890.

Mr. Leonard Acutt ... ... ... ... June 14, 1890.

Mr. Lionel Brough ... ... June 14, 1890.

Mr. W. W. Wheeler ... August 30, 1890.

Mr. Alford ... ... January 10, 1891.

Mr. Vaughan Williams ... ... ... May 9, 1891.

Rev. W. M. Carter, Bishop of Zululand ... May 16, 1891.

Mr. Melmoth Osborn ... ... May 30, 1891.

Hon. J. Rose Innes, Q.C ... October 3, 1891.

Mr. Henry Kimber, M.P ... November 14, 1891.

Mr. A. R. Colquhoun ... ... ... ... December 5, 1891.

Hon. D. P. de Villiers Graaf, M.L.C. ... Decernber 19, 1891.

Mr. E. A. Maund ... ... January 16, 1892.

Mr. Bishop Knight Bruce ... ... ... January 23, 1892.

Mr. Robert Williams ... ... ... ... February 6, 1892.

Mr. J. Theodore Bent ... February 6, :v

Mr. H. T. Tamplin, M.L.A. ... ... ... February 13, 1892.

Major Leonard... ... ... March 5, 1892.

Mr. A. Beit ... ... ... March 19, 1892.

Mr. Justice Williams ... ... April 2, 1892.

Right Hon. C. J. Rhodes April 16, 1892.

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

Mr. James Lawrence (Mayor of Kimberley)
Mr. Carl Meyer...

Mr. H. Eckstein

Sir S. Shippard...
Capt. Lovett Cameron
Mr. A. A. Anderson
Sir Henry Loch
Mr. C. B! Elliott

President Reitz...

Sir Charles Metcalfe ...
Mr. L. Wiener, M.L.A.
Mr. A. Mosely ...

Mr. J.W.Dons

Mr. E. H. Dunning
Mr. Lionel Phillips
Mr. Abe Bailey...
Mr. H. M. Arderne
Sir John \Villoughby ...
Mr. J. Van Kyn

Mr. Wool f Joel

Mr. Robert Williams ...
Mr. J. C. Colenbrantler
Mr. Frank Watkins ...
Mr. J. R. Pardy

Dr. Leyds

Mr. A. Barsdorf

Mr. A. L. Lawley

Mr. F. Eckstein

Mr. R. W. Murray

Captain Bainbridge ...

Mr. G. M. Albu

Mr. \V. F. Lance

Mr. J. B. Currey

Mr. \V. M. Farmer

Sir J. H. de Villiers ...

Hon. J. H. Hofmeyr ...

Sir George Farrar

Mr. Theodore Bent

Sir B. W. Greenacre, M.L.A. .

Hon. J. H. Hofmeyr ...

Mr. J. D. Logan, M.L.A.

Sir Charles Mills

Sir H. Loch

Mr. Justice Shepstone ...

Mr. Robert White

Mr. Charles Hitchins, M.L.A.

Colonel Machado

Mr. Carl Hanau

S\va7.ie Indunas

Earl Grey

Dr. Jameson

Col. Goold-Adams

Mr. F. R. Burnham

Mr. A. L. Lawley

Sir W. G. Cameron, K.C.B. .

Dr. Rand

Mr. J. H. Hammond ...
Mr. D. Tyrie Laing
Mr.' Advocate Wessels ...
Duke of Abercorn
Mr. Harry Solomon
Mr. J. C. A. Henderson
Mr. H. L. Stokes. C.E.
Mr. Johann Colenbrander
Mr. B. I. Barnato
Dr. F. H. Hatch, F.G.S.
Mr. T. E. Fuller
Mr. G. A. Troye
Mr. Duncan Clark
Hon. A. Wilmot, M.L.C.
Khama ...
Mr. Melton Prior

April 30, 1892.
May 14, 1892.
I July 9, 1892.
( December 15, iN<)4-
July 30, 1892.
August 20, 1892.
October i, 1892.
October 29, 1892.
December 24, 1892.
I January 7, 1893.
(September i, 1894.
January 28, 1893.
February n, 1893.
April 8, 1893.
April 15, 1893.
April 29, 1893.
May 6, 1893.
June 24, 1893.
July 22, 1893.
July 29, 1893.
August 12, 1893.
August 19, 1893.
September 16, 1893.
October 7, 1893.
October 21, 1893.
February 10, 1894.
February 10, 1894.
February 17, iK<)4.
February 24, 1894.
April 7, 1894.
April 14, 1894.
April 14, 1894.
April 21, 1894.
May 12, 1894.
May 12, 1894.
May 19, 1894.
June 9, 1894.
June 16, 1894.
June 23, 1894.
June 23, 1894.
July 7, 1894.
July 28, 1894.
August 4, 1894.
August 4, 1894.
August n, 1894.
August 18, 1894.
September 8, 1894.
Septembers, 1894.
September 29, 1894.
October 6, 1894.
November 3, 1894.
November 10, 1894.
November 17, 1^94.
December 15, 1894.
January 12, 1895.
February 2, 1895.
February 2, 1895.
February 9, 1895.
February 16, 1895.
February 23, 1895.
March 16. 1895.
March 23, 1895.
March 23, 1895.
March 23, 1895.
March 30, 1895.
April 27, 1895.
August 24, 1895.
August 31, 1895.
August 31, 1895.
September 7, 1895.
September 14, 1895.
September 14, 1895.
September 14, 1893.
October 19, 1895.

Hon. Marshall Campbell ... ... ... January :, 1896.

Lord Rosmead ... ... ... February 8, 1896.

President Kruger ... ... ... ... February 15, 1896.

Chief Justice Kotze ... ... ... .. March 14, 1896.

Sir James Sivewright ... ... ... ... April n, 1896.

Chief Justice Kotze ... ... ... ... April II, 1896.

Hon. A. Wilmot ... ... April n, 1896.

Mr. H. B. Marshall ... ... July 4, 1896.

Mr. S.B.Joel July 18, 1896.

Mr. Melton Prior ... ... ... ... September 12, 1896,

Hon. Maurice Gifford ... ... ... ... September 12, 1896.

Sir D. Tennant ... ... ... ... October 10, 1896.

Dr. HansSauer... ... ... ... ... October 17, 1896.

Mr. J. W. Watts ... October 31, 1896.

Colonel Napier... ... ... ... ... October 31, 1896.

Mr. George Pauling ... ... ... ... November 7, 1896.

Mr. J. B. Robinson ... ... ... ... November 21, 1896.

Mr. James Lawrence, M.L.A.... . . ... January 30, 1897.

Sir Charles Metcalfe ... ... ... ... January 30, 1897.

Captain Ewing... ... ... ... ... February 5, 1897.

Sir A. Milner ... ... ... ... ... February 20, 1897.

Mr. Johann Colenbrander ... ... ... February 27, 1897.

Mr. John Stroyan,»M.P. ... ... ... March 27, 1897.

Dr. A. Hillier ... ... ... ... ... April 10, 1897.

Sir George Farrar .., ... ... ... May 8, 1897.

Mr. F. A. Robinson ... ... ... ... May 22, 1897.

Hon. Harry Escombe ... ... ... ... June 19, 1897.

Mr. T. R. Price, C.M.G July >, 1897.

Mr. Spencer B. Todd ... ... ... ... July 10, 1897.

Sir Somerset R. French ... ... ... July 10, 1897.

Mr. Frank Watkins ... ... ... ... July 10, 1897.

Hon. J. Laing, M.L.A. ... ... ... July 10, 1897.

Mr. George Albu ... ... ... ... September 4, 1897.

Major P. W. Forbes October 2, 1897.

Sir Henry de Villiers ...
Sir H. M. Stanley, M.P.
Hon. A. M. Campbell, M.L.C.

Mr. Woolf Joel

Colonel Saunderson, M.P.

Hon. T. K. Murray, C.M.G

Right Hon. C. J. Rhodes

Sir Richard Martin
Mr. Justice Kotze
Sir A. Milner

Mr. Solly Joel April 23, 1898.

Mr. I. H. Hirschel ... ' June 11,1898.

Sir Walter Wragg ... ... ... ... September 17, 1898.

Mr. L. Wiener, M.L.A. October 22, 1898.

Mr. James Hay... ... ... ... .. December 3, 1898.

Sir Charles Metcalfe ... ... ... ... January 28, 1 8

October 9, 1897.
October 16, 1897.
November 27, 1897.
Januarv 15, 1898.
February 5, 1898.
February 12, 1898.
February 26, 1898.
February 26, 1898.
March 26, 1898.
April 2, 1898.

Mr. R. N. Hall...
Major Spilsbury
Sir H. M. Stanley
Mr. Carl Hanau
Mr. A. M. Miller

April 8, 1899.

September 16, 1899.

November 4, 1899.

November 18, 1899.

January 27, 1900.
Mr. W. Hosken... ... ... ... ... February 3, 1900.

Dr. H. Schlichter ... ... ... ... February 10, 1900.

Colonel Harris ... ... ... ... ... June 2, 1900.

Sir Somerset R. French ... ... ... January 26, 1901.

Mr. John Stroyan, M.P. ... ... ... February 9, 1901.

Sir A. Milner ... ... ... ... ... June I, 1901.

Hon. J. Rose Innes ... ... ... ... June 8, 1901.

Sir C. B. Elliott, C.M.G June 15, 1901.

Dr. Smuts, M.L.A July 20, 1901.

Sir Charles Elliott October 26, 1901.

Mr. P. F. Payn, M.L.A. January u, 1902.

Sir David Hunter ... ... ... ... May 31, 1902.

Sir L. L. Michell ... May 31, 1902.

Hon. A. Wilmot, M.LC June 7, 1902.

Hun. J. L. Hulett, M.L.A .. June 21, 1902.

Mr. Robert Russell ... ... ... ... June 21, 1902.

Sir Gordon Sprigg ... ... July 12, 1902.

Mr. Joseph Baynes, M.L.A. ... ... ... August 30, 1902.

Sir H. Goold-Adams September 27, 1902.

and its Founder, told by others

Mr. H. A. Oliver, C.M.G.
Mr. J. H. Hofmevr
Sir H. Goold-Adams ...
Sir H. M. McCullum ...
Ben Viljoen

Hon. Dr. T. W. Smartt

Sir Gordon Sprigg

Major Cameron
Landdrost Munnik

October 4,

October n

October n.

October 1 1

( October 25

I November

( October 25

t November

November

1902.
1902.
, 1902.
, 1902.
, 1902.

and
15, 1902.

and

!> tgoa.
i, 1902.
25, 1902.

Mr. Harold Strange ... ... ... ... December 6, 1902.

Sir Godfrey Lagden ... ... ... December 6, 1902.

Sir Richard Solomon ... ... ... ... December 13, 1902.

i January 17, and
'January 24, 1903.
... February 21, 1903.
.. February 21, 1903.
. March 7, 1903.
... March 7, i
... March 28, 1903.

Mr. Carl Hanau

Earl Grey

Mr. C. A. Green

Mr. I'ixton

Mr. Gardner F. Williams

Mr. II. Ross Skinner

"SOUTH AFRICA" STALL AT THE EARL'S COURT EXHIBITION

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

One of " SOUTH AFRICA'S"
many Incidental Publications.

A Map of Mashonaland and Matabeleland.
SHEAVES OF LAUDATORY NOTICES.

IN 1893 there was issued from the offices of " SOUTH AFRICA " a
map of the territory subsequently known as Rhodesia. It was
published to assist the British public to follow the stirring
events which were taking place in the country saved to the Empire
by Mr. Rhodes, and it proved remarkably popular. Space is found
for some of the Press notices which ran into hundreds : —

Transport.

The neatly executed and timely map of Mashonaland and
Matabeleland, by Mr. E. P. Mathers, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., author of
" Golden South Africa," will be found an exceedingly useful guide to
the operations of the Chartered Company's forces and of Colonel
Goold-Adams' men in Matabeleland. Accompanying the map is a
graphic description of the country traversed by the two armies which
invaded it from the north and the south, and a vigorous sketch
of the Matabele.

Coal and Iron.

An excellent map of Mashonaland and Matabeleland, which
will be found exceedingly useful by those interested in the
important events transpiring in that country.

Perthshire Advertiser.

Mr. E. P. Mathers, F.G.S., has here given us very opportunely a
capital map of the seat of war in South Africa. He also con-
tributes a few facts about Matabeleland and the Matabele.s. The
sketch is well written.

Dover Chronic le.

Mr. E. P. Mathers, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., editor of "SOUTH AFRICA,"
has issued an excellent " Map of Mashonaland and Matabeleland,"
which comes exceedingly apropos at this moment. The troubles
in South Africa have attracted men's thoughts and eyes there, and
this publication of Mr. Mathers' will, we doubt not, be exceedingly
useful to all who want to know something about the country.
Introductory to the map are " A few facts about Matabeleland and
the Matabeles," and " Hints to sportsmen proceeding to South
Africa," and these two articles are full of most interesting informa-
tion We predict for it a large demand.

North British Daily Mai!.

Mr. E. P. Mathers, editor of " SOUTH AFRICA," has published a

useful map of He contributes some interesting

notes about Matabeleland and the Matabeles.

Aberystwyth Chronicle.

It is the best that we have seen of this large portion of Africa,
and is most valuable to those who follow closely the events of the
war between the Chartered Company and the Matabeles.

Glasgow Herald.

The map is coloured to show the territory owned by the British
South Africa Company, and the names of places, roads, &c., are
very distinctly printed. Insets showing the mouths of the Zambesi,
the Limpopo, and the Pungwe rivers are also given, and there are
also copious notes giving facts regarding the territory.

Shooting Times.

Admirably clear and full, and contains the eastern half of the
Continent from Lake Tanganyika on the north, to the River
Limpopo on the south. It is issued at an opportune time, when
interest is at its highest as to this part of the world. The map is
prefaced by some remarks entitled, " A few facts about Matabeleland
and the Matabeles," which appear to be based on a considerable
personal knowledge of the district.

Financial Neivs.

Shows in a hand)' form the territories administered by the
Chartered and Mozambique Companies, and the Companhia da
Zambesia. It is corrected in all essential particulars to date,
showing such details as the Beira Railway, &c., and a second
edition, now in the press, will be ready to-morrow morning. The
letterpress accompanying the map is interesting, and the publication
certainly affords the newspaper reader much valuable information
at a small cost.

Dundee Advertiser.

Mr. Mathers has added a chapter of interesting facts regarding
the country and people. The map is to the scale of 50 miles to the
inch, is well printed and coloured, and gives a good idea of the
nature of the country where war is now being carried on.

Weekly Dispatch.

Explanatory matter by Mr. E. P. Mathers, editor of " SOUTH
AFRICA," is issued from the office of that enterprising journal.

Financial Times.

A very convenient form, should be in the hands of everyone
desirous of following intelligently the exciting events now taking
place in South Africa. The positions of the Chartered Company's
forts — Fort Victoria, Fort Salisbury, &c.— are very clearly marked,
as also are the various routes to Mashonaland from the Transvaal
and the coast, including the Beira Railway. The map is prefaced
by a great deal of valuable information concerning the customs
and character of the Matabele, together with a full description of
the Chartered Company's forces and resources. There are also
hints to sportsmen, estimates of the cost of travelling, &c., and
other interesting matter. The map is brought out at a very
appropriate time, and, from its cheapness and excellence, should
command a large sale.

The Speaker.

Got out by an energetic and eloquent trumpeter of the company
who, believing in the glories of •' golden South Africa " and in the
Napoleonic genius of Mr. Cecil Rhodes, has written two interesting
books and publishes a weekly paper mainly devoted to advertising

those glories and adulating that genius Admirable,

clear, and yet very fully detailed, most of the leading kraals, as
well as the roads, passes, gold workings, and the character of the
country at various points, being plainly indicated.

and its Founder^ told by others

Mining World.

Mr. Mathers is to be complimented upon having issued what
cannot fail to prove a useful map of a district which is now
occupying a large share of public attention on account of the war,
and is likely to do so for many years to come for other and for
better reasons.

Mechanical World.

A very clear and distinct map.

The Statist.

A useful and timely map of Mashonaland and Matabeleland is
issued from the office of " SOUTH AFRICA," with an introductory
chapter by Mr. E. P. Mathers. The map gives not only Mashona-
land and Matabeleland proper, but also all the territory under
British sphere of influence from the northern boundary of the
Transvaal Republic to Lake Tanganyika.

Evening News.

Everyone interested in the Chartered Company's movements in
South Africa will welcome the clear and modern map of Mashona-
land and Matabeleland just brought out by Mr. E. P. Mathers,
F.G.S., F.R.G.S., the editor of " SOUTH AFRICA." In the intro-
duction to the map much interesting matter relating to the
Matabele, with portraits of King Lobengula and one of his wives,
is given, whilst the hints to sportsmen are full of valuable
information. By means of this map the readers of the troubles
in the British South Africa Company's land can follow daily the
movements of the native and British forces.

Gravesend Standard.

Mr. Edward P. Mathers, editor of " SOUTH AFRICA," has just issued
a coloured map of Mashonaland and Matabeleland, which will just
now be received with great interest in view of recent events in the
country under notice. The map is accompanied by an introductory
notice, which describes the Matabeles in an interesting manner,
and includes portraits of Lobengula and his favourite wife.

Lincolnshire Chronicle.

In order to follow the British force a map is a necessity, and
this must be up to date, for much of the country was unknown
until lately. A map of this character has just been issued by E. P.
Mathers, showing clearly

News of the World.

A really beautiful " Map of Zambesia," by Mr. E. P. Mathers,
F.R.G.S., &c., which covers the whole of Matabeleland and
Mashonaland. The introductory description of the country is
excellent, and the whole is invaluable just now.

Vanity Fair.

Timely.

Guardian.

Timely, inexpensive, and comprehensive.

New York Engineering and Mining Journal. .

This map has been prepared from the latest surveys, and is of
especial interest at the present time, when so much attention has
been drawn to the region shown, by the present position of the
Chartered Company of South Africa, and the war in which it has
involved the English Government. The most striking fact brought
to one's attention by this map is the manner in which British
claims have been extended into Central Africa in such a way as to
completely surround the independent states of the Transvaal and
the Orange Free State, and cut off their development to the north-
ward. Mashonaland and the adjoining territories are the best
portion of South Africa, and they are now completely under British
influence, as the present war is not likely to have any other issue
than a complete subjugation of the native tribes, and their sub-
mission to a British protectorate. The map is accompanied by a
few pages of text, giving an account of the regions shown and of
their native inhabitants.

Leeds Weekly Express.

At such a time it should prove very acceptable.

The Rock.

The map has been prepared by Mr. E. P. Mathers, the conductor
of that paper, and a well-known authority on all matters pertaining
to that part of the world.

Portsmouth Times.

Will prove of great value.

Totnes Times.

A great aid to understanding the existing position.

Western Daily Mercury.

Mr. E. P. Mathers, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., whose long connection with
the South African press, and his many works on subjects connected
with the vast territories of the dark continent lying to the south of
the equator, give him the right to speak with authority, has pub-
lished a valuable map of Mashonaland and Matabeleland, in
convenient form for quick reference, and prefaced it with a few
remarks upon the present difficulty and the character of the country
in which the operations against Lobengula are being conducted.
The map marks the countries governed by the Anglo-Portuguese
companies, and the greater part of the tract of three-quarters of a
million of square miles over which the flag of the Chartered
Company flies. It shows, &c.

Peterborough Advertiser.

Supplies a public want.

Exeter Times.

In many respects there is perhaps no greater authority on South
African affairs than Mr. E. P. Mathers, the gifted editor of " SOUTH
AFRICA." In fitting season, when Englishmen are watching with
so much interest the castigation of Lobengula, Mr. Mathers issues
his " Map of Mashonaland and Matabeleland." It is a large
coloured map, folding into a book, full in detail and clearly

printed With the interesting information which it

gives of the Matabeles and their country, it forms a handy and
useful guide to an intelligent understanding of the progress of
events in Mashonaland.

Atheiueum.

Neatly engraved.

Lloyd 's Newspaper (with a portrait of Mr. Mathers).

Mr. E. P. Mathers' map of Mashonaland and Matabeleland
appears at a time when it is likely to be most useful. Indaima's
Mountain, Buluwayo, King Lobengula 's capital, and other places,
which are for the moment of more than passing interest, are here
clearly indicated. The territories of the British South Africa, the
Mozambique, and the Zambesia companies are accurately defined.
Mr. Mathers (whose portrait is here given) is the author of
" Zambesia," and one of the best authorities on South African
affairs.

Capitalist.

The best guide possible.

Topical Times.

Will be found of great value.

Manchester Courier.

A well got-up production.

City Leader.

An invaluable aid to a comprehension of the present "little

PEOPLE who wish to know what the new territory is like, what
its people are like, how the explorers got there, and how the land
lies between Portugal and ourselves, should by all means ask for
"Zambesia." They will be well repaid. — Yorkshire Post.

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

Public Objects with which
SOUTH AFRICA" Newspaper
has been Identified.

THE PAPER ADVOCATES AND WELL ACCOMPLISHES ITS

PURPOSE OF PRESENTING A WEDDING GIFT FROM THE

SOUTH AFRICANS IN ENGLAND TO THE PRINCESS MAY

OF TECK, NOW H.R.H. PRINCESS OF WALES.

ON the announcement of the gratifying intelligence that the
Duke of York — the future King of England — had been
betrothed to the Princess May of Teck, it occurred to
"SouTH AFRICA" that it would be fitting and graceful of the
South Africans resident in and visiting England to present a
wedding gift to the Royal Bride. At the gathering of South
Africans held in the Hotel Metropole on the I2th May, 1893,
Mr. Mathers broached the subject to a number of leading
men, and they expressed their warm approval of the move-
ment. A subscription list was opened and the response was
prompt and hearty, just as might have been expected from South
Africans whose hearts throb with loyalty to the throne of England,
and with sentiments of affection for the members of the Royal
Family. The following circular of invitation to subscribe was
sent to all the South Africans in this country as far as possible, and
the result was that the presentation of a suitably handsome gift
was assured. " SOUTH AFRICA " said :-- " The list of subscriptions
to date is as follows, and we take the opportunitv of expressing a
hope that South Africans representing all portions of our great
country may see fit to meet on this common ground of felicitating
the betrothed wife of the Prince who may one day rule-- may it
be at a distant day — over a United British South Africa."

The following is the circular referred to : —

OFFICES OF " SOUTH AFRICA,"

23, AUSTIN FRIARS, LONDON, E.G.

May l6t/i, 1893.
PROPOSED WEDDING GIFT FROM THE SOUTH AFRICANS IN ENGLAND

TO THE PRINCESS MAY OF TECK.

DEAR SIR, — I beg to inform you that I have consulted many of the
South Africans resident in or visiting England, as to the desirableness of
their making some suitable present lo the Princess May of Teck on the
occasion of her marriage with the Duke of York The matter has been
taken up with great heartiness, and I append a list of the subscriptions I
received in a few minutes on Friday evening last. A number of other
representative gentlemen have promised to support the scheme. It is
generally felt that subscriptions need not exceed five guineas, but any sum
will lie acceptable, and it will be duly acknowledged in the Press.
A meeting of the subscribers will be called to decide as to the nature of the
gift, and to make the necessary arrangements for its purchase and
presentation. May I bespeak your sympathy and aid on behalf of the
movement? The favour of your reply on the perforated fly-leaf will lie
esteemed by Yours faithfully,

EDWARD P. MATHERS,
Hon. Sec. (fro tern.)

P. S. — Should any of your friends who desire to subscribe not have
received a letter of invitation to do so, will you kindly favour me with
their names and addresses. — E.P.M.

" SOUTH AFRICA " of June 3rd, 1893, had the following : —
THE SOUTH AFRICAN GIFT TO PRINCESS MAY.

It naturally gives us much pleasure to be able to announce that
the movement we originated, to present the Princess May with a
wedding gift from the South Africans in England, has already
justified its inauguration. A glance at the list of subscriptions
which we continue to publish will show that we struck a responsive
chord in the hearts of very many of those representing South Africa
in England, when we put forward the proposal. A number of
suggestions have reached us as to how the money subscribed should
be disbursed. So successful has the movement been that covetous
eyes have been cast in some quarters towards the fund. It has been
hinted that we should allow the fund to be absorbed by that got
up under the auspices of the Lord Mayor of London. We have
also been approached with a view to its being merged with the
scheme for presenting a pearl necklace from a " Thousand of Her
Majesty's Subjects." It need hardly be said that we wish all
movements of this character hearty success. It is as certain,
however, that we have no more control over the fund we have
created than any single subscriber. For the moment we are but in
the position of a trustee for those who have subscribed the money
for the definite object for which we asked it, and which is fully set
forth in the extended announcement on another page. The money
has been subscribed specifically for a gift from the South Africans
in England, and for our part we could only consent to its being
liquidated for that purpose. Her Serene Highness the Princess Mav
has already expressed the pleasure it will give her to receive the
gift, as will be seen by the following letter : —

WHITE LODGE,

RICHMOND PARK, SURREY.

Mav igth, 1893.

DEAR SIR, — In reply to your letter of the lyth inst., I am to say
that H.S.H. the Princess Victoria May graciously consents to accept
the gift to be subscribed for by the South Africans, as mentioned in
that letter, and will do so with much pleasure.

Yours very faithfully,

A. NELSON HOOD,
Edward P. Mathers, Esq. Comptroller.

A number of suggestions, practical and otherwise, have been
forwarded to us as to what shape the South African gift should
take, but we repeat that that and all other matters connected with
the future control of the fund will be decided upon by the
subscribers themselves. As a handsome sum has now been
collected, we propose to ask these gentlemen to meet at an early
date for the purpose of conferring as to its disposal.

Accordingly a meeting of the subscribers to the fund was held in
the British-African Conference Room at the Imperial Institute.

It was suggested that Mr. Mathers preside, but on his expressing
his desire that someone else should be nominated

and its Founder, told by others

A MUCH REDUCED PICTURE OF THE SCROLL OF NAMES OF SUBSCRIBERS
TO THE PRINCESS MAY WEDDING GIFT FROM SOUTH AFRICANS

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

Mr. A. Barsdorf proposed, and Mr. Brodrick seconded, that
Mr. B. 1. Barnato, M.L.A., take the chair.

Mr. Barnato did so, and called upon Mr. Mathers' secretary to
read the notice convening the meeting.

The notice having been duly read,

The Chairman said he had heard, through a note that had just
been given to him, that Sir Charles Mills was unable to attend, and
much regretted the fact.

Mr. E. P. Mathers said he did not know whether it was necessary
to trouble the meeting with any remarks as to the initiation of the
scheme which they were met that day to further. It might,
however, keep matters in order if he were to read the circular that
he sent out to everybody connected with South Africa that was at

present known to be in England That circular went to

a very large number — say about 1,000 gentlemen, and the responses
were very fairly numerous, so that the total amount collected
up to that day's date came to between £260 and £270. After
deducting expenses for printing and postages, there might be a net
sum of £"250 for the gift. He thought it was in every way likely
that they might have another £ 10 or £20, but, of course, he could
not tell until a further week or so had passed over. He supposed
they would now consider what the nature of the gift should be, and
form a committee to arrange for the purchase of the gift, and for
the handing of it over. He had had a great many letters written to
him from tradespeople and others, but he did not think he need
trouble the meeting with them. The documents and letters were
voluminous, and he supposed, being all busy men, they wanted to
get to the business of the afternoon, which really consisted of
coming to a decision as to choice of a gift and the mode of pre-
sentation. As far as his individual connection with the matter was
concerned, he felt only in the position of a trustee for those people
who had been good enough to subscribe this money towards the
gift, and he now begged to hand the whole matter to the meeting
to do with it as they thought best. (Applause.)

The Chairman said they had heard from Mr. Mathers that the
amount subscribed up to date was between £260 and £270, or, less
the expenses, about £250. He did not know whether there had
been any notice given as to the closing of this list.

Mr. Mathers stated that there had not.

The Chairman remarked that he thought that there were people
just come from South Africa who would be only too happy to
subscribe.

Mr. Mathers said that some likely subscribers had come over in
the Dunottar Castle.

The Chairman thought it would be as well if some notice was
given to South Africans as to a date when it was decided to close
the list. They had met there to form a committee to formulate
some plan as regards the nature of the present to be given to
Princess May. He could not help thinking as a South African that
it was a very happy idea on the part of Mr. Mathers to think that
they as South Africans should also recognise this wedding in the
shape of some gift. Now the question was what kind of a gift
were they to give the Princess ? They had only something like
£250 up to date, and they could only deal with that sum. It
occurred to his mind that a gift in the shape of a very handsome
fan, to be composed of the chief products of South Africa would
be very appropriate. The fan should be composed of some of the
most choice South African ostrich feathers, with an ivory and
Transvaal gold handle, with the initials of the Princess May set in
South African diamonds. This would be a handsome present from
our young South Africa. (Applause.) This had just occurred to
him, and he should like to know whether any other gentleman had
any suggestion to make, or whether they did not think his
suggestion would be a gift of which the Princess might be proud ?

Mr. Mathers said that perhaps he ought to have stated that he
had received some suggestions. One from Mr. Nimmo, of Natal,
was similar to that from the chair, that the gift should be in the
nature of a Cape ostrich fan, mounted in South African ivory and
gold handle, and having a diamond ornament. Mr. F. P. T.
Struben suggested a phaeton and pair, as Princess May was very
fond of driving. Lady Frcrc wrote and suggested that the fund
should be amalgamated with a fund which had been got up for

presenting a present to the Princess from " One Thousand of Her
Majesty's Subjects." He replied to her ladyship that the matter
must be left for the consideration of this meeting. Mr. Posno was
of opinion at first that the fund might be merged with the City
fund. That he (Mr. Mathers) had pointed out was scarcely
practicable ; but the matter could be placed before this meeting.
Mr. Paddon thought a diamond star would be a suitable present,
and Mr. D. W. Bell suggested that the gift should take the shape
of a diamond ornament, which might have the design of the
Prince of Wales' feathers, as the Princess May would probably one
day be Princess of Wales, and the ostrich feathers and diamonds
would both be emblematical of South Africa. Still another idea
was that a coffee service made of Transvaal gold would be an
appropriate offering. The general opinion, as far as he had been
able to make it out— and it was his duty to state this — was that
the gift should be a diamond ornament of some kind or other, a
star or some other design. The Chairman evidently thought that
the diamond ornament might be a little paltry, there not being
enough money to get much in the way of good diamonds. Mr.
Barsdorf, who no doubt would have something to say on the
matter, was of opinion that the present should be a fan.

The Chairman wanted to know if any other gentleman would
like to make some suggestion.

Mr. Barsdorf said he had already expressed his views to
Mr. Mathers. It was exactly to the same effect as had been
suggested by the Chairman. He did not think it extraordinary
that they should coincide in their ideas, as the gift would be
emblematic of the Cape, and further, he thought that as there was
not sufficient money to buy a valuable diamond ornament, the gift
should take the form of a fan, and he supported the Chairman's
suggestion.

A subscriber (who had left the room before the reporter could
get his name, and who was said to be from Natal) said he thought
the proposed gift a very appropriate one. He supposed there
would be a little gold in it ?

The Chairman said yes, they would have the four important
products of Cape Colony, or rather South Africa. The Transvaal
Republic would be represented by gold ; the diamond fields by
diamonds ; Port Elizabeth and other important parts of Cape
Colony by feathers, and South Africa generally by ivory. These
were the four most important products of the country, and it would
be a gift which he was satisfied would be acceptable. He did not
know the exact taste of the Princess, but he thought it would be a
gift she would be proud of, and it would be a magnificent
ornament. The carrying ,out of the design would be naturally left
to the Committee. They had only up to date ^250, but they
might have £500 when the list was closed. He should like to see
a present that young South Africa might be proud of. If thev gave
diamonds it would only represent the diamond interest, but in a
fan they had a present given by all young South Africa.

Mr. Mathers said that as far as he was individually concerned lie
was converted to the idea of the fan. He had heard all the
suggestions made, and on the whole he thought the fan was the
most appropriate gift. As had been well pointed out, the gift
represented the staple industries of the country.

Mr. Brodrick thought the fan would be a handsome gift, whereas
a diamond ornament might be paltry. He begged to propose
that a committee of three gentlemen be appointed, viz., the
Chairman, Mr. Mathers, and Mr. Barsdorf, for the purpose of
deciding upon the design of the present of a fan, and to carry out
all the arrangements for its purchase and presentation.

Mr. Faviell seconded the motion, which was unanimously
agreed to.

The Chairman begged to propose a vote of thanks to
Mr. Mathers for carrying out this matter.

Mr. Barsdorf said he had pleasure in seconding the motion,
which was carried unanimously.

Mr. Faviell supposed they might be able to see the gift before it
was presented. He would suggest that it be shown at the
manufacturers' office, or else at the office of Mr. Mathers.

Mr. Barsdorf said they would give notice to the subscribers
where they could see the presentation. (Hear, hear.)

a?id its Founder^ told by others

The Chairman said that although they were
not in a position to get the biggest diamonds, still
the initials of the Princess May could be on the
fan in good small white diamonds. The feathers
would be of the whitest, and the diamonds
would be of the finest, so that the gift would lie
very choice.

Mr. Mathers said he was much obliged to them
for the vote of thanks they had passed. He thought
it was a right and proper thing for South Africans
to show up in a matter of this kind, as much to
manifest the loyalty of the South African colonists
to the throne of England as to bring South Africans
themselves a little closer together. He was always
greatly in favour of every scheme that had in view
the bringing of South Africans together when they
were in England. (Applause.)

The proceedings terminated with a vote of thanks
to the Chairman, and a committee meeting was
afterwards held.

Before this gift was presented the following
appeared in " SOUTH AFRICA " : —

I hear that the ostrich feather fan to be pre-
sented to the Princess May by the South Africans
in London is a very gorgeous affair. It would not
surprise me to hear that the future Queen of England
is as well pleased and as proud of the thoughtful
South African gift as of any other of the innumer-
able presents she has received and is receiving. I
hope the subscribers will have a chance of seeing
the fan at Messrs. Benson & Co.'s this Week-end ;
but no doubt some announcement will be made on
the subject.

The artistically designed vellum scroll contain-
ing the names of the subscribers to accompany the
gift is a very tasteful affair. Perhaps the readers of
"SouTH AFRICA" will have a chance of seeing
a reduced photograph of the picture, for picture it
is with the palm tree border hung with the coats-
of-arms of the Royal pair, England and the Colonies
and Republics of South Africa. The base of the
design is a distant view of Cape Town. The scroll
contains the poetry which has already appeared in
" SOUTH AFRICA," with these added lines : —

To PRINCESS MAY.

White Rose of York! Fair Flower of England's May !

As a memento of thy bridal day,

Deign to accept from warmly admiring hearts

A little offering, whose component parts

But represent an Afric tale, untold,

In ivory and feathers, gems and gold ;

But symbol love in our far distant land,

Where love by loyalty is fitly fanned,

As in their fashioned unity they say :

South Africa is one in wish to-day.

May sorrow flee thee, swift as ostrich flight ;

May care be ever, as these feathers, light ;

May happy hearts as purest gold remain, '

Finding their joy in one exhaustless vein ;

May God-sent rays about thy pathway shine

Brighter than light from Jagersfontein Mine ;

Smooth as this polished ivory thy life,

May blessings follow thee as wedded wife.

I am told that money was returned after the

closing of the list of subscriptions, and that Mr. S^FsS'^dle'"^^
Mathers had the offer of funds and personal help if other s'.do was "f the
he would organise some treat for poor people in
honour of the wedding. I believe he would have
IXTII very glad to have done so had his engagements
permitted.

on'thl

The original poetry referred to above appeared
in "SOUTH AFRICA."

MAY.

Oh, happy May ! thou merry month of Spring,
When nature wakened makes the welkin ring);
Twice happy, when amid thy nascent green
A little babe appeared a future Queen.
The little babe became a maiden fair,
1 he tender bud a blossom rich and rare,
An English rose, so pure, so sweet, so white,
A nation gazed upon her with delight ;
And as upon her brow its crown was placed
A mighty shout of joy the action graced.
Since then the changing speedy-footed years
Have brought their joys and sorrows, smiles and
tears,

But 'mid them, changeless and unchanging throve
A people's loyalty — a people's love.

Again- thrice happy May, who 'midst thy mirth
Cradled another English rose's birth,
When, with thy swelling verdure, first was seen
Another babe — perchance another Queen.
Good fairies took the infant in their arms,
They dowered her with all their choicest charms ;
And as they crowded round the little cot,
Suggested that a crown should be her lot.
They gave her beauty, and with it combined
A loving heart and a contented mind.
Purity— Innocence — then set their seal
Upon the baby's brow — come woe — come weal -
And Health and Wealth paused by the little bed
To stoop and kiss the fair, sweet, nestling head.
Each fairy, as she stopped, her crutch would lift,
And touch the child as she bestowed her gift.
When all had gone their round a small dame slept
Upon the cradle where the infant slept,
And asked, as on the little one she smiled,
" Now, gossips, what are we to call our child ? "
From one and all the self-same answer came,
" Call her ' Victoria ' — the Good Queen's name."
That name we'll keep until some future day,
And in the meantime we will call her " May."
So it was settled, and the baby lived
And— as a fairy godchild ought to— thrived.
Her goodness, sweetness, beauty, as they grew,
A happy halo round her home life threw ;
And as, in her, each fairy gift was proved,
By high and low the maiden was beloved.

A sapling from a Roval Oak now throws
Its pleasant shadow o'er the May-born rose ;
The lovelv blossom 'neath its leaf v screen
Must be a welcome sight to all, I ween ;
And, as the forest tree and flower meet,
South Africa their union will greet.
And many a heart across the sea will pray
God bless and keep sweet bonnie Princess May !

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

The following is from " SOUTH AFRICA" of July 8th, 1893: —

SOUTH AFRICA AND THE ROYAL
WEDDING.

Presentation of the Fan to the Duchess of York.
HER ROYAL HIGHNESS'S ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE GIFT.

On Saturday and Monday last the richly-diamonded ostrich
feather fan, subscribed for by the South Africans in England as a
wedding gift to Her Serene Highness the Princess Victoria Mary of
Teck, now the happy wife of His Royal Highness the Duke of York,
was exhibited in the places of business of the makers, Messrs. .1. \Y.
Benson, in Old Bond Street and Ludgate Hill. Needless to say,
the very handsome article attracted a great deal of attention during
the few hours that it was shown. Crowds surrounded and entered
both establishments where it was exposed, and many were the
admiring comments upon it as well as utterances respecting the
thouglitfulness and appropriateness of the present. At Ludgate
Hill, the throng which poured in to the elegantly appointed
emporium to pass in file before the fan became so great that the aid
of the police had to be invoked to preserve order. In order to give
subscribers an additional opportunity of seeing the fan, we held
an impromptu and informal reception in our sanctum on Monday
afternoon last. There was then an unaccustomed brightness about
the prosaic apartment in which these words are written. After the
fan, which was shown in a large glass case, had been duly
inspected, the visitors, among whom were a large number of ladies,
discussed afternoon tea and South African reminiscences. On
Tuesday the fan and vellum scroll containing the names of the
subscribers were despatched to White Ledge by special messenger,
and we have now the satisfaction of publishing the following
communication in acknowledgment of the gift : —

WHITE LODGE,

RICHMOND PARK.

July 4th, 1893.
DEAR SIR,

I am desired by H.S.H. the Princess Victoria Mary to
ask you to convey to the gentlemen, the South Africans in
England, the very sincere thanks of the Princess for the most
beautiful gift which I have just presented in your names. I am
to say that the Princess admires the Fan extremely, and will value
it for the kind thought which has prompted the gift, as well as
for the good wishes which accompanied it. I am also to
acknowledge with thanks the receipt of the Roll on which the
names of the donors are inscribed, and 1 have much gratification
in thus making known to you the cordial thanks of the Princess.
I am, dear Sir,

Yours very faithfully

(Signed) A. NELSON HOOD,
E. P. Mathers, Esq. Comptroller.

In the course of our acknowledgment of this note we expressed
our conviction that the subscribers would be glad to learn that
Her Serene Highness had been so pleased with the token of their
good wishes.

To-day we present our readers with a special illustrated supple-
ment showing a reduced facsimile of the artistically executed
vellum scroll, and we think the subscribers will be pleased with
the design of it. The original is about three times the size of our
illustration, and was handsomely mounted on Koval Red silk,
and Ixmnd with heavy gold fringe and tassel. \\Y also herewith
give our readers a picture of the diamond ornamentation on the
fan. Of course it is to be remembered that tin1 diamonds \\ere
mounted on ivory. Tin- beautiful embodiment of a graceful idea
speaks for itself. As we have alreadv stated, the line Jagersfontein
diamonds used were displayed in floral sprays, the design consisting
of the Rose i if York and the Royal May flower meeting in a true
knot. On the side of which we give a representation, the
word Mav was also verv conspicuous in most exquisite diamonds.
To give some idea of the rich effect of the diamond work we may

mention that the stones alone cost nearly ,£180. The feathers were
the best that could be got in London, being particularly choice
specimens, and of course the South African gold and ivory were of
the finest. The fan was enclosed in an elegant case lined with
white satin, and covered with Royal Blue velvet. The tassel and
girdle were designed by Mr. Arthur Hyatt, and, as- has been already
remarked, the gift was manufactured and produced under the
direct care and supervision of Messrs. J. \Y. Benson, who are
to be congratulated upon the completion of one of the most
beautiful and delicate pieces of workmanship they have ever sent
out. It may be mentioned here that we have incurred some
considerable expense in this matter which we have not charged
the Fund with. We should perhaps also express our appreciation of
the kindness of the Imperial Institute authorities in placing the
South African Conference Room at our disposal for the holding of
the public meeting. It was quite an oversight that more formal
thanks were not conveyed to the authorities from the meeting.
We have now the pleasure to present the subscribers with the
balance-sheet.

BALANCE-SHEET.

£ s. d. f s. d.

To amount collected as an-
nounced on June 24 .. .. 286 o o

By Printing Circulars, supply-

ing Stationery, executing

and supplying Scroll,
Messrs. Blades, East, and

Blades ... . 20

,, Printing, Messrs. King,

Sell, and Railton, Ltd. ... o

,, Postages, &c 9

.. Supplying Fan, Messrs.
J. W. Benson 255

£286

£286 o o

Other Objects with which
South Africa"" was Associated.

IN 1894 "SOUTH AFRICA" opened a supplementary list of sub-
scriptions to the Matabeleland Memorial Fund, and had the
satisfaction of substantially augmenting the amount raised for
this worthy object, respecting which " SOUTH AFRICA" said :--" As our
readers know, a Hospital is being founded at Bulawayo in memory
of the officers, non-commissioned officers, and men who fell and died
in the course of the recent Matabele Campaign. We were asked to
assist in obtaining subscriptions to the hospital fund, and had the
greatest pleasure in acquiescing. We recently remarked :- After
all we have written it is unnecessary to say how much we are
gratified that a really tangible scheme to perpetuate the memory
of the heroes who at one stroke did so much for South Africa and
the Empire when Bulawayo was occupied has been organised.
Though their glory will never fade, and though their deeds
will be recounted to future generations with a quickened pulse,
it is seeming that in the heart of the country where Englishmen
once again showed how to do and die, the names and fame of
those slain in the Matabele War should be associated with a visible
symbol of the gratitude and admiration of their fellow coun'.rv-
men. We appeal to our readers to send us any sum, large or small,
to help on the movement to build the Memorial Hospital at
Bulawayo. We shall gladly acknowledge any sums committed to
our charge to hand over to the London Committee."

In the same year, when the South African Cricket team visited
England, " SOUTH AFRICA " presented a solid silver cup, standing
a foot high, to the player making the highest batting average.
The cup was, as will be seen by the illustration, of very fine
workmanship. It was beautifully engraved, and bore the following
inscription :—

THE VISIT OF SOUTH AFRICAN
CRICKETERS

TO EXGI.AXII, IN|.}.

I'RESKXTED BY

"SouTH AFRICA" NEWSPAPER
FOR THE HIGHEST BATTING AVERAGE.

\\ox BY

C. O. H. SKWKI.I-.

On the reverse side a very choice specimen of the engraver's art
represented the familiar title-block of " SOUTH AFRICA." It lent
quite a picturesque finish to the richly-engraved cup.

and its Founder, told by others

" SOUTH AFRICA " published the following letter :—

TAYISIOCK HOTEL,

August 23rd, 1894.
E. P. MATHERS, ESQ.,

Editor "SOUTH AFRICA,"

London.

DEAR SIR,- On behalf of the South African Cricket Team I beg
ID be allowed to thank you and Mr. W. P. Taylor, of Johannesburg,
most sincerely for presenting such valuable cups for the best batting
and bowling averages made during the tour of the South African
Cricketers on their first visit to the Old Country.

I am sure that the fortunate winners, viz., Mr. C. O. H. Sewell
and Mr. C. Rowe, will be justly proud of gaining such handsome
In 'I >hies, and I feel that I am correct in stating that all cricketers,
and, in fact, the South African public generally, will be greatly
pleased at your and Mr. \V. P. Taylor's generosity.

You have always manifested the keenest interest in the welfare
of the Cricket Team, and our thanks are due to you, in no small
measure, for the manv attentions shown to us during our stay in
England.

I trust that you will be good enough to convey our thanks to
Mr. \V. P. Taylor.

I am, Dear Sir,

Yours very faithfully,

W. V. SIMKINS,
Manager South African Cricket Team.

In March, 1895, " SOUTH AFRICA" wrote: — "We are glad to
know that the publicity we have given to the circumstances under
which the officers and men of the Norham Castle -rescued eighteen
men of the stranded ship Fascadale on the coast of South Africa,
and the leading article on the subject which appeared in our last
issue, have inspired Mr. Harry Mosenthal and a number of South
African merchants and others in London with the idea that some-
thing should be done by them to commemorate such an act of
heroism. The principals in the stirring scene of rescue from the
angry waves have been complimented, feted, and made the
recipients of presentations in South Africa, and, as we reported last
week, on board the Norham, at Blackwall ; but the aforesaid
merchants think it incumbent on them to move further in the
matter, and we need hardly say the proposal to organise a testi-
monial to the heroes has our greatest sympathy. The j\'or/tiuu
bears the proud distinction of having added another chapter to the
history of British heroism." " SOUTH AFRICA " was asked and
consented to open a subscription list for the testimonial, which it
successfully did, adding its own contribution.

In " SOUTH AFRICA," on June I3th, 1896, appeared the
following : — " We have received a letter from the Committee of
the Johannesburg Dynamite Disaster Fund acknowledging, ' with
many thanks,' the contributions of those gentlemen who subscribed
over £350 through ' SOUTH AFRICA.'" The sum of £50 was
contributed by " SOUTH AFRICA."

TO i

THIS is a bulky volume of 480 pages by Mr. E. P. Mathers,
I .( I.S., E.R.G.S., editor of the newspaper " SOUTH AFRICA," and an
authority who has previously written volumes on South African
subjects. The founding of Zambesia by the royally-chartered
British South Africa Company "is the latest development in the
advance" of that pnrti.ui of Her Majesty's Dominions. Mr.
Mathers gives a most exhaustive but always a thoroughly interest-
ing account of the territory he covers. He describes the ruins of
an ancient civilisation in Mashonaland, gives the history of Mata-
beleland and the Boers, of Bechuanaland, the mighty Zambesi, the
formation and progress of the British South Africa Company, the
march of the Pioneers into Mashonaland, and the relations between
I, upland and Portugal in Africa. The author is most hopeful of
the future of those 500,000 miles of territory in South Africa, now
possessed by the British Company. The volume contains maps,
showing the latest boundaries agreed on bet ween 4iri tain and the
Germans and Portuguese, and there are also numerous illustrations
of srenetv, manners, customs, and personages. The book is a
monument to Mr. Mathers' energy and industry. It gives a

complete and reliable insight into a most extensive and valuable
field of enterprise among the many comprised in the Greater
Britain.-- Hitr/inm Chronicle.

" MAP OF SOUTH AFRICA." Those who remember when they had
to make long and tiring journeys in Cape carts over rough Colonial
roads, will, on glancing at this railway map of South Africa, see
how vastly all means of communication have been improved by tin-
enterprise of the Cape Government and Mr. Rhodes. All railways
in operation, in course of construction, or authorised, as well as
those which it is proposed to construct, are correctly laid down, and.
in addition to this, coach routes in connection with the train
services are shown. Information is given in tabulated form with
regard to each railway system, with the names of stations, their
distances from the station from which the train starts, and the
height above sea level of each station on the principal lines. It is a
most useful map for reference to all who have business connections
with South Africa, as well as to those who may intend to visit the
country in search of health or for pleasure.-- The Field.

5°

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

The Founder
of " SOUTH AFRICA."

SKETCHES OF THE CAREER OE MR. E. P. MATHERS.

SEVERAL important biographical works and many newspaper5
published in Great Britain, South Africa, and elsewhere
have contained sketches of the career of Mr. E. P. Mathers.
Some of these may now be given in full or in part.

The Journalist in 1887.

Under the heading of " Gold Finding by Journalism," and accom-
panying a pen-and-ink sketch of Mr. Mathers in travelling costume,
the Journalist of the I4th January, 1887, had the following : —

It is most probably not generally known that the more rapid
development of the new South African gold fields was due to a
piece ol journalistic enterprise, which seems worthy of a passing
note. In the early part of 1884 Natal was ringing with the news
of some auriferous discoveries by a small handful of men at a spot
known as Moodie's -the name of the owner of the farm— in the
Kaap Valley, which is situated at a point where the eastern
boundary of the Transvaal touches Swazieland. Gold fever broke
out, and there was restlessness in every class of the community to
be off to the Fields. Reports from the El Dorado were very con-
tiadictory, and even the most sanguine paused before making a
"rush." For the moment the cry was for genuine news and for
information as to the best route, for to the great majority of the
people the country whence the discoveries were reported was a
terra incognita. In a shadowy way it was known that it lay 450
or 500 miles away by land, but it was believed the distance could
be shortened by going in a small coasting steamer to the Portu-
guese port of Lorenco Marques at Delagoa Bav. Though by the
map the latter looked a temptingly short one, it was utterly

unknown as a route
to the part in which
Moodie's lies, although
an old wagon - road
stretched from it to the
old Gold Fields in the
Lydenburg district. It
was also known that
for the greater part of
the year the Portu-
guese port was very
unhealthy, and that a
deadly fever -belt of
forty miles at least sur-
rounded it. The public
wanted news — first, of
the genuineness of the
gold discoveries, and
second, as to the prac-
ticability and healthi-
ness of the shorter route.
Mr. E. P. Mathers, of the
.\<itii! .Merciirv, volun-
teered to make the
attempt to find a road
through the hitherto
unexplored mountains
from Delagoa Hay to
Moodie's. He was
warned of the dangers of the attempt, but he resolved to get to the
Fields by that route if possible. He accordingly took passage in a
little steamer into which some two dozen adventurous spirits likewise
stepped on the same errand. Mr. Mathers encountered a number of

SKKTCH OF MR. MATHF.RS FROM
JOURNALIST" IN 1887

•THE

hardships, but succeeded, after a nine days' journey, in reaching his
destination. The natives he spoke to on his way were of no service
to him, as they knew nothing of the Gold Fields ; but he finally got
to his goal unguided and unhelped except by some experience
of local travel, a good physique, and strong self-reliance. The
greater number of those who went with Mr. Mathers in the same
steamer, and who followed in his wake, caught the dreadful coast
fever, and many of them died. A well-known and talented local
pressman, named Mr. G. J. M. Lockyer, followed shortly after by
the same route, to represent the Natal Advertiser. Mr. Lockyer
had already bravely accomplished half the distance when he met a
dreadful death by being dragged by a crocodile underneath the
water of one of the rivers he had to cross. Mr. Mathers incurred
no small risk of a similar fate, for to him it fell, as the strongest
swimmer of the party, to swim the rivers in quest of a ford for the
horses. Mr. Mathers wrote some articles on the Gold Fields, and
was enabled to inform his fellow-colonists that the Fields were a
great reality, destined to astonish the world. He was also enabled
to vividly describe the perils of the shorter route, and thus success-
fully warn a large number of persons away from its dangers. So
far, journalism had been of immense service to the colonists as
regards the Gold Fields. It was destined to be of further service.
Although many accepted Mr. Mathers' reports with every confi-
dence, many refused to believe that the Fields would become of
any consequence either to the colony or the outside world. Mr.
Mathers persisted in " writing up " the Fields, and the consequence
is that there is hardly at this moment a colonist in Natal who does
not mix the Gold Fields up somehow with his daily concerns.
The great strides which the Fields have taken are, to some extent,
due to the constant advocacy of a journalist, who, through good
and through evil report, kept the public informed of the growth of
a great industry. It is unnecessary to give proofs of how far all
Mr. Mathers wrote about the Gold Fields has been justified by
time. As far as advertising the Fields is concerned, he feels he
has done his work, for The Times, as all our readers know, has
taken up the theme in a manner which betokens no sort of doubt
in the master mind of the Thunderer of the great future which lies
before the Gold Fields of South-Eastern Africa. As this is a purely
professional publication, some notes about Mr. Mathers may be
given to recall a popular British pressman to many of our readei>.
He was educated in Edinburgh, where his father was for many
years in an extensive way of business as a printer, publisher,
bookseller, and wholesale newsagent, as also a proprietor and part
proprietor of newspapers and other publications. In early life Mr.
Mathers was associated with the Yorkshire Post in Leeds, and
thereafter laboured in the useful but less ambitious walks of news-
paper life on the staffs of the Shield* Gazette and \evcastle Ar/'/r
Ji'itrnnl. Leaving Tyneside, where he had been about six years,
he joined the (il<isgi>u> .V,'5v.r, but not long afterwards accepted the
editorship of the Luton Advertiser. From the chair of that paper
he went to be the chief in the reporting department of the
Xnttiiii^liain /W/r Guardian. He exchanged the Nottingham
appointment for a similar one at Cardiff, on the South M'alcs
/W/r News, but shortly receiving a lucrative appointment in the
North, he became associated with the late Mr. Charles Farquharson
Findlay in the management of the Greenock Advertiser (even
A year afterwards, meeting in Scotland the proprietor of a Natal
paper, and receiving an offer from him, Mr. Mathers emigrated over
seven years ago to that colony, where he now occupies the post of
editor of the flourishing Advertiser published at Durban, and tilt-
first evening paper in Natal.

and its Founder^ told by others

A 'Johannesburg Paper
in 1892.

rd and Diggers News.
Under the two headings, " Mr. Mathers of ' SOUTH AFRICA,' " and
" A Journalist of Note," the Johannesburg Standard and Diners'
News had the following sketch :

Mr. Edward P. Mathers, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., has sung South Africa
with sturdy voice and powerful pen these five years and more, and
in his capacity of editor of "SOUTH AFRICA "— a
capacity in which he is familiar to millions to-day —
has rendered this continent services which are hardly
to be calculated at this date, so many and so peculiar
are they. Who on this side of the water, and who on the other
side that is interested in any way in this country — has, say, a son,
cousin, sweetheart, or sovereign in it — does not know " SOUTH
AFRICA," with its sunshiny frontispiece, where, over the separating
sea, shines old Sol illuminating St. Paul's and Table Mountain at
one and the same time, and lighting two gold-laden argosies on
their way, heavy with the spoil of the sunny South. There and
here Mr. Mathers' fifty-page weekly- brimful as it is with the latest
South African matter, from sporting to sharebroking, mining to
manners has become an institution in itself, and a
species of South African Bible by which people swear.
Through and by means of it London, and indeed all
England, which not so long ago was sunk in gross
darkness, has been familiarised with the facts and
phases of this country, while South Africa has been
able to see herself as others see her, and as she is.
1 he work of familiarisation — an awkward word but happy — has
been slow but sure. They are a self-satisfied people, those English
over there, and are not given to looking beyond their cliffs. If
their argosies on the high seas go well, they do not know or care
much about the country of their destination. But, concerning
Soutli Africa, where money and men were wanted, where hungry
men might make livings and latent money return itself tenfold ;
where political blunders were being perpetrated by Downing
Street through gross ignorance ; concerning this country, it was
absolutely necessary that someone should arise to shed light on men
and things, and clear away the clinging mist of ignorance and
prejudice. In the nick of time Mr. Mathers stepped
into the breach, and, through his journal, whose
name has become a household word here and there,
has shed light upon the scene, cleared up the darkness,
and become a power for good in the metropolis
by instructing, week by week, both Downing Street
and the domestic hearth in what is forward and
what should be forward here in South Africa. To
this labour Mr. Mathers has brought vast experience
of the land which gives its name to his journal,
political insight, a facile pen, and that capacity in
figures and finance which is a characteristic of the
family from which he comes.

Mr. Mathers has been in these parts for a few days — as our
readers have already learnt from these columns — and yesterday
found his way to the editorial office of ^RK Standard and Digger^
News, when the opportunity was taken to sound this medium of
intelligence upon things South African.

" By the way. Mr. Mathers," said the inquisitor, after the usual
salutations and a few pleasant reminiscences — for it is some three
and a-half years since Mr. Mathers was last on South African soil
—"I see the cable is busy contradicting ' SOUTH AFRICA ' over its
interview with Sir Henry Loch. Has your imaginative young
man been at it ? "

" No, I think not. On the contrary, I have such reliance on mv
staff that I can only conclude Sir Henry Loch has expressed himself
very nearly in the terms, and certainly in the spirit of the interview.

At ;ill events, I am persuaded there is another side to the story, and
all I ask is that the public will suspend its judgment until it learns
it. There is such a thing as contradicting a contradiction."

" You have seen the cabled report of the Chartered Company ? "

" Yes. It is very glowing and puts the best face on things, as it
was bound to. But on the whole I don't think there is so much
left unsaid, after all. Things have improved there, you know."

" Then you don't think the ' 50 per cent, business,' as it is
called, is an impediment to all progress, and extortion of the wor->t
kind?"

" Not quite ! After all, before your Johannesburg man is done
with his financiers and ' getting his property through ' he has spent
well on to 50 per cent. Besides, the Chartered Company being
such a big and influential concern, can manage these things with
expedition and certainty. And then, how are they going to get
back the vast sums they have spent on the country if not by these
legitimate means ? "

" You might apply the same argument to the Transvaal and
say that the Boers have the right to demand half of all that is
going because they were here first and risked their lives, their all,
for liberty ! It strikes me, Mr. Mathers, that if there was a ' 50
per cent, business' here, we should hear about it. Don't you
think so ?"

A shrug of the shoulders- -significant, but not satisfying -was
all the answer vouchsafed, for Mr. Mathers is a man of reservations
when he likes.

"Then there is Swazieland, Mr. Mathers. I see 'Soi'Tii
AFRICA ' has been very emphatic and clear concerning that
question. How is it going to be settled ? "

" That I can't exactly say. But it seems as if it were to be
dangled once more before the eyes of the Transvaal. Lord Ripon,
you will have seen, was delightfully indefinite when approached
upon the subject. For my part, I take it that the question verv
largely depends upon whether the British Government feels itself
strong enough to carry the question to an issue. If not, then the
Convention will be renewed."

" You find things generally much altered in the Transvaal since
you were last here ? "

" Yes — altered and improved. I have just been at Pretoria, and
am amazed at the improvements there. Why the public buildings
would grace a Continental city."

" Of course, you sounded Pretoria opinion upon the prospects of
the Presidential election ? "

" Yes, as far as was possible. But Pretoria opinion is just a
trifle chaotic, and the drift of it is a little difficult to catch. The
final impression, however, left upon one is that, after a fair and
square fight, President Kruger must come in. There is, of course,
to be detected here and there a decided desire for change among a
certain class, but the purer and simpler Boers know what Paul
Kruger has done, and they do not know what General Joubert
might do —

" If not a rude question, Mr. Mathers, what is the object of your
visit ? "

" Well, chiefly to absorb impressions."

" With the view to publication ? A new book, perhaps ? "

But Mr. Mathers would not s;t\ .

Mr. Mathers, who speaks enthusiastically of the kindness he has
met with at Pretoria, where he has interviewed President Kruger,
Chief Justice Kotze, Dr. Levels, and General Joubert, and here,
where he has been dinnered and deified night and day, proceeds
home via Beira and the Suez route.

" I find it best (said our distinguished visitor at parting), to
learn geography by personal acquaintance with the globe. It is
the only way : and, really, the Madeira route though much the
quickest is so familiar that one does not mind, once in a lifetime,
the delay via the Canal in view of the variety and picturesqueness
of the journey. Monotony unmakes a journalist.

A remark which the professional man will most appreciate.

Mr. Mathers, who is staying at the residence of his cousin,
Mr. W. Y. Campbell, will spend another fortnight on the Rand,
and then proceeds to Durban, where his visit (so our wires state

K 2

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

this morning) is anticipated with pleasure, and where the editor of
" SOUTH AFRICA," and the author of " Golden South Africa and
"Zambesia" — which, by the way, has reached a second edition is
certain to meet with that warm welcome which Natal knows so
well how to extend to her friends and supporters, among whom
history, current and to come, will number Mr. Mathers as the
staunchest of the staunch.

So me Terse U^otes in 1892.

Some time in 1892 a prominent South African authority
requested a well-known literary South African to supply him with
some particulars of Mr. Mathers' life. The result was a long and
interesting series of notes, which ultimately found their way to
" SOUTH AFRICA" office. A few of them may be given: —

Mr. Mathers' record appears to be much as follows: — Born in
Edinburgh, educated at the High School there ; entered journalism
on emerging from his teens ; served apprenticeship from reporter to
editor on the Scotch and English press ; joined the South African

development must come from England ; that it was necessary to
bring the Transvaal by means of the Press, week by week, before
the English public ; and that there was ample scope for a bright
newsy paper run in the interests of South Africa in London.
Everyone tried to dissuade him from his purpose. Tempting offers
were made for him to run a paper at the Rand, but he was fixed in
his resolve and proceeded to London, and on the 4th January, 1889,
launched " SOUTH AFRICA." The title was a happy one, the launch
was a successful one, and the career has been more than brilliant.
To anyone, like myself, who knows journalism, having served my
apprenticeship to it, it was no light matter for a South African to
attempt, single handed and without financial backing, to establish
a paper in London. The then South African circle in London, of the
latter part of 1888, accorded Mr. Mathers, who had by this time
become known by his writings, a very warm welcome, and a large
dinner at the " Star and Garter " was given to welcome him to his
new sphere. Through 1889 and 1890, especially the latter year,
"SOUTH AFRICA" held high the banner of the Transvaal in London.
The fight was a single-handed one, for during that period the
whole Press only referred to the Transvaal to empty their vials of

THE Ti:

REDUCED FACSIMILE OF A "SOUTH AFRICA" PLATE SUPPLEMENT

press in 1878 and remained thereon for ten years, during which he
made a name for himself for smart, succinct, graphic, newsy
journalism, and on these lines distinctly impressed himself mi the
journalism of South Africa.

When the first rumours of gold in the De Kaap district, or as it
was then known. " Moodie's Farms," were heard, Mathers, as
special commissioner for the Mercury, went via Delagoa Bay to
Moodie's, and wrote a series of his usual graphic letters, which were
collected and published as a "Trip to Moodie's" in 1884.

The rush to Barb:jrton district continued thereafter till 1887, and
when the Hand began to claim attention in 1X87, Mathers re-visited
I)c Kaap and the Rand, writing a further series of letters, and re-
published same in book form under the title '• Gold Fields

Revisited, i

In 1888 he left for London, and brought out his work called
"Golden South Africa," which ran through three editions and
formed, and still forms to many, the English -,'mf,- im-cinii regarding
gold in the Transvaal. Mathers left South Africa for London
impressed with one idea after his visit to the Hand — that the
Transvaal was going to be a great country, and the capital for the

contempt and opprobrium on us: but week in week out "SOUTH
AFRICA" fought with all and sundry of our detractors. Mathers
seized even' chance of interviewing anv man of moment from
South Africa, from A. to Z., irrespective of creed or policy, so
long as he might be interviewed and give a personal and fresh
application to a South African subject.

\11 this gradually told its tale, and it is well for us to remember
now in 1892, that the Transvaal is the fashion and all the London
press agree in sounding our praises, and that it is not so long ago
that "Sol in AFRICA" was the only paper that Fought our battles
in the dull times of depression.

The Mashonaland boom came on the hori/on in 1891, and
Mathers brought out his book, "Zambesia," now in its second
edition. This book is beyond all other information, oral or
written, and has served a verv useful purpose. From end to end
of England it was hailed with acclamation by the Press; it tilled
a gap not only to the pressmen who had suddenlv to deal with
terra inct>giiitn, but also gave information to the thousands
throughout the kingdom who wanted to know all about this new
country.

and its Founder, told by others

The leading South African subjects in " Chambers' Encyclo-
pedia " are from the pen of Mr. Mathers.

The popular handbook, " South Africa and How to Reach It," is
also from his pen ; the first edition of 40,000 has been exhausted,
and the second one is in the press. It has been translated into
Dutch and German and has a good Continental circulation.

For his descriptive writings of new countries he was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and of the Royal Colonial
Institute, and for the services his paper had rendered to mining
in the South African branch he was elected a Fellow of the
Geological Society of London.

South African dinners are an annual and important function
in London, bringing together once a year representatives of all the
States. Mathers inaugurated them, and they have been a great
success. Their influence is not the mere passing one of individual
enjoyment of an evening, but goes far deeper

Mr. Mathers was also elected a member of the London Com-
mittee for the South African Exhibition, and did good work.

He has also been elected a member of the South African Swazie-
land Committee ; in fact, wherever there is anything of moment
concerning South Africa, Mathers has his eye on it, to advance it

A Durban Paper.

A Durban paper during December, 1892, had this para-
graph:- XKARINC; HOMK. Mr. K. 1'. Mathi-rs, of " Sen i n AFRICA," so
well known and remembered in Durban, will reach the scene of his
former labours in a day or two. The Digger*1 A'rww states that
he left the Rand by the Natal coach on tin- i >th inst., so that he is
probably now in Maritzburg. Mr. Mathers, who does not ex pert to
reach London before the end of February, will travel by the l-.a-t
Coast route, and he hopes to meet Mr. Rhodes on the way out.

Zanzibar (Gazette.

The Gazette, of Zanzibar, in its issue of January iMh, i
said:— Mr. Edward P. Mathers, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., editor of "S
AFRICA," and author of "Golden South Africa," " Zambesia," &c.,
passed through here, per s.s. Admiral, on his way home from the
Cape, which he has been revisiting after an absence of sonic years.
He showed great interest in Zanzibar affairs, and devoted his brief
stay here to ascertaining as much as possible about the place, and
tin ii suit of his inquiries and observations will no doubt be given
in the new work which we understand is in course of preparation
for the press.

THE JOII

REDUCED FACSIMILE OF A "SOUTH AFRICA" PLATE SUPPLEMENT

if it is on the lines of the general weal, and, if it is a bubble for
some personal benefit, to promptly prick it.

ffi I his is a rapid summary of what I know of the man ; there are
many points which, doubtless, are overlooked, but I have given
yon solid facts without the slightest faluting or flattery.

Miscellaneous Paragraphs.

Standard.

Under the heading of " Bishop and Bookmaker " the following
telegram from Pretoria appeared in the Johannesburg Stnndard
of November jdth, 1893: The Bishop of Capetown and E. P.
Mathers, of "Sorni AFRICA," are here on a visit and had a long
interview with the President, General Joubert, and the Chief
Justice to-day.

Cape Argits.

The Cape Argus of October 26th, 1X92, had the following: —
Mr. Mathers, editor of " SOUTH AFRICA," is amongst the passengers
by the Dunottar Castle. Mr. Mathers will leave Capetown on
Thursday evening for Kimberley and the Transvaal. If his tour
should result in another book he will have to call it "The Gold
Fields Ke-K'e-visited " ; for it is at least the third time Mr. Mathers
has been over the Fields.

Son tli . \jnca.

"Son ii AFRICA" of March 4th, 1893, had the following: —
This gentleman has arrived in London from his latest journey
" In ami Around Africa." He left England on October 8th, and
sojourned once more in all the principal towns in South Africa.
After spending a month on the Rand, he returned by the East
Coast, leaving Natal on December j.j.th. He visited all the East
Coast ports, proceeding up the Pungwe River to inspect the Beira
Railway works. Mr. Mathers had interesting interviews with lead-
ing people all along the East Coast. At Zanzibar he had several
conversations with Tippoo Tib and Mr. Rennell Rodd, Charge
d' Affaires during the absence of Sir Gerald Portal in Uganda.
Mr. Mathers left his vessel at Suez, and went up the Xile several
hundred miles, to near the first Cataract. He visited Cairo,
Alexandria. Xaples, Rome, Florence, Pisa, Genoa, Monte Carlo.
Niie, Marseilles, and Paris, and returned to headquarters in
excellent health after a most successful tour.

Pcnnv Illustrated Paper.

The I'cii/iv Illustrated I'a/>er of Xovember, 1893, had this :-
Mr. E. P. Mathers is a gentleman who told the British public
all about Matabeleluml and the opening up of Mashonaland long
before these times, when all eyes are turned to those strange and

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

picturesque regions. His engrossing and valuable book, " Zam-
besia : England's El Dorado," has run into several large editions,
and is the standard work on the subject. It will be read with
particular interest just now by all who would be accurately in-
formed concerning the South African lands fast being opened to

English colonists Mr. Mathers is also the editor of

the very successful London weekly newspaper called " SOUTH
AFRICA," which has done so much to bring the affairs of South
Africa to the front in this countrv and in Europe generally. In his
tarlv days he was well known as a journalist, and has had some-
thing like a score of years' experience in South African matters,
upon which he is a recognised and competent authority. We are
indebted to Mr. Mathers for the loan of the seasonable South
African photographs reproduced in our present number.

At the Jlfatisioii House.

\ London evening paper in describing a banquet at the
Mansion House, London, given bv the Lord Mayor to the late
Mr. Barnato, said (in November, 1895) : — The Lord Mayor called it
" a representative gathering," and among the financial magnates
we recognised Sir Francis Evans, who is responsible for the safe
custody of Mr. Barnato when he crosses the seas, and Mr. E. P.
Mathers, who discovered " SOUTH AFRICA."

Echo.

The London Echo on January 2nd, 1896, remarked :- -Mr. Edward
I'. Mathers, with whom we give an interview in another column, first
went to South Africa in 1878, when twenty-eight years old, as special
correspondent of an English paper in the Zulu War. He remained
in the country, and was one of the first to see the importance of the
gold discoveries in the early eighties. He journeyed through
Zambesia prospecting, and was frequently in great danger from
unfriendly natives and treacherous climate. Then he came to
London and started " SOUTH AFRICA," which quickly took first
place in the ranks of Colonial journals published in London. In
appearance Mr. Mathers is tall, well-built, and handsome, the
personification of health and strength. He still visits South Africa
as frequently as the average Londoner goes to the seaside. Bogus
company promoters do not love him, for he has a habit of visiting
the workings of highly lauded mines and reporting according to
what he sees. This has led to the discomfiture of more than one
vendor with "salted " and worthless properties.

Cape Argus.

The Cape Argus in March, 1896, said : — Mr. Mathers returns to
England by the Norman to-morrow, after a short but fruitful visit
to South Africa. He will return to handsome new offices, five
floors high, for the production of " SOUTH AFRICA " — the paper.

Budget " in 1895.

JVew Budget.

The New liudget of August 2gth, 1895, opposite a portrait of
Mr. Mathers occupying a full large page had the following : — The
autograph portrait with which we present our readers this week
is that of a journalist who occupies the unique position of a latter-
dav prophet whose prophecies have been fulfilled to the letter.
Mr. Mathers is proud of being a journalist, but he has fulfilled in
his time with exceptional unselfishness the arduous duties of a gold
prospector. To him, more than to any other living man, the
enormous development of the Soutli African gold fields is due. It
was he who, before there was any Johannesburg or Barberton,
preached the golden gospel while unbelievers sneered. In his
enthusiasm for South Africa, he was satisfied to point the way and
show others how to make their fortunes, while he was content with
the more modest gains of the hard-working journalist. He had not
to live very long to see the fulfilment of his hopes, and to-day he
finds ample reward in the fact that South Africa now occupies the
position of attracting to itself the attention, capital, and industry
of the civilised world. Anyone who has five minutes' chat with
Mr. Mathers comes away impressed with a sense of his strong and
original personalitv. Mr. Mathers has travelled much and endured

much, but his extraordinary physique and indomitable courage
have pulled him through so well that to-day he has far more
vigour and brightness than most young men on the verge of man-
hood. He is well known in the Press world of London and the
South African colonies. His earliest recollections are bound up
with the smell of damp paper and the whirr of machinery. He
was born in 1850, and after being educated at the best institutions
of classic Edinburgh, went to Natal in 1878, in time to do some
Zulu War work for a well-known London daily and the Scotsman.
For a long time he was engaged in Colonial journalistic work, and
gained the reputation among his colleagues of being wonderfully
keen and enterprising.

REDUCTION OF A FANCY SKETCH

OF MR. MATHERS

IN "THE NEW BUDGET"

It was in '83-'84 that the news of the gold discoveries in the
De Kaap district electrified the whole of South Africa. Mr. Mathers
saw his chance, and was quick to take advantage of it. With a
small party of explorers, most of whom are dead and gone or
broken up from fever, he forced his way through an unknown and
unhealthy region to the new gold fields. The party proceeded by a
small steamer to the Portuguese port of Lorenco Marques, and from
thence plunged into the interior. The journey was a perilous, and
to some of the party a disastrous, one, but amidst all difficulties
Mr. Mathers kept up a good heart, and got through scatheless.
His letters to the N<it<il Mercury, for which he was acting as
special commissioner, are to this day most entertaining reading,
and it is amusing to find him remarking en route, with a prescience
of the celebrated comic song which was years after to take London
by storm, " Here we are ! still on the search for Moodie's. I cannot
put a place at the head of this to date from, for the simple reason
that I don't know where we are." However, the adventurous
journalist and amateur gold prospector reached the Kaap fields in
safety, and to-day he often recalls with a pleasant laugh the
incidents and privations of a terrible journey. It is singular that
these have not left some mark on his strong frame, for it is not given
to everyone to pass through a fever district " all well," or to endure
without after-results days of toil and starvation in the blazing sun-
light. Occasionally the natives were extremely unfriendly, and at
one time the party subsisted for about twentv-four hours on a
pumpkin which Mr. Mathers purchased with a box of matches.
Incidentallv, also, it may be mentioned that a Durban journalist,
who attempted the same route shortly afterwards, met with a

and its Founder, told by others

horrible death in crossing a river. The friends of poor G. .1. A.
Lockyer still remember with a shudder the sensation caused by the
news that he had been dragged under water and devoured by a
crocodile. Once at the infant gold fields, Mr. Mathers' career as a
journalistic expert in South African gold-mining commenced in
earnest. He travelled far and wide, and in season and out of season,
impressing upon the home and colonial public the absolute
genuineness of these early discoveries. He exposed bogus com-
panies with unflinching courage, and with like perseverance
combated the idea that because there were unscrupulous men on
the fields the latter were destitute of gold.

At length his efforts attracted attention, and when he came to
England in 1888 to found his phenomenally successful journal,
" SOUTH AFRICA.," a certain section of the public, at all events, were
willing to listen to him, and to follow him, to their great profit.
When he came to London he was entertained at a public banquet
at the Star and Garter, Richmond, and in the course of a remarkable
speech at that function, he predicted the time when the output from
Witwatersrand would rival that from California and Australia.
Surely no man ever lived to see a more astounding proof of his own
foresight. His book, "Golden South Africa," had an immense
sale. It remains the standard work on the South African Gold
Fields. In addition to his enterprise in connection with the gold
industry, Mr. Mathers has done much valuable journalism. He has
interviewed any number of potentates and big personages at home
and in various parts of the world. Parliamentary blue-books show
that when affairs looked critical in the early eighties in Swazieland
he went to the late king's kraal, and made that monarch speak to

the world of his troubles He was the first journalist

who contrived to make President Kruger submit to the interviewing
process, and his book, " Zambesia," was the first work written to
tell of the coming wonders of Rhodesia.

Mr. Mathers is reputed to have made a " pile," and has a beautiful
residence at Beckenham, but to this day his greatest delight — with
the exception of enjoying the society of his wife and pretty
daughters — is in hard work. He is continually forming and per-
fecting plans for adding to the attractiveness of his paper, " SOUTH
AFRICA." The latter is the recognised European authority on
everything South African, and especially gold mining, and cir-
culates in every civilised part of the world. Of late, owing to the
development of the South African mining boom, the business of the
paper has grown so enormously that, in addition to the Fleet Street
offices (one of the rooms in which was Dr. Johnson's sanctum), it
has been found necessary to lease an entire building in Old Broad
Street. Thither there will soon be a flitting from Austin Friars, and
every part of the new house will be occupied by a staff engaged in
the production of the paper, under Mr. Mathers' watchful eye and
inspiration. Enough has been said to show that Mr. Mathers is a
remarkable man, and one who has already made his impress on the
time. It may be added that he has rendered the Government
important service in Imperial matters, and that at the Annual
South African Dinner-- a gathering due to his energy and organisa-
tion—the Ministry of the day is almost invariably represented. At
his house Mr. Mathers has an almost unrivalled South African
library. His miscellaneous library contains the cream of the books
owned by the late Edmund Yates, and among these are a number
of fine ones from Charles Dickens' library. Among Mr. Mathers'
curiosities in his home is the skull of a hippopotamus shot by him
on the Pungwe River, and a battleaxe given him by Umbandine,

the Swazie king Mr. Mathers ten years ago married

a cousin of Lord Lilford, and, although a staunch teetotaler, he
enjoys a good cigar, and always keeps a glass of good wine for his
friends.

Scottish Life" in 1900.

Scottish Life.

Flanking a portrait, and under the heading of " A Scottish
South African," Scottish Life of July 2ist, 1900, had the
following : —

Once upon a time, as the fairy tales have it, a young Scot, rich
in brains and strength, ambition and resource, left Edinburgh.

The fact in itself is neither new nor singular— the world would be
a poorer place if it were. To follow the information already
vouchsafed with the additional information that the said young
Scot succeeded in securing name and place in the world he had set
out manfully to conquer, seems, on the face of it, somewhat
superfluous. Do not all Scotsmen of just such calibre, starting life
in some such fashion, climb high enough to write their names in
the book of fame which is set upon the rocky hill ?

The young man who left Edinburgh those decades of years
ago was, however, in a special way, "a lad o' pairts." His place
to-day is correspondingly elevated.

Edward P. Mathers, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., first saw the light in
Edinburgh forty-nine years and eleven months ago, to be strictly
accurate. His father, the late David Mathers, was well known at
that time and for years after as a publisher and newspaper proprietor
in our literary capital. His mother, a charming and much-loved old
lady, died in April last, and Mr. Mathers, who travelled to Edinburgh
straight from the Riviera -where he was snatching a well-earned
holiday-— to attend the funeral, renewed at the time, in melancholy
fashion enough, several old acquaintanceships. This steady-going,
grey old town of ours--how calm and unemotional it must have
looked to that son who has seen war, endured famine and pesti-
lence, hobnobbed with dusky kings, discovered gold mines, and
helped to build up empires three thousand leagues distant !

. Mr. Mathers was educated at the Edinburgh High School, that
ancient seat of light and learning around which at the moment
controversy is so fiercely raging. From there he went to the
Edinburgh Institution, and from there he returned to the newspaper
business, with which his earliest recollections were bound up. He
emigrated to Natal in 1878, and went through the Zulu War as
correspondent for the Scotsman, a leading London daily, and a

Correeponintt's

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MR. MATHERS' FIKLD PASS DURING THE ZULU WAR.

Paris paper. At that time he was the chosen companion of another
Scot, the late and great war "special," Archibald Forbes.^He
assisted Forbes when the latter was sending home those " Glimpses

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

through the Battle Smoke " that have stood as a pattern to war
correspondents ever since.

For the next ten years Mr. Mathers remained in Soutli Africa,
and made himself a power among journalists in that wide land.
In 1885 and 1884 the first news of gold discoveries in the De Kaap
district filtered out. The Edinburgh pressman was one of the first
to make his way to the golden region, his party enduring no end of
hardships en route from hunger and fever and hostile natives.
There is a story of how the whole body of explorers which the
intrepid Mathers had gathered about him subsisted for a day and a
night on a pumpkin he had bought with a box of matches.

Arrived at the gold fields, Edward P. Mathers at once took up
that position as champion of the South African gold fields he has
occupied ever since. Enthusiastically, but honestly, he has spoken
and written of them ; he has shown South Africa to the Mother
Country as the land of illimitable wealth and resources it truly is.
Cecil Rhodes has done much to bring the importance of South
Africa home to the British and Colonial public, but it is safe to
say that this friend of his has done even more. He has done it
patriotically, unselfishly, from no motives of interest or greed ; and
although the chances that came his way are such as make million-
aires, he has been content to look to journalism for his principal
and permanent income.

Twelve years ago Mr. Mathers established " SOUTH AFRICA," a
weekly journal published in London for all interested in South
African affairs, and from the first it has been acknowledged as the
greatest authority on gold mining in that country. A great manv
South African financial journals have been born and have died
since the start of this journal, but it has kept its place high and
secure above imitators and rivals. It is honest, it is practical, it
is written by experts — in its own special ways, and on its own
special subjects, it is invaluable. Not every paper has for editor
and proprietor a man whose prophecies on matters of national
importance have invariably been fulfilled. Before anyone else
had faith in the gold output of the Rand, Mathers prophesied that
it would one day rival that of California and Australia. Before
the present war — years before- -he foretold the inevitableness of a
final and desperate conflict with Kruger.

Mr. Mathers is intensely Imperialistic, and his distrust of Boer
methods, Boer hoiustv, Boer civilisation, and Boer humanitv. are
boundless. This war, he declares, must break Dutch power
completely and for ever, or — Englishmen in South Africa will
all have to be Dutch. He cherishes a whole-hearted admiration
for the Colonial Volunteers — "if there had been at the outset of
the war an army of 20,000 Colonial troops, supplemented bv the
requisite artillery, the Boers would never have faced them." The
Colonial soldier knew how to meet Boer and Free Stater on their
own ground : the English soldier did not. The triumph of British
arms in South Africa, and the consequent establishment of equal
rights for all white men between the Cape and the Zambesi, will,
in Mr. Mathers' opinion, bring about an era of unprecedented
prosperity.

The editor of " SOUTH AFRICA" is a man of many acquaint-
ances, having, indeed, at one time or another, met everyone worth
knowing in England and the Colonies. He was the first journalist
who succeeded in interviewing President Kruger. The Khedive of
Egypt invited him to accompany him up the Nile when he visited
that country some years ago. He is on the Sultan of Zanzibar's
\ Siting list: he has personal acquaintance with Tippoo Tib, the
notorious old slaver; he was on terms of outward cordiality with
I'mbandine, the late Swazie king, who presented him with a
battleaxe. His further experiences include revolver shots through
botli legs while in South Africa, and departure from Ladysmith
last year immediately previous to its complete investment. Mr.
Bennet Burleigh, his countryman, succeeded in accomplishing the
same feat.

To Mr. Mathers belongs the credit of inaugurating the annual
South African dinners in London, at which tin- Ministry and
Royalty are invariably represented. He lias written several books,
the best known of which are "Golden South Africa" and
ln-sia." He is usually to he found of a forenoon in tin Inn
new ofl'ircs of his paper in Old Broad Street, E.C., but manages to
find time for his favourite recreations His South

African library is unrivalled. In his handsome residence, " Glen-
almond," Beckenham, some very good pictures are also to be
found ; and occupying a place of honour in the hall, close by a
very fine bronze statue of Robert Burns, of which Lord Rosebery

has a replica, is

Last, but assuredly not least, may be mentioned Mr. Mathers'
family. In 1885 he married Miss Mary Powys, cousin of Lord
Lilford, and he has three pretty schoolgirl daughters and a bright
little boy of eight. Mrs. Mathers is well known in society, but
is even more keenly interested in charitable works, and, it goes
without saying, has done a great deal for the sick and wounded in
the war.

Sphere.

The Sphere of March 3ist, igoo, had this : —

No journalist has done better work for South Africa than Mr.
Edward P. Mathers, who has just returned to London from Natal.
He is editor of " SOUTH AFRICA " and of several volumes treating
specially of the development of the Dark Continent. Last
September he left England intending to go to Bulawayo, and was
in South Africa at the .commencement of hostilities. He happened
to be on board the Terrible in Simon's Bay when General White's
telegram for guns arrived, which resulted in forwarding the famous
4'7-in. naval guns with the extemporised carriage of Captain Percy
Scott. Mr. Mathers founded " SOUTH AFRICA" in 1888, and has
been most industrious in telling the world of its latest possibilities
and development, "and the destiny of the Anglo-Saxon race to
open up Africa from south to north."

Daily Chronicle.

The London Daily Chronicle of i6th August, 1902, said : —

Mr. E. P. Mathers, proprietor and editor of " SOUTH AFRICA,"

leaves England to-day on one of his periodical lengthy tours

through South Africa.

South Africa.

" SOUTH AFRICA " about this time said : —

The interviews which prominent London papers have had with
Mr. Mathers have been reprinted at length by many important
provincial journals, including the Kiriiiiiighiiiu Daily Post, the
Glasgow Herald, Western Mail (Cardiff), Dundee Advertiser, &c.

Echo.

The London Echo on August igth, 1902, said : —
Edward P. Mathers, the journalist and explorer, reaches his
fifty-second birthday to-day. After leaving classic Edinburgh he
went to Natal in 1878, just in time to do some Zulu War work for
a London daily. In 1883-84 the news of the gold discoveries in the
De Kaap district electrified the whole of Africa. Mr. Mathers then

saw his opportunity, and embraced it His book.

" Golden South Africa," had an immense sale, and became the
standard work on the South African Gold Fields

Newspaper Owner.

The .\eu'spafier Owner quoted this article.

Star

The London Star on August igth, 1902, had some paragraphs
about Mr. Mathers : —

Mr. E. P. Mathers, proprietor and editor of " SOUTH AFRICA,"
has just left England on one of his tours through South Africa.
He will remain some time in Cape Town, and proposes then
to visit Rhodesia. On his return journey he will sojourn at
Kimberley, afterwards proceeding to Bloemfontein and the Trans-
vaal. He \\ill next go on to Natal, and after a brief stay there
will visit East London and Port Elizabeth. Mr. Mathers, who
returns before Christmas, is an old authority on South African

affairs His book, "Zambesia," long out of print,

was the first official account of the formation of the British South
Africa Company, 'and the obtaining the charter from Lobengula.
Mr. Mathers returned to England a dozen years ago or more, and
founded " SOUTH AFRICA," the first London journal devoted to
South African mining affairs.

and its Founder, told by others

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The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

Western Mercury.

The ll't-stt-rn Mercury, of Plymouth, of August 2Oth contained
the same matter as the foregoing.

/fn/dictnv C 'lironicle.

The />W<i7ivm> Chronicle of September I7th, 1902, referring
to Mr. Mathers' visit to Rhodesia, said : —

Mr. E. P. Mathers, the well-known editor and proprietor of
"SouTH AFRICA," is busy about town taking in the whole situation.
There will be some interesting articles in " SOUTH AFRICA " by the
author of "Golden Zambesia." He will be able to see it in the
light of modern developments.

Diamond Fields Advertiser.

The Diamond I-'iclds Advertiser of September 22nd, 1902,
said : —

Mr. E. P. Mathers, the well-known editor of " SOUTH AFRICA,"
is on a brief visit to Kimberley. Mr. Mathers, who arrived by the
Carisbrook Castle on the and inst, has not been idle, having
already visited Rhodesia, from which trip he returned on Friday

night Mr. Mathers is considerably impressed by the

improvements on the Diamond Fields, and particularly by the
building operations recently concluded and in progress. Mr.
Mathers leaves by to-day's train for the south.

Transvaal Leader.

The Transvaal Leader of September 2/th, 1902, had the
following : —

Mr. E. P. Mathers arrived from London yesterday, and is a
visitor at the Goldfields Hotel.

Rand Daily Mail.

The Rand Daily Mail of the same date said : —
Mr. E. P. Mathers, editor of " SOUTH AFRICA," one of the most
reliable journals dealing with South African affairs published in
London, is in town, and is staying at the Goldfields Hotel.

Natal Mercury.

The Natal Mercury of October 6th, 1902, had the following
paragraph : —

Mr. E. P. Mathers, proprietor of " SOUTH AFRICA," and well
known to all South Africans, who is on a visiting tour, arrives in
Durban to-day from Johannesburg.

Natal Advertiser.

On the loth October, 1902, the Natal Adi>ertiser said : —

Mr. E. P. Mathers, editor of " SOUTH AFRICA," who has been

visiting Durban, proceeded to Cape Town on the Norman

yesterday.

Cape Argus.

The Cape Argus of the iyth of October last said :—

Mr. Edward P. Mathers, who has made a pretty complete tour of

South Africa, is in Cape Town, and will remain a few days before

sailing homewards.

champion such as Mr. Mathers. To him it is largely due that its
golden resources have been opened up till they have been recognised
as world-wide, unrivalled, that every slander on its fair fame has
been traced to its source and exposed, that its patriotic statesmen
have received encouragement when they most needed it, and that
the views of the loyal population have never lacked the ablest
expression that pen could give. It would be impossible to measure
the importance of Mr. Mathers' work in connection with the
development of the country, and yet he has never courted popu-
larity or notoriety, and has always been only too willing that
others should reap where he has sown, so long as the prosperity of
the country which he loves with such passionate devotion has been
advanced. Mr. Mathers, like many of the men who have assisted in
the making of South Africa, is of Scotch descent. He was born in
1850. Educated in Edinburgh, the renowned seat of learning, and
after some journalistic work in England he went to Natal in 1878.
While carrying on his work on a Durban paper he represented the
interests of a London daily and the Scotsman. This was the time
of the Zulu campaign. When the war was over he declined offers
from India and Australia. He liked Natal so well that he elected
to stay there, and soon became known as a journalist of great
energy and enterprise, fluent pen and unflagging industry. What-
ever he touched he took up with a zeal and ability which made
him the admiration of his friends and the despair of his rivals — not
his enemies, for he never had any. In 1883-4 South Africa was
quivering with excitement over the gold discoveries in the De
Kaap region of the Transvaal, and as special commissioner for the
Natal Mercury Mr. Mathers made an adventurous journey thither
from Lorenco Marques, through a then little known and fever-
stricken country. He related his experiences in letters, which were
read by the public with intense interest ; but he did more than
this. He formed the idea that the Transvaal held the richest gold
fields in the world, and he set himself to preach his golden doctrine
with characteristic energy and resource, in spite of all sorts of
discouragements. Personally visiting the whole of the mines,
acquiring information wherever he went, inspiring confidence and
combating prejudices, he became, in fact, the inspired prophet of
the Rand and its glories. There are thousands to-day in the
possession of fortunes who would never have made them but for
the dogged determination of Mr. Mathers that the truth should be
known about " Golden South Africa," as he called one of his early
books, which has become a classic to all connected with gold
mining. He was something more than a journalist ; he was an
intrepid traveller, an explorer, a keen investigator, and possessed of
a wonderful faculty of foresight. In addition to his numerous
books, including " Zambesia " — which was the first to tell of the
coming wonders of Rhodesia — Mr. Mathers has founded and made
a veritable oracle of the weekly journal " SOUTH AFRICA," and is
still busily engaged in forwarding every good scheme for the
further development of the country. His views are strongly
Imperialistic, but he looks forward with confidence to a fusion of
the British and Dutch races and the gradual raising of the natives
in the social scale. Prosperous in every way, with fine offices in
the city, Mr. Mathers is a great lover of home life, and is never so
happy as when enjoying the society of his charming wife -a cousin
of Lord Lilford — and his amiable family at his suburban residence,
stored with South African curios, rare books, and pictures. His
enthusiasm for all that is best in South Africa is still inexhaustible.

From " The Prominent £Men of
Cape Colony, South Africa?'

(Published by the Lakeside Press, Portland, Maine, U.S.A.)
Accompanying a portrait of their subject was the following
article : —

Edward P. Mathers, F.R.G.S., F.G.S.— In some things South
Africa has been unfortunate, in others most highly favoured.
It has been torn with internecine struggles ; it has had to fight
against neglect and pessimism, but it has had the advantage of the
services of a band of talented and faithful men, who have followed
and advanced its aims and ambitions through good and evil
report. Especially has it been fortunate in having a literary

From "Who's Who" 1903.

Mathers, Edward P., F.G.S., F.R.G.S., newspaper proprietor
editor, author ; owner South African landed interests ; born, Edin-
burgh, igth August, 1850 ; son of late David Mathers, publisher,
newspaper proprietor, &c. ; married Mary A., daughter of R. H.
Powys, cousin of Lord Lilford. Educated High School, Edin-
burgh ; Edinbugh Institution. English journalist till 1878 ;
emigrated then to South Africa, and held positions on press : in
early eighties travelled throughout Transvaal gold fields : wrote
about them foretelling their coming greatness ; returned to Eng-
land, 1888 ; founded his weekly paper, " SOUTH AFRICA," and

and its Founder, told by others

inaugurated annual South African dinners in London. Publica-
tions : "Trip to Moodie's," "Gold Fields Revisited," "Golden
South Africa," " South Africa and How to Reach It," " Zambesia,
England's El Dorado in Africa ; " Recreations : travel in Africa
and Europe, novel reading, shooting. Address : Glenalmond,
Beckenham, Kent. Clubs : Thatched House, Caledonian,
Colonial.

From ""The 'British Empire in
the First Tear of the 'Twentieth
Century and the Last of the
Victorian Reign. Its (Capital
(Cities and potable Men?'

(Published at Ten Guineas by Messrs. Heywood & Co., London.)

The following may be extracted from this sumptuous work : —
E. P. Mathers, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., one of the greatest living
authorities on South African affairs.

When the history of the country comes to be written the name
of Edward P. Mathers will be found to be largely imprinted on its
pages. He was born in Edinburgh in 1850, and has been connected
with journalism from his youth upwards. After passing several
years on the staffs of various newspapers over here he emigrated to
Natal in 1878. He joined the Colonial press, and during the Zulu
War acted as correspondent to the Scotsman, a London daily
paper, and a Paris journal. From this time he has been most
closely associated with South African affairs and South African
journalism. It was in 1883 and 1884 that news was received of the
discovery of gold at Moodie's Farms in the De Kaap district of the
Transvaal. The reports of the discovery were at first very vague

and contradictory, and even the exact location of the place was
uncertain, as at that time the De Kaap district was practically
unknown country, even to the South Africans themselves. Un-
deterred by these facts Mr. Mathers volunteered to make the
attempt to find a route from Delagoa Bay to Moodie's Farms,
and he succeeded in reaching there after a most perilous journey,
during which he suffered intense hardships from hunger and fever.
Mr. Mathers soon satisfied himself as to the genuineness and im-
portance of these gold fields, and to him, perhaps, more than any
living man, is due the enormous development of the South African
gold fields. He championed their cause even when others doubted,
and he -has done his utmost with his pen and by every means
in his power to bring home to the British and Colonial public the
importance of South Africa and the boundless wealth and resources
of which it is possessed. This he has done from purely patriotic
motives, and not from selfish reasons, for, while showing the way
and pointing out to others how to make their fortunes, he has
himself been content to rely on journalism for his principal income.
In 1888 he returned to England fully convinced that the Transvaal
would eventually become the greatest gold-producing country in
the world, and of the necessity that European capital should be
responsible for its development. In order to bring the subject more
prominently before the British public, he founded the weekly
journal " SOLTH AFRICA," which has become the recognised
European authority on South African affairs, and especially gold
mining. When he came to London, before anyone else had any
faith in the gold output of Witwatersrand, he predicted the time
when it would rival that of California and Australia, and many
years before the present Boer War he prophesied that a final and
desperate struggle with Kruger was inevitable. It is not given to
many men to see such astounding proof of their own foresight.
Mr. Mathers is editor of " SOUTH AFRICA" and the author of
" Golden South Africa," " Zambesia," and "South Africa and How
to Reach It," and other books. He is a Fellow of the Roval
Geographical Society, The Royal Colonial Institute, and of the
Geological Society of London.

Mr. Mathers at Lisbon.

What the Portuguese Press have
said about him.

WHEN Mr. Mathers was in Lisbon in 1898 and thisyear.many
of the papers there had references to him. A few of these
may be given, and for the benefit of those who do not
understand Portuguese it may be said that they are sometimes of
a very flattering character. In March of this year, Mr. Mathers,
when at Lisbon, had an interview with the Portuguese Minister
of Marine on the subject of the Swazieland Railway. This will
be found in " SOUTH AFRICA " of April 4th.

Tempo.

Segundo hontem mesmo noticiavamos, o sr. Edward Mathers,
nosso collega da imprensa ingleza, que se encontra a frente do
" SOUTH AFRICA," partiu no comboio das 10 e meia da manha, para
Madrid. O sr. Mathers teve uma despedida affectuosa, vendo se na
garc pessoas conhecidas da colonia ingleza e os srs. Halved Stem-
bridge, Jose Street, Antonio Centeno e Heliodoro Centeno.

Esta manha tambem deve deixar a capital o sr. Edward P.
Mathers, editor e proprietario do jornal " SOUTH AFRICA," umo das
publicacaes de maior nomeada em Inglaterra. O sr. Mathers veiu
rapidamente a Lisboa saber da morte de Campbell, de quem era
proximo parente.

Journal de Lisboa.

O sr. Edward P. Mathers, do jornal inglez " SOUTH AFRICA,"
partiu hontem, como projectava, para Madrid, despedindo-se d'elle
nz.gare central os srs. Harold Stembridge, secretario particular do
explorador Campbell, Jose Street, Antonio Centeno e Heliodoro
Centeno, &c.

Deixa hoje Lisboa o sr. Edward P. Mathers, director do
magnifico jornal " SOUTH AFRICA," e que veio a Lisboa para tomar
conta do espolio do fallecido africanistasr. Campbell, cujo cadaver
fica por emquanto no cemiterio britannico.

Diario Illustrado.

Partiu hontem de manha no Expresso de Madrid o sr.
Eduard P. Mathers, editor da conhecida e importante publicacao
ingleza " SOUTH AFRICA."

Chegou hontem a Lisboa no Sud-Kxpress o banqueiro inglez
Mathers.

Seculo.

Como noticiamos, sr. Edward P. Mathers, director do jornal
inglez " SOUTH AFRICA," partiu hontem no comboio da manha
para Madrid.

No comboio de Hespanha, segue hoje para Madrid o editor e
proprietario da " SOUTH AFRICA," importante jornal inglez, que
esteve entre n6s alguns dias, chamado a toda a pressa pelo
fallecimento do africanista Campbell, de quem era primo. De
Madrid, o sr. Edward P. Mathers segue quasi logo para Londres.

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

Dia no Xoticias.

Regressou hontem cle manha a Londres o sr. Edward P. Mathers,
director e proprietario do nosso collega londrino " SOUTH AFRICA."

Sae hoje de Lisboa para Madrid, continuando d'ali a viagem
ate Londres o editor e proprietario do jornal inglez "Sou TH AFRICA,"
sr. Eduard P. Mathers, prinio do conhecido africanista Campbell,
ha dias fallecido na capital, victima de doenca adquirida em
Africa.

Reporter.

O sr. Edward P. Mathers, director do " SOUTH AFRICA," que
hontem regressou a Londres, conta vir dentro de alguns mezos a
Lisboa, novamente.

Diario dc Xoticias.

Director do jornal " SOUTH AFRICA" o sr. Edward Mathers,
visitara hontem todas as dependencias da Sociedade de Geographia
de Lisboa, merecendo-lhe especial attencao o museu e a bibliotheca,
onde manifestou a sua admiracao por ver ali uma completa
colleccao dos mais importantes livros inglezes que tratam de
geographia.

Patria.

O director da " SOUTH AFRICA." Retirou-se hontem para
Madrid e Londres, como se disse, o director da revista ingleza
" SOUTH AFRICA," sr. Edward P. Mathers.

Regressa hoje a Londres o sr. Edward P. Mathers, jornalista
londrino, proprietario da conhecida revista " SOUTH' AFRICA," e
cuja vinda a Lisboa foi determinada pela morte de seu primo, o
infeliz Campbell, a quem a morte surprehendeu no vigor da vida.

Tarde.

Regressa amanha a Inglaterra o editor e proprietario do jornal
" SOUTH AFRICA," sr. Eduard P. Mathers, o qual se detera em
Madrid. O sr. Mathers conta seguir dentro de poucos dias para a
Africa.

Esta na capital o sr. Edward P. Mathers, o qual se occupa das
formalidades necessarias para o embarque do cadaver do fallecido
Campbell, cujo obito os jornaes noticiaram ha dias.

O sr. Mathers e o editor e proprietario do importante jornal
"SouTH AFRICA," e quiz vir elle proprio prestar essa homenagem ao
conhecido africanista.

Corrcio da Xoitc.

Retira amanha de manha para Madrid o sr. Edward P. Mathers,
editor-proprietario do importante jornal " SOUTH AFRICA," e primo
do fallecido africanista Campbell. De Madrid o sr. Mathers segue
para Londres onde p: rmanecera ainda alguns dias antes de
embarcar para a Africa.

Vanguarda.

Nao poude permanecer por mais tempo em Lisboa, retirando
hoje no comboio da manha para Madrid, de onde depois passara
directamente a Londres, o sr. Edward P. Mathers, director do jornal
inglez "SOUTH AFRICA."

Nacao.

Partem para Londres os sr. Edward P. Mathers, director do
jornal " SOUTH AFRICA."

Voz Pllblica (Oporto) Depeche de Lisbonne.

PROPRIETARIO DA " SOUTH AFRICA."— Retira amanha de manha
para Madrid o inglez Edward P. Mathers, editor-proprietario do
importante jornal " SOUTH AFRICA," primo do fallecido africanista
Campbell, que veio buscar o cadaver.

Novidades.

Encontra-se desde hontem em Lisboa, tendo-se hospedado no
Avenida Palace. Mr. Edward P. Mathers

Essa triste missao acceitou a Mr. Mathers, que ainda se demora
alguns dias em Lisboa, ate serem preenchidas as formalidades
legaes. O sr Mathers e o editor proprietario do grande jornal
"SOUTH AFRICA."

Diario dc Xoticias.

O sr. Mathers, proprietario e redactor principal da " SOUTH
AFRICA," foi recebido hontem, pelo sr. ministro da marinha, a
quem felicitou pela sua no meacao, e conferenciou sobre as questoes
palpitan tes na Africa do Sul.

Diario Popular.

Como tinhamos dito o director do periodico inglez " SOUTH
AFRICA," sr. Edward P. Mathers, partiu hontem de manha na
direccao de Madrid, onde pouco se demora. indo em seguida para
Londres.

Correio Nacional.

Acha se hospedado no Avenida-Palace mr. Eduard P. Mathers,

editor proprietario do jornal " SOUTH AFRICA." Sera

o sr. Mathers quem acompanhara o cadaver ao paiz do illustre
extincto, pois o estado da viuva impediu-a de continuar a viagem
ate Lisboa.

I'o/lia do Poro.

Parte amanha para Madrid e de la para Londres o sr. Eduard
P. Mathers, proprietario do jornal " SOUTH AFRICA." Em Londres
u si. Mathers nao se demora muito pois projecta seguir quasi logo
para Lourenco Marques.

The press at Funchal, Madeira, have frequently had references
to Mr. Mathers, but these two paragraphs, printed in November,
1902, will suffice to show their nature : —

Diario dc Noticias.

ESPERADO. — Deve chegar hoje ao nosso porto, a bordo do vapor
\ve\szDunvegan i'nstle,em viagem do Cabo da Boa Esperanea
para Inglaterra, Mr. K. Mathers, distincto publicista e illustre
redactor e proprietario do importante jornal " SOUTH AFRICA."
Este cavalheiro tern visitado, por diversas vezes, a nossa ilha, a
respeito do qual tern escripto artigos bastante lisongeiros e
interessantes, honrando-nos todas a vezes que aqui passa com os
seus cumprimentos. Seja bein vindo.

O Diario do Commcrcio.

E' esperado hoje no nosso porto, de passagem para Inglaterra, a
bordo do vapor Diinvcgan Castle, Mr. E. Mathers, distincto
publicista e redactor principal do jornal " SOUTH AFRICA."

"ZAMBESIA," by Mr. K. P. Mathers, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., is about
tn !)<• sent to press for a second edition. The disturbed state ol
affairs in South Africa has, it seems, led to a run on the book ; and
the fine map of the South Africa Company's territory which it con-
tains is also to be issued separately. Mashonaland must be about
as well known to Mr. Mathers as was the county of Durham when
he was engaged on its newspaper press; indeed, probably better,
foi he went all over the region which is now the scene »l the
present campaign, whereas in this county he was chiefly a coaster.
His journal, " ^ RICA," is published in London. Last

Saturday's Graphic produced Mr. Mathers' portrait. Ditrliuin
Chronicle.

THE author of this work, who is also editor of that excellent
weekly, " SOUTH AFRICA," has here given us an exhaustive and concise
account (illustrated with maps, plans, portraits, and sketches) of
Matabele, Mashonaland, and the South African Gold Fields. Mr.
Mathers is a believer in the future of the country, and what is
more, he makes his readers believe with him. AVrvVii' of AVrvVrt'.v.

"THE GOLD FIKI.HS REVISITED," is cram full of facts and
information, which, so far as we are aware, can be obtained from

no other published work Mr. Mathers believes

in the new journalism, and his book, although invaluable to the
mining interest, contains much that is as amusing and interesting
as anything written by Lady Brassey. 1'iiiiincial Critic.

and its Founder, told by others

REDUCED FACSIMILES OF "SOUTH AFRICA" PLATE SUPPLEMENTS

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

The South African Dinner.

A USEFUL AND POPULAR SOCIAL FUNCTION

FOUNDED BY MR. E. P. MATHERS
AND CELEBRATED ANNUALLY IN LONDON.

Mr. Mathers' Advocacy of a South African Club.

NOT long after Mr. Mathers arrived in England he took steps
to establish an annual dinner in London, at which South
Africans in the Mother Country, and their friends over
on a visit from South Africa, might meet for social and other
purposes. He consulted some well-known colonists at the time
sojourning in Europe, and they welcomed the idea very heartily.
As these yearly celebrations have developed into gatherings of
great consequence to South Africa and South Africans, it may be
as well here to reprint the circular which Mr. Mathers sent out to
representative gentlemen to meet him and discuss the project.

Offices of " SOUTH AFRICA,"

Warnford Court, London, E.G.,
May loth, 1889.

Dear Sir, — A number of leading South Africans, at present in
London, having decided to dine together about the end of this
month, are desirous that all interested in South Africa should
participate in the movement. Your attendance is requested at a
meeting to be held at the Cannon Street Hotel (Room L) on
Tuesday next, at 3 p.m., to form a committee and make such
arrangements as may seem fit to those present.

Yours faithfully,

E. P. MATHERS,

Hon. Secretary, pro foil.

A well attended representative gathering was presided over by
Sir Donald Currie, G.C.M.G., and the following gentlemen were
appointed a committee to take the necessary steps to hold a
banquet : — Sir Donald Currie (chairman), and Messrs. A. Beit, D. P.
Blaine, W. (now Sir William) Dunn, J. H. Durham, W. M. Farmer,
A. Giles, T. M. Harvey, D. King, Alex. Macdonald, E. P.
Mathers, George Mosenthal, R. W. Murray, Archibald Parker,
John Paddon, J. S. Prince, George Reid, H. V. Searight, W. G.
Soper, and Robert Whyte.

Mr. E. P. Mathers was asked to accept the honorary secretary-
ship, which he did, and the arrangements for the dinner were left
in the hands of himself and several other members of the com-
mittee. The scheme was warmly taken up, and the first reunion,
held in the Freemasons' Tavern, was a brilliant and unqualified
success. About 250 sat down to an enjoyable repast, and the
Freemasons' Tavern was handsomely decorated for
the occasion. The front of the building had the
words " South Africa " in crystal glass, illuminated
by gas with effective scroll work. The handsome
stairway which leads to the magnificent banqueting
hall was lined with palms; the columns of the
staircase being picked out with fairy lamps. At
the end of the staircase an arrangement of glass
imitative of a waterfall into a lakelet with lilies
surrounded by a garden of bright flowers. The
central hall between the reception-room and the
banqueting hall is domed. The design of the
dome was traced by fairy lamps, whilst baskets of
flowers floated in mid-air. In the banqueting hall

the largest decoration at the end of the hall consisted of the words
"South Africa" illuminated, the illumination surmounting a
massing of tropical foliage. The columns of the hall had an
arrangement of trophies in flags brightened by innumerable fairy
lamps. One of the speakers, Sir William Dunn, Bart., M.P., said
he did not remember any occasion when there had been such an
influential gathering of South Africans present. The London papers
had reports of the proceedings. The Daily Telegraph next day
said : " In every way the gathering was a great success," and the
great daily said further flattering things about it. The New York
Herald was equally breezy, and said that from the number of
prominent men at the banquet it gathered that South Africa was to
let unfurnished. The Financial Times introduced its account of
the proceedings thus : " This gathering, which was originated by
Mr. Edward P. Mathers, of ' Golden South Africa ' fame, took place
last night in the Freemasons' Tavern." " SOUTH AFRICA " expressed
its hope that the affair was but the first of what would prove " to be
an annual series of similar celebrations," and the hope was fulfilled.

The second South African dinner took place on July 25th, 1890,
in the Whitehall Rooms, Hotel Metropole, and was also a great
success. Dr. Clark, M.P., the Consul-General for the South African
Republic, said, in opening his speech in responding for " The
Transvaal " : " Mr. Chairman, I rise with considerable reluctance
to respond to this toast, and I think I might have been allowed to
be a listener rather than a talker. Two years ago at the ' Star and
Garter,' at Richmond, when we welcomed home our able secretary,
who was then coming to represent South Africa in a literary way,
we wished him success, and I think we may say how emphatically
he has attained that success, I responded to this toast. Then, sir, last
year, at the Freemasons' Tavern, I had to respond to this same toast."

Mr. E. P. Matheis replied on behalf of the toast of " The
Committee " as follows : —

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I have to return you our very
hearty thanks for this splendid manifestation of your appreciation
of our efforts to make this gathering a success. (Hear, hear.) I

»W Vf,

THE SOUTH AFRICAN DINNER. BIT OF A PAGE OF SKETCHES IN THE "DAILY GRAPHIC."

and its Founder, told by others

need not say that it has been on our part a labour of love, and
that our chief reward is in having given you satisfaction and in
meeting you here to-night. The experience of this year has shown
the Committee that we have deferred this dinner a little too late
in the season, and I think we shall be well advised if in future we
hold it at the same time as we did last year, about the end of May,
when South Africans and others have not dispersed so much
through the Kingdom and the Continent. (Hear, hear.) Sir
Donald Currie has told us to-night of two absentees. Lord Brassey
and Her Majesty's Attorney-General, who had intended being here
to-night, but were unfortunately prevented. 1 should perhaps, also,
in my official capacity say to you that Sir Charles Mills would
have been here representing the Cape Government, but he had
issued invitations to a reception before he knew of this dinner
having been fixed for to-night. Mr. Bramston, representing the
Colonial Office, would have been here but that a rather sad
bereavement kept him away. Mr. Peace would also have been
here representing Natal, but that he is away in that Colony at
present. (Hear, hear.) Speaking about the proposed permanency of
this institution, to which Mr. Campbell has referred, 1 may say that
the Committee desire that this should be an annual gathering.
(Hear, hear.) There can be no doubt whatever that such a gather-
ing as this does fulfil a very important function, and equally little
doubt that it will continue to fulfil an important function so long
as it is kept at the high-water mark which it has attained. I
think there are great possibilities before us, and that we are at
present planting an acorn which may grow into a great tree of use-
fulness with many branches. (Hear, hear.) Before I sit down may I
mention a suggestion which 1 have thrown out elsewhere, viz., that
the elements which go to make up this harmonious and pleasurable
meeting should be crystallised into some every-day form. 1 refer
to the great necessity there is for a South African Club in London.
(Hear, hear, and cheers.) When we go out to South Africa our
South African friends welcome us to handsome clubs in all the im-
portant towns in South Africa ; but when they come home to us
how different is the case ! (Hear, hear.) There is no social central
rallying point for South Africans in this great wilderness of bricks
and mortar. (Applause.) The Club need not be ambitious in its
scope, but, above all, it should be very Catholic in its organisation,
provided its main object be kept well in view. It should be an
institution combining the ordinary advantages of a club with the
added advantages of a common meeting-ground for South Africans
and their friends. (Applause.) Such a club might be the central
organisation for such an assemblage as this, or for many purposes
connected with the common weal of all connected with South
Africa --the land we have all been proud to toast to-night.
\\\ plause.) I am certain the scheme of a South African Club
could be elaborated into one that would prove useful and profit-
able to us all, and I hope the idea will grow into a reality. (Hear,
hear.) I need not say more than that if it is allowed to grow into
a reality I shall do all in my power to help any such movement to
success. (Cheers.)

The third South African Dinner was held in the Whitehall
Rooms on the I7th June, 1892, and one paper characterised it as
" a large and enthusiastic success." Sir Robert Herbert, in proposing
the toast of " The Committee," remarked : — I couple with the toast
tin- name of Mr. Mathers — (applause) — who is well known to you
all. (Applause.) He is a great ornament to the plucky colony of .
Xatal ; he is a brilliant writer, to whom we are indebted for some
most interesting works on South Africa, and is a very active worker
on the Press. It is impossible to have any person connected with
the organising of this dinner who would have done it more success-
fully. I give " The Committee," coupled with the name of
Mr. Mathers. (Applause.)

Mr. E. P. Mathers in responding to the toast said : — I esteem
it a privilege to have been asked bv my colleagues on the
Committee to return you thanks for this toast, and 1 heartily
thank you on their behalf for this manifestation of your goodwill
and satisfaction with the arrangements which have been made
to-night for your comfort. Needless to say, the Committee are very
much gratified at the success which has attended their efforts to
make this well-established reunion thoroughly enjoyable to all
concerned. If they have had any specially arduous labours, such as

Sir Robert Herbert has referred to, they find their reward in the fact
that the numbers to-night are in excess of the numbers which were
present on the last occasion we met to toast the land we love so
well and to greet each other for " Auld Lang SVIK-." I Applause.)
The Chairman has referred to a telegram which- the Mayor of
Kimberley has sent to the Committee, and I may say also that he
has sent me a letter in which he says (this is from Carlsbad) : " 1
hope you will have a very successful gathering on Friday next. I
should very much like to be present, because I feel that these
functions do a great deal of good, not only to South Africa, but
to the Empire generally." (Loud applause.) I have said that I
esteem it a privilege to be permitted to respond to this toast, and I
do so chiefly, perhaps, because it gives me another opportunity to
speak on a subject which has an interest for many of us here
to-night. I refer to the establishment in London of a South African
Club. (Hear, hear.) Since I last spoke here on this subject I have
had the opportunity of conversing with a number of South Africans
on it, and I find there is a general agreement that such a club is a
paramount necessity, and that there would be no very great
difficulty in the way of its becoming a practical and very desirable
reality. (Hear, hear.) One of our invited guests this evening,
whom we are all sorry did not manage to come at the last moment,
anticipated events a very little, I think, when he said, responding
to the invitation of the Committee, that " I shall have very great
pleasure in coming to dine with the South African Club." (Hear,
hear.) I think this reunion should have its perennial source of
organisation in a Club which should represent all shades of opinion
and all classes of South Africans, be they Cape or Natal, Transvaal or
Mashonaland, Boer or Briton. (Applause.) When South Africans
come to London they find there is no rendezvous in the shape of a
club specially devoted to their interests, where they can depend on
meeting South Africans to talk over affairs which might interest
them mutually. The Imperial and Colonial Institutes are very
admirable in their way, but they do not quite fill the gap which
many of us feel to exist. There is no meeting-place where a South
African can drop in to exchange ideas and opinions, and, may be,
mutual advice. At present every South African merchant's office
supplies the accommodation which ought to be supplied by some
cosy inexpensive suite of rooms — a suite of rooms consecrated to
that union of hearts to which Sir John Robinson has alluded — a
union at this end of the world which would type the union to be at
the other end of the world. (Applause.) I might say more on this
subject, but I will not detain you at this late hour. I would ask
you, however, to give this question your best attention, because I
am sure that the establishment of such a club as I have mentioned
would not only fulfil very felicitous functions, but would facilitate
that friendly intercourse between South Africans, which we all, I
am sure, think so highly necessary to our happiness and prosperity.
I have been asked before I sit down to propose a toast in addition
to those on the list; and I am proud to have the opportunity of
doing so. There has been no intentional omission from the toast
list of a certain name. Mr. Campbell has given you the reason why
a certain gentleman was not asked to speak on behalf of the
country he represents, viz., because he has not yet presented his
credentials to Lord Knutsford ; but that is no reason why we
should not have him on his legs to speak in respect of another
toast. (Applause.) That toast is "The Guests," and I have
referred, I need not say, to a gentleman whom many of us knew in
South Africa, but who is a stranger at present amongst many here.
I speak of Mr. Montagu White- (applause) -who has been
appointed by the Transvaal Government to represent them in
England. I think it was a master-stroke of the Transvaal
Government to send a man of the capabilities of Mr. White among
us in this country. They have long wanted in London a responsible
official who would be accessible at all hours to give information
with regard to that great and glorious country, about which we
have heard from Mr. Campbell. Mr. White's career has been such
as to mark him out for even a more brilliant one in the future.
I Applause.) He has won his spurs in South Africa, and is just such
;i representative of the Transvaal as we have long wanted. I am
sure you will sympathise with this toast, and agree with me that
such a courteous, capable, and reliable man as Mr. White is cal-
culated to do credit alike to the South African Republic and to

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

this country. (Applause.) I ask you to drink the health of
" The Guests," coupled with the name of Mr. White. (Applause.)

At the fourth dinner the Marquis of Ripon took the chair, and
in the course of the speech of the evening, referring to Mr. Mathers,
said:--" But, gentlemen, in respect to gold, that prosperity has
been marvellous. I have provided myself — through the kindness

and assistance of a friend of mine well known to you, I have been
provided with some statistics upon this question." At the fifth
dinner it was found necessary to stop the sale of tickets before the
night. The Daily Graphic gave a sketch of Mr. Mathers at the
banquet, and that gentleman continues to be a familiar figure at
the reunions which, interrupted by the war, have been again resumed.

Some of the other South African
Movements with which Mr. Mathers

has been Identified.

MR. MATHERS has been associated with most of the
important South African political, commercial, social and
philanthropic movements which have taken place in
England during the last fifteen years, just as he was connected
with many of those occurring in South Africa from 1878 to 1888.
He started the first evening paper in Natal and founded the Natal
Caledonian Society. He occupied one of the vice-chairs at the
anniversary banquet of the Royal Colonial Institute on the I3th
March, 1889, when the Prince of Wales, now His Gracious Majesty
The King, presided, and was one of the committee of the South
African section of the Mining and Metallurgical Exhibition held
at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham, in 1890. He was on the
committee of a banquet held in London in April, 1891, to celebrate
the opening of railway communication between Natal and the
then South African Republic, and at a public meeting held in
the Citv in October, 1891, reported at considerable length in
the London papers, was elected on the general committee and
on the small executive committee of the South African
Exhibition, held at Kimberley at the close of 1892.

Earlv in 1891 a committee was formed in London with a view
to entertaining the late Mr. Rhodes at a public dinner. His Grace
the Duke of Abercorn was elected to the chairmanship of the
movement, and Mr. Mathers was requested to act as honorary
secretary. Mr. Rhodes, however, could not attend the dinner. He
wrote the following letter giving his reasons : —

WESTMINSTER PALACE HOTEL,

I4th February, 1891.
E. P. MATHERS, ESQ.

DEAR SIR,— I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the
loth instant, forwarding copies of the resolutions adopted at a meeting
held in the Cannon Street Hotel on lhat day.

In reply I have to request you to be so good as to convey to His
Grace the Duke of Abercorn and the other members of the Committee
an expression of my best thanks for the honour which they have paid
me in their invitation to a public dinner in London prior to my return
to South Africa.

In view, however, of the delicate negotiations now in progress with
regard to various questions of great importance to South Africa, I
venture to think that it would be undesirable thut I should make any
public statement at this time on South African matters, and I beg,
therefore, to request that the Committee will excuse me, at present,
from availing myself of their invitation.

Yours faithfully,

C. J. RHODES.

During 1892 as will be seen elsewhere, Mr. Mathers advocated

while in Johannesburg the formation of a South African Club in

London, and the Johannesburg Standard and Diggers' News referred

thus to the matter in a leading article headed "Social South

Africans": --Saturday night's banquet to Mr. E. P. Mathers, editor

of " SOUTH AFRICA," will be memorable, not only for honours

rendered a guest right worthy of them, but for the enunciation of

an idea which, when taken up and given flesh and form — as we

have no doubt it will be— is likely to play an important part in

the affairs of South Africa, and of all South Africans that wander

the face of the sphere. Having succeeded through the medium of

his journal in bringing South Africa before the eyes of men, with

the view to advertising its many merits as a field for enterprise,

Mr. Mathers has bethought him of the advantage it would be to

thousands of his fellow South Africans to establish for them in the

Citv of London a rendezvous where they might meet and compare

notes. It is extraordinary that such an idea never before occurred

to the mind of man. But then, only one Columbus was struck with

the curious notion of discovering the continent that to-day is called

America, and it has been left to Mr. E. P. Mathers to hit upon one of

the happiest ideas of more recent years—that of supplying South

Africans with a centre of call, when they foregather in the vast and

bewildering city of London. It is an idea which has originated

solely with himself, and the credit of which one and all will readily

render unto him. And to us it appears in every respect a feasible

business, in which Mr. Mathers deserves every support. The

travelling South African, who makes London once a year, will hail

the suggestion of a social South African Club in London with great

glee. He has known the want of it these several years, as he has

wandered the length and breadth of Thamestown in search of a

stray South African with whom he has, or would have, business.

Up to date, labour of that kind has been like looking for a needle

in a haystack. With some recognised centre of call for all South

Africans abroad, the periodic visit to London would, however, be

made both pleasanter and more possible ; and in these days when

S< iiith Africans are so much sought after, such an institution could at

once convenience the home runners, and those in the city that are

watching and waiting their arrival. Mr. Mathers' club would, in

fact- to use a stereotyped but filling phrase supply a long-felt

want, and we therefore .trust that it will meet with the support

on this side which it deserves. Once established, there is no saying

into what it might grow. With sufficient equipment, and duly

empowered, it might become an important Bureau of Intelligence,

capable of affording facts and figures invaluable to South Africans

in particular, and to London in general. Meantime, the social

aspect of the idea, with the conveniences and advantages it

and its Founder, told by others

REDUCED FACSIMILES OF "SOUTH AFRICA" PLATE SUPPLEMENTS

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

connotes, should alone be sufficient to recommend itself, alike to
evetvjndividual on the Rand, and to all its institutions.

About the end of 1892 a public meeting was held in the City,
and.the following is taken from a lengthy report of the proceedings
in The Times.

The following resolution was also agreed to unanimously :— " That,
with a view to the co-operation of all interested in Swazieland, a permanent
committee, consisting of the following gentlemen— Mr. F. H. Faviell,
chairman of the Forbes Reef Gold Mining Company (Limited) ; Mr. J.
Harvey, chairman of Henderson and Forbes Gold Mining Company
(Limited) ; Mr. E. Escombc, chairman of the Swazieland Gold Exploration ;
Lord Ribblesdale, chairman of Horo Concession (Limited) ; Mr. H. T,
VanLaun ; Mr. E. P. Mathers, Mr. H. R. Fox Bourne, secretary of the
Aborigines Protection Society; Sir George Baden-Powell, M.P., Sir

Albert Rollit, M.I'., Sir Reginald Hanson. M.I'., and Mr. A. Gihbs, M.P.,
be formed, with power to add to their number, ,nnd that a deputation from
such committee, and others to be selected by them, are hereby requested to
wait on the Marquis of Ripon, on a day to be appointed by him, fur the pur-
pose of laying before him the views embodied in the foregoing resolutions."
Mr. Mathers was one of the Honorary Council and a member of
the Acting Honorary Committee of Advice of the South African
Exhibition held at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham, in 1895, and it
scarcely seems necessary to specify the numerous other South
African social functions such as the London banquet last year to
the Natal Premier— with which he has been connected, either as
Committeeman or Vice-Chairman. He has been asked, and has
consented to serve on the Committee of the International Exhi-
bition to be held at Johannesburg next year.

"SOUTH AFRICA" IN FANCY DRESS.

" South Africa " in Fancy Dress.

"SouTH AFRICA," on January igth, 1901, had the following : —

"Not for the first time has "Soi'TH AFRICA" been used as the
leading feature in a lady's dress at a fancy dress ball. Ere now
our title block and other illustrations tastefully displayed in
costumes has gained the wearer marked attention and prizes both
on land and sea. The other evening at a fancy dress ball in
Folkestone, Miss Eileen Molvneux, daughter of Mrs. E. Molyneux,
wore a costume very much admired. Her dress was of yellow
satin, on which was printed the front page of the " SOUTH AFRICA"
cover, and a number of illustrations from the paper. These
consisted chiefly of prominent South Africans, amongst whom the
Editor of "Son ii AFRICA" was conspicuous. The little lady wore

two necklaces, one of gold nuggets and the other of diamonds.
The headdress was a very ingenious one, being a diamond star
above the Imperial coat of arms. We have much pleasure in
reproducing photographs of our young friend as she appeared at
the ball, holding the Union Jack in one hand and a copy of " SOUTH
AFRICA" in the other. The brilliancy of the costume is not to be
judged from the photographs, as the colour of the cover does not
lend itself easily to a light photograph. The costume, we are
informed, was voted the best and most original at the ball, and we
are much obliged to Mrs. Molyneux and the pretty wearer for the
trouble they took to make it worthy of the great subject— ahem ! "
On another occasion at a fancy dress ball at sea, Mrs. Samuel
Marks, of Pretoria, took first prize with a similar costume. It was
a specially clever one, the title block of the paper being conspicuous
all over it.

and its Founder, told i>y others

Mr. Mathers Interviews
Paul Kruger.

HE MAKES THE PRESIDENT TALK IN
1887, 1892 AND 1896.

MR. MATHERS was the first journalist to get ex-President
Kruger to submit to the process of interviewing. Some
brief extracts of what passed between interviewer and
interviewed on three separate occasions may be placed on record
here. The Times published some of these in January, 1896 (shortly
after the Jameson Raid), under the following letter, headed
" President Kruger's Promises " : —

Sir, — In the course of my journalistic work I had interviews
with President Kruger at Pretoria in the years 1887 and 1892.
Extracts from the notes of these interviews will prove of interest at
this juncture, as affording an opportunity of comparing President
Kruger's promises with his performances.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

(Signed) EDWARD P. MATHERS,

Editor of "SouTH AFRICA."

39, Old Broad Street, London, E.G.
Jmiuary 2nd, 1896.

WHAT PAUL KRUGER SAID TO MR. MATHERS IN 1887.

The following is a brief extract from the report of the interview
which Mr. Mathers had with President Kruger when the name of
Johannesburg was hardly known. The interview is fully set forth
as Chapter XXV. of " Golden South Africa " :—

Question : Were promises made that the various gold fields
should be allowed to send representatives to the Raad ?

The President : No. No promises were made of any kind. If
it can be done without interfering with the law, I would be happy
that it could be so, as I want to give the diggers and companies
every facility.

Question : Do you not consider that an intelligent man, of
whatever nationality, and having a stake in the country, is entitled
to have a voice in the affairs of the country through representation
in the Legislature '•

The President : If it is in compliance with the law, certainly :
if it is not in compliance with the law, it cannot be dour. Wealth
cannot break laws. Though a man has millions of pounds he
cannot alter the law.

Question : Is it a good law which prevents a man of intelligence,
and having a stake in the country, from having a voice in the
affairs of the country through representation in the Legislature ?

The President : Is he a good man who wants to be masii
the country, when others have been suffering for twenty years to
conduct its affairs ?

Question : No, I do not think he woiild be : but there would
be a difference between the man having a minority of representation
in your Raad, and having none at all.

The President : If he has not earned it, why should he have this
voice? How can I give a voice to one and not to another? Let
him Stay twenty and forty years and earn his right to representa-
tion, the same as we have dour.

Question : I suppose you would prefer not to continue this
discussion ?

The President : Why should you ? What good will it do ?

Question : Because coming through your country I have heard a
good deal of discontent expressed among an important section of
the people, and I think it my duty to ask these questions.

The President : I have told you how the law stands, and if the
people do not like to accept the law, let them go out of the
country. (Excitedly.) It is the unthankful people to whom I
have given protection that are always dissatisfied, and what is
more, they would actually want me to alter my laws to suit them.
(With continued warmth.) To-day it is dissatisfaction with the
present laws, to-morrow it is dissatisfaction if they have the whole
country, the day after that it is dissatisfaction if they turn the
people out, and the day after that there is dissatisfaction if there is
even one Dutchman left in the country. I have seen people to
whom I have given a piece of ground to till for themselves, who,
directly they have had it, have wanted the whole farm. A dis-
satisfied man you can never satisfy, give him what you will.
(After a brief pause.) How many of these dissatisfied people did
you meet ?

Question : I found among the diggers a very general and very
reasonable view that they should have representation in the Raad.
They wish to have in the Raad a mouth through which they can
state their wants and grievances when they have any. Supposing
Steynsdorp, Barberton, and Johannesburg were allowed each to
send one representative to the Raad, what danger is there that
these three would out-vote your thirty, and so be masters of the
country ?

The President : Is it right that I should do this when there are so
many gold fields being discovered ? There are twenty-live new
places which I have to proclaim as gold fields ; if they were all to
have voices, they would have more voices than the Raad. Would
that be right? If I did it to one, the others would be dissatisfied.
If I once opened the door, what would stop it ? As a closing
answer, it is my intention to frame a law for the purpose of
representation, but on what basis this law will be framed I cannot
tell you. They can rest satisfied though, and you will be witness,
and they will be witness, that I will provide for this representation.
But they must work with me, or otherwise if they were against me
in any way they would cause the scheme to be broken off.

WHAT PAUL KRUGER SAID TO MR. MATHERS IN 1893.

Question : When I was in Pretoria live years ago I had the
pleasure of an interview with your Honour— the first interview you
had ever accorded to a pressman. You wore kind eno'ugh to give
me your views on the then prominent questions of the hour.
Your statements wen permanently recorded in my book, " Golden
Soutli Africa," and I may take the opportunity of remarking that
all your utterances and actions since then have been exactly
consistent with those statements. I should esteem it a favour, and
I think Tnany of the i I the paper " SOUTH AFRICA " would

be glad, if you would brielly ans\\rr a few questions on the leading
subjects of to-day.

The President : Good.

F 2

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

Question : Your reported views on the Franchise question have
been much discussed of late. I have read in the newspaper, the
/'/v.v.f, a statement of vour views on this subject, and I should be
glad to learn if it is a fair statement of your plan.

The President asked Dr. I .evils to read the statement. That
gentleman then translated the following into Dutch to the Presi-
dent : — " Now I will tell you what my plan has been for a year or
two, in order to bring forward a proposal which I hope will meet
the views of the new population of the State. Instead of waiting
the full ten years, as the law requires, I shall propose a plan to the
Volksraad members, if I am re-elected, by which naturalised new-
comers, who, according to the Field Cornets' lists, have been
obedient to the laws of the country, and agree with the principles
of our independence, and who have, of course, been four years in
the State, shall receive thsir full Franchise rights, not at the end of
the ten years, but at any time within that period. In fact, every
year the lists of the new burghers should be brought up to the

OPPbEMENT TO

Question : I see, Mr. President, that you say the lists of pro-
posed new burghers would be brought up every year for scrutiny.
In scrutinising those lists, what would be regarded as the quali-
fications necessary for being accorded free rights to vote for
candidates for, and to sit in, the First Volksraad ?

The President : I will only look for the people who have been
obedient to the laws of the country, and who agree with the
principles of independence.

Question : There would be no property qualification ?

The President : I make no difference between a rich man and a
poor man --only between a good man and a bad man.

Question : Then there would be no property qualification ?
Answer : No.

Question : I have been noticing for some time, and especially
since I came into the Transvaal just now, that there is a tendency

SOU I II A!

REDUCED FACSIMILE OF A "SOUTH AFRICA" PLATE SUPPLEMENT

'. aad for judicious examination and impartial scrutiny, and a
i ertain number of individuals be accorded their full rights there
and then. If some of these are then elected to the First Volksraad,
the power of that body will be strengthened. As the sons of the
old Transvaal burghers grow up they will form a powerful check
against the stream of the new-coiners, and within a very short
period from now, according to my plan, I think all dangers or
threats to the independence of the Republic will be averted and
will never exist again. By such a course the true power of the
united franchised burghers will be established and nothing need br
feared." At the conclusion of the reading of this by Dr. Leyds. the
intei view proce<

Question : Will you kindly tell me. Mr. President, if this is a
fair statement of your views on the Franchise question ?

The President: It is the spirit of what I have said. That has
been my plan long ago, from the time I proposed the law of the
Second Volksraad. I wish to work in that spirit.

on the part of the uitlanders to combine for the purpose of
asserting their rights to a share in the government of the country
\Vhut do you think of the programme of the National Union
started at Johannesburg "'

The President : I do not agree with it.

Question : Have you any objection to say in what respect?

The President : I would rather not enter into the subject at
present. i.Uter a pause.) 1 wish only to add that the thing itself is
not consistent. There are different points in their programme
that do not agree with each other.

Question : The mining industry having lifted this country into
a position of great prosperity, do you consider that its requirements
and interests have been fairly studied and advanced by the
Government ?

The President : As much as possible : and 1 am thinking every
dav how 1 ran help it.

and its Founder, told by others

THE EX-PRESIDENT SPEAKS AC,. UN TO MR. MATHERS

IN 1896.

HP. TKI.I.S HIM FM1MIATICAU.Y THAT HI'. HAH STATED HIS VIEWS MOKK
BROADLY TO HIM THAN 1 1 F. HAD EVER DONE TO A JOl'KXAUST.

A WELL-KNOWN TRANSVAAI.ER SAYS HE HAD NEVER KNOWN ANYONE
so LUCKY IN IIRAWIXI; REMARKS FROM PAUL KIH;I;KR.

THF EX-PRESIDENT SAYS TO MR. MATHERS: "I SELECT YOU TO C;IVE
THAT MESSAOE TO EUROPEAN SHAREHOLDERS."

The following communication from Mr. Mathers appeared in
"SOUTH AFRICA" of March i4th, 1896: —

JOHANNESBURG, February fj//t.

To get thoroughly at the bottom of recent events I have found
it necessary to be a good deal in Pretoria since I arrived in the
Transvaal. While there, I had my third interview, as a journalist,
with President Kruger. Many of the readers of " SOUTH AFRICA "
will remember that I interviewed President Kruger on two pre-
vious occasions, viz., in 1887 and 1892, on the very questions which
have now become of so critical and burning a character. I was
the first pressman to interview his Honour, and, as the President
admits himself, he has spoken to me on these questions more
broadly than he has ever done to any other journalist. In 1887 I
asked his Honour if he did not consider that the intelligent man of
whatever nationality and having a stake in the country was en-
titled to have a voice in the affairs of the country through repre-
sentation in the Legislature. The President replied : " If it is in
compliance with the law, certainly ; if it is not in compliance with
the law it cannot be done. Wealth cannot break laws; though a
man has millions of pounds he cannot alter the law." I pressed
the President further on this point, and all I could get from him
was that people would have to stay twenty or forty years in the
country to earn a right to representation in the Legislature. In
1892, discussing the same subject, the President said it was his
desire to add to the number of the burghers of the State, and this
he would do by going through lists of proposed new burghers every
year. In selecting those entitled to become burghers, he would only
look for the people who had been obedient to the laws of the
country and agreed with the principles of independence, but would
make no difference between the rich man and poor man ; only
between good men and bad men. I asked the question : " The
mining industry having lifted this country into a position of great
prosperty, do you consider that its requirements and interests have
been fairly studied and advanced by the Government ? " The Pre-
sident replied : " As much as possible, and I am thinking every day
how I can help it." Well, I have had another talk with President
Kruger, who does not seem to have thought to much purpose on
the question of advancing the interests of the mining industry.
Mr. De Jongh, a prominent and respected lawyer in Pretoria,
kindly agreed to accompany me to the President's house as 'inter-
preter. At the entrance to the residence there were three uncouth-
looking Boer youths in uniform. In a smilingly aggressive way
they stood in uneven line with their rifles in what I suppose would
pass for the position of " Attention." There was no difficulty in
passing them and in entering the house. I sent my card into the
President and was immediately admitted to his presence in his
drawing-room. He was sitting in an armchair with two prominent
I MII i frii-nils for company. One of these was Mr. George Meyer, a
Field Cornet of the Johannesburg district, and the other a well-
known Krugerite. The President, who did not look nearly so well
as when on the two previous occasions I interviewed him, received
me weariedly, and settled down to vigorous smoking through a
long German pipe. A maid brought us tea, and little more need
be said of the circumstances surrounding the interview than that
during it the President of the South African Republic cleared his
nose in a manner peculiar to himself. The inteiview wa- not an
easy one, as it had been intimated to me by a friend in the know
that I should have to steer clear of certain subjects or the audience
would collapse. I prepared no questions; indeed, the opportunity
to obtain an interview at all arose very suddenly and was as suddenly
availed of. At its conclusion, Mr. De Jongh said lie had never

known anyone so lucky in drawing remarks from his Honour. It
may be luck ; it may be that the President remembered the two
previous interviews, and the undoubted pacific effect they had
at the time. Anyhow, things have now gone too far for the uit-
lander to be satisfied with mere words. The purpose of this letter,
though, is not to comment upon the interview 1 had with President
Kruger, but to report it as follows : —

Question : I had interviews with you in 1887 and 1892, just
before the Presidential election, and on both occasions you seemed
willing to grant a fairly liberal franchise to the uitland<
come back, here, three years after, and I find the present state of
things. What has happened to make the uitlanders less worthy of
rights than they admittedly were before ?

The President (somewhat warmly) : Is it for me to say ? The
events which have been reported in the newspapers are a sufficient
answer to that.

Question : You were on the point of making very large conces-
sions to the uitlanders when Jameson came in, were you not ?

The President : That is so ; and whether certain people are
against me or not, it is still my intention to grant reforms, because
there are amongst the people of Johannesburg a large number who
are innocent, and proof of this is to be found in the proclamation
I have published to the world. The people who are true to
the country cannot be treated in the same way as the people who
are untrue ; a difference must be made between them. I realise
that a large number of people are faithful to me and the country,
and true to its interests.

Question : What do you think of Mr. Chamberlain's sugges-
tions in his despatch ?

The President : Is it reasonable that he should mix himself up
with the internal affairs and control of the country ? Is that not
against the Convention ? I did not expect it, but 1 will give a
friendly reply.

Question : Quite so, to a friendly suggestion ?

The President : It may be friendly enough, but still it is
meddling, and touches the control of the country. I have received
an invitation from the British Government to come to England,
and I have answered : " Yes, I will come ; but there will have to
be an exchange of correspondence so as to define the points to be
discussed, so that I can put the matter before the Volksraad." It is
for them to decide. I must get leave from the Volksraad to go.

Question : I understand, Mr. President ; but it would be a pity
that you should have any false impression as to the apparent
intentions of Mr. Chamberlain in laying purely suggestive plans
before you. Supposing a large number of Boers choose to go and
settle elsewhere out of the country, and supposing they imagined
they had great grievances and that their material interests were
being greatly interfered with by the Government of the country in
which they had settled, would you not consider it your duty to do
what you could to protect the interests they said were being placed
in jeopardy ?

The President : Yes, I would do that. I realise all that, and I
am doing everything I can for the uitlander here.

Question : Can you give me any idea how far you are prepared
to meet the wants of the uitlander ?

The President : You might misunderstand me and write
wrongly what I say. I do not want to make definite statements.
I have made publication in the newspapers showing what I will
do. The Education Law is one example. I gave in on the
Ediu-atiiin question, and I was prepared to do this before the
disturbances at Johannesburg, and when these disturbances took
place, I thought I ought to withdraw this concession ; but I con-
sidered that a number of innocent people would be made to suffer,
and so 1 will go through with it. But do not think I 'have been
forced to this because of the rising at Johannesburg.

Question: Now as regards the representation of the uitlander
in the Government of the country, Mr. President, would you,
broadly speaking, have any objections to a partnership Parliament
and Executive between the best men of the uitlanders and the best
men of the I'.oeis. -av, in the proportion of a third uitlanders to
two thirds Boers?

The President : The Law is there. Last year I took in about
2,000, and gave them votes, and this year 1 will probably take in

7°

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

6,000 or 7,000, and so 1 will go on. There is not only one
nationality to be considered, but a lot. I make no difference
between one nationality and another. I consider only the people
wlui are true to me, quite irrespective of nationality. Those who
are not true to me I put quite on one side.

Question : And about people in Europe who are depending on
the progress of your country ?

The President : With regard to foreign shareholders who have
nothing to do with this rising, I do not want them to suffer, and
that is why I issued the proclamation asking all the mines to
continue. I am pushing to provide labour for the mines so that
foreign shareholders shall not suffer.

Question : Well, European shareholders will be grateful to you
for that, Mr. President, at any rate.

The President : You can declare this from me, that no matter
what disturbances may take place, I will see that the interests of
shareholders are not jeopardised. Even though some directors of
companies have mixed themselves up with these disturbances, that
must not prejudice shareholders, because I have only to do with the
individuals who have done these things. Shareholders must take
this message from me through you, that they must not throw their
shares on the market and sacrifice them, because I will see that
their interests are protected. I select you to give that message to
the European shareholders. There are speculators who take
advantage of the state of affairs to buy shares when the market is
low, and make a lot of money ; and shareholders must not be so
stupid as to give them the chance. I have seen that the so-called
grievances are mere subterfuge, and that a number of these big
speculators make use of this opportunity to force shares down in
order to buy them in at a low price.

Question : But it happens, Mr. President, that quite the reverse
has taken place. Shares are rising.

The President : Yes, that is because I issued that proclamation.
I have in my hands the resolutions taken by some of these
speculators to force the market down, and the moment I saw that,
I issued a proclamation so as to give confidence to the public.
I would never have thought of doing that if I had not these papers
in my hand. 1 will give them to the Raad.

Question : If it is a fair question, Mr. President, have you
satisfied yourself that Johannesburg as a town had nothing to do
with the bringing in of Jameson ?

The President : My opinion is that there is a small body of
agitators who made use of these so-called grievances in order to
bring in a large body of men with them. 1 am perfectly satisfied
that the bulk of the people of Johannesburg are not with them.
(At this point the two Dutchmen 1 have mentioned rose and took
their leave, there being only now present the President, Mr. De
Jongh, and myself. ) The President continued : I have engagements
and cannot go on with this interview any more.

Question : Well, one more question, Mr. President. If you are
so satisfied that the bulk of the people of Johannesburg had nothing
to do with the Jameson Ride, you will take care that the town
does not suffer for it ?

The President : That is surely quite clear from my proclamation.
I don't want them to suffer.

Question : I may be in the country a few weeks, and trust I may
trespass on your time again ?

The President : I refuse newspaper men who want to see me
every day, because my statements are so often wrongly reported.
I have stated my views more broadly to you than I have ever done
to a journalist.

Question : And you go to England when, Mr. President ?

The President : As soon as I have arranged matters with the
Home Government I shall call my Volksraad together in order to
obtain their consent to my departure.

The Times.

The following letter from Mr. E. P. Mathers, written from
Cape Town, appeared in The Times in April, 1896: —

I have just seen the letter in your issue of the iyth ult., signed
"Veritas." Your correspondent, referring to a cabled summary of
my interview with President Kruger, says : — " According to a
telegram— apparently carefully prepared, as they always are —
President Kruger says," &c. If herein is contained an insinuation
that the President in any way " doctored " my report, or that the
report is other than the bonafide one of an absolutely independent,
unbiassed journalist, searching for facts in a maze of confusion and
falsehood, 1 respectfully ask your permission to state that such an
insinuation is without a shadow of foundation.

Johannesburg Star.

An outline of this interview was printed in the Johannesburg
Star of February i-jth, 1896.

ONLY one Columbus was struck with the curious notion of
discovering the continent that to-day is called America, and it has
been left to Mr. E. P. Mathers to hit upon one of the happiest ideas
of more recent years — that of supplying South Africans with a
centre of call, when they foregather in the vast and bewildering
city of London. It is an idea which has originated solely with
himself, and the credit of which one and all will readily render
unto him. -Johannesburg Standard.

"SouTH AFRICA" has taken an honoured place in the world's
Press. It has a circulation in the City of London equal to that of
nearly any half-dozen of those fearfully and wonderfully sustained
prints called "financial" papers, while the constantly increasing
weekly supplies required by the great emperors of the bookstall
realm form one of the latest themes of gossip in "the trade."
Throughout Great Britain, Ireland, and the Continent, the paper
has secured an ever widening clientele. In Paris alone it circulates
as many copies as some of the French papers do, and it would
appear as if it must soon have its branch office in tlie gay capital. —
"Sourn AFRICA," January 4th, 1890.

"SouTH AFRICA" helps to mould the opinions on South African
affairs of Members of Parliament and many sections of the English
Press, while we are not too modest to hide our knowledge of the
fact that it is a counsellor in the higher places of the nation. It is
proving a trusty companion — at least, we hope it is- in Govern-
mental Departments beyond these shores. We know the
Portuguese Foreign Minister has read it very carefully during the
past few months, and no doubt he has done so with profit to
himself and his country.- " SOUTH AFRICA," January 4th,

Tine Glasgow Evening News, referring in September, 1883 to
the banquet of the Natal Football Association, said: — "Needless
to say, speeches long and short lengthened out the proceedings.
Among those who spoke was Mr. E. P. Mathers, formerly connected
with the Press in Glasgow and Greenock, and now one of our
'colonial contemporaries.' Mr. Mathers made a capital speech,
and gave some happy reminiscences of his football tussles in the
country."

THE North Kaup Telegraph of July i8th, 1888, had a leading
article beginning and ending as follows: — " Mr. Mathers, the author
of 'Golden South Africa,' is evidently a prophet. He predicted in
his new boc >k that ' One day the North Kaap District will be as
important as any of the many auriferous localities in a great tract

of country.' We think Mr. Mathers may well

take the credit of having proved himself a veritable prophet."

THROUGH " SOUTH AFRICA" and by means of it London, and
indeed all England, which not so long ago was sunk in gross
darkness, has been familiarised with the facts and phases of this
country, while South Africa has been able to see herself as others
see her, and as she is. The work of familiarisation— an awkward
word but happy — has been slow but sure. — Johannesburg Standard.

"SouTH AFRICA" was the direct product of the mining era, and
it is characteristic of the energy and ability which Mr. Mathers
brought to bear in its establishment, that he should seek to refresh
his mind and memory by personal observation of the changes that
have taken place during his five years' absence from the country. -
\iitiil MiTi'i/rv.

and its Founder, told by others

Other Interviews with
Notabilities.

WHAT UMBANDINE, THE KING OF SWAZIELAND,
SAID TO MR. MATHERS IN 1884.

ALONG interview which Mr. Mathers had with the then
President Reitz of the Orange Free State appeared in
"SouTH AFRICA" of January ;th, 1893.

In " Golden South Africa " appear accounts of Mr. Mathers'
visit to Swazieland in 1884, and the following extract regarding
what the King of the country said to him will doubtless be read
with interest : —

I visited the King's kraal twice. On the first occasion his
Majesty had retired from sight for the evening, and I had an
opportunity of examining the kraal. It is the headquarters of a
fine lot of soldiers, who occupy barracks within the enclosure. The
military are formidable. Tall, powerful looking men, they are
kept in good condition, although many of them have an unctuous,
overfed appearance. At the time of my inspection these men were
assembled inside the spacious cattle kraal, and were formed in long
semi-circles several lines deep. They were singing a song of thanks
to the King for the beef he had just given them. It was a wild kind
of chant with now and then a pleasing minor effect accompanied
by the steady and simultaneous stamping of the right foot. The
soldiers are frequently exercised in ceremonies of thanksgiving for
something or other, and their evolutions are a credit to their
general, Bovan. When they had returned thanks for the slaughtered
oxen they made hurried rushes in detachments for the narrow exit,
where there was a good humoured squeeze to get out. In one
portion of this large enclosure stand a number of huge oxen with
long fantastically shaped horns. These are sacred beasts, and are
supposed to contain the spirits of Umbandine's ancestors. They are
consulted in times of doubt and difficulty, and weird looking oracles
they appeared in the gathering darkness. The horns of the animals
are seared below when they first show themselves, and this makes
them grow downwards in the extraordinary shapes they assume,
much to the discomfort and pain of the oxen, who cannot lie down.
The horns of one of the animals measure fifteen feet from tip to tip,
while others can easily scratch their distant quarters with theirs.
When the King makes rain he stands for some time in consultation
with the oxen. The ungainly creatures are then taken from the
kraal and driven at top running speed to a sacred stream some
miles away. A walk through the kraal does not impress one as to
its size. Some three hundred huts are enclosed in a high woven
grass and reed fence. The huts of the wives and concubines are
shielded from the common gaze by inner partitions. A look into
some of the huts in the other quarters reveals some of the hetero-
geneous articles which the King has bought with the cash only too
plentiful with him now. Among these are guns and cracked
looking glasses, clasp knives, and flasks of grog and numerous
useless odds and ends. The wives of the King were taking sundown
strolls about the kraal. I had a chat with the head one, and found
her to be a courteous and mannerly dame, having a towery head-
dress formed of her own hair reddened with clay.

When I returned to the kraal the next day, 1 had a talk with
the King, Mr. W. H. Bayly and John Gania, a relative of the
King, educated at Edehdale, kindly interpreting for me. I found
I inkindine seated in the open air, with his indunas squatted in
meditative snuff-taking at a respectful distance. The King wore

only a blanket, and exposed a chest covered with rolls of fat. A
hair-dressing slave was in the act of touching up the monarch's
somewhat scanty wool. The barber wore a countenance which
betokened an appreciation of the dignity of his position, and he
was comically grave as he twisted each particular hair about the
gum headring. Doubtless he was desirous of avoiding the royal
utterance of the Swazie equivalent for " off with his head ! " which
might follow any seeming carelessness in his hair-fixing operations.
The monarch had a bracelet on the left wrist, a cheap toy given
him by a would-be concessionnaire. It was a leather strap, in
which a little watch was fixed. The King had been told that it
would show him when the sun would go down, but he had
expressed his disappointment at results. He is as fickle as a spoilt
child over his presents. He has a number of fine pocket (?) knives,
which have each interested him for as many minutes. He has
a penchant for greyhounds and horses, and bought a gun while I
was there, paying fifty pounds for it. In a month he will be
willing to exchange the gun for a cheap nag. The royal hand was
extended when I was introduced to Umbandine.

I explained to the King my office, and stated that I had come to
him because I wanted to hear for myself and the white people
what truth there was in the reports that the Boers intended to
invade his country, and that I wanted to know whether he wished
to place any matters or complaints before the public.

The King replied : Yes, I should like them made known, and I
have made them known through my brother Umfoweto (Mr.
Shepstone) to the two Governments. The papers he has you can
see, as they contain what I should like made known. The troubles
I. have reported are true, as my brother Umfoweto well knows. I
should like everything that has occurred to be known publicly as
quickly as possible in England, and by the telegraph.

I asked him if he authorised me to state in his name that he
wished his troubles made known quickly to the people of England.

The King replied in the affirmative.

I asked him if it was his desire that a British Resident should
be appointed in his country.

The King answered : Yes, it is. My brother Umfoweto knows
that I have sent an application for a British Resident. I do want
a Resident, and I have applied for one. and I wish it to be my
brother (twice stated), who truly understands me.

I asked him if in the case of being attacked by the Boers he
looked to the English to assist him.

Umbandine replied: Yes, certainly; but I hope they will
interfere to prevent me being attacked, and I have asked both
Governments to do so.

I asked him why he expected the English to assist him.

The King said : Because of what is in the Convention, and of
what was spoken to me thereon by Lukuni (General Sir Evelyn
Wood). Lukuni told me that if ever I had any cause of complaint
I was to appeal to the British Government, and they would
help me.

Umbandine (who afterwards presented me with a battle-axel
repeated that he wished me to make known his situation to the
British people as quickly as possible, and after telling him I should
do so, 1 took my leave of him, he bidding me a kindly adieu. In
another minute he was intently surveying his face in a cheap gilt-

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

framed mirror, which he placed on his knee as he viewed himself
from different points. In reference to Umbandine's remark about
Sir Evi'lvn Wood, I am informed that the Swazies have never

forgotten that officer's words, and frequently quote them. They
say that Sir Evelvn told them that so long as they behaved them-
selves they could rely on the help of the British Government.

A Talk with Tippoo Tib.

WHAT THE WILY OLD SLAVER HAD TO SAY TO
MR. MATHERS AT ZANZIBAR.

WHILE at Zanzibar in January, 1893, Mr. Mathers had
several talks with Tippoo Tib, who at one time was
famous, or infamous, as a trafficker in human flesh. At
the time Mr. Mathers wrote : —

He was very courteous and communicative, and seemed anxious
to stand well in the eyes of Englishmen. So far from his pro-
fessing to be poor, as a Brussels correspondent hints, he lives in
openly comfortable style ; indeed, one of our conversations in his
blue drawing-room near the top of his house was somewhat
interrupted by the noise of the workmen engaged in adding a new
storey to the building. We talked of a number of subjects, but
perhaps chiefly about the slave question. I asked him if he had
any hankering after his former trade of bringing slaves to the
coast, and his reply was that the Germans and British prevented
him now. " All the Arabs," he said, " wish to bring slaves down,
but because of Europeans we cannot do so any longer." I was
conversing through a clever Swahili boy, kindly lent me by General
Matthews. Here are a brace of the questions and answers which
passed between Tippoo and myself.

" Don't you think that all men should be free ? "

Tippoo : " Whatever the European tells us to do we shall Ho."

" Do you think it right that human beings should be bought
with money or goods ? "

Tippoo : " I cannot say. The Arabs say it is good, but the
British prevent it, and I cannot do it any longer if the British
say no."

Tippoo told me of his African travels, and said he wanted very
much to see England. He enumerated his blood relations to me;
and after informing me that he had only one wife, remarked, with
the shade of a smile on his decidedly benevolent looking face : " I
am very glad it is an English fashion to keep only one wife." But
the Arab's notions are somewhat mixed on this question after all.
I was told that the Sultan -since deceased— had no wives at all.
Somewhat as an after-thought my informant added that His
Highness had fifty-three concubines. So the comely damsels who
flitted about the staircase of Tippoo Tib's house may sometimes
comfort their lord in his melancholy moods.

"GOLDEN SOUTH AFRICA" is one of the most interesting books
that has seen the light for many a day. Mr. Mathers is a " live "
correspondent. He goes in and out, and is equally expert at
observing on his own account or gathering the results of other
people's observations with the inevitable note-book. He knows
how to mix solid information as to stamps, shafts, shares, and the
like, with lighter sketches of the aspects of the Fields; and at
present, at any rate, this is the only work in which a general
account of the Gold Fields is to be read. Mr. Mathers goes over
old ground in his introduction ; but judiciously keeps his specula-
tions as to early Portuguese discoveries, the Queen of Sheba, and so
on, within manageable compass. Then we have a recapitulation
of the narrative of his former visit to Moodie's, and this was necessary
in order to enable the reader to learn the real origin of Barberton,
in the disputes of the diggers who went away from Moodie's in
disgust at the terms imposed upon them. Incidentally, we have
highly interesting sketches of Swazieland, which will be read with
avidity as Swazieland becomes more and more prominent on the
South African stage. In describing Barberton — and the remark
applies to each subsequent stage of Mr. Mathers' journey — it's a
great advantage to have everything minutely set down, even to the
price of servants and firewood. Equally precise is the information
as to the companies and syndicates at work. A visit to Pretoria
affords an opportunity for a little political and general disquisition.
The record of an interview with President Kruger is capital reading.
Let it be noted that everything was done through Mr. Nellmainuv
who seems to have been acting as a sort of private serretaiy.
President Kruger foreshadowed his Bloemfontein policy, lie
would treat for the free interchange of products, lie said, if he
could have a port of his own; but not if the maritime colonies
hemmed him in and monopolised the seaboard, and left him inside
the country as if it were in a kraal. These are words it will be
well to remember. From Pretoria Mr. Mathers went to Johannes-

burg, and his account of that town will be of permanent historical
value when that much-cited person, the historian of the future, has
to seek for material for the history of the Fields. It is no mere list
of companies; but a pleasantly- written sketch of life at Johannes-
burg, which might be read 'with interest by anyone who has not a
penny interested in South Africa. We hope that in a year or so
Mr. Mathers may make another trip ; and that his present book
may then appear as small in comparison with subsequent develop-
ments as his first trip appears by the side of the very diversified and
copious story he now presents to us. The work should have a very
wide circulation.- -Cape Argus.

" GOLDEN SOUTH AFRICA." — Not only agreeably and racily
written, but plainly the work of an experienced writer on his
travels, whose aim it was to chronicle solid facts about the Gold
Fields, which facts it was his mission to discover and to clothe in
as interesting a manner as possible. Mr. Mathers was eminently
successful in his efforts. As a permanent record of the early days of
the Gold Fields of the Transvaal the work is one which, as a book
of reference, will remain of everlasting interest to all those con-
cerned in the present progress and future development of the
1'ields. Kokslad Atk'crtiscr.

THOSE who are interested in the movement which is now going
on for opening up South Africa cannot do better than read
••/ambesia." It is written by Mr. E. P. Mathers, F.G.S., F.U.G.S.,
the editor of " SOUTH AFRICA," and coming from such a pen
displays, it is almost needless to say, a most intimate acquaintance
with all that is being done. Admiralty inist'tlt'.

JUST now a most useful and complete handbook dealing with
Africa, from Cape Town to Cairo, and written by E. P. Mathers,
F.G.S., F.R.G.S., who is perhaps the best extant authority on all
South African questions, comes in very handy for reference, and is
published in the nick of time. l-Uackl'itm Sti

and its Founder, told by others

>\ *.,**«• u K.L ,, T

-..----. : ..:-__;_;.:•.-....-.•.--•.•. •

A.FRXOA.N- » > /V WI ONTI> !• T li I. t> M

REDUCED FACSIMILES OF "SOUTH AFRICA" PLATE SUPPLEMENTS

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

Mr. Mathers in Egypt.

A FORECAST OF THE CONQUEST OF THE SOUDAN.

MR. MATHERS has paid several visits to Egypt and up the
Nile. When at Cairo, in February, 1893, he wrote this
to " SOUTH AFRICA " : —

During my short stay here I have been specially fortunate in
meeting men whose opinions on the affairs of the country are worth
having. The Khedive left Cairo a few days ago to formally
inaugurate an extension of the Egyptian railway alongside the
Nile. The new line is from Assiout to Girgeh, not far from the
First Cataract. I was honoured with an invitation to join the
Khedivial train, and, brief as my time was here, I could not miss
the opportunity thus afforded me, first of seeing 400 miles of the
Nile, and secondly of conversing with those high in the councils of
the country. Suppose I give you a specimen of one of my con-
versations, merely stating that the gentleman with whom I spoke
has a high position in the land. Of course I was most interested
to hear what he had to say about the Cape Premier's telegraph
project, and confined myself to questions thereanent. I got similar
answers from others.

Well, can Mr. Rhodes open negotiations with the Mahdi ?

When you want to open negotiations with anyone, one of the
first things necessary is that the person must be amenable to
negotiations.

Quite so ; would not the Mahdi receive an ambassador from
Mr. Rhodes ?

Certainly not. No man except of the Mahdi's creed would be
allowed across the frontier. Then he would have to put on the
coat of a Dervish and be a very strict Mussulman. The Mahdi and
his people would accept no letters ; they are irreconcilable, and
will not be approached with money.

What about Mr. Rhodes' idea of " squaring " the Mahdi ? He
has said publicly in London he never yet met the man he could not
get on with by money or other means ?

Squaring any of the local chiefs is impossible and ridiculous.
The only man whose assistance is really necessary — I mean the
Mahdi or Khalifa himself — cannot be squared.

He would not take money ?

Why should he ? He has as much money as he likes. He has
all the revenue of the country. He draws all the taxes and does
not want any more money.

Suppose he would consent ; is there any geographical difficulty
in the wav ? You know the country well ?

There is no geographical difficulty whatever. There was a
telegraph before the abandonment of the Soudan. It used to go up
to Emin's place and Lado in Gondokoro. There were telegraph
stations at both places ; therefore there is no geographical difficulty
whatever in the way.

For the sake of argument, supposing you were offered £ 100,000
to go and negotiate with the Mahdi, could you do it ?

I would leave Wady Haifa, and at the first Mahdist outpost 1
would be put in chains for the rest of my life, or brought to the
Khalifa and given to the birds. If you went it would be the same ;
the hundred thousand pounds might benefit your family if you had
arranged that it should do so ; but you would enjoy none of it.
But Mr. Rhodes has convinced himself of the impossibility of the
whole thing.

Softly. Did you see him when he was here, and did you hear
him say so ?

No ; but I heard from several people that he had done so.

Whom did he see here ?

I believe he saw Lord Cromer, and told him so.

Do you think the idea is abandoned altogether ?

Yes ; I think it was the second or third day Mr. Rhodes was
here. When the Soudan is reconquered it will be quite possible to
go into this scheme, and the Egyptian Government will do the
thing itself. The Egyptians had a very large telegraphic organisa-
tion in the Soudan.

It seems a great pity that the Soudan was abandoned ?

A very great pity indeed.

It will not be so easy to reconquer it ?

No, it wants a large army — it wants 25,000 men to do it.

What is the strength of the Mahdi's army ?

That cannot be estimated. He has no regular soldiers, but calls
all tribesmen to fight. All are more or less soldiers, and he has a
certain number of riflemen.

He can practically command as many tribesmen as he likes?

As many as there are in the Soudan ; all fanatics and exceedingly
brave.

What is the strength of the Egyptian army ?

Fourteen thousand men, most of them keeping the frontier.
We are not yet up to taking the Soudan.

Are you increasing slowly ?

One hopes to be able to increase by-and-bv.

Special Descriptive Articles,

THE proprietor of " SOUTH AFRICA " has arranged with Mr. R.
N. Hall, co-author with Mr. W. G. Neal, of " The Ancient Ruins of
Rhodesia," for a series of special papers describing the important
ruins on Zambabwe Hill known as the Acropolis Ruins. This is
the first full and detailed description ever given of these ruins in
modern times. Mr. Hall is spending nine months at Zimbabwe on
behalf of the Rhodesian Government in arranging for the preserva-
tion of these monuments of antiquity. He has already secured a
mass of information concerning altogether new architectural
features of an important character, besides discovering valuable
prehistoric relics making the largest collection of " finds " yet
secured from the ruins of Ancient Rhodesia. — South Africa,
January, 1903.

WK cannot wish for " SOUTH AFRICA " a greater meed of
i-rity nor a more lasting one than we do for the land which
has given it a name. - (i/i/i/ l-'it-ltis News.

No better qualified writer than Mr. Mathers could easily have
been found to supply those interested in South African affairs with
information about the territory recently brought under the control

of the great English Chartered Company His

description of Matabeleland and Mashonaland, with their mineral
and other resources, and the social life of the natives, is full and
interesting, and so is his account of the origin of the British South
Africa Company, Lord Randolph Churchill's expedition, the
Manica incident, and other events fresh in the memory of all. The
book contains four hundred and eighty pages, and is profuse! v
illustrated, and two excellent maps of Zambesia and Southern
Africa are given. '/'//<• liooksiila-.

MR. MATHERS shares the ardent Imperialism of Mr. Cecil
Rhodes, and has unbounded faith, not only in the inherent rights
of British supremacy, but also in the golden future of the new
British territories He is a very interesting com-
panion. Bradford Observer.

and its Founder, told by others

Some of Mr. Mathers' Speeches.

WHAT HE SAID AT THE BANQUET GIVEN IN HIS
HONOUR AT JOHANNESBURG IN DECEMBER, 1902.

Mr. Mathers Founded the Trade Journal
of the Gold Industry.

THE Colonial papers contain reports of speeches made on
various occasions by Mr. Mathers. Early in the eighties
when the Malagasy ambassadors visited Natal he had
something to do with entertaining them. We find in the
report of a banquet given to the strangers that Mr. Robt.
Acutt proposed " The Press," making remarks to the effect
that all were interested in promoting a bond of union among
men, and expressing a hope that the day of a universal
brotherhood, whether of Jews, Gentiles, or Hindoos, was not
far off. — Mr. Mathers, in responding to the toast, said he was
scarcelv clear as to what body he, on behalf of his colleagues of
the Press, had to return thanks for, whether it was Gentiles, Jews,
Hindoos, or a universal brotherhood, or what ; but his idea of
public gratitude to the Press in a small community was, that it
should take the shape of advertisements and subscriptions- --(Oh, oh,
and laughter) — and not be dragged in as a toast at the fag end of a
festive occasion. There was a point that had struck him in
connection with the day's proceedings, and that was, that a great
deal had been said which had not been understood by their guests.
That being so, he would, with their permission, propose that they
drink the health of his Excellency the second ambassador,
Ramaniraka. (Hear, hear.) His Excellency was a member of the
Privy Council of Madagascar, and had taken especial interest in
Durban, likening it in some respects to Antananarivo, the capital
of Madagascar. (Applause.) He had not expressed much admira-
tion for the iron and wooden buildings of the town, but he had
said that the houses in Antananarivo were pretty much like the red
house at the east end of Smith Street belonging to Mr. Pickering.
(Laughter and applause.) They should drink to the health of a
distinguished member of the Privy Council of Madagascar. It
would give him an opportunity of saying something more to them
on behalf of the embassy, and it would allow them to end as they
had begun, with Madagascar. His Excellency would be able to
speak to them in English. (Applause.) His Excellency Ramaniraka
spoke in well pronounced English, thanking Mr. Mathers for the
toast. — It may be here remarked that Ramaniraka told Mr. Mathers
that he had taught his little son how to use a sword to keep the
French away from Antananarivo, and was loud in his protestations
that it would only be over the dead bodies of the inhabitants that
the French would gain admittance to the capital. The event
rather belied the prophecy.

Besides his speeches as vice-chairman at the St. Andrew's Day
banquets, and at other celebrations, Mr. Mathers spoke at the
St. Patrick's banquet at Durban in March, 1884. He replied to the
toast "The Land we Live in," saying : —

It is my pleasant duty to return you the best thanks of
" The Land we Live in," for the hearty manner in which you have
drunk her health, and also my own. thanks for the honour you have
done me in associating my name with her's. Some of you are
doubtless aware that at gatherings similar to this it lias hitherto
been customary to divide the response to this toast under the heads
"f " agriculture " and " commerce." Representatives of these two
great departments have then had something to say on the current

condition of the leading factors of our business life. Having no
special knowledge of either, I feel somewhat at a loss in standing
before you as their spokesman, and whatever I can say about them
must be from the point of view of an outsider. To touch on
agriculture first, it is highly satisfactory to us all to hear the planters
saying pleasant things. (Hear, hear.) When a planter smiles things
must be in a fair way. (Applause.) The sugar planters tell us that
they have not had such good crops for ten years, and they are all
smiling. Long may they smile. (Hear, hear, and applause.)
Touching commerce, that embraces subjects which come nearer home
to many of us, and if you will permit me I shall dwell a little longer
on that head. Without any question, unfortunately, the trade of the
colony is very dull at present. Merchants will tell you that
February — the month just gone — has been one of the smallest their
books have shown for a very long time. (A Voice : Next month
will be better.) Yes, I hope and think it will. Unfortunately, the
collector of Customs can corroborate the statement about February,
as it is understood that the returns last month were much below the
average. (A Voice : It will be all right.) It is but small comfort
to think that we, as a colony, are no worse off than our neighbours,
for the statistics of Cape ports tell the same tale of shrinkage. It is
more to the point to consider whether and how soon a different
aspect will be assumed by the commercial outlook over all South
Africa. So many diverse elements go to make up the situation,
that he would be a rash man who would assume the prophetic
mantle. Meantime the lesson of commercial economy is being
taught on a large scale, and if it is properly learned the result will
be increased stability when trade may revive, as revive it must in
due course. (Applause.) It is at such junctures as the present that
statistics are anxiously scanned to ascertain how things are moving,
and if I am not boring you I shall give you the results of some
jottings I have made. (Hear, hear, and go on.) If we take the trade
returns for the last completed year 1883, it will be seen that there is
no ground for permanent despondency. (Hear, hear.) Avoiding
altogether the vexed question as to whether wars are or are not a
cause of increased trade, let us pass back over years of exceptional
trade and come to 1878, before there was any departure from the
normal condition of the colony's commerce. Comparing 1883 with
1878, I have no hesitation in saving that most substantial progress
is seen. (Hear, hear.) Roughly speaking, the imports in both years
quoted were identical in value, viz., £1,700,000 odd. The Customs
revenue was also identical, viz., £160,000 in each year. (Hear, hear.)
Thus we have it that with a long period of reaction after military
expenditure, and with summer droughts and winter snow and
hailstorms harassing and crippling inland populations, last year's
importations were on a par with those of 1878, which in turn was
the highest year before the abnormal figures of the Zulu and
Transvaal wars had to be taken account of. (Applause.) Turning
to the export returns, however, a much better face is put upon the
matter, for whereas we only exported £700,000 worth in round
numbers in 1878, we during last year exported £830,000 worth of
produce of one sort or another. (Applause.) Summing up this aspect
of affairs it stands thus : that notwithstanding the present and long
existing depression in trade, our imports are maintained at the
level of a normal year, while our exports are increased by £130,000
per annum, a movement which I think indicates soundness and

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

progress in an emphatic manner. (Applause.) Statistics adduced by
the late chairman of the Chamber of Commerce show how largely
the produce of Natal--'" The Land we Live in" — contributed to
this increase of exports in iSS_j. This is the most gratifying feature
of the situation, and speaks in favour both of the industry and per-
severance of our planters and farmers, and of the enterprise of our
merchants, who have during the past year been called upon to find
new markets for the sugar, grain, and other produce of " The Land
we Live in." Gentlemen, there is no forcing such a position as the
present, as natural laws are inexorable anil exacting. (Hear, hear.)
The only attitude practicable is a waiting and hoping one. (Hear,
hear.) It Nature would only be bounteous — (a Voice : She will) — for
a season or two and yield plentiful harvests and spare stock in the
great inland territories, we should soon see a revival of commerce
from Capetown to Durban, and if Nature can be assisted by these
artificial expedients for storing water and food, of which we hear
so much nowadays, the good time we hope for will come all the
sooner. But, gentlemen, what after all we are mostly concerned in
just now is that Natal shall see peace established everywhere across
her borders. (Applause.) South Africa must have done with war and
all the horror, misery, and stagnation which it means. (Applause.)
What she wants is to enjoy more of what your countryman, of
whom you have heard already to-night, Edmund Burke, called " the
wise and salutary neglect of the Home Government " — (hear, hear)—
but I find myself drifting into politics, and must be cautious. It
might be expected gentlemen, that in connection with this toast
some mention might be made of a certain letter which came some-
what prominently before the colonists the other day. I dare say
that many of you think that this letter has already received more
attention than it deserved, and perhaps you are right. Fuller —
(Oh, oh ! and a few groans) — is said to be the name of the person
who penned a venomous tirade against us. So far as the first
syllable of his name is concerned he is, phonetically speaking,
appropriately named, for he is a fool in every sense of the
term. (Several voices : " Right," " Give it him," " Foolery,"
and loud applause.) But, gentlemen, there are in this world
both harmless and dangerous fools, and unfortunately this
Fuller belongs to the dangerous class. To-night, knowing ''The
Land we Live in " as we do, we throw Fuller's foul false-
hoods in his teeth, and we say to him "'go hang a calf's
skin on these recreant limbs,' and breathe out the remainder
of your contemptible existence in some region of oblivion away
from here." (Cheers.) We want no Fullers here, gentlemen,
and we invoke the shade of good St. Patrick to clear all such
snakes — (loud cheers) -out of this country as he did the other snakes
of your beautiful land across the sea. (Renewed cheers.) It was
a twice mean action of this snake to poison our fair name while a
cloud was passing over us ; but glory be to the powers our body is
strong enough and healthy enough to resist the poison. (Cheers.)
We are passing through times of depression, but as sure as to-
morrow morning's sun will rise on the lovely " land we live
in " so surely will the fair sun of prosperity shine out upon us
again. (Cheers.) There is no need to speak to Irishmen of the value
of adversity ; sweet will be the uses of Natal's adversity if it shall
have made her people a more self-reliant and a hardier people. If,
just now, the breach is in the wall it is our duty to stand manfully
together and close it up again ; if, to use our own homely illustra-
tion, the wagon has got stuck in the drift we must all— Irishmen,
Englishmen, and Scotsmen, Africanders, Dutchmen, and Germans--
stand shoulder to shoulder and lift it out again. (Loud cheers.)

The following is from the Johannesburg Standard and
Diggers News of December loth, 1892 :—

DINNER TO MR. E. P. MATHERS.

TIIK (irniK TO Sur i ii AFRICA.

His NEW IDEA.
A BRILLIANT BANQUET.

On Saturday night a complimentary dinner was given at the
Rand Club to Mr. E. I'. Mathers, editor of " SOUTH AFRICA," by
Mr. Lionel Phillips and Mr. F. Eckstein. The occasion was in

every respect a; brilliant one, and, as will be seen from the list of
names of those present, the gathering was large and thoroughly
representative of Rand interests, all Johannesburg's foremost men
assembling to do honour to the guest of the evening.

Mr. Lionel Phillips presided, and the company included the
following gentlemen : —

Messrs. H. A. Rogers, G. Goch, E. P. Mathers, C. Leonard,
W. Y. Campbell, E. B. Gardiner, Dr. Saunders, J. Tudhope,
De Beer, Nellmapius, Friedlander, Richards, Abel, Johns, Roulliot,
Schmidt, Fraser, Duval, Fitzpatrick, G. Albu, Hay, W. Joel, J.
Lewis, G. Hill, A. Lillienfeld, O. Van Beek, O. Beit, G. Currey,
David, St. John Carr, Niven, A. Wight, A. S. Curtis, J. Eloff, P.
Davis, A. Bailey, Ruping, Tritch, Becher, F. C. Bell, Isaac Lewis,
Hancock, Gilchrist, Birkenruth, Frecheville, Trull, Lowrey, G.
Farrar, D. W. Bell, W. P. Taylor, Malcomess, J. W. Jameson,
Creewel, Berlein, R. Lilienfeld, C. Rolfes, Van Hessert, Magin,
Mein, Dunning, H. Bettelheim, J. B. Taylor, and Hanau.

Dinner was served at 8.30 o'clock, by Mr. F. Heritier, of the
Club. The table was elegant and rich, the menu being as
under : —

MENU.

D!NER.

Hors d'Oeuvres.

POTAGE.

a la Reine.

Consomme aux Pointes d'Asperges.

POISSON.
Saumon. Sauce Hollandaise.

ENTREES.

Vol au Vent Financiere.

PAte chaud d'Alouettes.
Cotelettes d'agneau et Flageolets.

LEGUMES.
Asperges, See. Mousseline.

Petits Pois a I'Allemande.

ROTIS.

Dindonneau truffe.
Faisans piques. Salade.

ENTREMETS.

Bombe glacee. Creme Chantilly.
Gateau Breton.

Fruits et Dessert Assortis.

Dinner being over,

The Chairman, rising to propose the health of the guest of the
evening, said he was sure the toast he was about to propose would
require very few words to secure it a cordial reception. When,
some time ago, they heard Mr. Mathers was about to visit
Johannesburg, it appeared to them a desirable opportunity to show
the attention due to a gentleman who had done so much for these
fields as had been effected by Mr. Mathers, in his position as the
editor of " SOUTH AFRICA," in making the merits of Witwatersrand
known to the civilised world. (Hear, hear.) It seemed almost
impossible for him (the speaker) as an old resident of this country,
to imagine the state of ignorance at one time prevailing about the
Transvaal ; in fact, people used to ask where South Africa was,
and a friend of his, coming out, had even been asked what kind of
people the Patagonians were ? (Laughter.) It was to such men as
their guest of the night that Johannesburg was

INHF.HTED FOR BECOMING BETTER KNOWN

iii Europe. Some years ago, Mr. Mathers had lived as a
pressman in this country, and it was during ten years of this work
that he had gained his accurate knowledge of South Africa and
its concerns generally. After ten years' experience Mr. Mathers
finallv decided to become a guide to the people of Europe,
and had started the celebrated "SOUTH AFRICA,"
which they all read, a journal which had done so
much to bring before the people of England the
true state of affairs in the Transvaal. (Loud applause.)
Mr. Mathers, before he went to England, had made several visits to
the gold fields of this country, ami had written full and accurate
accounts of Barberton, even before the Witwatersrand Fields were

and its Founder^ told by others

REDUCED FACSIMILES OK "SOUTH AFRICA" PLATE SUPPLEMENTS

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

discovered. As the editor of " SOUTH AFRICA " Mr. Mathers deserved
their special thanks. (Hear, hear.) It was fresh in the memory of
them all that " SOUTH AFRICA " had manfully taken up

THEIR BATTLE IN BAD TIMES

and had maintained that the Transvaal would yet turn out trumps
--(applause) —and to-day he was able to say he had with him
the whole English press. (Loud applause.) At home on various
occasions Mr. Mathers' services had been recognised ; he had been
made member of various associations, geographical, &c., and_/?to/
on various occasions, and much was due to him for

DISPELLING THE IGNORANCE

regarding this country generally. (Applause.) Mr. Mathers, later
on, again came back to South Africa, and wrote a true and faithful
account of things. He then predicted the glorious future which
waited on the Transvaal to-day. (Applause.) Before asking them
to drink to the toast he had to propose, he would mention one
object Mr. Mathers had in view — that was the formation of an
association at home, which should be a purelv

SOUTH AFRICAN ASSOCIATION,

a place where all South Africans, from the Transvaal, from the
far North and South, could meet together and discuss subjects,
political or otherwise, affecting the whole of South Africa. (Hear,
hear.) It was such an institution Mr. Mathers was endeavouring to
form. (Hear, hear.) He would now call upon those present to
drink the health of Mr. Mathers. (Loud applause.)

The toast was greeted with loud applause, and given with
musical honours.

MR. MATHERS IN REPLY.

Mr. Mathers, rising to respond, said : —

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, — Your great reception to-night
touches me very deeply, and its very warmth renders it a matter of
difficulty to thank you for it as I ought. Byron says : " It is sweet
to know there is an eye will mark our coming, and look brighter
when we come." I have found it sweet also that so manv friends
should have waited my coming here, and given me such a hearty
welcome. Gentlemen, if we survey mankind from China to Peru
we shall find them divided into two classes — those who lead and
those who are led. There are men who claim to leave the latter
class, and to have entry into the former. Amongst those is your
guest to-night, and I take it that my ambition in seeking to be a
leader is ratified and endorsed in the fact of your gathering here
to-night. (Applause.) Naturally it is to me a matter of peculiar
pleasure to have the endorsement from practical men like your-
selves, inasmuch as the sphere in which I sought to lead is one
which closely affects yourselves. For many years I had hoped for
the great gold development we see to-day. During my long visits
to this country, of which the chairman has spoken, I saw enough
to convince me that in this country were latent all the potentialities
of a great, if not

UNPRECEDENTED MINING INDUSTRY

with all its important results. (Hear, hear.) And the feeling was
borne in on me that that growth here should be represented in
London by what I may call the trade journal of that industry.
On behalf of that industry, gentlemen, during the year 1888,
I founded the journal " SOUTH AFRICA," and the object of that
journal was to develop in the centre of Britain an interest in South
African affairs generally, but specially in the golden industry of
the Transvaal. Gentlemen, that interest required very little
developing in that now historic and mad time of the " Boom," but
what was unnecessary then became highly essential a few months
after, when the reaction began and the long period of stagnation
and vilification of eveiything concerning the Transvaal was
experienced by South Africans, like myself, resident in London.
The fight which " SOUTH AFRICA " had to fight was

A BITTER AND UPHILL ONK.

Practically alone amid the Press of London, week in and week
out, 1 endeavoured to impress on my readers in all the towns of the
three kingdoms, and of all nationalities on the Continent, the
necessity for drawing a distinction between an insane market
gamble and the true merits of a mining industry — (applause) —

which by reason both of its extent and the profit to be made in it
was unknown before in the history of the world. (Applause.)
The fight went on for many weary months. You on this side were
slowly but surely telling your tale of monthly increase in the
output of gold. (Hear, hear.) You perseveringly and persistentlv
footed up your figures till you attained to totals which at first
aroused curiosity and eventually

CONFIRMED TO THE ECHO

all I had claimed on behalf of the Witwatersrand. (Applause.)
Gentlemen, the whole Press of London are now shouting your
praises ; for the time being you are no longer devils, but angels of
light. (Hear, hear.) But a few months ago these papers had
nothing but scorn and ridicule for the fields and all concerned in
them. " SOUTH AFRICA," during these months of vilification, sent
out a weekly antidote to the poison filtered into the minds of the
British public, and I am proud to believe I have acted a useful
part on your behalf. I take it, gentlemen, from the more than
cordial reception you have given me to-night that you recognise
the fight that has been made and that will continue to be made for
you. (Hear, hear.) So much for the past and the present.

THE FUTURE

I need hardly deal with to-night. Actual and guaranteed results
give ample security for the future. Suffice it to say that on
Witwatersrand you have the richest gold fields in the world.
(Hear, hear.) You have in the course of five years made this
richest gold field the best scheme of mining available in the
scientific world. Your processes of mining and milling, it is
evident to me, are fast approaching a perfection not obtainable
elsewhere. The Yankees may have a few wrinkles to teach you
yet, but, by absorbing as you have done, and as you are doing, the
best brains of America, you are fast making Witwatersrand

THE MINING CENTRE OF THE WORLD.

(Applause.) I have no hesitation in saying that the great gold-
producing colonies of Australia, which have been mining and
milling gold for more than half a century, have been left far
behind by this community, and I repeat that not many months will
pass before, instead of sending to America for lessons, America will
be glad to learn from you. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, when you
consider that your existence is compassed by one lustrum, it may
well be said that your position in the mining world is unique.
What need is there with such a solid attainment to any more
attempt to foretell the future ? It is unnecessary ; indeed, that sort
of thing is getting a little 'monotonous in these days of conversion
from scepticism to fanaticism. You are already the first of all
States as regards the output of gold. It may be that the United
States, which has twenty odd Transvaals in it, may put out over
the whole of the States, which have been working gold for a
hundred years, a very little more gold than you do at present. But
no single State over the wide world comes anywhere near you at
present, and within two years from this date, from statistical
information before me- -facts in my possession and the observations
I have made — you will have surpassed not only any single State,
but any collection of States, whether Australian or American.
(Loud applause.) In a word, you will be the greatest producer of
gold in the world, and you will become more and more so as the
years roll on. (Applause.) Before I sit down I should like, with
your permission, Mr. Chairman, to touch on a subject which I have
taken up in London for some time. I refer to the establishment in
London of

A SOCIAL CLUB-HOUSE ;

a rendezvous where, when you come to London, you could meet
your friends. There is a great want of such a meeting-place, and I
am certain that if any strong body of men thoroughly representa-
tive of South Africa on the one hand and South Africa in London
on the other, were to take the matter in hand, a most valuable
institution could be founded, one that would not only lead to the
renewal of old friendships and the cementing of new ones, but one
that would actually be of great business service to you and us all,
whether commercial, financial, or mining men. (Applause.) I
shall not dilate further on the benefits which would be derived
from such a club. If before I leave Johannesburg a small but

and its Founder, told by others

strong body of gentlemen care to meet to discuss the subject, I
should be glad to take their views — (hear, hear) — and suggest and
lay them before a similar body in London. By such means we
might lay the foundation of a club worthy of South Africa, and
the important place she is being called on to fill. Let me say, in
conclusion-- and I come back to where I started — let me say that
the success of myself and the paper with which my name is
indissolubly connected is largely attributable to the constant and
faithful support and sympathy I have had from many of the men
I see round me to-night ; men who have either supplied me with
correspondence or who have looked me up with information on
their visits to London. (Hear, hear.) My acknowledgments are
therefore due to them personally, and I hereby tender them from
the bottom of my heart, and I also return my sincerest thanks to
you all for doing me this great honour. Your aid in the past is a
pleasant memory ; your endorsement to-night of what I have done
is an encouragement to go on, and continue in what is practically
my life's work in the future. (Loud applause.)

When the cheers had subsided, Mr. IMiillips mse to say he desired
to express his regret that his partner, Mr. Kckstein, was not able to
be present. Mr. Kckstein himself deeply regretted that duty had
taken him elsewhere. He (Mr. Phillips) was therefore repre-
senting not only himself, but Mr. Eckstein also, and on his behalf
he begged to express Mr. Eckstein's regret at his unavoidable
absence

Mr. C. Leonard proposed the healths of Mr. Lionel Phillips and
Mr. F. Eckstein, to whom they were indebted for passing a pleasant
evening, and for the opportunity and pleasure of meeting Mr.
Mathers (applause) — a privilege and pleasure which they all
highly valued. (Loud applause.)

The toast was fittingly honoured, and Mr. Phillips briefly
responded, thanking one and all for the kind way in which the
toast had been given.

The rest of the evening was spent in a most pleasant manner,
the proceedings concluding with hearty cheers for the guest of the
evening.

Mr. Mathers' Letters to
"The Times."

LETTERS, long and short, have appeared from time to time in
the columns of The Times from the pen of Mr. Mathers.
These have been discussed in The Times and in other
papers, but space need only be taken up with some of the more
important of the letters themselves.

T'he Question of Swazieland.

To THE EDITOR OF "Tun TIMES."

Sir,- -All South African colonists owe you a debt of gratitude
for your able and patriotic article in The Times of to-day concern-
ing Swazieland and the contemplated surrender of it to the Trans-
vaal Boers. It was high time that the leading newspaper in the
world should speak in no uncertain terms about a step, the far-
reaching issues of which have been well pointed out in its columns.
As knowing something of the subject by personal acquaintance
with the country and the dead King, perhaps you will allow me to
add a few words to the correspondence which you have so
timeously encouraged.

I would first correct an obvious lapsus calami in your article.
You write : " Its (Swazieland's) northern, eastern, and southern
boundaries are wrapped round by the Transvaal, and on the west
its neighbours are the Portuguese and the Amatongas." For
" eastern " read " western," and for " west " read " east."

You write : " It will argue a want of faith in the destiny of
the British Empire and a different spirit from that which formerly
animated our countrymen if we gratuitously hand it over to the
cramped and reactionary rule of President Kruger and the Transvaal
Volksraad." It will do more than this. It will argue an indifference
to sacred obligations which will not tend to make the difficult task
of maintaining British prestige in South Africa any easier.

The latter part of Article II. of the 1884 convention with the
South African Republic runs as follows : " Her Majesty's Govern-
ment will, if necessary, appoint commissioners in the native terri-
tories outside the western and eastern borders of the South African
Republic, to maintain order and prevent encroachments." Any
time these four years back it has been "necessary" for Her
Majesty's Government to appoint a commissioner in Swazieland to
" maintain order and prevent encroachments," but thoy have
callously declined to do so.

Article XII. of the convention is as follows : " The independence
of theSwazies within the boundary line of Swazieland, as indicated
in the first article of the convention, will be fully recognised."
Nothing has happened to warrant England neutralising this article
by sacrificing Swazieland to the Boers. Much of a reverse character,
however, has happened. Repeatedly the Swazies have directly
appealed to the British Government to take them under their
protection. When Sir Evelyn Wood visited Swazieland after
the Zulu War, to thank the Swazies for their staunchness to the
British cause during that disastrous and discreditable struggle, he
distinctly told them that if ever they were in any trouble they
could with confidence appeal to the British Government for
protection. So well is this known in Swazieland that there is not a
grown-up Swazie in the land who will not tell you it.
. Early in 1887 I paid a visit to the Swazie King's head place, and
in the presence of his councillors listened to a recital of his troubles
from Umbandine's lips. He told me often that he wished a
British Resident appointed in his country, and that he had made
a request for one. As he was at that time threatened by the Boer
and other filibusters hanging on his south-western border, he said
he looked to the English to help him in case of being attacked. I
asked him why, and his very emphatic answer was, •" Because of
what is in the convention and of what was spoken to me thereon
by Lukuni (General Sir Evelyn Wood). Lukuni told me that if
ever I had any cause of complaint 1 was to appeal to the British
Government and they would help me." L'mbandine is dead now,
but he spoke for his council, the only rulers of the Swazies, and,
distracted though they be, they will elect another King and show
that there is sufficient cohesive power among them to resist a Boer
domination. They would accept British annexation at once
gladly and gratefully, and would pay their share of the cost of
government. Loyalty to the English is a watchword of the Swazies.
They led the British soldiers to victory at Sekukuni's mountain,
and they protected our Transvaal (it was ours then) border during
the Zulu War. When the news of the Amajuba disaster reached
the ears of Umbandine, the King assembled his soldiers and was
only prevented with difficulty from despatching them to the aid of
the British. When he dismissed his warriors he said to them : " You
are to go home to your kraals, but you are to sleep on your shields,
for whenever the inkosagazi (Queen) of England wants your
assistance you will have to give it." It is a poor return for all
this that is now threatened.

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

But, even were there no considerations of national honour
involved in the disposal of Swazieland, has there not been more
than enough pusillanimity in our dealings with the Boers? Was
it not enough that \ve should, with such cowardly sanctimonious-
ness, present them with one of the richest mineral countries in the
world, after sacrificing some of the flower of the British army in
defending it? Was it not enough that we should make them a
present of the best part of Zululand, after pouring out our soldiers'
blood to conquer it ? I have seen it stated in vour columns that
Natal consents to Swazieland becoming Boer territory. Never was
greater error. As soon would the Natal colonists consent to their
own country becoming Boer, and I speak from a ten years' residence
in it. Allow Swazieland to be annexed to the Transvaal and you
close the last path for the extension of the British empire northward
from Natal. You say : " If we protect or annex Amatongaland we
shall at once become entitled to enter Swazieland." England has
already entered into a treaty of protection with Amatongaland,

To THE EDITOR OF "Tin- TIMHS.''

Sir, — All South Africans will thank you for the very excellent
ami valuable letters which you are publishing from a special
correspondent in South Africa. That printed on the I2th deals
with the most important question of Swazieland. You have
allowed me to address you already at considerable length on this
subject, and without now expressing an opinion as to England's
duty to-day, 1 would ask your permission to point out the mis-
leading nature of one of the statements which fell from the lips of
President Kruger in his remarks to your correspondent. I do so
without any desire to animadvert on the tone of the President's
utterances which is generally unexceptionable, but in order that
persons anxious to come to a just conclusion in respect of Swazieland
may have facts before them. As an argument why England should
allow the Transvaal to annex Swazieland, Mr. Kruger savs, speaking
for the Transvaal Government, " We hold all the valuable con-
cessions." That this is not so can easily be seen by an examination

REDUCED FACSIMILE OF A "SOUTH AFRICA" PLATE SUPPLEMENT

and the way is yet clear, by the annexation of Amatongaland and
Swazieland to Zululand and Natal, to form a British colony, which
will help to bring back some of the British prestige which has been
so ignominiously lost since the fatal day of Isandlana. The subject
is a wide one, but 1 forbear from encroaching further on your
valuable space. I am convinced, however, that if the British
Cabinet would but study the true history and bearings of this
question there would be no element of doubt in the instructions to
be cabled to Sir Francis <!.- Winton : and if the British electorate
but understood them thev would even at the eleventh hour trv to
rouse them from the stupor of party bickering at home ere yet
what should be an important outpost of the Empire were taken
from them.

1 am, Sir, yours, \c..

KI>\VAUM> P. MATHMJS.
Glenalmond, Wrstwood Park, Forest Hill, S.E.,

at Somerset House of the assets of the English limited liability
company, called the Umbandine Swazieland Concessions Syndicate.
This coinpanv possesses a number of monopolies, such as the right
of banking in the country, and the right to import liquor. Our of
these concessions is of such a nature that, so long as it stands in the
name of private individuals, it makes the proper government of
the countrv, either bv England or the Transvaal, impossible. It
embraces the right to all lands unallotted at the date of its grant
(some years back), while it also allows that all forfeited or lapsed
concessions fall in to the company, who practically hold the fee
simple of the country in future. How then can President Kruger
say his Government " hold all the valuable concessions " ?

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

October

, 1889.

23, Austin Friars, E.G.,
August, 1892.

EDWARD P. MATHERS,

Editor of " Son H AFRIC \.

and its Founder, told by others

To THE EDITOR OF " THK TIMKS."

Sir, — Mr. Bernard C. Molloy skirmishes with the Swazieland
question. He makes a few irrelevant and inaccurate references to
concessions, and retreats under cover of some inconsequent
panegyrical paragraphs concerning Mr. Rhodes. Mr. Molloy has,
I understand, visited South Africa to push a gold-saving process
and is therefore doubtless quite competent to instruct his colleagues
in Parliament and the British public on the complex Swazieland
question. As " one acquainted with South Africa " he reads and
discovers mysterious things between lines. Supposing one were
to try a little thought-reading about the motives which may have
induced Mr. Molloy to give his views at this juncture respecting
Swazieland. As thus: Mr. Rhodes declares that the country
should be handed over to the Boers. It would be conceivable that
Mr. Molloy is the mouthpiece of a section of the Irish party who
would, for favours past and under a lively sense of favours to come,
be willing to oblige Mr. Rhodes. Again, President Kruger is
anxious to get Swazieland, and Mr. Molloy is anxious to have a
gold-saving process patented at Pretoria. The truth is there never

concession was held by piivate individuals it made effective
government by either the Transvaal or England impossible.
1 shrink from occupying your valuable space unduly by quotation
from this concession, but I have this day obtained a ccpv of it and
enclose it for your perusal. It will be observed that it gives full
possession to the holder of any part of Swa/.icland not alienated
to other concessionaires at the jjnd of December, 1888, and that it
also grants the reversionary right to the whole country as other
concessions lapse, be it by immediate forfeiture from any cause or
effluxion of time in ten, twenty, fifty, or a hundred years. Many of
the concessions carry the rights contained in them for fifty years
with option of renewal for a similar period. I am not concerned to
defend the righteousness of the Swazie concessions. I think many of
them were and are most iniquitous and absurd. Some were con-
demned by the Court appointed for the purpose of examining them,
but others were confirmed, and the concession I refer to was one of
them. We have it on the highest authority, that of Mr. Molloy,
that all such confirmed concessions are fully protected, and that
" under any change of government the same protection and freedom

MKMUtKS Of PHI : WHICH M-d-NTH ASSEMBLED IN CAPE TOWN.

REDUCED FACSIMILE OF A "SOUTH AFRICA" PLATE SUPPLEMENT

was a South African question so handy for the log-roller as that of
Swazieland, nor one that has so well served the turn of unscrupulous
opportunists. It is also conceivable that Mr. Molloy would nol
appreciate any effort to regard the question from an imperial point
of view.

In classifying the Swazieland concessions Mr. Molloy desires it
to be inferred that " most of the grazing rights of the country " are
possessed by the Transvaal as a Government. A Boer child could
lia> c told him differently. Manv of the grazing rights in Swazieland
belong for long or short periods to Transvaal Boers as individuals,
and it is precisely this fact that is at the bottom of the desire of
President Kruger to annex the country. Mr. Molloy says : —

" Another lot belong to individuals and limited companies,
and include, according to Mr. Mathers, "the fee simple of tin-
country in future,' let us hope not too much so. Upon this latter
statement, or rather concession, Mr. Mathers states his opinion that
the government of Swazieland by either Great Britain or the South
AfncHM Republic is impossible. (Jit/ I'ii'fn ivrrn."

I did not say that one of the concessions />,•>• .•<• prevented the
government of the country. I maintained that so long as such a

to work will be maintained." We know that the more advanced
Home Rulers are prepared for almost any experiment, but would
Mr. Molloy care to undertake the government of Ireland from
Dublin if an English limited liability company held the title deeds
to big strips of the country and the ultimate landlordship of the
\\liole of the island (including Ulster) in less than a century? Of
course, all the Swazie concessions subversive of good government
will, whether they cost a musket or a million, have to be com-
pounded for and erased from the register at EmbekeUvini when a
civilised government takes over the country.

The question which Sir Henry Loch and Mr. Rhodes are coming
to England to settle is the broader one of how the country is to be
ruled after the present triumvirate comes to an end. Public opinion
in South Africa has gradually undergone a change on this subject,
and a pU'hisi -//<• to-day would result in a vote for the handing of
the country to the Transvaal, but the vote would be one of
pure ex-pediency to keep President Kruger "sweet." The President
" damped the trek " to the north of the Transvaal, and his price
was Swa/ieland promised by those who had as much right to
promise him Hyde Park. Mr. Rhodes wants the Transvaal to

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

enter a Railway and Customs Union, and he offers them as an
inducement to do so, Swazieland. It might be asked who em-
powered him to barter away the lives and liberties of the
Swazies, and whv what was sauce for the Matabeles and the Gazas
is not sauce for them. But the good to be obtained by inquiring
too minutely into these points is perhaps questionable.

That is the Cape view. What is the Transvaal British view ?
A solid vote in favour of obliging Kruger, because he could if he
chose make himself disagreeable over matters affecting the very
important gold-mining industry, and because they say that in five
years the country will be completely Anglicised, and Peter may be
robbed for the moment to pay Oom Paul. Why does President
Kruger want Swazieland ? Not in order, as is frequently averred, to
get a port for his country. His port is Delagoa Bay, and he is too
long-headed to embark on any schemes of harbour-making. The
votes of his burghers keep him in power, and many of them have
been accustomed in winter for the past fifteen years to take their flocks
and herds into Swazieland to get the benefit of the warm veldt.
They were allowed by the late King to squat for the winter months
in the country, and the consideration for what was called a
grazing licence— a scrap of paper written by any white man who
happened to be at the head kraal — was a horse or heifer. The new
condition of things has made their tenure less secure, and they are
bringing pressure to bear on the President in consequence. But for
these Boers coveting Swazieland as a pastoral land, and but for
these Boers having the votes wherewith to keep President Kruger in
office, we should have heard nothing of the desire of the Transvaal
Government to possess the country.

As you allowed me, Sir, to point out in your columns in
October, 1889, Umbandine, the late King of Swazieland, gave me in
1887 his reasons for the Swazies looking to England to protect
them. He said to me : " Lukuni (Sir Evelyn Wood) told me that
if ever I had any cause of complaint I was to appeal to the British
Government, and they would help me." In the same year Presi-
dent Kruger, in reply to a question from me as to whether he would
allow the then threatened invasion of Swazieland by Boers to take
place, said emphatically : " No ; certainly not. Under the Con-
vention Her Majesty and myself both have to recognise the Swazie
nation, and neither I nor Her Majesty can interfere with it, and I
won't allow others to do it."

Now all is changed. President Kruger wants, and, it appears,
is to get, Swazieland. Well, if the country of the Swazies is to be
disposed of over their heads without so much as " by your leave,"
let England obliterate her once friendly allies with some show of
decency. In 1887 I wrote : " Swazieland must become British or
Boer shortly. Which is it to be ? Will England at the eleventh
hour make some effort to return to her traditional policy of a stern
fulfilment of contracted obligations, or will a parcel of freebooters
again be able to thrust her from the path of duty ? " It is now
past the eleventh hour, but before the book is closed surely England
will see to it that she does something to repair her sins of omission
with regard to the Swazies. Perhaps some of the men are not now
so brave as they were, and it may be that some of the women are
not so virtuous as they were a few years ago ; but if that be so the
fault assuredly does not lie with them, and the sooner a strong
Government is placed over them the better for all concerned. It
may be assumed that Sir Henry Loch will consent to no cession of
Swazieland to the Transvaal that not only does not protect the
rights of those who have invested money in it on the faith of
England's promises, but that does not secure the good government
of the Swazies by fit and proper white magistrates.

Lord Knutsford, I believe, not long ago took a private vote of
the House of Commons as to the expediency of giving up Swazie-
land to the South African Republic, and I understand there was a
majority of fifty against the proposition. That was a House of
Commons careful for the honour of England and solicitous that
her promises to aborigines, be they weak or strong, should be
kept. What this House of Commons would be prepared to do it
seems we have learnt from Mr. Molloy.

Apologising for the length of this communication,

I am, Sir, yours obediently, EDWARD P. MATHERS.
" SOUTH AFRICA" Office, 23, Austin Friars, E.C.,
August 30th.

At this time the following further letters on Swazieland appeared
in The Times: —

Sir,- -Dealing with my letter to your journal, published on
Tuesday last, Mr. Jesser Coope favours you with a long and some-
what vague dissertation on this subject.

He commences with comments upon my letter, which dealt solely
with a political problem, by the inconsequential statement that I
obtained a patent (now four years old) in the South African
Republic, and thereupon still more inconsequentially suggests mala
fides on my part. On this new theory anyone obtaining a patent in
this country cannot claim any respect for his political opinions upon
our Imperial questions. Again, he assumes a desire and attempt
by me to please or advance the views of Mr. Rhodes in his Cape
policy, although he is aware that my action on this very question
produced an angry attack upon me in the Cape Parliament on
June 30 last by Mr. Rhodes, speaking on behalf of himself and his
Cabinet, as quoted in my letter to you. However, all these
comments and insinuations of Mr. Jesser Coope are but foolish
vulgarities, invented in an angry moment, and not worth attention.
The second, or more or less pertinent, portion of his letter confirms
the whole intent of my previous remarks, and justifies the determina-
tion that the settlement of the question of Swazieland by the
Government, whatever the settlement may be, shall be separated
from the consideration of concessions purchased either with old
muskets or with thousands of pounds, except in so far as stated in
my previous letter, as to the fair protection of existing rights.

Mr. Jesser Coope will pardon me for declining to follow him
into the region of angry personalities by continuing this discussion.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant, BERNARD C. MOLLOY.

House of Commons, September ist.

Sir, — In my letter upon this subject inserted by you to-day the
name of Mr. Jesser Coope appears in lieu of that of Mr. Mathers, of
" SOUTH AFRICA," to whom my remarks referred. Letters from both
these gentlemen appeared, one immediately following the other, in
your issue of the ist inst., and my copyist attached the wrong name
to the letter to which I replied. I regret this error, and apologise to
Mr. Jesser Coope. My reply referred to Mr. Mathers, and my
remarks applied to him only.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant, BERNARD C. MOLLOY.

September 8th.

Sir, — The truly original kind of blunder to which Mr. Molloy
with such perfervid penitence confesses in your columns to-day has,
besides that of imparting some humour into a rather dry subject,
one other distinct advantage. It proves conclusively that he brings
great circumspection and care as well as sound judgment and ripe
experience to what he would be pleased to call the discussion on
the Swazieland question. The well-calculated simplicity and
recklessness of Mr. Molloy 's letters are again apparent in the com-
munication in which Colonel Coope was called upon to play the
part of whipping boy and to receive the lash intended for another.
I did not make the statement that Mr. Molloy had obtained a patent
in the South African Republic ; I did assume for argument's
sake that he was anxious to get a certain patent there now.
Whether I did this inconsequentially or not, it was for the reader to
determine. Though he thereby provides himself with a convenient
loophole by which the only essential issues are avoided, Mr. Molloy
is really too guileless when he insinuates that I am angry with him.
One views those flippant efforts of would-be legislators to settle
important questions of empire more in sorrow than in anger. If
personalities have been introduced into this correspondence, Mr.
Molloy will please remember that the pot began it. To whimper
• obtrusively if the boomerang obeys the law which governs its
movements does not tend to support the claim to a monopoly of
wisdom and refinement. As to the main question, which is the only
one you, Sir, and the public are concerned with, I have endeavoured,
with your permission, from time to time to elucidate it, and, the
tardy intervention of Mr. Molloy notwithstanding, I believe this has
been in the public interest.

I am, Sir, yours obediently, EDWARD P. MATHERS.
" SOUTH AFRICA " Office, 23, Austin Friars, E.G.
September 3rd.

and its Founder, told by others

Mr. Mathers wrote again on Swazielaiul in The Times as
follows in 1894 : —

Sir, — Your correspondent " S. H." has clearly stated the position,
at any rate as regards latter-day development, and you yourself, Sir,
on the nth inst., said almost the last word that is now to be said
on it. Letters in your columns on several occasions, as well as
chapters in the book called " Golden South Africa," and my writ-
ings in the South African Press, have shown that at one time I held
a strong opinion on the duty of England towards the Swazies. But
events move fast in South Africa, and what was practicable and
proper even a lustrum back is, in this regard, the reverse to-day. I
have already set forth in The Times the reasons which the late Swazie
King gave me for expecting England to take him and his country
under her protection. Little good, however, can come of now
raking up the embers of a discreditable past. There has been
blundering by both English political parties in their treatment of
the Swazies. There was a time when it was the manifest interest
and duty of England to extend the boundaries of Natal by in-
corporating Pondoland on the south, and Zululand, Tongaland,
and Swazieland on the north. Amazing ineptitude and party
cowardice blinded English statesmen to their duty. But the Boers,
if rougher than the English, are frequently readier in their pioneer-
ing methods, and so they brought Sir Arthur Havelock to his
knees and boldly " jumped " the best part of Zululand. England
was thus prevented from following what had previously been an
open and inviting path of progress in South-East Africa. The
Boers subsequently obtained a considerable footing in Swazieland
by the purchase of valuable concessions, and they can doubtless
acquire any other that may be necessary to give them unfettered
control of the country. Nor must a recent pact be forgotten.
President Kruger was positive in his statement to me not long ago
that, in return for his " damping the trek " of Boers to Mashona-
land at a time when their presence across the Limpopo would have
been awkward to the Chartered Company, a representative of British
policy agreed that all opposition to his treating with the Swazies
would be withdrawn by the Imperial Government. England has
played the dog in the manger long enough over Swazieland. If
hot-blooded politicians like Sir E. Ashmead-Bartlett would only
look a little further than their party noses, they would see that
events are moving with almost alarming rapidity for British
empire south of the Zambesi. It is England's duty, in the interests
of South African peace and of the Swazies, to assist in bringing
them under a settled and strong government, and she will be well
advised to perform it promptly and gracefully. If the Transvaal
Government, becoming angry over the irritating treatment they
have received, were now to say to the Imperial Government, " We
withdraw any claim to negotiate with the Swazies and we object
to your negotiating with them," what would be the position ?
Would England be prepared to go to war with the Transvaal,
making the annexation of a distracted Swazieland a pretext, or
would she be prepared to allow the Swazies to drift into civil war ?
If she is not ready to adopt either of these alternatives, she must
work amicably with the Transvaal Government in settling the
troubled country of the late Umbandine. Sir Henry Loch will, it
may be taken for granted, endeavour to do this. He will examine
the Transvaal's proposed programme of government and consult
with the Pretoria powers as to a suitable selection of officials and
magistrates. His Excellency will doubtless in a short time be able
to assure the Imperial Government that he has the guarantee of
President Kruger that the Swazies will be as equitably governed as
the natives of Natal, and we may be sure Sir Henry Loch will
make ample reservation, for satisfaction in the event of nonfulfil-
ment of Transvaal engagements. Nothing could be more disastrous
to the Swazies than a perpetuation of the present administration of
weakness, not to use a harsher term, which latest information would
seem to justify. In any arrangements for their future government
by the Transvaal the Swazies should be subjected for at least three
years to only a nominal hut tax and be secured in ample land. A
supreme court for the natives should be stipulated for, and the chiefs
should be allowed a yearly indaba or gathering to formally venti-
late grievances and receive intelligence of any new laws. Mean-
while, as to the Swazie deputation to arrive in England on Mondav,
it is, as " S. II." points out, uncalled for and inexpedient. The

Swazie question cannot be finally settled by Sir Henry Loch and
General Joubert and the Swazies on the spot and also by the two
misguided natives and the Downing Street authorities here. Why
was the coming of the deputation given even a semblance of
official sanction ? With respect to the young Natal lawyer accom-
panying the Swazies, I understand the Natal Government made
every effort to prevent him from doing so. Let the two South
African natives now arriving on our shores be kindly and hospit-
ably dealt with, but, in their own interests and in the interests of
their country, let them be shipped back as quickly as may be with
the firm intimation that they have come 7,000 miles from the
place where the future of the country can alone be settled.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

23, Austin Friars, E.G.,

October 26th, 1894.

EDWARD P. MATHERS,
Editor of " SOUTH AFRICA.'

The Question of Qazaland.

To THE EDITOR OF " THE TIMES."

Sir, — In the matter of the negotiations between Portugal and
England in regard to the Manica country and Gazaland, you have
done a distinct service by publishing the preposterous document
purporting to be a treaty of vassalage between Gungunhama,
paramount chief of Gazaland, and the Portuguese.

On the face of it it bears no value. It is not even signed by
Gungunhama. It is signed by Portuguese persons on behalf (?) of
the chief — a truly reliable document !

The so-called treaty is the offspring of jugglery and deceit, and
Lord Salisbury has ample evidence in his possession to prove it is.
Had Gungunhama even set his hand to any document setting forth
the relationships between him and the Portuguese, he would not
have done so with any idea that he was " Konzaing," or becoming
subject in any form whatever to the Portuguese. If he were asked
to-day whether he ever heard of this " treaty," and, if so, what he
understood it to mean, he would probably reply : " Yes, I have
heard of such a paper, and I understand it to sav that I will tolerate
the continued presence of the Portuguese on the coast. I have no
objection to the Portuguese giving me presents ; I have no objec-
tion to their leaving flags here which my girls wear ; I have no
objection to their coming to my kraal and their going through my
country so long as they behave themselves ; but to bow to or
become subject to the yellow dogs, never ! If they say that, I will
at once clear them off the coast where I have tolerated them."

One word more. Just about the date of this alleged treaty
Gungunhama sent two emissaries to the Governor of Natal, setting
forth views diametrically opposed to those invented by some
Portuguese adventurers on behalf of the chief — always, as was his
father before him, an ardent lover of the British.

1 am, Sir, your obedient servant,

EDWARD P. MATHERS, F.G.S., F.R.G.S.,
Editor of " SOUTH AFRICA."

\Yarnford Court, London, E.G.,
February 5th, 1891.

To THE EDITOR OF "THE TIMES."

Sir, — Mr. Clement has thought well to challenge my letter to-
you. He has done this in such flimsy fashion as scarcely to merit
notice, but, as you are concerned in getting at the truth on an
important mattei, I shall, with your permission, trespass on your
space with some further observations. I pass by Mr. Clement's
personalities, and shall confine myself to answering his denial that
any native would refer to the Portuguese on the coast as " yellow
dogs," and to his statement that the treaty with Gungunhama
published by you " is more a renewal of the submission and

C, 2

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

vassalage entered into by his late father Umzila than a new
agreement." 1 shall proceed to show, I hope at not too great
length, that this allegation is as much at variance with fact and
possibilitv as it is sweeping.

Gazaland is an independent native territory situate on the
South-East African littoral, being bounded on the east by the Indian
Ocean for some 600 miles, on the nortli by the Zambesi River for
some 300 miles, on the west by Mashonaland, and on the south by
Tongaland, Swazieland, and the Transvaal.

In 1820 two of Chaka's fighting captains fell into disgrace.
One of these, Uniziligaze (Lobengula's father), ravaged his way to
Matabeleland, and the other, Soshangane, broke to the north and
settled in Gazaland, where the clans and tribes of that district
accepted him as paramount chief. When Soshangane died he was
succeeded by Umzila, who died in the early eighties, and left a
well-consolidated kingdom to his chief son Umdungazwe (called
by the Portuguese Gungunyane and Gungunhama), the present
paramount chief.

Not long after Umzila died Umdungazwe sent an embassy to
the English Queen's induna (local officer), the Governor of Natal,
with the intimation that Umzila was dead and that Umdungazwe
reigned in his stead. The embassy brought with them the usual
complimentary messages and also a tusk of ivory as a friendly
expression, but they complained bitterly of the trouble they were
having on the coast with the Portuguese. I shall endeavour to
summarise what they said. They complained--

(a) That, whereas the Portuguese had always been friendly
in their relations with the Gaza King and people, and had given
them frequent gifts, they had recently been using force with some
of the subsidiary Gaza tribes located on the littoral near the points
tenanted by the Portuguese, that blood had been shed, that the
King's treasury-house of ivory had been burnt and looted, and that
the King had to take up arms, whereupon the Portuguese had at
once retreated to the sea again.

(b) That, while not objecting to the residing of the Portuguese
on the seashore, so long as they acted as friends and made the
customary presents yearly to the King, any exercise of authority in
the territory or levying of war would be resented by the King and
people.

(c) That the King and people had anticipated no acts of
violence, the more so as the Portuguese had sent up an officer to
the King's kraal, carrying gifts and expressing a wish to maintain
friendly intercourse.

On the general subject of Portuguese aggression the embassy
declared that there were but two classes of men who were dominant
in South Africa — viz., the English and the Dutch ; that the Portu-
guese were not white people, but a contemptible coloured race,
whose chief delight was to sit on the sea sands and paddle in
the water ; that the Gaza King and people knew the history of the
black peoples of South Africa ; that they knew what had become of
the Cape tribes, of the Natal tribes, of the Zulus, the Basutos, and
the Bechuanas ; and, knowing this, that they would have in turn
to choose a white lord, that when that time came they would
choose the English, but that for the present they were independent ;
that, as to the Portuguese on the coast, they tolerated them only,
and that the two facts of the Portuguese paying tribute always,
and, when trading, claiming to be subjects of the English people,
made a full answer to any claim of Portuguese dominion.

The advice the Ambassadors returned to the Gaza King with
was this: —

" Tell your King he is strong and can therefore afford to act
prudently. Tell him that, though the Portuguese \vlm molest him
are black and degenerate, they are the representatives of a white
European Power, a weak Power, but still a white people. Tell
him they will never overrun his country, because they are not a
colonising, industrious people. Tell him, however, that he is right
to resent any inroad in his own territory, or attacks on his people,
and tell him his best plan is to send a definite message to the
Portuguese officials, telling them that he is wishful to be at peace
with them as his and their fathers were before, that the country is
his for his people, that so long as they merely use the seaports for
trading and come and go among the people for trading lie is

willing they should remain, but that they must control their people
at the seaports from molesting or worrying his, the King's, people."

But for their having been tolerated on the coast by the natives,
no such claims as the Portuguese make nowadays could ever have
been seriously preferred. The possession, however, of the only ports
presently in use on the Gaza littoral allows the Portuguese to
control for the moment the ingress to the country from the sea.

The Portuguese are understood to base their claims to Gazaland
upon its discovery by Vasco da Gama. As a matter of history,
however, the Portuguese did not discover the Gazaland littoral, the
Zambesi, and adjacent islands. As their own records show, no one
was more astonished than da Gama to find harbours, shipping,
commerce, and a general refinement of manners and customs among
the English and Banyan traders, a refinement which died out with
the Portuguese tenancy of the coast.

Portugal has ever viewed their points on the littoral as penal
settlements and no more ; da Gama began these by leaving a
number of capitally condemned felons there. The result of this
penal settlement view has been the existence of a low and ever-
lowering class of people on the sea coast at the points of call, who
have degraded the contiguous blacks in a terribly loathsome
manner. The result of this sort of " occupation " of Eastern Africa
has been the breeding on the coast line of a hybrid and worthless
race, who have no place either in higher civilized Portuguese or
native esteem, but are alike despised by both.

Had this letter not already run beyond a fair length, I should
have given other proofs of how the natives speak of the Portuguese
on the coast as " yellow dogs." I shall merely add another word
or two on Gungunhama, as the Portuguese call him, as a " vassal."
When Jokane (as Mr. Wallis Mackay tells us in his recently-
published book, " The Prisoner of Chiloane "), the brother of the
Gaza King, was on a short sea trip from Chiloane to Inhambane
recently, he apostrophized the land in this fashion : —

"The Portuguese build on it. but it is my brother's land and
my brother's trees that grow upon it. They make us angry. So
angry did they make us once that we drove them into the sea and
made it red with their blood. They will make us angry again,
and if you (English) that we love will come to me, when they
make us very angry I will lend you a hundred thousand fighting
men and help you to make the sea red with their blood again, and
you can take their houses, and cattle, and wives, for my brother
will be glad when you come."

This is hardly the language of a vassal. When Gungunhama
recently was about to make a move to his summer kraal, some
Portuguese emissaries told him not to do so, as there were English
prowling round to eat him up. The King angrily cried, " Am I
a baby that I should be nursed and taught by you ? " His Majesty
gave the Portuguese emissaries three days to clear from his sight,
and, ordering Jokane to take a large number of fighting men,
marched with them to his summer kraal. An obedient vassal !

The Ga.za King has an army always at hand of some 15,000
men, and reserves in distant districts of double that number. All
are armed with assegais and spears. Guns are almost unknown,
and although the issue of any attack organized by the Portuguese
on the coast would be in favour of the Gazas, yet, as the coloured
felons, who would be, as heretofore, employed in such attacks are
armed with Government breechloaders and led by Government
officers, bloodshed would be at once wanton and heavy.

In face of these facts, as affecting the right of an independent
and friendly native Power and would-be ally of England, and also
in face of the fact that Gazaland is the corner which will con-
solidate British possessions south of the Zambesi, I protest against
the efforts which are being made (apparently for financial or
speculative purposes) to make it appear that this native Power is
in any sense whatever subordinate to the Portuguese, who sit on
his coast border merely on sufferance.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

I'.MVARD P. MATHERS,

Editor of " SOUTH AFRICA."
Warnford Court, E.G.,

February loth, 1891.

and its Founder, told by others

Press Interviews with
Mr. Mathers.

WHAT NEWSPAPER MEN HAVE ASKED

THE EDITOR OF "SOUTH AFRICA"; AND

WHAT HE HAS TOLD THEM.

DURING the last fifteen years the columns of the leading
British dailies have been occupied with interviews with
Mr. Mathers, whose opinions are invariably sought by
newspaper men when any prominent South African question is
before the public. To give all the interviews would sacrifice
more space than can be devoted to them here, but as well known
papers thought them of sufficient importance to publish, a selection
of them will doubtless be found of lasting interest by others.

Interviewed in Paris.

On the 24th October, 1889, the Journal des Mines had the
following : —

UN INTERVIEW.

OPINION DE M. MATHERS, DIRECTEUR DU "SOUTH AFRICA" SUR

LES CHAMPS D'OR DU SuU-ApRIQUE.

Nous avons eu la bonne fortune de nous rencontier avec
M. Mathers, 1'eminent directeur du " SOUTH AFRICA," le principal
organe du Sud-Afrique, traitant specialement les questions
minieres.

Nous savions que M. Mathers avait horreur des interviews, et
qu'il avait refuse a plusieurs reprises toutes informations aux
reporters envoyes au-devant de lui par les grands journaux. Nean-
moins, nous avons essaye d'etre plus heureux que nos confreres et
de parvenir, dans 1'interet de nos lecteurs, a connaitre 1'opinion
exacte d'un homme qui connait a fond les regions sud-africaines,
leur valeur et leur avenir.

Nous avons ete assez heureux pour reussir dans notre demarche.

Pendant son court sejour a Paris, M. Mathers nous a exprime le
regret de voir nos compatriotes se desinteresser des grandes entre-
prises minieres du Sud-Afrique, alors que par leur merveilleuse
Exposition ils montraient combien etait grande leur vitalite. II a
felicite chaudement \t Journal des Mines du but qu'il poursuivait
avec perseverance : apprendre aux Francais le parti magnifique a
tirer de ces regions presque inconnues d'eux.

Voici notre entretien :

— Voudriez-vous avoir 1'obligeance de nous donner quelques
renseignements sur le Sud-Afrique ?

— Avec plaisir, je suis heureux de vous donner toutes les
informations sur un pays au sujet duquel je me felicite de voir
qu'on s'interesse enfin a Paris.

- Voudriez-vous d'abord nous donner votre propre histoire ?

- Ma vie, avant d'aller au Sud-Afrique, il y a douze ans, avait
ete celled'un journaliste anglais. Au Sud-Afrique, je m'etais rendu
compte, depuis longtemps, que les champs d'or du Transvaal et les
territoires contigus devaient devenir famt-ux en raison des immenses
richesses auriferes qu'ils contiennent. Le part que j'ai prise aux
progres de ces regions est expliquee tout au long dans le livre que
j'ai ecrit sur ce sujet, qonnu dans son ensemble sous le nom de :
" Golden South Africa," 1'or au Sud-Afrique.

- XVtes-vous pas venu en Europe pour fonder un journal
traitant de toutes les affaires du Sud-Afrique ?

— Oui, en effet, je suis venu en Angleterre, il y a un an, dans ce
but. Au commencement de cette annee, j'ai cree le journal " SOUTH
AFRICA," et je suis heureux de pouvoir vous dire combien le succes
du journal a depasse toute mon attente ; son immense circulation
en Europe et au Sud-Afrique est la meilleure preuve des grands
progres de 1'Afrique du Sud et de 1'interet croissant qui se manifeste
partout pour ce developpement extraordinaire.

— A quelle epoque avez-vous commence a vous interesser aux
champs d'or ?

— Depuis de longues annees ma conviction etait faite sur
1'Afrique. Chacun sait qu'elle a ete exploitee par le; anciens, mais
avec des moyens rudimentaires. Ils avaient du laisser derriere eux
plus d'or qu'il n'en est besoin pour batir plusieurs villes comme
Paris, en blocs du precieux metal. J'eus comme le sentiment, par
les recits des derniers voyageurs portugais, qu'il y avait plus de
richesses qu'on ne le croit generalement ; et je compris que les
champs d'or signales par eux entre la cote orientate et 1'interieur
devaient former la source de la future provision d'or du monde
entier.

— Quand avez-vous vu pour la premiere fois les champs d'or ?

- II y a environ six ans, au commencement de 1884, j'allai sur
les champs de De Kaap, je vis les immenses ressourcesde ce district et
j'ecrivis en consequence. On ne pensait pas alors a Barberton.
Son emplacement appartenait alors aux lions, aux singes babouins ;
quant a Johannesburg, ce n'etait pas meme un reve.

Depuis cette epoque, malgre les grandes difficultes que ren-
contrerent les courageux et entreprenants pionniers, 1'oeuvre n'en n'a
pas moins marche d'un pas ferme ; jusqu'acequ'enfin la recompense
fut venue ; comme vous me le dites meme, des craintifs Parisiens
commencent a admettre qu'il doit y avoir de 1'or dans ce que
j'appelle les regions aurifircs illimities du Sud et du Centre Afrique.

— Nous desirerions savoir de quelle maniere la France pourrait
beneficier de tout cela. Quelle part a-t-elle avec les autres
nations dans 1'exploitation de pays comme le Sud-Afrique et ses
champs d'or.

— Jusqu'a present la France a ete trop absorbee par ses
dissensions intestines, pour avoir eu le temps de combattre dans
les batailles de la paix au dehors. A voir votre grande Exposition,
on peut cependant croire a une transformation.

— Quelles sont les diverses nationalites qui explorent et
developpement les pays du Sud-Afrique ?

- Les Ecossais, les Anglais, les Allemands, sont en tete de toutes
les autres nations au Sud-Afrique.

— Est-ce que les Boers voient d'un bon oeil les Anglais venir
exploiter leur pays ?

- Indubitablement oui, leur propre interet oblige les Boers et les
Anglais a oublier le passe.

— Quelle est votre opinion au sujet de la charte du Bechuanaland
et de 1'influence de M. Rhodes?

— C'est une question de la plus grande importance.

Le pays du Bechuanaland est magnifique, ses richesses
min<;rales et agricoles sont fort grandes.

En ce qui concerne 1'influence de M. Rhodes, elle est tres

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

puissante ; elle est un des grands facteurs de 1'elan de prosperite
qui regne au Sud-Afrique.

— Quels seront les resultats pour le pays de la construction des
chemins de fer au Transvaal et au Bechuanaland ?

— A mon avis, 1'effet de ces deux differents chemins de fer doit
etre examine separement.

Je crois que la future grande ligne du Sud-Afrique traversera en
territoire anglais tout le chemin depuis Cape-Town jusqu'a
1'Equateur, a travers le Bechuanaland, le Matabeleland et les regions
au Xord. Le reseau du Transvaal sera important, mais je pense
qu'il sera independant afin de developper les ressources immensesdu
riche pays compris dans sa sphere.

-- Ainsi vous avez une haute opinion de 1'avenir du Sud-
Afrique au point de vue industriel et civilisateur ?

- Pour repondre a votre question, je n'ai qu'a vous indiquer
a votre grande Exposition les objets provenant du Sud-
Afrique. La, vous pouvez deguster un verre des vins du
Sud-Afrique superieurs aux votres et moins chers qu'eux. Vous
y trouverez les laines dont sont faits vos habits, et les plumes
d'autruche qui ondulent sur les tetes de vos femmes. Vous y aurez
des eaux-de-viesemblablesacellesqu'Hennessyexporte a 1'etranger.
C'est surtout du Sud-Afrique que viennent les gemmes et les
pierreries qui brillent aux fronts de vos beautes du Grand Opera.
Vous verrez, enfin, que c'est du Sud-Afrique que viennent ces masses
inepuisables d'or qui sont le plus puissant moyen de civilisation
que le monde, en ne parlant que des choses materielles, ait encore vu.

— Quelle est votre opinion sur le Zoutpansberg, Klerksdorp,
Marico, Swazieland, De Kaap et Witwatersrand ?

— Arretez, pas si vite ; j'ai besoin de rentrer a Londres d'ici un
mois, et je ne le pourrais si j'avais a vous developper mon opinion
sur tous ces districts.

En ce qui concerne le dernier, le Witwatersrand, vous n'avez
besoin d'aucune autre preuve de sa surprenante richesse que 1'or qui
en a ete extrait. La valeur de cette extraction sera sous peu de
deux millions de livres sterling par an, ce qui equivaudra au
dixieme de la production d'or du monde entier. Quant aux autres
districts ils produisent deja de 1'or en quantite suffisante pour
prous'er qu'avec de bons materiels et une bonne administration, ils
grossiront le total de 1'extraction de 1'or au Sud-Afrique a un degre
qui etonnera le monde.

— Que pensez-vous de 1'administration du Transvaal ?

-- Elle pourrait etre meilleure, mais elle aurait pu etre infiniment
pire. A mesure que le temps effacera les antipathies nationales, il
s'etablira un systeme de gouvernement qui sera parfait. Le pardon
mutuel des griefs fera plus pour amener ce resultat que toute la
poudre qui a ete brulee par Bonaparte. Je crois qu'on doit tenir
grand compte a ['element hollandais d'avoir si bien dirige le pays
et sa population si diverse. II n'est pas necessaire de dire en France
que 1'art de bien gouverner est considere comme difficile, menie
par les plus habiles et les mieux intentionnes des homines.

-- Que dites-vous de 1'administration des mines?

— En ce qui concerne le gouvernement, 1'industrie des mines est
aussi libre et degagee d'entraves que dans aucune partie du monde,
et infiniment plus libre que dans plusieurs d'entre elles.

- Y a-t-il de grandes fortunes au Sud-Afrique ?

— Certes oui ; il est des gens qui pourraient signer des cheques
de 20 millions de francs : ce sont les Beit, les Mosenthal, les Ochs,
etc. Un de mes amis, 1'annee derniere, m'annonca qu'il allait se
retirer des affaires, et ne plus se meler de speculation. Six mois
apres il avail accru sa fortune (fun quart dc minion sterling
(6,250,000 francs] entitlement par ses champs d'or. J'ai oui dire
que quelques personnes a Paris avaient fait de beaux benefices dans
les champs d'or. II y a largement place pour une active speculation.

\ous nc venous pas la fin dc 1'or m Afrique, ni les enfants de
nos enfants, et comme le monde n'aura jamais assez d'or, bien des
fortunes sc feiont encore au fond du sol du Sud-Afrique.

- Dites-nous, monsieur Mathers, avez-vous recu bon accueil
quand vous etce arrive a Londres?

J'ai et.' tres llatte dc la reception (|ue j'ai eue ; j'ai ete
notamment invite a un diner, dont 1'alderman sir Henry Isaacs, le
nouveau lord-maire dc Londres, etait un des convives.

— Kst-ce que vous ave/. etc cru au Sud-Afrique lorsque vous
avez commence a ecrire au sujet des champs d'or ':

— Oui, par quelques-uns qui ont gagne beaucoup d'argent,
mais un plus grand nombre ne me crurent pas ; ils ont bien change
d'opinion depuis.

— Que disent-ils maintenant ?

— Ils ne parlent guere, mais je suppose que comme le perroquet
du matelot ils n'en pensent que plus.

Bonsoir et venez me voir a Londres.

"SOUTH AFRICA" translated the foregoing as follows: — •

We have had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Mathers, the well-
known director of " SOUTH AFRICA," the chief organ of South
Africa, and treating specially of matters connected with mines.
We were aware that Mr. Mathers had an antipathy to interviews,
and that he had refused on several occasions to see reporters sent to
him by prominent journals. Nevertheless, we endeavoured to be
more successful than our confreres, and in the interest of our
readers, to succeed in ascertaining the exact opinion of a man who
knows to the full the South African regions, their value, and their
future. We have been fortunate enough to succeed in our attempt.

During his sojourn in Paris, Mr. Mathers expressed to us his regret
at seeing the absence of interest on the part of our compatriots in
the great mining enterprises of South Africa, at a time when, by our
marvellous Exhibition, we were showing how great is their vitality.
He warmly congratulated the Journal des Mines on the object
which it was pursuing with so much perseverance, viz., to teach
the French that splendid opportunities opened up to them in
regions almost unknown to them. Subjoined are the notes of the
interview which took place between ourselves and Mr. Mathers.

Question : Will you be good enough to give. us some informa-
tion about South Africa ?

Answer : I have much pleasure in complying with your request,
and shall be happy to give you any information I can about a
country which, I am glad to observe, is attracting increased in-
terest in Paris.

Question : Will you, please, first give us some history of your
own 1 ife ?

Answer : My life, before I went to South Africa about twelve
years ago, was that of a British journalist. In South Africa, I
long ago saw that the Gold Fields of the Transvaal, and the terri-
tories adjoining must become famous for their immense stores of
auriferous riches, and my connection with the progress of these
regions is very fully explained in the books I have written on the
subject, known now, in their collected form, as " Golden South
Africa."

Question : You came to Europe to establish a journal to deal
with the affairs of South Africa ?

Answer : Yes. A year ago I came to England for that purpose ;
establishing, in the beginning of this year, the newspaper, " SOUTH
AFRICA." I am happy to be able to inform you that the success of
that paper has exceeded even the high expectations I had formed
concerning it. Its immense circulation in Europe and South Africa
is the best proof of the progress of " SOUTH AFRICA," and the great
and growing interest which is everywhere being manifested in its
extraordinary development.

Question : When did you first take an interest in the Gold
Fields ?

Answer: Many years ago I was convinced that though the
ancients had worked there for gold they had left enough behind them
in Africa to build many cities of Paris with blocks of the precious
metal. 1 felt there was more in the records of early Portuguese
travellers than was generally believed, that they pointed to the
existence of a gold field between the East Coast and the interior
which would form the source of the future supply of gold to tin-
world.

Question : When did you tirst see the Gold Fields '•

Answer: About six years ago ; early in the year iSS.j 1 went to
the Kaap Fields. I saw the immense possibilities of the district, and
\\rote accordingly. Harberton had not been thought of then. Its
site belonged to the lion and baboon, and Johannesburg was not
even a dream. Since that time, notwithstanding the great difficul-
ties in the way of the brave and toiling pioneers of the Fields, work

and its Founder^ told by others

From a
Photo by
W. & D.
DOWN* v,
57, Ebury
Street, S.W.

From a
Photo by
BYRNE & Co.,
Richmond

REDUCED FACSIMILES OF "SOUTH AFRICA" PLATE SUPPLEMENTS

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

has steadily gone on, until at last reward has come, and, as you tell
me, even the cautious Parisians are admitting that there must be
gold in what I call the illimitable auriferous regions of South and
Central Africa.

Question : We should like to know in what way France mav
IxMirlit in all this. How does she compare with other nations in
opening up such countries as South Africa and its Gold Fields ?

Answer: To the present France lias occupied herself too closely
with domestic strife to have had any time to fight the battles of
peace abroad. One can, however, take hope from your great
Exhibition that all is changing.

Question : Then what nationalities explore and develop such
places as South Africa ?

Answer : The Scotchman, the Englishman, and the German
take the lead of all the other nations of the world in opening up
South Africa.

Question : But do the Boers like the idea of the English coming
and opening up their country ?

Answer : Most unquestionably they do ; self-interest compels
both Boers and English to bury the past.

Question : What is your opinion of the Bechuanaland Charter
and Mr. Rhodes' influence ?

Answer : That is a question of the greatest importance. The
country of Bechuanaland is a magnificent one, its mineral and
agricultural possibilities being very great. As to Mr. Rhodes' in-
fluence, that is very mighty, and it is a great factor in the rushing
prosperity of South Africa.

Question : What will the Transvaal and Bechuanaland railways
do for the country ?

Answer : To my mind the effects of these separate railways must
be looked for separately. I think the future Grand Trunk Rail-
way of South Africa will run through British territory, all the way
to the Equator from Cape Town, through Bechuanaland and
Matabeleland, and onwards north. The Transvaal railway system
will be important, but it will, I think, be an independent network,
developing the vast resources of the rich country within its
compass.

Question : Then you think highly of the future of South Africa
from an industrial and civilising point of view ?

Answer : For an answer to that question I point you to the
exhibits from South Africa in your Exhibition. You can there
get a glass of sound wine from South Africa superior to, and
cheaper than, some of your own expensive wines. You there, in the
South African section, see the wool from which your coat is made,
and the ostrich feathers which curl from the heads of your belles.
You can there sample as fine brandy as Hennessy sends out, and
you can get evidence that it is largely from South Africa that the
gems which glitter and sparkle on the brows of your beauties at
the Grand Opera come. Lastly, you can see there .that it is from
South Africa that exhaustless stores of gold are coming, and gold,
as we know, is the most powerful civiliser that the world has yet
seen — I speak of material things.

Question : What is your opinion of Zoutpansberg, Klerksdorp,

Marico, Swazieland, De Kaap, Witwatersrand ?

Answer : Stop, stop, I want to get back to London some time
within a month, and shall not be able to do so if I have to give
you my opinions of all these districts. As regards the last, the
Witwatersrand, you do not need any greater proof of its wonderful

wealth than the output of gold from it. The value of that output
will shortly be two millions per annum, and that will be a tenth
of the whole world's gold supply. But the other districts are
sending out gold in sufficient quantities to prove that with the
best appliances and good management they will swell the total
output of South African gold to a point which will make the
world wonder.

Question : What do you think of the administration of the
Transvaal ?

Answer : It might be better, but it might be a very great deal
worse. As time softens national antipathies a perfect system of
government will establish itself. Mutual forgiveness of trespasses
will do more to bring this about than all the gunpowder that was
ever blazed away by Bonaparte. 1 think great credit is due to the
Dutch for having controlled the country and its diverse population
so well as they have. In France it is not necessary to say that the
art of good government is found difficult, even by the cleverest and
best intentioned men.

Question : What about the administration of the mines ?
Answer : As far as the Government is concerned, the mining
industry is as free and unfettered as it is in any other part of the
world ; indeed, a great deal freer than in some parts.
Question : Are there any rich men in South Africa ?
Answer: Certainly. A few could sign away cheques for twenty
millions of francs. Cecil Rhodes is said to be worth two millions
of pounds. There are others who come near Rhodes in point of
wealth, such as the Barnatos and J. B. Robinson. There is a large
number of persons in South Africa to-day worth from £50,000 to
£100,000, who two years ago would have been glad to take £500
for their whole possessions. These men have been enriched
entirely by the Gold Fields. Besides these, a large number of men
in England have made colossal fortunes out of the Gold and
Diamond Fields, well-known men like Sir Donald Currie, Messrs.
Forges & Co., Mr, Beit, the Mosenthals, the Ochs, &c. A friend of
mine a year ago told me he was going to retire from business and
do no more speculating. In six months after that he had added a
quarter of a million pounds, not francs, to his fortune, entirely by
the Gold Fields. Some men in Paris have, I hear, done well out of
the Fields. There is plenty of room for more acute speculation.
The gold in South Africa will not end in the time of us or our
children's children, and as the world can never get enough gold,
there will be many more fortunes made in winning it from South
African soil.

Question : Were you well received when you came to London,
or were you not ?

Answer : I cannot say I have any reason to be otherwise than
proud of my reception. I was entertained at a public dinner, at
which Alderman Sir Henry Isaacs, the new Lord Mayor of
London, was one of the hosts.

Question : Did the people in South Africa believe you at first,
when you wrote about the Gold Fields ?

Answer : A few did, and made a lot of money. Many did not,
but they have changed their minds now.
Question : What do they say now ?

Answer : Not much, but, I suppose, like the sailor's parrot, they
think all the more. Good-day, and look me up when you come to
London.

AFTER visiting every centre in South Africa Mr. Mathers returns
by the East Coast, calling at Delagoa Bay and Beira on his way,
and seeing for himself the latest developments of commercial
activity there. — Natal Mercury.

" SOUTH AFRICA " has now passed from the experimental to the
permanent and practical stage. The anxieties of the launch are
nver, the n >cks and the shallows are passed, and, with her sails
ballooned by a full steady breeze of popular favour, the good ship
is well on a voyage which in all human probability her builders
and her crew will not see the end "«f. Such a record of success as
we can show — in we hope not too boastful a spirit is given to
very few journals to achieve at such an early period .if their career.
-"SouTH AFRICA," Januarv 4th, i

MR. MATHERS' first South African experiences began in Durban,
and we trust that his brief renewal of acquaintance with this town
and seaport will be productive of pleasant impressions. — .\ntnl
Mercury.

MR. MATHERS will spend another fortnight on the Hand, and
then proceeds to Durban, where his visit (so our wires state this
morning) is anticipated with pleasure, and where the editor of
"SOUTH AFRICA," and author of "Golden South Africa" and
" Zambesia "-—which, by the way, has reached a Second Edition —
is certain to meet with that warm welcome which Natal knows so
well how to extend to her friends and supporters, among whom
historv, current and to come, will number Mi. Mathers as the
staunches! of the staunch.- Johannesburg Standard.

and its Founder^ told by others

The Shangani Disaster.

A TALK WITH A "PALL MALL GAZETTE"

REPORTER.

T N December, 1893, the Pall Mall Gazette had the following : —

Mr. E. P. Mathers, editor of " SOUTH AFRICA," discussed
freely yesterday with a Pall Mall Gazette reporter the matter
of the reported disaster to Major Wilson's party.

" Do you think there is cause for grave alarm over the news, or,
rather, the want of it ? " was the question which opened the
conversation.

" Although I should dearly like to answer in the negative,"
replied Mr. Mathers, " I am afraid there is. While there is a
shred of hope I should not like to pose as an alarmist, yet the
information published in the Pall Mall Gazette was, in my
opinion, strikingly accurate, both as regards the facts and the
inferences drawn from them."

" Do you know whether any absolute statement that Major
Wilson's force has been annihilated has been received in London ?"

" I know of one cablegram which definitely states that Captain
Borrow is killed, and of another stating that Wilson's party
has been cut up. It is quite true that these cablegrams have
come by way of Fort Salisbury, and in dealing with news like that
one has to bear in mind that it may have originated from the
rumours gathering force as it travelled from hilltop to hilltop till
it reached the telegraph wire at Fort Salisbury. The Times to-day
adopts a temperate and proper tone, if I may say so ; but there is
no getting away from the fact that the cablegrams I have mentioned
have been received, and that Mr. Rhodes and the Hon. Mr. Gifford,
who ought to be able to judge, telegraph that they fear the worst."

" The news seems to have come from various independent
sources ? "

" Entirely. I have no doubt that in South Africa the matter
is the current talk of the market-places. Yet until more positive
information has been received it is only natural that the
representatives of the Press agencies throughout South Africa
should be chary about flashing to England a definite statement of
so serious a nature as intelligence of so lamentable an occurrence
would be. Either Major Wilson and his party are dead and silent
for ever, or they are beyond the means of communication with
the outside world. Everybody must hope it is only the latter,
but I fear the former. Someone has probably blundered. When I
first heard that Major Forbes had detached a small party to chase
Lobengula, I became anxious for its safety. Whatever the fate of
the patrol may have been, the blunder of sending it without a
laager seems grave and inexcusable. Indeed, the whole mission of
Major Forbes, from the time of his leaving Bulawayo, seems to
have been rather foolhardy. Up to the capture of Bulawayo the
campaign, though well managed, was child's play and practically
devoid of danger. If Forbes had pursued the fugitive King slowly
with wagons, in order to form a laager, it is possible that he
would have captured him ere this with little or no loss. At all
events, he would have run him to earth befoie the Zambesi was
reached. Instead of taking wagons, however, to form ramparts
from which to shoot, Forbes' party were allowed, as it seems, to
recklessly expose their lives. They had practically no rations with
them, and altogether the effort to secure the person of Lobengula
seems to have been as badly conceived as it may unfortunately
prove disastrous in its results. Even the successful capture of the
King would not condone the fault of sending out so ill-equipped
an expedition in pursuit of him."

BANQUET

Otfert aux

OEPRESENTANTS DES REPUBLIQUES SUD-AFRJCAINES

\'^yteJLSjSpl@tflL

Lc Banquet aura litu It Memtdi, 21 du COUTH*! a 7 brunt friciics ilu soir
<iu\ Salons Pain.

^Rnrsfillf, If 17 JJionrmbrr 1900

L« S«C««T*I»« GKN**AL. " I****11"'"'' •

A. Viollc H. Thoiircl

AN INVITATION THAT WAS NOT ACCEPTED

9°

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

A Racily-Described Chat with
Mr. Mathers about the Liquor Trade

in South Africa.

THE Licensing Worla ana Licensed Trade Review of June
ist, 1894, had the following : —

In one of his more erudite works Gerald Massay, the
poet, has in some charming phrases endorsed the idea that it is to
Africa and not to Asia that we must look for

THE CRADLE OF THE HUMAN RACE.

Be that as it may, certain it is that from time immemorial Africa
has furnished the world with many of its more picturesque scenes,
and with not a few of its most romantic characters.

The most striking, as now and again they have been also the
most sad chapters in the history of an empire during the past
twenty years, have been made in the vast and still little understood
continent.

Men well on the sunny side of forty can recall, and not always
with dull dry eyes, the cold grey winter's morning when we heard
of the massacre of the 24th by the hosts of Cetewayo ; have not
forgotten the splendid defence of Rorke's Drift ; remember how but
for the gruesome death of young Louis Napoleon the history of
France might, during the past ten years, have run a different course
to that which it has taken ; deplore the disaster of Majuba Hill ;
recoil from what not a few call the betrayal and sacrifice of
Gordon ; and think of Abu Klea's wells to connect them with the
last moments of two such gallant soldiers as " Fred " Burnaby and
Herbert Stewart.

Since those dark, tragic times the

DOMINANT FORCE IN AFRICA

has been decidedly a one-man force. Parochialists may fail to
understand why this one man — Cecil Rhodes — has become the
most colossal figure in the contemporary history of our Empire.
That he can talk, and pungently and scathingly, too, Downing
Street knows all too well. But it is his genius for action that
makes him the most popular idol of an imperial race. His
every plan is reminiscent of those makers of empire who " filled
the spacious age of great Elizabeth " with sounds not only of
harmony, but of arms " that echo still," and whose memories, for
aught we know, may survive the " wreck of matter and the crash of
worlds."

It needs but a passing acquaintance with literature to know the
sort of books and stories that find most favour with the coming
race. They are not books that tell

THE STORY OF THE VILLAGE GREEN

or recount the memorable services of the parish pump. More than
" forty times the rose has flowered, and forty faded," since Charles
Kingsley gave us " Westward Ho ! " with its thrilling chapters
concerning the birth of our Empire, and the character of the men
who called it into being. But when some four or five years since
that good, grand work was republished at a popular price, it had a
sale that fell little short of the prodigious total of 250,000 copies- -
an impossible feat had we been the poor puling parochialists
which men who misrepresent the national instinct in the Press and
the Senate would have the world believe we are. People do not
read works dealing with matters foreign to their instincts.

The masterful Briton of to-day does not believe that the great
heart of Africa must remain the untrodden forest of useless swamp
that it has been for sixty centuries. Doubtless had Mr. Labonchere
been contemporary with the Csesars he would have protested
against the Roman occupation of Britain alike

IN THE INTERESTS OF THE NATIVE RACKS,

and on the ground that as a mere cluster of woodland and marsh it
could have no possible value. There doubtless was a Roman
" Labby " ; but in regard to the opening up of this country by the
men of the " city that sat upon her seven hills and from her throne
of beauty ruled the world," he was impotent in his day, as in ours
the member for Northampton is, to hold in check forces his own
intellect will not allow him to understand.

" Instruct the people that they go " — backward may be the cry
of Little England, but, being as small in influence as it is in
intelligence, its cries are vain as the brayings of an ass.

Having thus unburdened our souls, so far as our patriotism is
concerned, we will deal with

SOUTH AFRICA AS A PRESENT AND FUTURE FIELD FOR
THE TRADE.

On deciding to do that we had at our call many sources of
information. But wishing to put as much information as we could
into the small compass of an article, decided to avail ourself of
the unique knowledge of South Africa — gained mostly from
personal experience of that coming country — possessed by

MR. E. P. MATHERS, F.R.G.S.,

the proprietor-editor of that prosperous weekly, " SOUTH AFRICA,"
and the author of " Golden South Africa," &c.

We found Mr. Mathers at his spacious offices in Austin Friars,
directing with clockwork precision the small army of sub-editors,
correspondents, clerks, and messengers which he has managed to
call into being, in spite of the pessimists who warned him when he
announced his intention of founding his paper that it could " never
pay or be of the least possible service to him."

On matters of interest to the trade Mr. Mathers promptly
opened fire by calling for a copy of " SOUTH AFRICA " of the 5th inst.,
and pointing to a speech delivered by Sir Henry Loch, K.C.M.G.,
High Commissioner for South Africa. The occasion of the speech
was a luncheon in honour of the arrival of the newest and finest
vessel of the famous Castle Line. " Our host " referred to by His
Excellency the High Commissioner was, of course, Sir Donald
Currie, K.C.M.G. The extract from the speech is as follows:—
"Gentlemen, no one has advanced the prosperity of South Africa
more than our host to-day. His energy and enterprise are un-
bounded. I am very anxious now to induce him to go into further
speculation. I am very anxious to induce him to expend something
not far short of £1,000,000 for the purpose of establishing what
I believe would advance greatly the interest of his own steamship
company, and of steamship companies as a whole, and the trade of
South Africa, and that is, to establish at the great health resorts

SUITABLE AND LARGE HOTELS.

Numbers of people, and especially invalids, would go to the Cape
and various other places under doctors' orders, if they could get
good accommodation, and no syndicate or company is in a similar
position to the steam packet companies to provide suitable and
good accommodation for those who may seek for health. One
whose name you all know well. Lord Randolph Churchill, suggested
that £3,000,000 should be raised for the purpose of building hotels,
but I am not quite so sanguine as he was that it could be done ;
I am more modest in my anticipations, and I only suggested
£1,000,000 to Sir Donald." "I need scarcely tell you," continued
Mr. Mathers, " that Sir Henry Loch is not the man to talk for
talking's sake. He never troubles to put forward a suggestion
until circumstances are favourable to its adoption and execution.

and its Founder, told by others

You will not therefore be surprised to hear that since he spoke a
company for raising as much of the ,£1,000,000 as is wanted has
been practically formed. You have possibly heard of Lord Randolph
Churchill, eh ? " asked the editor of " SOUTH AFRICA," with a wink
that would not have discredited the fair fame of Miss Marie Lloyd.
" Once or twice," was our reply. " Well, as you know, when he
went out to Mashonaland in another of Sir Donald's vessels, the
druntully Castle, he severely criticised the cuisine, and roundly
abused the poor unfortunate cooks. He was then fresh from the
dreamy luxuries of the Amphitryon Club. After appearing in

THE ' DAILY GRAPHIC '

his letters were published in book form, and he was careful to keep
out of that book his abuse of the feeding arrangements on board
the Grantully Castle. He had not been long in Africa before he
discovered it was possible to get a dinner which made him wish
that he was again on board, and able to get the food he had abused
till he went farther and fared worse. It is to his discoveries of the
comparatively meagre accommodation, service and fare at existing
hotels in the Land of Gold that we largely owe the awakening of
which Sir Henry Loch's speech was a manifestation." "Then
possibly they may name one of the proposed new hotels after the
noble lord, and haply may adorn its corridors with the stuffed car-
cases of those lions he shot on so lavish a scale ? " " On that
matter I am not an authority," was our friend's judicious reply.
" What I do know is this ; that the great hotel syndicates — for
instance, the ' Gordon,' Spiers & Pond, &c., have not yet fully
realised the characteristics, the manners and customs of the men
now opening up South Africa. They are not such fiery, untamed,
uncouth fellows as flocked to the Australasian Gold Fields in 1848.
They are men for the most part who, before they left England,
seldom dined save in evening dress, and if you met them at table,
or in the smoking-room of the ' Metropole,' 'Grand,' 'Victoria,'
' Savoy,' ' Windsor,' or any of our swell hotels, you would find they
didn't eat peas with their knives, or take their brandy neat out of
broken-necked bottles. There was

THE ' GLOBE '

the other evening gravely informing the world that the Cape
cricketers were not black men." " The Globe" remarked our
representative, " is often skittish in its old age, and seems to aim in
parts at being a daily edition of the Sporting Times" " That
may be," was Mr. Mathers' reply, " but in the case under notice it
gave the item in all seriousness. If you want to know what
manner of men

THE CAPE CRICKETERS

are, you can see for yourself by calling at the Tavistock Hotel,
Covent Garden, where they are staying and conducting themselves
as civilised gentlemen — not as all too many people seem to think
Cape colonists must conduct themselves. The absence of really
first-class hotels in the not now altogether Dark Continent concerns
other than the settlers. In England

THE DRY ISLAND PLATEAU

of Cape Colony has obtained much favour in the eyes of the
medical profession as a health resort for invalids able to travel.
For such people there must, if the district is to reap all the
advantages of the repute it has gained among physicians, be the
maximum of comfort, ease, and even luxury in the matter of hotel
accommodation. If we turn to the other side of the picture, we
must admit that there are just a few hotel-keepers in South Africa
who run really good hotels. A pioneer in that connection is

MR. F. L. JONSSOX,

of Durban. You have heard of London millionaires, the basis of
whose fortune was the half-crown with which they came to town,
haven't you ? " " Yes, though we have heard of one millionaire
who, not caring to embrace the common story, claimed to have
had not as. 6d., but 2S. b\A. when lie came to town." " Well, when
Jonsson was

WASHED INTO SOUTH AFRICA."

" Washed ! " we exclaimed, " and by whose soap, mav we ask ? "
" Not any, it ap-pears. Jonsson was a shipwrecked sailor, and
when winds and waves together washed him ashore, he not only
had not a penny piece, but was as guiltless of clothing as was

Adam before the Fall. But though naked, Jonsson was not
ashamed. He, after obtaining clothes, gained employment, soon
afterwards started what you may call a mere shanty for the supply
of refreshments ; but is to-day the owner of

THE FINEST HOTELS IN DURBAN,

' The Royal ' and ' The Alexandra.' He was in England not long
ago, and was offered a handsome sum for his properties; but, with
characteristic sagacity, replied by saying that the time for selling
his hotels had not yet come. I have myself made more than one
voyage to the Cape, and save in a few hotels have, after my
experience at table on the ' Castle,' and, for that matter, ' Union '
liners too, felt the want of comfortable hotels. There are points in
the colony where we come into contact with the Portuguese. Now
while the resident Portuguese put no obstacles in the way of
enterprise in South Africa, the Portuguese Government at Lisbon is
a force often making for stagnation ; and if in the districts under
notice hotels are to prosper, the local Portuguese must have, with
us, a freer hand than their Government now allows them."

"Of Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban, and lately of Fort
Salisbury, all of us at home have heard. But they are not the only
places with a big future before them, and if in the interests of the
big hotel companies of this country an agent is sent out to spy the
land, he will do well to

VISIT BEIRA AND UMTALI.

They, next to Fort Salisbury, will play a great part in the
development of Mashonaland. Allow me to show you the
' elevations ' and the sectional plans for

THE NEW MARKETS AT FORT SALISBURY."

When the plans were produced we had to confess ourselves startled
at the extensive character of the markets, and could not help
admiring the architectural features of the buildings. "Nothing of
the temporary, rough and tumble, here to-day and gone to-morrow
style about those buildings, is there ? " asked our friend. " Indeed,
there is not. They are evidently come to stay." Questioned as to

BREWERIES IN SOUTH AFRICA,

Mr. Mathers, while admitting there were a few prosperous ones,
expressed the opinion that it would take the settlers a long time to
acquire a taste for other ales than those of

BASS AND OF ALLSOPP.

" In my early days in South Africa," he continued, " I have been
glad to give 45., 55., and 6s. for a Bass." " That was a stiff price."
" Yes, but not so stiff as the £\ and £"5 I've seen paid for a bottle
of whisky." " Those prices do not obtain nowadays ? " " Not
often ; still, up country it's not always easy to get a Bass, and
when you get it prices run high." The mention of whisky
eventually led up to a reference to the

HATHF.RLEY DISTILLERY,

at Pretoria, in the Transvaal. " If," said Mr. Mathers, " there is
now a better and more regular and cheaper supply of whisky than
in the old days, we must thank the proprietors of the Hatherley
Distilleries."
"Is

IRISH OR SCOTCH MOST IN FAVOUR ? "

we asked. ''I think Scotch leads the way," was the reply, "and
at the just named distillery the arrangements for producing it are
in even- respect equal to those of the most famous distilleries in
the West of Scotland. You need not go to the Transvaal to sample
the Hatherley spirits, though," remarked Mr. Mathers. " They an-
on show at the Antwerp Exhibition, and that in a case which itself
cost £"440, and is one of the best cases of its kind ever turned out
by a famous English firm."

Thinking by this time that we had occupied enough of a busy
man's time, we rose, thanked Mr. Mathers, and from the loftiness
of his chambers descended deep into the bowels of the earth at
King William Street, and by the Soutli London Electric Railway
Company were quicklv wafted to what Jack Brag, of immortal
memory, would have called " our little place in Surrey."

Little Englanders are so constantly perverting the truth in
connection with our colonies, that it is refreshing to meet a Briton
who believes in his own countrvmen. We stvle Mr. Mathers a

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

Briton, and that because if we styled him an Englishman it might OF the events that led up to the formation of the British South

be pointed out that his Scotch accent connects him with " Cale- Africa Company, of its Pioneer Force, of its boundless possessions,

donia stern and wild." What he told is, we believe, sufficient to of its splendid prospects, Mr. Mathers tells us fully in his book.

induce many of our readers, either for business or pleasure, to go A storehouse of information, and it comes to us

and see South Africa for themselves. It is in the hands of stamped with an authority which makes it doubly valuable.--

dauntless, intrepid, and resourceful men. Bullionisl.

The Jameson Raid.

MR. MATHERS' VIEWS SOUGHT FROM ALL

QUARTERS.

IT may be said with absolute truth that nearly every daily
paper in Great Britain and Ireland published the opinions of
Mr. Mathers at the stirring time when, during the closing days
of 1895, the home country rang with the news of an event which,
whatever else may be said about it, was of first-class importance.

" How to Pacify the Transvaal," and " An Interview with Mr.
Edward P. Mathers," were the headings of the following in the
London Echo of the 2nd January, 1896 : —

Mr. E. P. Mathers is, without question, the premier authority on
South African affairs in London. By virtue of long residence in
the colonies there, many interests in them, and a journalistic
connection which reaches from Fort Salisbury to Cape Town, he
knows whatever is to be known about affairs in the old Cinderella
of British colonies. He is one of the very few Englishmen who,
while maintaining strenuously the cause of the uitlander, have also
kept the respect and goodwill of the Boers. When, on Tuesday
morning before the latest startling news from South Africa came
to hand, I saw Mr. Mathers in the offices of " SOUTH AFRICA," it was
somewhat surprising to hear him say that he regarded the situa-
tion in the Transvaal as " serious, but not alarming."

"But if women and children are leaving Johannesburg in
numbers, does it not indicate that the situation there is very grave ? "

" I do not believe that any women and children have left
Johannesburg because of the political situation there," Mr. Mathers
replied. " Had there been any ground for alarm, I should have
heard of it from trustworthy agents I have there. 1 have sent cables
out, urgently requesting the latest news on the situation, but for
some reason — cable congestion, I suppose — 1 am still without
satisfactory replies."

" But does it not look as though the deadlock between the
President of the South African Republic and the uitlanders would
lead to open rebellion by the latter ? "

" No, I cannot take that view. There can be no open rebellion
in the sense of rising against the Government on the part of the
uitlanders in Johannesburg. Why ? Because the uitlanders them-
selves are divided on the point, and I believe that the majority of
them will go on suffering the ills they have rather than fly to others
they know not of. The common sense of these Johannesburgers
who have anything to lose — and they are in the great majority —
would prevent open revolt. The property owners, the financiers,
and those working for salaries and wages on the Witwatersrand
Gold Fields, are too well off materially to join in arms against the
Government without more provocation than they have had yet."

" But the uitlanders have great grievances, as set forth in the
National Union manifesto."

" I grant it, and these grievances are coming nearer and nearer
to settlement ; no doubt all the nearer by the firm attitude taken

up by the National Union. Most of the members of the Union
know that an appeal to arms would be a very risky business, and
would almost certainly mean imperial intervention, when their
cherished ideal of an independent republic would disappear. If
they could only once convince President Kruger that they are as
determined not to be governed from Downing Street as he is, the
whole difficulty would come to an end."

" Surely there will be much danger of bloodshed through the
meeting of the National Union next Monday ? "

" By no means. Inflammatory speeches may lead irresponsible
hot-bloods to create a breach of the peace, but that would be a
police affair. There may be rioting, but I believe President Kruger
is ready and prepared to enforce law and order. If he is found
unready and unprepared to do so, then he must vanish. Rebellion
would be justified if the Government proved itself incapable of
maintaining law and order in the country."

'• What would be the immediate results of open rebellion ? "

" The consequences would be too deplorable to contemplate.
The financial ruin of many in South Africa would be the least of
the evils. It might take weeks and months to subdue the fire. In
any indiscriminate shooting, valuable lives of men fit to be
ornaments and guards of any British community would be lost,
along with those who have nothing to lose but worthless existence.
As the Echo said in its leader on Monday; there are many waifs
and strays in Johannesburg who have little or nothing to lose, and
are too often more or less ready for excitement and change. To
put these people down is, I say, a police affair."

" Are the police well disciplined ? "

" Fairly so, and there is a large local volunteer force, well
affected towards the Government, and sworn to obey them."

" What other forces has President Kruger ? "

" He has, theoretically, the rifle of every able-bodied burgher in
the Transvaal at his command. The Boer is ready to fight at half-an-
hour's notice. He can accoutre himself and provision himself for a
long time in that period. The Transvaal Government have also a
small regular force of artillery at Pretoria. It is very difficult to
tell the present population of the Transvaal. There may be some-
where about 150,000 to 160,000 white people. I should say three-
fourths are uitlanders, and the great majority of these are British or
Colonial born."

" You sympathise with the uitlanders in their grievances "'. "

" Yes, far more deeply than firebrands who might be indifferent
to seeing Johannesburg in flames, and hordes of drunken natives
pillaging stores and outraging women. The leaders of sensible
opinion in Johannesburg know too well that to plunge South
Africa in war at present — for other States would be inevitably
drawn in — is to turn back the clock of South African progress
many years."

and its Founder, told by others

" Then you disregard the alarming rumours as to open
rebellion ? "

" As I have said, that would be simply the resort of desperate
gamesters, and that is not the character of the Johannesburg
mining and financial community. The great majority there are
for peace, and I believe they will get it — and with honour, too. I
think President Kruger will gradually give in enough to restore
calmness, but he will not do this if blood-thirsty cables are sent
from here to South Africa. Irritation is being added to the open
sores in the Transvaal by the doings of a few individuals at this
end. Sensationalism to serve the hour of jingo journals encourages
the local jingoes, and the insensate folly of some of the German
journals is no doubt encouraging President Kruger in his feeling
of obstinacy. There is enough explosive matter at the other end
without irritating Kruger and his people and the great Dutch
party in the Cape Colony. The men on the Rand are perfectly
capable of settling the matter, and should be left to do it. As the
Scotch say, " Those who thole will conquer." Let the Johannes-
burgers thole a little longer. They see victory advancing, and it vl
coming fast through the growing weakness of the Pretoria
executive. Kruger must make friends with the Mammon of
Johannesburg, but he will never do so with a pistol at his head.
I think strong representations should be made by England to
Germany that the irresponsible and ignorant utterances of some of

tTI)c £li& (Times

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the Berlin writers may do much injury at the present moment. It
would be a very good thing if Germany could get it in her head
that Germans on the Rand would infinitely prefer all the dis-
abilities they suffer from on the Rand to submission again to the
despotism of the Fatherland."

'• What would you advise in the present circumstances of
Johannesburg ? "

" Cool heads, and earnest endeavours to hold the scales of
justice with absolute evenness. The British have gone into South
Africa on the back of the Boer, who defeated Dingaan and com-
pelled the Matabele to emigrate to the north. His methods may
be slow, but they are fairly sure. Woo him over to you, and by
patience you can gain his confidence. Let a Board of Arbitration
be appointed to discuss and decide upon the intolerable and long-
borne grievances of the Uitlanders. I would suggest for such a
Board Sir Hercules Robinson, ex-President Reitz, Mr. Hofmeyr,
and Chief Justice De Villiers, as representing the British and
Dutch of the Cape Colony ; President Kruger, General Joubert,
and Chief Justice Kotze, as representing the Boers, and the
President of the Johannesburg Chamber of Mines and the President

of the National Union as
representing the uitlanders.
If the Pretoria executive
would not bow to the
decision of this Board, and
continued to insist that
South African progress must
be only at their speed, then
they must go, and the
sooner the better."

" Anything else, Mr.
Mathers ? "

" Yes," came the answer.
" Muzzle Silomo."

Echo.

In the same issue of
the Echo was also printed

another interview, and it may be given to show that
at that time Mr. Mathers at least knew Kruger had
begun laying in his armaments long before the
Jameson Raid : —

1 saw Mr. Mathers, with whom an earlier interview
appears in another column, this morning. "The action
of Dr. Jameson has, of course, entirely changed the
situation," he said. " Nothing could have been more
unexpected, and there are only two possible explana-
tions— either that he has suddenly gone mad or
that he has some information of which nobody in
London knows anything. As for the idea that he
has developed insanity, well," and Mr. Mathers gave
an expressive shrug, "he is usually reputed to be
one of the sanest and most level-headed men in South
Africa."

" I see one morning paper says it would be impos-
sible for him to get together 700 men, as is reported, at
a few hours' notice. Is this so ? "

" This thing has not been arranged, as some of the
information sent would lead us to believe, in a few
hours. But even if it had, Dr. Jameson would just now
be able to get all the force he wants. For some weeks
recently men from the Chartered Company have been
mobilised from various parts to Mafeking, for the pro-
tection of the strip of territory handed over from King
Khama to the Chartered Company. Now, Dr. Jameson
had only to hold up his hand to these, and to say,
' I hear that our fellow-countrymen are being attacked
at Johannesburg, their women raped,
their houses burned, who will come
and help them?' to get as many
volunteers as he required."

" And do you believe that Mr.
Rhodes has really any hand in
arranging this raid ? "

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

•• Mr. Rhodes has openly repudiated any connection with it.
Whether his hand is to be found at all in the matter, history will
tell."

" One more question, Mr. Mathers," for he, like most connected
with South African affairs, has every second of his time more than
fully occupied just now. " What forces will the Boers be able to
bring against Jameson ? "

" The Staats Artillery, 250 men ; but the Volksraad were
authorised to add another 150 to them. They have six or seven
Krupp guns and some Armstrongs, besides three Maxims, and two
more already shipped. About 1,000 burghers could be got at
Pretoria. At Johannesburg a volunteer corps was recently raised
under Commandant van Diggelen, who is, f believe, still in
Europe. It is 600 strong, and consists of four squadrons of hussars
and lancers, the remainder being infantry. There is also a cycle
corps. The Boers would be able to draw some burghers from
Johannesburg, also from Heidelberg and Klerksdorp, and, of
course, from all over the country, but these would take longer
time to mobilise. The Boer army, as a whole, would be anything
from 10,000 to 15,000, and they are by no means so despicable a
foe as some people imagine."

Press Association.

On the 2nd and 3rd January, 1896, the Press Association had
interviews with Mr. Mathers, which, being telegraphed, appeared
on the following mornings in nearly every daily paper in Great
Britain and Ireland, with various bold headings. Brief extracts
from these may be given : —

'• I have during the day mingled a good deal with South
Africans in London, and there is a great feeling of relief in the City
in consequence of the announcement, via Berlin, that friendly
negotiations have taken place between Dr. Jameson and President
Kruger. TJr. Leyds, the Transvaal Secretary of State, happens to
be at present in Berlin, and trustworthy news may leak out from
the German capital. Dr. Leyds is ostensibly there for an operation
on the throat, but it is possible he is combining diplomacy with
surgery. In regard to the uitlanders, with whom my sympathies
have been ever since Johannesburg was a mere collection of tents,
I am inclined to think that out of the present evil great good may
ultimately follow. The uitlanders are labouring under intolerable
grievances, and those grievances have been borne with a patience
unparalleled in Anglo-Saxon history. Had it not been for the
richness of the Gold Fields, the workers there would not have
submitted to the serfdom to which they have been reduced by
their feudal lords for a tithe of the time. From the growing
weakness of the executive, caused by the rupture between Mr.
Esselen and President Kruger, the resignation of the Minister of
Mines, and the falling away of the Conservative dopper policy of
the young and more enlightened Boers, I have looked forward to
an early settlement of the grievances of the uitlanders. It was
coming fast because of the inherent rottenness of affairs at Pretoria.
As matters have turned out relief has perhaps come faster, and
though the position as regards Dr. Jameson's interference is at
present obscured by the apparently necessary silence of the cable,
let us hope we shall be able to say ' all's well that ends well.' The
prevalent feeling in South African circles is manifestly one of
alloyed anxiety, and the view the Stock Exchange takes of the
latest news is indicated by the advance in price as the day went on.
Chartered opened at 3^, which was a big drop, and then steadily
rose on the receipt of more reassuring intelligence. A fortnight ago

I arranged to go out to Johannesburg by the Norman on the i8th,
and I have seen no reason for altering my plans in the slightest
degree."

"There is only one thing certain, and it is that all right-thinking
men must agree that it is a most deplorable business that one shot
should have been fired in anger over a question that diplomacy
might have settled years ago."

Standard and Diggers News.

The following appeared in the Johannesburg Standard and
Diggers' News of the nth February, 1896: —

AN ANGLO-AFRICAN.

HUNTING FOR FACTS.

Mr. E. P. Mathers, editor of " SOUTH AFRICA "—one of the
brightest and best of links between the Mother Country and the
Colonies — has appeared, lightning-like, on the Rand, and is sounding
the depths of the situation.

He is a mercurial personage, is Mathers — at your elbow this
moment and gone the next, ever on the hunt for impressions and
facts, particularly facts, as is a journalist's duty.

An interview with the man Mathers is one of the few journal-
istic impossibilities. Scotsmen are as close as oysters, but Scottish
journalists are closer still. Try it !

An attempt was made yesterday to draw this Anglo-African
who posts the world week by week on African affairs.

The attempt failed miserably.

" But really, Mr. Mathers, what do you think of things ? "

The answer was an amiable smile, with something to the effect
that facts were difficult to arrive at amidst a chaos of contra-
dictions.

" But it iuas a put-up job ? "

The answer was a suggestive shrug of the shoulders, with
another smile, Scotch and suggestive.

" The fact is," said Mr. Mathers, becoming comparatively com-
municative, " I have come out, in haste and at immense incon-
venience, to sift the situation for myself and to absorb impressions
for the sake of " SOUTH AFRICA," and my work is by no means
completed."

Then and there the always delicate journalistic sense came into
operation, and the catechism ceased ; but with an ample assurance
that the literature of the revolution would shortly be enriched by
certain Matheresque manuscripts.

We await them with pardonable curiosity.

Mr. Mathers hastens via Natal homewards, where the demands
on his always powerful political pen are daily increasing.

Western Morning ATeius.

On his return to England shortly afterwards, the Western Morn-
ing News, of Plymouth, printed an interview with him, which was
introduced as follows : —

Mr. E. P. Mathers, F.R.G.S., editor of " SOUTH AFRICA," who
probably knows as much as any man living about South African
politics and the peoples — including settlers — who inhabit the
country south of the Zambesi, returned home on Saturday in the
Donald Currie liner, Nor/tain Castle, from Cape Town. He has
been on a prolonged tour through Cape Colony and the Transvaal,
his visit extending over a period of three months.

Advertising World.

THE following appeared recently in the Advertising World :
The close of the war operations in South Africa and the great
commercial activity there which has ensued, is, of course, largely
benefiting the newspapers dealing with the country. The most
important paper of the kind published in London is " SOUTH
AFRICA," which is recognised as the standard organ of South
.African mining and industrial interests. The editor, Mr. E. P.
Mathers, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., is a distinguished authority on the
country, and widely known as the author of several standard works

on our African possessions. Under his control the paper has
attained a circulation far in excess of any other South African
newspaper, and a position of great influence and authority. As an
advertising medium the paper may be well judged by the large
volume of advertisements of the leading firms contained in its
columns. A unique scale, showing at a glance exactly what any
size space for any period will cost each insertion, and in the
aggregate, is issued by the advertisement manager, Mr. H. M,
Mackintosh, and can be obtained from the offices, 39, Old Broad
Street, E.G.

and its Founder^ told by others

The Suicide
of "Barney" Barnato.

THE "DAILY NEWS" ASKS MR. MATHERS SOME

QUESTIONS ABOUT HIM.

Daily News.

When the painful news of the sad death of Mr. B. I. Barnato
arrived in June, 1897, the London Daily News sought out Mr.
Mathers and printed the following : —

As MR. MATHERS KNEW HIM.

" It would be difficult to find anyone in London who knows
more about South African affairs than Mr. Mathers, the editor of
' SOUTH AFRICA.' When I saw him at his offices in Old Broad
Street, he expressed himself as pained, 'if not surprised, at the news.
'We could better have spared a better man,' he said. 'Highly
strung, sensitive, keenly alive to the slightest censure, Barney Barnato
was great in prosperity, but was, perhaps, scarcely equal to the
comparative adversity which recently overcame him, as it did all
connected prominently with South African enterprise. To the
world he could play the part he was called on to play right well,
but in private life he was worried by very small troubles. I have
known him come into my office, pull off his coat and waistcoat,
throw them down, never minding whether there was a gold
watch about or not, take a cigarette, chew it unconsciously,
and then, when he came to light it, wonder where it had all
gone. There is no doubt but that he took the most out of life, as
he viewed it."

" The slump in South Africans worried him largely, no doubt,
Mr. Mathers ? "

" Yes. He was really a tender, kind-hearted man, and felt
the losses of his friends perhaps more than any of his own.
During the last twelve months he has had letters from people of all
classes, asking him to help them in their straits, and these he often
t< " ik to heart. Though he kept a bold face to the public there is no
doubt but that he often had sad and depressed moments over these
tilings in private. After the Jameson Raid he went out to South
Africa resolved by his money and influence to endeavour to put
things right at Pretoria, and he did very good service to the
KVfurmers who had been imprisioned, paying some of their heavy
fines out of his own pocket. He presented Mr. Kruger with a pair
of marble lions, and spent his money freely to ease over matters.
He came back to find things financially still unimproved, and once
more returned to South Africa to escape depressing influences here.
Those who saw him shortly before he left Cape Town tell me that he
looked quite ajchanged man, and that his health seemed quite
broken. There is no doubt but that his mind was unhinged

temporarily, or he would have once more shown pluck and come
home ' to face the music.' "

" Barney Barnato was no doubt an extraordinary man. Happy
in prosperity, liking to be surrounded by troops of friends, generous
with his money, and a free liver, he possessed a brain of fine mould.
He was an exceedingly good amateur actor. His favourite part
was Mathias in ' The Bells,' and many thought that in this he almost
equalled Irving. I can recall a party at a London hotel when, in
the small hours of the morning, Barnato was called on for his
famous impersonation. He got up, and after a lot of chaffing talk
he suddenly left off and gave the company his rendering of
Mathias, and those who were present never saw the part better
acted. As an instance of his native good-heartedness I may say it
was a favourite amusement of his to go eastwards and scatter
largesse among children, and his old friends down that way used to
declare that he never forgot the ' pals of his youth.' "

" What will be the financial effects of Barnato's death on the
South African market, Mr. Mathers ? "

" A very difficult question to answer. He was one of the richest
men in South Africa, and his holdings in various companies must
have been immense. It is possible that he held as much as a million
pounds' worth of De Beers shares. He made his fortune in Kimberley,
but he doubled and trebled it at Johannesburg. Of course, if any sub-
stantial part of his holdings was suddenly put on the market, the
step might have a lowering effect, but his business associates and
executors will probably clear up the prospect by announcing that
they do not mean to liquidate the estate, except in a moderate and
gradual manner. Such an announcement would reduce the
financial effect of his death to a minimum. I have reason to
believe that the terms of the Barnato partnership are such as to
preclude the possibility of forced realisations, which might other-
wise have been feared. South Africans had just begun a decided
upward movement. Everything promised a steady rise, and if
Barney had only waited till he got his telegrams at Madeira
announcing the belated turn in the tide, we might have seen him
at home himself again. Mr. Barnato was the guiding spirit of
many South African financial and mining enterprises, and for a
time these will miss him, but his brother and nephew, Mr.
Woolf Joel and Mr. Sol Joel, will doubtless keep the firm of
Barnato Brothers together and continue to direct its multifarious
and important concerns. We may pass the tribute of a sigh to
poor Barney, but no one is indispensable, and though he has done
great things for the mining industries of South Africa, these are too
well established to be affected by the death of any one man."

MR. MATHERS writes with the pen of a practised penman, and
his style is springy and vivacious. But he is not content with a
hiiprrficial sketch. He goes fully into everything — statistics,
geology, geography, and even politics —as affecting the great gold

tl. GlaSgOW 11,-rillll.

VVHitF. people are discussing the existence of gold in Wales, as
UK High. fors< mill, it were a new thing. Mr. Edward P. Mathers,
F.R.G.S., is calling attention to something of far greater conse-
quence—the vast and undeveloped auriferous tracts in South

Africa. .ViTi'ivoy/i1 /W/r Ciim>iic/c.

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

A Press Paper describes
Mr. Mathers in his Offices.

AN INTERESTING ILLUSTRATED INTERVIEW.

A Talk about the Press of South Africa.

The British and Colonial Printer and Stationer

obtained an interview with Mr. Mathers in 1898, and published it
with some interesting illustrations in their issue of February 3rd of
that year.

The following is the interview slightly condensed : —

"South Africa" is essentially a geographical expression, con-
venient and elastic. The average newspaper reader hardly grasps
its meaning, the immensity of the territory, the vastness of the
interests, and the variety of the races which it embraces.

It was the opening up, and the phenomenal success attending
the development of the Transvaal Gold Fields, which more than
the diamond mines of Kimberley and all other influences combined,
gave South Africa the grand propulsion which has secured its
present and its future, and which in ten years has resulted in so
marvellous a transformation. Indeed, as Mr. Edward P. Mathers
has tersely put it, the gold fields came as the saviour of the
Transvaal from national death.

In all the hurry and rush which has characterised this making
of modern South Africa, events, including those anticipatory and
subsequent to the Jameson Raid, have crowded themselves upon
the purview in such profusion and in such a continuous flow, that
the important part which journalism has played in the extra-
ordinary developments which have taken place in so short a time
is apt to be overlooked. We have thought, therefore, that a useful
purpose might be served by placing before our readers some
account of the valuable work which has been done in the Press,
both of South Africa itself, and of this country, by one of the most
indefatigable workers who have ever devoted their best years to its
service. Mr. Edward P. Mathers, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., the well-known
editor of " SOUTH AFRICA," has all that concerns the association of
the interests of South Africa, and of journalism, both in that sunny
land and in this country, so completely at his finger ends that the
views of so competent an authority on the past, present and future
of journalism in South Africa, and what maybe termed Anglo-
South African journalism in this country, will be read with a good
deal of general interest.

First o!' all, however, let us be biographical. Mr. Mathers is a
native of Edinburgh, and the son of a citizen of the "Modern
Athens," who carried on an extensive business as a printer,
publisher, bookseller and wholesale newsagent, being also pro-
'i and part proprietor of newspapers and other publications.
Young Edward was educated at the High School- -an institution
which has turned out many famous colonists, and some of the best
all-round Scotsmen who have helped to make history. He com-
menced his press career on the staff of the Yorkshire Post in Leeds,
and was afterwards associated with the Shields Gazette and the
Newcastle Daily Journal. Leaving Tyneside, where he had been
located six years, he joined the staff of the Glasgow News, but left
his position there before long for the editorship of the Lilian
rtiser. From this Bedfordshire organ he migrated to. the
Nttltinghittn Daily Guardian, on the reporting staff of which he
had been appointed chief. Later on he exchanged this appoint-
ment for ;t similar one at Cardiff on the South Wales Daily News,
and then once more went northwards to turn the old Grceiwck
Advertiser into an evening paper. A year later he met the pro-

prietor of the Natal Colonist in Scotland, who offered him the
sub-editorship of his paper, and from this time Mr. Mathers
became identified with South African journalism and South
African affairs.

It was in the early part of 1884 that Mr. Mathers secured his
first great chance, though some of his reporting feats are well re-
membered in press circles in the Mother Country. All Natal was
ringing at the time with the news of some auriferous discoveries
made by a handful of men at a place known as " Moodie's Farms "
in the De Kaap district of the Transvaal. In short, it was rather
a severe attack of gold fever which broke out — a sort of Klondvke
craze on a small scale — and everyone was eager to be off to the
new El Dorado. Somehow or other, however, the reports from the
spot were contradictory, and the more thoughtful were disposed to
think twice before making the final rush. For the time there was
a general call for reliable news and for the best information as to
the route by which " Moodie's Farms " could best be reached,
because at this time the De Kaap was practically a terra inecgnita
even to South Africans themselves. It was only known in a
shadowy sort of way that the land of promise lay some 500 miles
away by land. It was believed that the route could be shortened
by taking a coasting steamer to the Portuguese port of Lorenco
Marques at Delagoa Bay, but it was known that for the greater
part of the year this Portuguese port was very unhealthy, and was
surrounded by a deadly fever belt at least forty miles round about.
This was the position of affairs in 1884, when Mr. E. P. Mathers,
then assistant editor of the Natal Mercury, volunteered to make
the attempt to find a route through the unexplored mountains from
Delagoa Bay to " Moodie's Farms." This was a hazardous enter-
prise, but he was not dismayed by the prospective difficulties, and
he accordingly, accompanied by a couple of dozen other adven-
turous spirits, took passage in a little steamer for Delagoa Bay.
Many were the hardships encountered, but success crowned the
venture, and Mr. Mathers reached his destination after a nine days'
journey. The greater part of those who accompanied Mr. Mathers
had the misfortune to catch the dreaded coast fever and die, and a
Natal pressman who essayed to follow in the footsteps of the
subject of our notice was eaten by a crocodile !

As a result of his visit to the De Kaap, Mr. Mathers contributed
to the Natal Mercury a series of graphic letters, which was after-
wards collated and published as a "A Trip to Moodies," in 1884.
From this time until 1887 there was a rush to the Barberton district
of the Transvaal, and when the Rand began to attract attention
in the last-mentioned year Mr. Mathers revisited De Kaap, and in-
cluded the Rand in his tour, writing a further series of letters and
republishing them in book-form, under "The Gold Fields Re-
visited, 1887." Mr. Mathers had meanwhile been appointed Editor
of the Natal Advertiser, which he turned from a bi-weekly into
the first evening paper in Natal, and his press work in South Africa
included the representation of the Daily News and Sinlsman
during the Zulu War.

It was in 1888 that Mr. Mathers left Natal for London, and
brought out the work with which his name has been so promi-
nently identified, "Golden South Africa." which ran through three
editions, and formed, and still forms, to many of the Knglish
people, a standard 1'ade iiicciini regarding gold in the Transvaal.

nn d its Founder, told by others

Mr. Mathers came to London impressed with one idea after hi-,
visit to the Rand— that the Transvaal was about to become a
great gold-producing country, and that the capital for its de-
velopment should and must come from Europe. It was neces-
sary, in short, he thought, to bring the Transvaal by means of
the Press week by week before the English public. The said
English public is a strange compound of caution and spasmodic
go-aheadness, but before it will favourably take to a new coun-
try, at all events, the subject must be flourished before its eyes
week in and week out ; it must be hammered into the drums of
its ears day after day, until it grasps the situation. This is what
Mr. Mathers proposed to do with regard to South Africa, and he
saw that there was ample scope for a bright newsy paper in
London, run in the interests of that part of the world. Everyone
seemed, however, to hold a different view from Mr. Mathers and
dissuaded him from his purpose. Tempting offers were made to him
to run a paper at the Rand, but he was fixed in his resolve, and pro-
ceeded to London, and on the 4th January, 1889, the first number
of his newspaper, " SOUTH AFRICA," made its appearance. The
title was a happy one, the paper was launched under propitious
circumstances, its career has been
more successful than its founder
could have desired, and Mr. Mathers'
views have been more than justified.

It was no small venture to
attempt single-handed, and with-
out financial backing, to establish
a new paper of the kind in London.
A well-known Anglo-South African
has thus expressed himself as to the
manner in which Mr. Mathers up-
held the interests of South Africa
with his paper : " The fight was a
single-handed one, for during that
period (1888 to 1890) the whole
Press only referred to the Transvaal
to empty their vials of contempt
and opprobrium on us, week in and
week out. ' SOUTH AFRICA ' fought
all and sundry of our detractors.
He seized every chance of inter-
viewing every man and woman
from South Africa, from A to Z,
irrespective of creed or policy, so
long as he might be interviewed,
and give a personal and fresh appli-
cation to a South African subject.
All tli is gradually told its tale, and
it is well for us to remember, now
that the Transvaal is the fashion,
and all the London press agree
in sounding our praise, that it is
not so long ago that 'SorTii
AFRICA' was the only paper that fought our battles in the dull
times of depression."

When the Mashonaland boom came about in 1891, Mr. Mathers
brought out his book " Zambesia," now in its third edition. This
valuable work, which represents a vast amount of collation as well-
as original work, has served a most useful purpose, and it was
hailed by acclamation by the Press on its appearance. It filled a
gap not only to pressmen themselves, who with the new boom found
themselves face to face with what was a terra incc^/iitii. but it gave
information to the thousands throughout England who wanted t<>
know all about this new El Dorado in the South. " The Goldfields
Revisited," "Golden South Africa," and "Zambesia," copious
compendium* as they are of South African information, by no
means exhaust Mr. Mathers' prolific pen, and he followed them in
due season with the popular handbook, "South Africa, and How
to Reach It," the first edition of 4.0,000 copies of which was
promptly sold out, and a second one issued. It has been translated
into Dutch and German, and has an extensive Continental circu-
lation. Mr. Mathers lias also contributed the leading South
African subjects to C/iniii/ii'rs' l''.ii<'yili>f></-(tin, and for his descriptive

Photo by

MR. E. P.

writings of new countries he was elected a Fellow of the Royal
Geographical Society and of the Royal Colonial Institute, and for
the services his paper had rendered to South African mining he was
elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of London.

Mr. Mathers visits South Africa very frequently. At one time
we find him the recipient of a big banquet at Johannesburg,
attended by all the wealth and intelligence of the Rand, and at
another— he took steamer immediately on hearing of the Jameson
Raid — he is interviewing the Reform prisoners in gaol at Pretoria.
He has circumnavigated Africa, and he knows every part on the
east and west coast worth knowing — a large order. He has shot
big game up the Pungwe, sipped coffee with the notorious slaver,
Tippoo Tib, at Zanzibar, and been up the Nile with the Khedive
of Egypt. He was the first journalist to interview Paul Kruger,
and the Blue Books tell of his talks with Umbandine, the late King
of Swazieland.

Mr. Mathers is, of course, thoroughly well known in South
African circles in London. In a certain sense he seems to hold
South Africa in the hollow of his hand, and he is a sort of
"walking encyclopaedia" on all sorts of information concerning

the land which he has made his own
particular study. South African
dinners are an annual and impor-
tant function in London, bringing
together, as they do, once a year,
representatives of all the States
which go to make up the
geographical expression South
Africa. These dinners have been
a great success since Mr. Mathers
started them through his paper,
and their influence goes far deeper
than mere individual enjoyment
or gastronomic delectation.

A chat with Mr. Mathers in his
elegant editorial sanctum at 39,
Old Broad Street, is a pleasing
experience. Just at present, when
all that concerns South Africa
looms large in the public eye, Mr.
Mathers' views on matters con-
nected with the progress of that part
of the world will interest many of
our readers. We opened the ball
by asking a question which gave
Mr. Mathers plenty of scope.

" What, Mr. Mathers, can you
tell us about your newspaper
experiences and adventures that
ELLIOTT & FRY may be of interest to our readers ? "

" I daresay, like every other

MATHERS Pressman who has passed the prime

of adolescence, I could relate some

interesting reminiscences of Press life, but I do not suppose you
want the personal yarns of a journalist, however interesting they
may be to himself."

" Well, skip the personal and tell us why you started ' SOUTH
AFRICA.' "

"That is simple. I foresaw the coming greatness of the Trans-
vaal gold industry, and I was determined that, so far as I could
attain the object, I would found a journal, which by its circulation
in London and the United Kingdom and throughout the Continent
of Europe, would attract that capital to the Transvaal which alone
was wanted to develop the gold industry of that country into the
greatest gold industry the world has yet seen."

" And, as is well known, you have succeeded in your
endeavour? "

" Yes. far beyond my most sanguine expectations. I was
told in South Africa by most of my Press and private friends
that there was no room for such a paper as I contemplated in
England."

" Let me see, when did you start ' SOUTH AFRICA ? ' "

'''SouTH AFRICA' has entered its tenth year of existence. \\V

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

have just completed our 3&th volume, and have just printed our
473rd number."

" And your advertisements and circulation. I suppose they are
keeping up well ? "

" Most certainly. As to the former, they speak for themselves.
As to the latter, for a portion of it the evidence of bookstall clerks
and newsagents can be taken, or anyone who is interested in
watching the process is most welcome, if he chooses, to sit up all
night, to watch our whole issue being printed off."

"Up to 1895, you were in offices at 23, Austin Friars, we think,
were you not ? "
" Yes."

" And you entered these offices to get more accommodation for
all your departments, I suppose ? "

" Quite so. Look around and you will see the style of the offices.
You will also see the best collection of photographs of South
African notabilities and places in existence."

" I suppose all have been reproduced in the paper ? "
" Yes, in a more or less prominent way."

A run round the offices has more interest than an itinerary of the
kind usually has. They are situated in the best part of the City of
London, within a stone's throw of the Stock Exchange, the Royal
Exchange and the Bank of England, and in the financial heart of
the Metropolis. The interior presents plenty of elbow-room for in-
evitable future expansions, and is handsomely furnished and
appointed, the electric light being installed throughout. The
publishing offices are on the ground floor. Mr. Mathers' sanctum
is on the first floor, and of this elegant apartment, as also of the
neighbouring reception room, we illustrate the interiors. The
walls, it will be seen, are copiously embellished with photographs
of men associated with the development of South Africa, and with
pictorial representations of scenes and incidents in the history of
that interesting and exciting quarter of the globe. The collection
as a whole, we believe, is unique. From the editor's room a
" copy shaft " communicates with the sub-editorial room on the
floor above, and in convenient proximity to the editor's sanctum
are the secretary's office, the telephone and typewriters' rooms, and
the inquiry offices. As we have said, the editorial staff have their
quarters on the second floor in an excellent literary workshop. On
the same flat are the advertising offices and a "special" room,
while on the third floor is a further range of rooms, some occupied
by the reporters, and one being used for the storage of South
African newspaper files. On the fourth floor are the housekeeper's
quarters, and the staircase from the top to the bottom of the
building is surmounted by a glass cupola — altogether offices worthy
of the paper.

" And now. Mr. Mathers," we asked, as the conversation was
resumed : " What about the country you represent in Europe. Is
your belief in it as great as ever ? "

" There is no question of belief in this respect with me or with
those who know as much of it as I know, if not more. You do not
ask a Londoner if he believes in St. Paul's, or the Thames. To ask
a South African if he believes in the future of his country is, as it
were, to ask a Londoner the question I have indicated. The
question of belief, say, in the mineral resources of the Transvaal,
does not happen to come in when you know it to be proved that
within the next 50 years at least from £700,000,000 to £800,000,000
worth of gold will be taken out of the Witwatersrand district
alone, yielding a clear profit of from £200,000,000 to £300,000,000,
to say nothing of £4,000,000 worth of diamonds per annum from
Kimberley, and the coming great output from the widely scattered
goldfields of Rhodesia."

" Certainly, Mr. Mathers, when you put it in that wav there does
not seem to be much doubt as to the material progress of South
Africa ? "

" Well, facts speak for themselves. The trade returns of South
Africa, with occasional inevitable fluctuations, show constant
increases, and the gold output from the Transvaal has already
reached an annual value of about twelve millions sterling. In
1887 the output was 23,155 ounces; last year (in 1897) it was
3,034,67^ ounns. That is from the Witwatersrand alone, and
ctive of the De Kaap district with the great Sheba mine in
it."

" And now, in brief terms, what is the general position in
South Africa ? "

" It is an absolute impossibility to reply in brief terms as you
put it. Like the diamond of the country, the South African
question has many facets. Its politics are inextricably mixed up
with its material welfare. Given peace and goodwill and mutual
confidence between the white races who govern in the country, you
open wide the door to the mineral treasure-house of the world. At
present it is but partially open."
" Why is that ? "

" Chiefly because the curses with which Pretoria has cursed
Johannesburg have come home to roost."
'' And what were the curses ? "

" For the past decade the South African maritime colonies and
the interior Dutch Republics have been living on the gold industry
of the Transvaal. The Government of Pretoria, or rather its
Hollander advisers, who fight for their own fat billets, have placed
grievous burdens on the gold industry, with the result that the plant
of financial confidence which was growing so healthily in Europe
has temporarily withered away, and many gold mines are closed
down that with the removal of the burdens or curses aforesaid, and
the reflow of capital from Europe would reopen, and add greatly to
the progress of the Transvaal gold industry on which so much of
the material prosperity of South Africa hangs."

" Do you mean that the country needs another boom ? "
" No, not so much that as fair play. Astonishing as the
Transvaal has proved itself she is merely in her swaddling clothes
yet. When the world realises that besides her gold she has enough
coal and iron to lift her into a front place among the nations of the
world there will be more and more readiness to put capital into her
industries. But European investors must now be assured that their
investments will get fair play, and not be bled into a state of
collapse by some of the vampires who masquerade as enlightened
and honest rulers. When the Transvaal gold industry and those
who control it get fair treatment the stream of prosperity will flow
on in greater volume than ever. At present it is partially dammed
back, or, as I said, the door is only partly open."
" Do you mean fair play from the Boers ? "

" Not quite that. The Boers themselves mean well enough, and
nobody is foolish enough to expect them to travel at the Anglo-
Saxon pace. Boers and British can always get along well enough
together, and they were getting on well enough in the Transvaal
till men came from Holland to sow the seeds of dissension between
them. The Boers themselves are at last realising it, and are many
of them now as ardent advocates for reform as the Uitlanders. But
all this is well known and I need not dwell on it."

" Now, Mr. Mathers, will you kindly tell us something of the
conditions and prospects of journalism in South Africa ? "

" Never better. For its age and circumstances South Africa may
be said to have the most enlightened press in the world."
" A bit ' thick,' that, eh, Mr. Mathers ? "

" Not a whit too much so. Some of the journalists of South
Africa would be acquisitions in any London office."
" But perhaps they have gone out from England ? "
" That is, of course, the case with some, but many are native
grown. Take Sir John Robinson, proprietor of the Natal Mercury,
and late Premier of the Colony. He was a boy in his father's
printing office in Durban, and worked his way up against many
obstacles. Take the veteran Kimberley journalist, Mr. R. W.
Murray, senr. ; he was doing grand Press work in South Africa
more than half-a-century ago. Take Mr. Piet Davis, the proprietor
of the Natal Witness and Natal Advertiser. He is a son of the
soil, and has as keen an eye for good journalism as any home-
grown proprietor. Take Mr. St. I-eger, late editor and proprietor
of the Cape Times : it is very many years since he first charmed all
South Africa with his brilliant writing. The Press of Port
Elizabeth, Grahamstown, and the eastern back country of the (
Colony has long been edited and well steered by practically born
and bred South Africans. Then we should not forget such names
as Godlonton, Fairbairn, Pringle, and Schreiner, Thcal, Sclous,
Noble and Schroder — with his facile pen — all ornaments to any
literature."

" About how many papers are there in South Africa ? "

and its Founder, told by others

" There must be a hundred daily and weekly and other papers ? "
" All English ? "

" No ; the bulk of them are British, but not a few are Dutch,
and very ably edited some of these are. There are a few papers
also in the native language ; indeed, wherever a new community
springs up there you will find a newspaper. A prison and a
newspaper are among the first evidences of civilization in all new
South African centres. In the early days of the Rand I had my
morning tub between the frames in a case room, a blanket cutting
off the living room, and all being in the one tin enclosure."
" Where do the comps mostly hail from ? "

" Some are brought from England, but the great majority are
bred in the country now, and first-rate hands they are."
" Do they get good wages ? "

" Yes, comfortable wages, but of course living is more expensive
in South Africa than at home."
" Are they all white men ? "

" By no means ; there are a great many coloured men — from snuff
and butter to black. Half-castes and what are called St. Helena men
make frequently very good workmen, and I know in some isolated
out of the way spots a black man is often preferred to a white."
" How is that ? "

" Well, they are often just as steady, and may sometimes be got
on the cheap — an important matter to the small proprietor."
" When was the first paper brought out in South Africa ? "
" In 1824. There were two in the same year, one the South
African Journal, and the other the South African Commercial
Advertiser. The latter was started to try and bring that somewhat
tyrannical Governor, Lord Charles Somerset, to his senses. It was
stopped, but there was no keeping back the Press of South Africa.
It grew apace, as both readers and writers were, as they are, above
the average in intelligence."

" How do you account for that ? "

" Uhm ! A difficult question ; but all the same I think it will be
generally admitted that the average colonist is a far subtler man
mentally than the man in the same social rank at home."
" Interesting, if it is not so easy to grasp ? "

"To my mind, it is chiefly that their recreations and distractions
are as a rule more innocent and healthy than the home young man's,
and that being without the great advantages which are within the
reach of the student at home — lectures, picture galleries, libraries,
and what not —they find more time for reading and self culture,
which after all is the only kind of culture which has lasting effects."
" Newspapers must sometimes be brought out under great
disadvantages in South Africa ? "

" That is so, especially when the Press pioneer has gone far
afield and long ahead of railways to do something to roll back the
sea of barbarism with his paste pot and shears. He generally feels
his way with the stylograph process, but he is not long in getting
type and a press along the road by hook or by crook, both of these
articles, by the way, being sometimes required to fish up pieces of
machinery from the beds of rivers. It often happens that the plant
comes to dreadful grief on the road, and that it arrives at its desti-
nation in a condition fit to make the shade of Caxton weep. But
there are willing hearts and hands to reduce chaotic 'pie' to order,
and settlers are too glad to get the paper to be critical about first
numbers. And yet some of these first numbers are quite as good as
you put out in a go-ahead little town in the mother country. It
often happens that with lack of regular transport paper runs short,
and then the editor, who is sometimes ' comp ' and pressman
combined, has to fall back on blotting paper, wrapping paper, or
foolscap faint and red. I have in my roll* rtion -,01110 curiosities in
the way of papers which might serve as bright examples to home
journalists who sometimes complain of difficulties in ' getting to
puss. One of thes- is a photograph of a copy of the .V,7t'.v of the
Cuiiip which poor Charlie Duval got out with Deecker during the
siege of Pretoria. It got through to me rolled in a snuff box
plugged in a hole in the lobe of a Zulu's ear."

"And in the less remote centres of civilizatii

at Bulawayo the other day would have done credit to any London
house."

" And you have some big book and printing places in South
Africa ? "

" Yes, equal to many of the best in Manchester or Glasgow,
The stocks at the houses of Juta in Cape Town and Johannesburg,
and Davis of Durban and Maritzburg, must be worth well into a
quarter of a million."

Regarding " SOUTH AFRICA" itself, a run through its files
presents sufficient evidences of the enterprise and ability with
which it is conducted. Its yellow cover, symbolical of golden
South Africa, is as familiar on the railway bookstalls as in the
offices and residences of all who are in any way connected with the
half-continent it represents. The reduced facsimile we give of its
front cover page will recall its general appearance to many of our
readers. Its size of page is loi in. by 7J in. ; the number of pages
in an issue averaging 56 or 60, of which about a third are usually
occupied with trade, financial, and miscellaneous advertisements.
Printed partly in two-column and partly in three-column measure,
the paper is copiously illustrated, and the principal literary features
have appropriate pictorial headings which contribute to its
embellishment. The great gold and diamond mining industries
receive especial prominence in its columns as they deserve, but a
full measure of attention is also devoted. to the varied agricultural,
commercial, social, and political interests of South Africa and
Anglo-South Africans. Events as they arise are dealt with in
vigorous fashion, and with a grasp born of intimate personal
knowledge. Mr. Mathers is assisted by a capable and numerous
staff, and his special correspondence, which forms an important
feature, is contributed by competent accredited representatives in
every district of importance throughout South Africa. Mr. H. M.
Stanley, the famous African explorer, was the special representative
of "SouTH AFRICA" at the recent opening of the Bulawayo rail-
way. He also interviewed President Kruger for the journal, and
made a tour of the Rand goldfields, of which he formed an opinion
which confirms those of the expert authorities who have preceded
him. Mr. Stanley's letters published in " SOUTH AFRICA " during
the past few weeks, and especially that one in which, in terms of
startling candour, he gave his impressions of " Oom Paul," and
recounts his interview with his Honour, have been read with
general interest. As already mentioned, Mr. Mathers himself makes
periodical visits to South Africa in the capacity of special com-
missioner for his paper. He is now about to leave on another trip,
and, on his last visit to South Africa, just after the Jameson raid,
he interviewed President Kruger, Lord Rosmead, the raid leaders in
Pretoria gaol, and everyone of importance in and out of authority
whose views would contribute to the sum of public knowledge of
the momentous questions involved.

One more feature of " SOUTH AFRICA " deserves special mention.
There are issued from time to time as supplements to the paper
special pictorial and other supplements of an interesting and
valuable character. Only the other week a large coloured chart,
representing the monthly yield of gold from the Witwatersrand
Gold Fields, from May, 1887, to December, 1897, was published as
a gratis supplement, and is of much reference value to all interested.
" SOUTH AFRICA'S " railway map of South Africa may now be
regarded as the standard one, and is a large and most creditable
production. More than a hundred maps, diagrams, and pictorial
sheets have been issued as supplements during the past few years.
These merit extended reference, but, owing to the scope and
interest of our subject, we have already far exceeded our normal
limits of space, and must content ourselves with the general
remark that the enterprise which their publication represents seems
to meet with adequate recognition, for, if appearances are any
gauge of success, " SOUTH AFRICA" never looked more fit and
prosperous than it does at the present moment.

1 low is the

printing trade at thrsc ? "

" Ml that it should hi- ; the latest machinery and the best talent
combined I'm Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban will put up
with no ' one-hoise show' now in the way of papers. Why, the
banquet menu card issued to the guests at the Railway festivities

"SOUTH AFRICA" appeals to two worlds. -Rarbcrtoii Herald.
"SouTH AFRICA" has exceeded all anticipations. -
Transvaal.

"Sot in AFRICA" is an excellent compendium of news and
views. .\'d/ii/ .Mcrn/rv.

Wi-: may safely predict that prosperous future for "S

AFRICA " in I ondon that we lio| e for itseponym here.— Cape Times.

H 2

IOO

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

Mr. Mathers on the War.

"THE PASSING OF KRUGERISM.

MR. MATHERS went to South Africa just before the decla-
ration of war, and returned to England in February, 1900.
after several months of travelling about the country as
far as the hostilities would permit. On his arrival in London he
was interviewed by several of the daily papers, and placed on record
his views, which had already been given in " SOUTH AFRICA " at
great length in nineteen specially illustrated articles entitled, " The
Passing of Krugerism."

"IMPRESSIONS AT THE FRONT."
" BY THE EDITOR OF ' SOUTH AFRICA.' "

" THE COLONIAL POINT OF VIEW."
" AN INTERVIEW WITH MR. MATHERS."

•'PROBABLY THE LATEST ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND FROM LADYSMITH."

Daily News.

Under the foregoing headings, in large type, the Daily News of
February I2th, 1900, contained the following: —

A representative of the Daily News has had, an interview with
Mr. E. P. Mathers, the well known authority on South Africa, who
has just returned from the seat of war, where he had been repre-
senting his journal, " SOUTH AFRICA," since before the outbreak of
hostilities. He came out of Ladysmith on October 28th, leaving
Mr. Pearse, of the Daily IVt'ii's, there well and hearty. Few men
in this country are better fitted than Mr. Mathers to speak of the
causes that have led to the lamentable conflict between English
and Dutch, or of the political issues involved in it. He lived for
many years in South Africa, which he knows from end to end, and
he has travelled a great deal in other parts of Africa. He is the
author of such standard works as " Zambesia " and " Golden South
Africa," in which he predicted the wonderful prosperity of the
South African gold fields, which were but little heard of in this
country when he first described them. This is by no means his
first experience of South African warfare, for he went through the
Zulu campaign as war correspondent for a Scottish daily paper, a
Paris paper, and, at the same time assisted Mr. Archibald Forbes
when that king of " Specials" gave us some of his most brilliant
" Glimpses Through the Battle Smoke." In 1888 he returned to
London, where he founded his journal " SOUTH AFRICA," but since
then he has paid regular visits to the Cape, Transvaal, and Natal,
keeping closely in touch all the time with every changing phase of
Colonial opinion, Dutch as well as English. Mr. Mathers has done
a great deal in England to educate public opinion on political,
social, and industrial questions relating to South Africa. In con-
versation with our representative, he expressed his views of the
present situation with characteristic vigour and candour. First of
all he dwelt upon some of the causes which have led, in his
opinion, to the repeated reverses sustained by the British arms.

" Speaking as a civilian," he said, " I cannot help remarking
upon what was, in my mind, a salient feature of the campaign
some months ago. I refer to the deplorable lack of a proper esprit
ili' ,<>rps between the Imperial and Colonial officers. I do not
venture to say how much that militated against British success in
the field, but it was undoubtedly a serious factor in determining
the general result. A combination of the best intellects of Imperial
and Colonial officers might have gone far to avoid some of the

traps into which the British troops fell. Sufficient weight, un-
fortunately, was not given to advice frequently and freely tendered
by men born, nurtured, and reared on the spot. This is, perhaps,
more applicable to the state of affairs in Natal after the isolation
of Ladysmith. Some of the Imperial officers arriving after that
date seemed deficient in that tact and affability which had been
shown by the others in their dealings with the Colonial officers.
The result, as I know from conversations with officers of Natal
volunteer corps, was a regrettable degree of misunderstanding, not
to say friction."

" I presume you attach a very high value to the fighting
qualities of the Colonial troops? "

" Their importance has been sadly under-estimated all along,
and that has, perhaps, as much to do with our failure as anything.
It is the conviction of many loyal men in South Africa that if
there had been at the outset an army of 20,000 Colonial troops,
supplemented by the requisite artillery, the Boers would never have
faced them. If they had ventured to cross the border at all, they
would not have overrun the Colony in the way they have done,
for they know too well the formidable qualities of Colonial troops
trained to light like themselves."

Questioned concerning the attempt to defend Northern Natal,
Mr. Mathers was inclined to justify it from the political point of
view.

" But do you think there was anything inherently impossible in
it from the military point of view ? " asked our representative.

" That I would not like to say," was the reply. " But it was
quite evident even at that early stage that the Boers were able to
accomplish tasks that seemed to the British officers to be impossible.
For instance, orders were given to have British guns mounted on a
certain hill. It could not be done. But next day the Boers had
their guns on it. Such, matters will, doubtless, form a subject of
inquiry at the fitting time."

Reverting for a moment to the subject of the Colonial troops,
Mr. Mathers spoke with enthusiasm of the magnificent services
rendered by such volunteer and irregular corps as the Natal
Carbineers, the Durban Light Infantry, and the Imperial Light
Horse.

"The men of the Rand," he said, " have vindicated themselves
in this crisis. The great bulk of the Rand manhood remained in
the Colonies, eager to offer their services against the corrupt
oligarchy that had oppressed them so long. The pity is that the
Imperial authorities remained blind to their importance until
avoidable disasters had forced them to open their eyes."

" Were the people of South Africa alive to the need for mounted
troops ? "

" That was one of the things they insisted upon from the first,
their opinions being, however, ignored. The lack of mounted
men, not only Colonial, but Imperial, is one of the most scandalous
shortcomings in the Government's preparations. Such splendid
victories as Belmont were rendered futile because of this defect.
Why ? Because our troops were simply winning heights and
allowing their previous occupants to fall back upon their base,
comparatively unshaken and ready for further mischief. When our
soldiers did not do that, they had to retreat and remain idle while
the enemy was entrenching his position. If we had had a couple
of cavalry regiments at Belmont the rout would have ended either
in a massacre or a great haul of prisoners. We may assume,
however, that since the proportion of mounted troops has been
largely increased, there will be a very different sequel to future
victories."

and its Founder, told by others

101

REDUCED FACSIMILES OF "SOUTH AFRICA" PLATE SUPPLEMENTS

IO2

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

Turning to the political aspects of the situation, Mr. Mathers
said he had been painfully struck on his return with the contrast
between Colonial opinion and that of a certain section of poli-
ticians at Home.

" I have visited all the camps of the Colonial contingents," he
said, " I have listened to their conversation in the mess-room, and
seen them received with open arms by the loyalists of the Cape
amid scenes of the most wonderful enthusiasm. Whether they
came from Canada or Australia, their sentiments of affection for
the Mother Country and their devotion to the cause of Imperial
unity were as strongly marked as those of the most patriotic citizen
of London, Manchester, or Glasgow. Hence it was intensely and
bitterly disappointing, after witnessing the heroic sacrifices of
Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders, Natalians, Cape and
Colonists, and after feeling that this war was bringing Imperial
federation within the sphere not merely of the practical, but of the
inevitable, to come to the very heart of the Empire and find there
such lamentable dissension as is evidenced by the Parliamentary
debates. The Government, it is true, had a splendid majority, but
depend upon it a very bad impression will be created in South
Africa and throughout the Empire by the suspicion of disunion
raised by Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice's amendment. That I know
from the intense feeling that was everywhere aroused in the Cape
and Natal by the slightest sign of halting or hesitation on the part
of British politicians in regard to the task that lies before us."

" How would you interpret Colonial aspirations in view of the
ultimate settlement ? "

"Among loyal Colonists there are no two views about that
matter. Republicanism, they declare with one voice, must vanish
for ever from South Africa. If by any unforeseen chance a
successful attempt should be made to repeat the surrender of 1881,
in any degree and under any pretext, the Imperial Government and
Englishmen at home may be perfectly certain that the South
African Republic will not be the Republic misruled by Paul
Kruger and his oligarchy, but a Republic run by Englishmen, and
not bounded by the Vaal and the Limpopo, but on the one side by
Cape Town and on the other as far north as the wildest dreams
of Cecil Rhodes have yet fixed the probable limits of British
expansion. If that should ever take place, Canada and Australia
would inevitably follow suit."

" Were people in South Africa aware of the perfection of the
Boer artillery ? "

"They were; but in my belief they were not better informed
than the Imperial Government was."

"How then do you account for the extraordinary indifference
that was displayed in South Africa, as well as in this country ': "

"The fact is that those who knew,- or fancied they knew, the
Boers thoroughly were grievously mistaken in their estimate of the
Boers as a fighting force. Many Colonists secretly welcomed the
arming of the Boers with artillery, supposing that if the Boers
could be tempted to engage in an artillery duel in the. open it
would be a comparatively easy matter to crush them. They never
dreamed that the Boers would have so many European expert
artillerists and engineers among them."

"What is the general feeling in South Africa regarding the
present Ministry?"

" Loyal Colonists criticise their mistakes in a mild and reason-
able fashion, but they are dead against any attempt at swopping
horses while we are trying to cross the Modder and the Tugela.
Mr. Chamberlain, in particular, has adopted a straightforward and
manly attitude regarding the Government's errors which, I am sure,
will be thoroughly appreciated in the Cape and Natal. On the
other hand, any whispers here about the possibility of compromise
or conciliation are seriously exaggerated by the time they reach
South Africa. Let the British public make no mistake. The
Loyalists of South Africa will not endure a second betrayal."

" What, in your opinion, would they do in the event of the
Republics being re-established ? "

" I conversed on that very point with many of the best-known
men in South Africa, men whose lives have been spent in whole-
hearted devotion to the cause of British expansion in South Africa.
They replied, in no uncertain tone : ' If there is the slightest
wavering,' they said, ' we will all have to be Dutch.' "

" Do you think that the Boers have received in the past
substantial help and encouragement from the Continent ? "

" Thanks to the ceaseless intriguing of Dr. Leyds, they have.
Dr. Leyds arrived with the discovery of the gold fields, and brought
behind him an army of Hollanders, whose whole policy was to
divide Boers and Britons and get control of the Government
through their cat's-paw, Paul Kruger. Dr. Leyds had plenty of
money to suborn the hostile Press in the Transvaal and some of
the disreputable prints in Paris and Berlin. But it is all coming to
an end, and with the disappearance of the Transvaal Secret Service
money much of the hostile criticism of England in France and
Germany will be silenced. Unfortunately, there are traitors to be
found nearer home. The British public might ask themselves how
much of the ammunition for the Boers has been supplied from
Birmingham."

" It is true that the disloyal Dutch farmers of the Cape were
well armed ! "

" They had more rifles served out to them from the Transvaal
than there were men to use them. About the time of the Jameson
Raid Paul Kruger openly boasted that if Mr. Chamberlain interfered
with him any more he could call on 40,000 Cape men to come to
his aid. At the same time it has been almost impossible for an
English farmer to get a single rifle through from the ports of the
Colony. If the British Government did not know all this, it seems
to justify the expressive, if somewhat unpolished, remark of a
Colonial officer, that the British Intelligence Department was
'rotten,' whilst that of the Boers was perfect. The position in
Ladysmith furnishes a striking proof of the inefficiency of the
British service in this particular. The place was overrun with spies
and it took us months to establish any system of detection of Boer
emissaries at the coast ports. The Boers were smarter in every
respect than we. They had been elaborating their plans for years,
while the British authorities were napping."

" What is the feeling at the Cape with regard to Lord Robert '• "

" The Colonists are extremely gratified at the wise and tactful
manner in which he has set to work. No sooner had he landed
than he sent for some of the best known men in South Africa,
spread the map out before them, and asked their advice as to how
many horses qr men could be got from this district or that. He
evoked enthusiasm among some of them by declaring that every
man who desired to fight might do so. That is the spirit that
appeals to the loyal Colonists, and one cannot but wish that more
of it had been shown at the beginning."

In concluding the conversation, Mr. Mathers reverted once more
to the dangers which, in his opinion, would follow any half-hearted
measures in the final settlement. " Who," he asked, "can blame
those loyal subjects of England if they now declare that they will
cut the ' painter ' in the event of Republicanism being re-established
in South Africa ? If Great Britain desires to retain South Africa,
she must see that a settlement is effected throughout the lands
within the British sphere on the basis of liberty and equal rights
for both races under the Union Jack. From all I have seen at the
Cape, even the extreme Dutch party will welcome the hoisting of
the British flag at Pretoria after all the sufferings and misery of war.
Out of evil will come good. Adversity will once more show its
attribute of sweetness, and an era of prosperity and progress will
dawn in South Africa hitherto undreamed of, even by those
acquainted in some measure with the unlimited resources of the
country."

"SOME SOUTH AFRICAN FACTS."

" MR. E. P. MATHERS, OF SOUTH AFRICA, ON SOMF. OF TIIF.
REALITIES OF THE SITUATION."

Financial News.

Under the foregoing headings in the 1'iinincial News of the
i^tli February, the following appeared : —

A representative of the l-'in,uhia! <VcTi'.r has had an interview
with Mr. E. P. Mathers, the editor and proprietor of " SOUTH AFRICA."
who returned the other day from the seat of war. Mr. Mathers had
been in Ladysmith, but managed, like Mr. Bennet Burleigh, to get
out before the town was completely invested. His reputation as a

and its Founder, told by others

103

leading authority on South African affairs and author of several
well known books, such as " Zambesia," and " Golden South
Africa," entitles him to speak with weight upon the present crisis.
He | knows South Africa thoroughly, and has followed the
development of the gold fields from the earliest days, having been
among the first men in this country to realise their marvellous
riches and foretell their future as an inexhaustible sphere of
investment for British and European capital. Mr. Mathers,
however, has been no less prescient as a politician than he has been
as an economist. It is many years since he called the attention of
English readers to the possibility — nay, the probability — of the
conflict which Her Majesty's Ministers have only now realised to
have been inevitable. When other writers were quibbling about
franchise, suzerainty, and other reforms, which, though important
enough in themselves, were not fundamental, Mr. Mathers
endeavoured unceasingly to force upon the British Government and
people the really vital issue, described by him in the phrase,
" Queen versus Kruger." Slowly but surely the English Press has
awakened to the truth, and the Government has followed it, albeit
somewhat reluctantly at first. Since he founded his journal in
1889, Mr. Mathers has kept in close touch with every new phase in
the rapid development of South Africa. He has had several
interviews with Mr. Kruger, in which he has endeavoured to make
that stiff-necked potentate see things from the British point of view
as well as his own. Sir Alfred Milner's " irreducible minimum "
was foreshadowed by Mr. Mathers in a conversation with the
autocrat as far back as 1887. That conversation is recorded in Mr.
Mathers' book " Golden South Africa," and it makes very interesting
reading at the present juncture. Mr. Mathers, when our representative
called on him, imparted his views very readily, stating the issues
with lucidity and vigour. Since his arrival in England he had
been reading up the Parliamentary debates, and was filled with
amazement at the degree of disunion which they revealed, and also
at some of the " apologies " for unpreparedness tendered by Her
Majesty's Ministers.

" I cannot understand," said he, " what Lord Salisbury means
by saying that the Government could not ask Parliament for more
Secret Service money with ' empty surmises.' What does he
describe as empty surmises ? Was it only surmised that the de-
fenceless British population in Johannesburg had enormous guns
trained upon them from the fort after the Jameson Raid, and that
they were constantly threatened before that lamentable affair?
Had the British Government no agent in the country ? Men like
Stanley and many other members of Parliament went out there,
conversed with leading uitlanders, and learned the truth about the
steady importation of enormous guns. They came home and told
the public all about it. There is no 'empty surmise' in that.
Doubtless the Government had periodical naps ; but surely it could
not have been asleep all the time. Lord Salisbury cannot make us
believe that the fort— or rather the half-dozen forts, at Johannes-
burg and Pretoria — were an unsubstantial dream. The uitlanders
knew them to be solid and sinister realities looming ominously
above them, and they never knew when their demands for reform
were to be answered by the brazen mouth of the cannon. Neither
was it an empty surmise that the Boers would fight. In May, 1896,
" SOUTH AFRICA" called attention to this matter, pointing out that
Mr. Kruger had snapped his fingers, not metaphorically, but.
actually, in the face of serious deputations, and told them to go
and do their worst. He told them to go back to Johannesburg
and tell their people that they would never get anything from him.
The Parliament presided over by him had said to 40,000 petitioners
for reform : ' If you want rights you must have might, and until
you fight you can't have them.' What I said in 1896 and years
before that, I repeat now, that the Mother Country had allowed
South Africa gradually to drift from its moorings in the haven of
Empire her sons had built. We are paying to-day the penalty for
that lamentable policy of laissez-faire. And now Lord Salisbury
comes forward with the cold comfort that nothing more could have
been done, because the Government could not act on ' empty
surmises.' "

" I presume you will not have the temerity to blame Lord Salis-
bury for failing to see through a stone wall or a piano case ?"
remarked our representative.

" Well, if the Government's agents could not see the guns at the
ports, it was easy enough to see them in the Transvaal, either at
the forts or before they got there. It is absurd that the Govern-
ment should cover themselves with such flimsy excuses when they
know that every gun in the Transvaal has been described for years
in the pigeon-holes of the War Office. Lord Salisbury might have
honestly said what all familiar with the circumstances believed to
be the case, namely, that the arming of the Boers with big guns
was welcomed rather than feared."

" Why should it have been welcomed ? "

" For the simple reason that no one gave the Boers credit for
being able to use the guns in the marvellous manner that they — or
rather their European artillerists have done. It was known that
in previous wars they had invariably fought with their rifles from
behind kopjes, having a constitutional aversion to coming out into
the open to be shot down. This it was that made the campaign
of 1881 so trying for the British troops. People thougiit, therefore,
that the adoption of artillery would compel the Boers to change
their tactics, and come into the open. The present war has shown
how fallacious this view was. The Boer artillery has been excel-
lently handled, and the Boers have proved themselves marvellously
adept in masking their batteries."

" What have you to say about Mr. Balfour's plea that the
Government's hands were tied by the Jameson Raid ? "

" Such an attitude was practically tantamount to saying to the
Transvaal and the world, ' We have been detected and are
ashamed.' They had set their hands to the plough, and there
should have been no turning back because of the Jameson Raid.
In May, 1896, I urged that President Kruger should be emphatically
informed that continued action for the purpose of inflicting poli-
tical disabilities on people of British birth was a distinct infraction
of his charter of Government, and that unless the franchise laws
of the State were brought back to their original state, and made
to apply to all white persons, the charter would be withdrawn on
the ground of abuse ; but that, if administered with honestv and
for the public good of South Africa, the charter would be main-
tained intact. Had this been done the policy of Her Majesty's
Government would have been supported by the vast majority of
the people of South Africa, whether Dopper or English, to the ex-
tent of 80 per cent, of the white population. They would have
said to Mr. Kruger, ' The demand is a just one ; you have played
the fool quite long enough with us ; toe the mark, or retire.' But
through the inaction of the Imperial Government much of this
support was lost. Kruger gained immensely in prestige. The uit-
landers had formerly suffered nothing more terrible than his
defiance and threats. Afterwards they were afflicted with his magna-
nimity. Those who lived in the country understood what they
meant, but unfortunately it impressed the people on the Continent,
as well as many people in England. Kruger s open tyranny left
some hope in the breasts of the oppressed. But they staggered and
fell under the dreadful weight of his magnanimity. I said in 1896
that the issue must come, and the sooner the better. That issue
was whether Paul Kruger or Queen Victoria was to be the
dominating power in South Africa ; whether for Boer and Briton
alike the Pax Britannica was to exist over the whole area of South
Africa as the one essential for progress and decent living. It is now
being fought out, and much as we must all deplore the war, we
cannot blink the fact that President Kruger 's recalcitrance made it
necessary."

" Are you of opinion that the Boers have acted in bad faith
all along ? "

" Most assuredly they have. The proofs of this must now be
convincing to any impartial mind. In 1896 I pointed out how the
franchise laws, which operated during and after the advent of many
of the uitlanders then charged as rebels, and under which laws they
would then, by efflux of time, have been enfranchised burghers, had
been altered by the Boer Government by several successive stages.
Thus it came about that no uitlander, however good a citizen he
might be, could, as matters then stood, ever exercise a vote. The bad
faith manifest in this course of policy gradually undermined the con-
fidence of the best friends of the Boer Government. Similar tactics
have been pursued ever since, and the franchise law offered after the
Bloemfontein Conference was a sham like all the others. So long

104

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

ago as 1887 I had an interview with Mr. Kruger. His answers to
the points then submitted to him are recorded in my book, ' Golden
South Africa.' They form interesting reading now, because they
are in many respects identical with the shallow arguments ad-
vanced by Mr. Kruger when Sir Alfred Milner, in June last,
formulated his ' irreducible minimum.' The President asked me
whether it was a good man who wanted to be master of the
country, when others had been suffering for twenty years to conduct
its affairs. In 1899 he pretended to Sir Alfred Milner that the
measure of franchise reform demanded by the latter would swamp
the poor burghers. My reply to the President in 1887 was
practically the same as Sir Alfred Milner's last year. I pointed out
that there was a vast difference between having a minority of
representation in the Raad and having none at all. The President's
reply furnished conclusive evidence of his irreconcilable spirit :
'Let a man stay twenty and forty years and earn his right to
representation, the same as we have done.' It is not surprising,
therefore, to those who have followed the trend of Mr. Kruger's
politics that the Bloemfontein Conference proved to be but the
herald of war."

Mr. Mathers was enthusiastic on the subject of Mr. Chamberlain's
speech in reply to Sir William Harcourt.

"It will create an excellent impression in South Africa," he
said. " Mr. Chamberlain's attitude was straightforward, honest,
and manly. His words will ring through the Colonies, and allay
in some measure the feeling of apprehension that will inevitably
be aroused by the deliverances of such politicians as Sir Henry
Campbell-Bannerman, Sir William Harcourt, and Lord Edmond
Fitzmaurice. Another feature of the situation that will tend to
reassure public opinion in South Africa is the patriotic attitude of
the leading English papers. They have proved themselves in this
great crisis to be above party considerations, which is more than
can be said for many of the people's representatives in the House
of Commons."

"Is it too early to attempt a forecast of the political re-
construction of South Africa that will follow the war ? "

"It is impossible at present to enter into details as to the
delimitation of boundaries ; that will have to be left to experts.
But one thing should be urged upon the Imperial Government.
There must be no further question of so-called scientific boundaries.
Reasonable attention ought to be paid to the class of population
in the respective divisions. Whatever rearrangements may be made,
however, there is no further room for blind magnanimity on the
part of the British Government. The time for foolish forbearance
has gone past. There has not been a cent's worth of reciprocity
from the Transvaal. The Boers have been taught by the ineptitude
of successive Imperial Governments for the last quarter of a century
to treat the British with contempt. The war will at least compel
respect, and it will result in the granting of what British subjects
in the Transvaal have been contending for all along. In other
words, we will give to the Boer what he has denied to the Briton —
liberty and equal rights throughout South Africa. But there must
be no question of listening to the conciliation cranks. Some of
these gentlemen ought to go and live in South Africa for a time.
Perhaps they would then understand the folly of casting their
pearls of conciliation before Boers."

" What, in your opinion, would be the effect upon South African
loyalists of a policy of conciliation ''. "

"That is easily answered. They want peace, and they mean to
have it. It is the Pax Britannica that they have striven fen all
along. But that will never be attained by conciliation. If the
Imperial Mother cuts her Colonial heirs off with the proverbial
shilling, she must be prepared to accept the consequences, whatever
they may be. The colonists in that case will reply : ' You have
deserted us ; so be it. We are tired of this endless see-saw of
Imperial policy. We will have a permanent peace, even if we have
to make terms with the Boers.' That is a sentiment which is very
prevalent in South Africa at the present time, and it becomes more
pronounced when there is any suspicion of the Government
allowing itself to be influenced by the 'conciliatory' views of
certain members of the Opposition, who are so tender about the
feelings of the Boers that they will hardly consent to their being
driven out of British territory."

Mr. Mathers, in conclusion, expressed his strong conviction
that an era of unprecedented prosperity would follow the triumph
of the British arms in South Africa, and the consequent establish-
ment of equal rights for all white men between the Cape and
the Zambesi.

Daily Telegraph.

"HOME FROM LADYSMITH."

Under the above heading the Daily Telegraph of the i5th
February, 1900, had the following : —

One of the last men to leave Ladysmith before it was invested
was Mr. E. P. Mathers, editor of " SOUTH AFRICA." He left England
in September last, intending to go to Bulawayo. On the outbreak
of hostilities he travelled about to various places of interest in the
field of operations, and has only just returned to England.

" It was a bitter disappointment to me " said Mr. Mathers to a
representative of the Daily Telegraph, yesterday, " to find on landing
in England, the heart of the Empire, that South African affairs
were made the subject of party disputes. It is curious to find that
the further away from the trouble the greater is the grumbling.
At the front, where you might expect Tommy Atkins to be dissatis-
fied, seeing he has to pay with his blood for mistakes, you find, on
the contrary, complete cheerfulness, and never a word of complaint
at the hardships. It would be a great moral lesson to the growlers
at home if they could see how the heroes at the front bear their
dangers and discomforts."

"But were there not, at any rate at first, some complaints
among the Colonial Volunteers ? "

" Yes ; that is true. Indeed, it almost amounted to mutiny.
But it was justified, as subsequent events have shown. There is no
doubt that at first the Regular officers treated the Colonial
Volunteers with no little hauteur. That they recognised their
sterling qualities of courage and resource was shown by the fact
that the Colonials were put in the forefront of the battle, in the
positions of honour and danger. But the Regulars would not
admit the Colonials to their councils. They know better now.
The Natal Carbineers, as fine a body as is to be found in the world,
know how to fight the Boers ; and it cannot be doubted that if the
Colonials had been permitted to assist in the earlier councils some
of the mistakes would have been avoided. Before Lord Roberts
had been half a dozen hours ashore he had sent for a few of the old
Colonists, who knew the whole subject of the Colonial horse
supply, and said, ' How many horses can you get me ? ' Then he
knew at once what the position was, and forthwith announced that
everyone who wanted to fight could have the chance. And they
are as ready to volunteer out there as you can imagine."

" Is there any danger from disloyal Dutch in the Colony ''.

" No, not now that we have a strong force in the field. If in
the early days we had accepted the offers of the Natal and Cape
Colony Volunteers as fully as possible, and had promptly sent them
in small bodies to guard the bridges, the drifts, passes, and other
chief means of communication, the Boer army would not have
received nearly so many accessions from the Dutch on the borders.
Kruger boasted in Pretoria three or four years ago that he could
count on forty thousand rifles from Cape Colony. But in that he
has been disappointed, and in any case, I don't think their hearts are in
it. The Boer has a great respect for his farm and other property.
He is fighting manfully now that he is on British soil ; but when
we get into the Free State and his own belongings are threatened,
he will want to be off to look after them and save what he can.
believe that one or two good hammerings will change the whole
aspect of affairs, and that Boer commandoes will melt away. It
must, of course, be remembered that the genius of their warfare is
German ; and no doubt it is of the highest class, for Dr. Leyds, in
preparing for war, as he has been doing for years past, had millions
of money to play with."

" Has the Transvaal plenty of money still ? "

" Yes. I should say so. The Boers had been saving up for this
rainy day for a very long time. They are minting sovereigns now
for current expenses. Presently, however, as we expect, they will
find themselves with plenty of money but no means of getting

and its Founder^ told by others

105

supplies of food and other desirable things for their army. Our
statesmen have little to congratulate themselves upon in their
dealings with a cunning old man who simply sat still and did
nothing, and it was accounted to him for wisdom. It is Dr. Leyds
and his gang of Hollanders who have been pulling the strings ; and
unless they could keep the Boers and the British apart they knew
they were doomed."

" What of the future, Mr. Mathers ? "

" In five years' time you will have half South Africa federated
under the British flag. But there must be no Little Englander
paltering. I have talked with the Colonials of South Africa,
Canada, and Australia ; and they are full of the Imperial spirit,
which will not endure any pettiness in tackling the question. The
South Africans have been paltered with before ; and more than
once. If it occurs again — well, there will be a South African
Republic with Cecil Rhodes as first President ; but the Boers will
have equal rights with the rest. There is an idea among the
uitlanders that in the South African Federation Sir Alfred Milner
should be the first governor, and Johannesburg is to be called
Milner's City ! "

Mr. Mathers, who tells the story of the famous 47 naval guns,
was on board the Terrible in Simon's Bay when General White's
telegram asking for guns arrived. The Admiral sent for Captain
Percy Scott, and said, " You see what he wants ; what can you
do ? " Captain Scott asked to be allowed to think it over that
night ; and he spent the time studying and drawing diagrams and
making calculations. Next morning he said, " Can you give me
the resources of the dockyard for twenty-four hours ? " " Yes," was
the reply. And at the end of that time the guns were on their way
to Durban. The rest all the world knows.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END.

"NEITHER LADYSMITH, MAFEKING, NOR KIMBERLEY WILL FALL."

Before the news of the relief of Kimberley came to hand,
Renter's representative also had an interview with Mr. E. P.
Mathers, who said, in reply to questions : — " Lord Roberts'

campaign imparts a most hopeful character to the war, and I
regard it as the beginning of the end. French's success so far is
summed up in the word cavalry, and Lord Roberts should now
relieve Kimberley and occupy Bloemfontein before very long. The
possibilities of our having to deal with extensive masked batteries
upon inaccessible hilltops should now become daily fewer on the
western side ; and I fancy the invasion of the Free State will widen
the breach which has begun between the Boers of the two
Republics and deepen the despair, depression, and disgust now
spread among those in the South. Even two months ago the bulk
of Free Staters were really sick of the war. Lord Roberts' move is
doubtless intended to act as a blister in drawing away some of the
Boers from Ladysmith. The latter will probably make a desperate
and final attempt to shell the place, but I have no fear whatever
regarding General White's garrison. I am confident that neither
Ladysmith, Mafeking, nor Kimberley will fall. Ladysmith is not
a mushroom camp. It is one of five years' steady growth. One of
Sir George White's reasons for making his base there was that it
contained stores valued at a million sterling, and I am certain that
the garrison there still have sufficient to exist for some time. As
for fodder, there was enough when I left for an army three times as
big as General White's. It was piled up in the outer camps, and
looked like fortifications of animal food. My view is that by the
time Ladysmith and Kimberley have been relieved and Bloem-
fontein occupied the back of the war will be broken — that is,
supposing the British do not attempt to reach the Transvaal via
Laing's Nek. I hope to hear that our troops have outflanked the
Boers in Northern Natal, and that when they have done so they
will destroy portions of our own railway so as to prevent the Boers
taking their guns back along the line we so kindly presented them
with. If the victories of which we expect to hear within the next
few weeks are sufficiently decisive the war ought to be over within
three months. I do not believe there will be much fighting round
Pretoria, but that before then Kruger will have asked upon what
lines he can have peace. There can be but one answer, and the
great body of the Transvaalers and Free Staters will be glad to
accept it."

CORNER OF A MENU AT A SOUTH AFRICAN DINNER

io6

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

Mr. Mathers First Book.

PRESS OPINIONS ON
"A GLIMPSE OF THE GOLD FIELDS."

GLIMPSE OF THE GOLD FIELDS" was published in Durban in 1884, and was very
well received by the Press, as will be gathered by a perusal of the opinions of some of
the papers.

South African 'Papers.

Cape Lantern.

We have been much pleased to receive in book form Mr. Mathers'
valuable account of his journey to and from Moodie's. Mr.
Mathers went with the Lady Wood party through Delagoa Bay,
and now fully corroborates all we had long insisted on as to the
dangers of that route. Although the risk is diminished at the pre-
sent season, there is always danger attaching to it ; and he joins
also with us in pointing out that the Delagoa Bay fever, once it
has settled on its victim, seldom or never leaves him. It hunts
him to a miserable death. We refer readers to Mr. Mathers' book
itself for a full and impartial account of the fields. What he sum-
marises in conclusion is the truth so often repeated by us, that none
should go there without some capital, and having made up their
minds to the hardest of work, the roughest of fare, and perhaps
after all disappointment, after months and years of labour. An
funtrnirs, the fields of South Eastern Africa, to the right stamp,
present an illimitable and rich field for the industrious prospector
and digger.

Cape Mercury.

It gives a very clear view of the Gold Fields, and the pamphlet
should be read by all who dream of visiting the fields.

Eastern Province Herald.

They certainly form good and valuable reading, being written
in a free and gossiping, but withal vigorous and animated style.
It was a capital idea to preserve the series of letters in this way, as
they are more handy and more concise ; and containing as the book
undoubtedly does, the fullest particulars regarding the new rush
which have yet been printed, it ought to command a ready sale.
Mr. Mathers is evidently favourably impressed with the Gold Fields
as a whole, but he unhesitatingly states that it is useless for any
men to go there who have not capital at their command,
whilst another point insisted on is the danger of the Delagoa Bay
route as contrasted with the safety of that of Natal. We have
been much interested in a perusal of the special commissioner's
notes, giving as they do all the details of his journey, and of life
at the fields ; and must congratulate Mr. Mathers, not only upon
his happy style, but also upon the happy result of his labours.

East London Despatch.

It is very pleasant and instructive reading indeed.

Natal Mercantile Advertiser.

We have to acknowledge receipt from the author (Mr. E. P.
Mathers) of the volume just published under the above title. We
call it a volume advisedly, because it is a substantial one of
232 pages, not counting a copious and well-compiled index, an

appendix, and several pages of advertisements Those

who have read Mr. Mathers' letters in the Mercury, can bear
testimony to how well, how completely, and how ably he per-
formed his mission, and how valuable, as well as interesting, the
narrative is which he has left on record. We are amongst those
who read his letters in the .Mercury, and we are glad to see them

placed before the public in the different and more handy form now
before us. We would suggest, however, that they deserve a more
substantial binding, for they are worthy of a place in any South
African library. Mr. Mathers, to judge from his preface, seems to
think it necessary to make an excuse for them. We can assure
him no such excuse is needed. Those who know the perils and
the hardships which he had to endure on the journey to and from
Moodie's while collecting data for the notes, can only wonder that
he did the work so well, and succeeded in getting together and
keeping intact so much information of value on the special subject
on which he was sent to report. And here we may state, that his
" Glimpse " contains not only his own notes, but also appropriate
and well-selected extracts from the writings of such old gold
campaigners as the late Mr. Thomas Baines, as well as from
sources of information of more recent date, Mr. Mathers; as
readers of the Natal newspapers know, went to Moodie's by the
disastrous Delagoa Bay route, and returned by the longer but
much safer one overland to Natal. He remained for several days
on the fields, visiting not only Moodie's Reef proper, but others as
well. He gives not only his own personal observations, but also
the statements, taken down on the spot in shorthand, of nineteen
residents on Moodie's, including the pioneer reefers. He places his
evidence before the public in a manner that makes him entirely
irresponsible for it further than as a reporter, and this proves that
he did not go there with any brief in hand either to extol or con-
demn the new fields, or to espouse the cause either of proprietor or
digger. He allows each side to make its own statement, and in
this the main value of h,is work depends. He could not have
adopted a better plan for commending it to the confidence of the
public, who want information not of a one-sided but of an un-
biassed character. Mr. Mathers appears to think that it would
have been to the advantage of the publication had he had time to
revise and rearrange it. Here again we cannot agree with him.
In the volume before us we have the conscientious work, done from
day to day, of a commissioner who went simply to report, and
who, being a close observer and an industrious note-taker, put
down and wrote out and gave to the public just what he saw
passing before him during his travels, without interpolating in the
narrative part any dogmatisms of his own. Had he tried to revise
and rearrange the narrative he might have spoiled the faithful-
ness of it, which is its chief recommendation. Any man coming to
Natal hereafter, and wanting to learn what the journey to the
gold fields is like, both via Delagoa Bay and by the overland
route from this port, has only to turn to Mr. Mathers' notes for a
faithful picture of what one who travelled both routes saw and
experienced. This is what the new-comer voyaging towards the
fields will most value. It may— and we are inclined to think it
would— be worth Mr. Mathers' while elaborating the notes here-
after, and producing them in a more ambitious form ; but for the
purpose for which he has now published them he should not
change them one bit. They are a good guide to Moodie's, and are
sure to be sought after by persons coming here in search of that
gold-bearing district.

Newcastle Echo.

Many of our readers will have read with interest as they came
out the articles of which this handy book is a reprint ; but in the

and its Founder, told by others

107

REDUCED FACSIMILES OF "SOUTH AFRICA" PLATE SUPPLEMENTS

io8

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

surfeit of colonial papers, and the counter-attraction of news on so
many other equally absorbing subjects, some of these articles will
have got overlooked, or just skimmed over, and so no doubt the
re-publication of the whole of them will be welcomed by the large
number who, directly or indirectly, are interested in the fields. As
regards the valuable information and statistics collated from many
sources in Mr. Mathers' industrious and painstaking style, the book
has an interest apart altogether from the particular diggings known
as " Moodie's," and will be very useful for reference. Mr. Mathers
writes in a clear, forcible style, and is always interesting. Looked
at as exactly one month's work — from May 5th to June 5th — the
production of these 220 pages, the ground covered, and the in-
formation obtained, is a feat which deserves recognition.

Maritzbnrg Commercial Advertiser.

That the short cut — as we may call it — is a dangerous one was
proved some years ago, when a good number of diggers from the
Lydenburg Fields died before quitting Delagoa Bay, others on the
voyage, and several in Durban, and Mr. Mathers proves beyond
doubt that the fever swamps are still as dangerous as ever. If
anyone is sufficiently foolhardy to run into the fire after these
warnings he must take the consequences. Mr. Mathers' description
of the road he and party travelled is most interesting, and one can
almost fancy himself with the writer climbing up and down the
almost precipitous mountains. The sketch of camp life at Moodie's
is very pleasant reading, and would-be diggers will find a lot of
information well worth retaining. That Moodie's or any other
field yet discovered is suitable for a man without means, the
author proves to be false, and even for men of means, unless they
have stamina and pluck, they had better stay in the colony.
Space will not admit us following the writer into the dispute
between Moodie and the diggers. Suffice it to say that the diggers
are relying on a notice published by Moodie in 1882, and Moodie's
argument is that the notice was withdrawn in November, 1883, and
before anyone prospected his farm. After doing a week's camp

trotting, Mr. Mathers started on his homeward journey

Before closing these remarks we may say that the impression left
on our mind is that the gold-bearing area is' of immense extent,
and that an enormous quantity of the precious metal is only
waiting machinery and capital to reveal itself. To anyone who is
thinking of trying a gold-digger's life, and everyone who takes any
interest in the development of the fields, we strongly advise them
to read Mathers' " Trip to Moodie's." And remember, by the
overland route you will reach your destination in health and in
training for hard work, but by taking the Delagoa Bay route you
run a great risk of taking fever, not at all improbably terminating
in death.

Times of Natal.

Mr. E. P. Mathers gives us, in a handy guide-book form, the
experiences gained during his trip to " Moodie's Reef," and the
results of his careful enquiries into the state of matters there. The
book contains, apart from Mr. Mathers' evidence, a mass of in-
formation as to distances, accommodation, and opinions of
authorities relating to the gold-bearing region of the Transvaal,
which will be of the greatest service to intending diggers, and
prove most interesting to the general public. It is certainly the
best handbook extant on the subject that we have seen.

Natal Witness.

Many others than the regular readers of the Mercury will have
accompanied Mr. E. P. Mathers on his "Trip to Moodie's." Such
is only natural. All eyes in these parts have been longingly turned
to the new El Dorado, and everything and anything concerning their
hidden or unearthed wealth and development has, as experience
tells us, been read with avidity and interest. By his trip to
Moodie's Mr. Mathers has been able to satisfy much of the desire
for information alike about the routes, the country, and the present
position, and the probable future of that portion of the fields.
The letters which have been appearing in the columns of our
contemporary have now been published in book form, and all who
read the booklet will find that the special commissioner writes
with an observant eye, power of discrimination, and facility of
description. No doubt the book will be largely sought after.

Dutoitspan Herald.

The book, which contains about 300 pages, demy 8vo, gives an
admirable description of the journey from Natal to the Gold Fields,
via Delagoa Bay, and also of doings and manner of living at the
fields. The writer condemns the Delagoa Bay route to the fields
from Natal, and holds out no encouragement to the class of men
who would try their luck as gold diggers without capital at their
command.

Cape Argus.

Presents in a compendious form a great amount of information
respecting this portion of the Transvaal Gold Fields. It well
deserves to be read, whether by those who have practical reasons
for desiring to become acquainted with the locality, or by the general
reader, who will find in it many interesting descriptions of South
African scenery and life.

Cathcart Chronicle.

It is a re-publication of the very racy communications supplied
to our contemporary by Mr. Mathers. The price of the pamphlet
post free is only 2S. Having perused the work we recommend all
persons at all affected by the " gold fever " to purchase a copy.

Port Elizabeth Telegraph.

He gives a most graphic and comprehensive report of his
journey, and the information contained therein will be especially
valuable to intending gold diggers and persons interested in the
development of the gold regions of South Africa. The work
extends over two hundred pages and should secure a very large
circulation.

De Volksstem.

We can safely recommend the purchase of the work of Mr. E. P.
Mathers.

Natalian.

As the only work of the kind extant, will no doubt be sought
after by those in search of El Dorado. The attractive style of the
pamphlet will be known to all the Mercury 's readers.

Kaffrarian Watchman.

Being written in a chatty easy style, and the writer having taken
much pains to obtain all useful information, Mr. Mathers' " Notes
of a trip to Moodie's," are interesting reading, such as persons con-
templating a journey thitherward and putting in for work as a
digger would be glad to have made themselves acquainted with.

Transvaal Advertiser.

The work has been thoroughly well done, and is a complete
guide to persons intending to try their fortune in gold digging in
the neighbourhood of De Kaap.

Eastern Star.

It gives a very full and interesting account of the Gold Fields.
Perhaps, had the letters of Mr. Mathers been more extensively read
throughout South Africa fewer dupes would have been found to face
the difficulties and hardships which beset the lot of the gold digger.

Friend of the Free State.

It is exceedingly interesting and well written. We should advise
all those interested in the Gold Fields to procure a copy.

English Papers.

European Mail.

The work is highly interesting from more than one point of
view, and some sound advice is given to those desirous of trying
their luck at the South African diggings.

Scotsman.

The book contains a mass of practical information which should
be exceedingly useful to intending emigrants and others.

and its Founder^ told by others

109

Money.

Mr. Mathers' mission was twofold — first to determine the merits
of the alternative routes to the Gold Fields, that by Delagoa Bay
and the over-land route, via Newcastle, and, secondly, to pronounce
as to the expediency of a rush of gold seekers, devoid of either skill
or capital, from Natal. He journeyed to Moodie's reef, Delagoa
Bay, and returned by Newcastle. His verdict is decidedly in favour
(if the overland route, although it involves a journey of 450 miles,
and occupies several days longer than the fever-stricken route via
Delagoa Bay. Mr. Mathers, we need scarcely add, is strongly
against the immigration of diggers who have not sufficient capital
to acquire a claim and maintain themselves for a considerable time-

Hull Daily News.

The gold fever which, owing to the practical opening up of the
fields on Moodie's Farm in the Transvaal, has for the last few
months been raging with intense fierceness in our South African
colonies (especially Natal), does not seem to have been so much
felt in England as might have been expected. In Natal some few
months ago the fever was very infectious, and was the one topic of
conversation. Great numbers had left that colony, or had passed
through it from the Cape, and many who had not yet started were
leaving very soon ; only waiting, in fact, to hear of the arrival of
those who had gone before to follow their example. The rush from
Natal was, indeed, almost as great as, thirty years ago, it was from
England to Australia ; or at a later date, to the South African
Diamond Fields. Although the repetition of much which was
enacted in those fields is not by any means to be desired, still there
can be little doubt that if the yield of these fields continues to
realise the verdict of those who are thoroughly acquainted with the
subject, the working of. them will be distinctly beneficial to our

colonies in that part of the world The title, to us in

England, at first sight seems somewhat meaningless. It is further
described on the title page, " A Glimpse of the Gold Fields," but
that hardly sets forth what the book really is. It is true it contains
an account of a trip to the fields, but it also contains matter of
much value to the intending digger, about not only the fields
themselves, but everything concerning gold digging. Mr. E. P.
Mathers is the author, and he has performed his word admirably,
for not only is it well and pleasantly written, but it has the greater
value — with regard to the scenes which are so graphically de-
scribed— of strict accuracy. A great feature of the book is the
statements of individual diggers as to their work and prospects,
from shorthand notes which the author made at the time, and the
republication of official documents referring to the fields, the
diggers' rules, and much information concerning the dispute

between Mr. Moodie and the diggers. The ordinary reader will
find in the book a great deal that is interesting about the country
and the life on the " fields," with many character sketches and little
touches which will call to mind the writings of Bret Harte.

Edinburgh Coiirant.

Mr. Mathers, who by the way hails from Edinburgh, gives a
racy account of his run from Durban to the Transvaal gold fields.
The reef he visited is known as " Moodie's," and the description of
the state of affairs shows that at the time of his visit the people who
were in possession of claims were spending all their time in
agitation, whilst the owners of the ground were at a loss what to
do to maintain their rights. Mr. Mathers came to the conclusion
that the reef appeared to be rich in gold-bearing quartz, but that
it could only be profitably worked by combinations of miners with

capital and proper quartz-crushing apparatus A

repertory of information regarding one of the gold fields of
South-Eastern Africa.

Nottingham Daily Guardian.

Under the modest title of "A Glimpse of the Gold Fields,"
Mr. E. P. Mathers has given us a republication of a series of letters
which he contributed to the journal with which he is connected,
descriptive of the African " El Dorado," where men have become
wealthy in a moment, and where fortunes have been literally
picked up out of the dirt. Mr. Mathers is not unknown to
Nottingham journalism, and therefore the interest of these letters is
enhanced. He makes an excellent special correspondent, being
honest, fearless, and brave. He writes in a practical and common-
sense manner, and avoids all attempts at so-called " fine " writing,
which is the bane of juvenile journalistic aspirants. His remarks
on the future of the Transvaal make us sad when we reflect upon
the present Government's method of dealing with that colony.
The information which he has collected in a journey extending
over many hundreds of miles in an interesting country, will prove
of the greatest value to intending gold-diggers and visitors to the
country, while the book will be of great service in helping the
public at home to form a correct idea of the real social and
political state of the gold diggings.

Western Mortiing News.

Mr. Mathers, who had no easy task before him, being com-
missioned to find a shorter route than the usual one, started via
Delagoa Bay and came back overland. The letters, penned at all
sorts of queer spots, contain the fullest particulars of the rush that
has been made to Moodie's.

CONXERNING this country it was absolutely necessary that
someone should arise to shed light on men and things and clear
away the clinging mist of ignorance and prejudice. In the nick of
time Mr. Mathers stepped into the breach, and, through his journal,
whose name has become a household word here and there, has shed
light upon the scene, cleared up the darkness, and become a power
for good in the metropolis by instructing, week by week, both
Downing Street and the domestic hearth in what is forward ami
what should be forward here in South Africa. To this labour
Mr. Mathers has brought vast experience of the land which gives
its name to his journal, political insight, a facile pen, and that
capacity in figures and finance which is a characteristic of the
family from which he comes. — Johannesburg Stum/ant.

Tins medium of intelligence on things South African.— Johan-
nesburg Standard.

MR. MATHERS was at Barberton last week, visiting properties in
the neighbourhood. — Barberton Paper.

WE are glad to welcome in Durban an old townsman and
fellow journalist in the person of Mr. E. P. Mathers, the author of
" Zambesia," and the founder and Editor of " SOUTH AFRICA," a
paper that has helped to popularise the name and existence of
South Africa to an extent that only visitors to the Mother Country
can realise. — Natal Mcrcui'v.

MEANWHILE we claim but to have realised the reward of the
self-imposed and successfully accomplished mission to establish in
England a well-informed " weekly journal for all interested in
South African affairs." To what has " SOUTH AFRICA " reached in a
short twelvemonth ? It is eagerly read in hut or hall, in the newlv-
born mining camp or towns of staider and slower growth, in the
bureau of the new-fashioned broker or the old-fashioned merchant,
to whose sagaciously-directed energy the country owes its beiiiL; ;
it is looked for as a welcome guest wherever the post penetrates
within the confines of the illimitable continent from which it takes
its name. — " SOUTH AFRICA," January 4th, 1890.

I 10

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

"The Gold Fields Revisited."

A VERY SUCCESSFUL BOOK BY E. P. MATHERS.

LARGE Edition of "The Gold Fields Revisited" was published in Durban in 1887 and was very
quickly sold out. The following are a few of the Press Opinions concerning it.

South African Papers.

Cape Argus.

Mr. Mathers' former book on the Gold Fields has been in
constant use since its publication some three years ago ; but the
rise of Barberton and Johannesburg, not to speak of several other
centres coming into being, has called for a new work altogether.
Mr. Mathers accordingly made a trip last winter through Swazie-
land, De Kaap, and Witwatersrand. The results of his journeyings
appeared at the time in contributions to the Natal press ; to some
of which reference was made from time to time in these columns.
The contributions have now been all collected into the volume

before us The book is one of the most interesting

that has seen the light for many a day. Mr. Mathers is a " live "
correspondent. He goes in and out, and is equally expert at
observing on his own account or gathering the results of other
people's observations with the inevitable notebook. He knows
how to mix solid information as to stamps, shafts, shares and the
like, with lighter sketches of the aspects of the Fields ; and at
present, at any rate, this is the only work in which a general
account of the Gold Fields is to be read.

Mr. Mathers goes over old ground in his introduction ; but
judiciously keeps his speculations as to early Portuguese discoveries,
the Queen of Sheba, and so on, within manageable compass. Then
we have a recapitulation of the narrative of his former visit to
Moodie's, and this was necessary in order to enable the reader to
learn the real origin of Barberton, in the disputes of the diggers
who went away from Moodie's in disgust at the terms imposed
upon them. Incidentally we have highly interesting sketches of
Swazieland, which will be read with avidity as Swazieland
becomes more and more prominent on the South African stage. In
the second part of the work it is significant that Mr. Mathers has
but one page of travellers' adventures for ten in the first part.
Everything has become prosaic, and half-a-dozen pages of ordinary
road experiences land him in Barberton. The information as to
Barberton is particularly full. Mr. Mathers contends stoutly for the
healthiness of Barberton. Indeed, he says that its climate is
"exceptionally salubrious." In describing Barberton — and the
remark applies to each subsequent stage of Mr. Mathers' journey —
it's a great advantage to have everything minutely set down, even
to the price of servants and firewood. Equally precise is the
information as to the companies and syndicates at work. A visit
to Pretoria affords an opportunity for a little political and general
disquisition. The record of an interview with President Kruger is
capital reading. Let it be noted that everything was done through
Mr. Xellmapius, who seems to have been acting as a sort of Private
Secretary. President Kruger foreshadowed his Bloemfontein policy.
He would treat for the free interchange of products, he said, if he
could have a port of his own ; but not if the maritime colonies
hemmed him in and monopolised the seaboard, and left him inside
the country as it were in a kraal. These are words it will be well
to remember. From Pretoria Mr. Mathers went to Johannesburg,
and his account of that town will be of permanent historical value
when that much-cited person, the historian of the future, has to
seek for material for the history of the Fields. It is no mere list of
companies; but a pleasantly-written sketch of life at Johannesburg,
which might be read with interest by anyone who has not a penny

invested in South Africa. The accounts of the companies, however,
are not wanting, and with a plentiful supply of maps the reader
may post himself well up in everything relating to the Gold Fields.
We hope that in a year or so Mr. Mathers may make another trip ;
and that his present book may then appear as small in comparison
with subsequent developments as his first trip appears by the side
of the very diversified and copious story he now presents to us.
The work should have a very wide circulation.

Kimberley Independent. (In a long article.)

The description given by Mr. Edward Mathers in

his " Gold Fields Revisited " of one or two of the properties which
are already being developed ought to satisfy the most sceptical
that the country of the Swazie King is not to be despised.

Diggers News.

Teems with interesting information, and should be in the hands
of all who take any interest in the rise and development of the
Gold Fields of South Africa.

Transvaal Advertiser.

Mr. E. P. Mathers has done good service by the publication of
this book. Some year or two ago the author visited the De Kaap
Gold Fields, and gave his impressions under the title of "A
Glimpse of the Gold Fields," a book which, at that time, de-
servedly won general appreciation. Events have marched so
rapidly since that book was published, that it may be considered
to have fulfilled its destiny j and now, when the extension of the
auriferous area of the Transvaal has been so great, it has become a
matter of necessity to place on record the vast changes that have
occurred. That has been done in a very satisfactory manner by Mr.
Mathers in the work just issued by him, which consists of articles
written during the current year, collected, corrected, and enlarged
up to a very recent date. The book contains about 350 pages of
matter of the greatest interest and importance to all who have any
connection with the gold fields of the Transvaal, and to those who
contemplate making investments in this country it will prove to
be a reliable guide. For the most part, the information given has
been collected by Mr. Mathers in person, and what he states may
be considered to be the just opinion of a man of observation and
shrewdness. Although, as a matter of course, statistics form a notable
feature in the book, they do not exclude many incidents which, if
not strictly within the scope of a guide to investors, are very
interesting, and tend to give life to the narrative. In point of fact,
the book is more interesting reading to many persons than the
ordinary novel, and it is infinitely more useful, as it is an aggrega-
tion of fact. The value of the work is enhanced considerably by
the introduction of a series of five maps The Wit-
watersrand and Heidelberg Fields form the subject of the third
map. It is clear that a great deal of attention has been paid to
these new fields by Mr. Mathers, as both the map and letterpress
descriptions are more complete. The map of that district shows
not only the farms upon which the mining is carried on, but also
the portion taken up on lease (" mynpacht "), and also the adjoin-
ing farms upon which regular mining has not yet commenced. In
short, it would be difficult to obtain a larger amount of informa-
tion with regard to the Transvaal mining industry than is to be

and its Founder*, told by others

1 1 1

KEDUCKI) FACSIMILES OF "SOUTH AFRICA" PLATE SUPPLEMENTS

I 12

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

found condensed within these pages, and we heartily commend it
to all who are in any way interested in the development at present
going on in the South African Republic. The book is well and
clearly printed, and is published at so low a price as to be well
within the reach of all.

/:"tf.sY London Advertiser.

For three shillings and sixpence a book has been published
which to many people will prove of more interest than the most
startling novel or the most learned philosophical dissertation.
Now, as ever, anyone who writes about gold and where to find it is
always most welcome. All the various routes are described, and
also the fields at Moodie's, the Komatie, Swazieland, Barberton,
Lydenburg, and Witwatersrand, with maps of the chief places
of interest. The introduction informs us that Solomon got
£900,000,000 worth of gold from South Africa, and that there is
as much and more to be had. This is doubtless good news for the
various gold companies, who at the present time could do very
well with some of the wise king's ingots, and would gladly leave
him to the uninterrupted enjoyment of the monkeys and the pea-
cocks. Interviews have been held by the author with all sorts and
conditions of men, from President Kruger downward, and some-
thing is to be read about nearly every company then floated.

Eastern Province Herald.

We are late in noticing Mr. Mathers' book, which reached us
some few weeks ago. More solid, but certainly not more
interesting, reading has kept us from it. The title sufficiently
indicates the contents of the little volume, which contains an
account of the author's doings and experiences during a prolonged
tour through the gold mining districts. Mr. Mathers describes
everything he sees, and he sees with an eye accustomed to note
anything likely to make interesting reading. Those who have
money in a gold venture should read the book, for it will give
them valuable information, and those who care for a description of
a phase of rough life, unique of its kind, will read it also as a
study of mankind.

Friend of the Free State.

Some time ago Mr. Edward P. Mathers, of Durban, visited the
Kaap Gold Fields, and thereafter published a very interesting
account of his trip and the impressions which the digging for gold
made upon him, under the title of a "Trip to Moodie's." Mr.
Mathers during the last winter paid a second visit to De Kaap
Gold Fields, and also went to Witwatersrand and Blauwbank.
The result of this journey is given in the publication before us,

which consists of 350 pages and several maps We

can bear testimony to the faithful account given by Mr. Mathers of
those fields. The book is well written, and is in every way a I'mle
iiicd/in for the intending gold-digger, and extremely interesting for
the general public, giving, as it does, an immense amount of useful
information which everyone requires.

East London Dispatch.

Contains three hundred and fifty pages of solid reading, all of a
highly interesting character, with several most useful maps. Any-
one perusing this work cannot fail to acquire a vast fund of infor-
mation of a kind which is really useful. It is a handbook of a
decidedly high order, and should find a place in the homes of
thousands of colonists, to whom such a work is of the greatest
value from every point of view.

(i old Fic/ds Times.

The whole forms a most useful handbook, and gives an
excellent description of the Kaap Gold Fields from an independent
and unbiassed point of view. It is prefaced by an introduction
giving a succinct account of what has been so far known of the
existence of gold in South Africa and the views of modern
•joists who have visited these regions, while the book is
embellished by maps of " Golden South Africa," the district of
Delagoa Bay, the Kaap Fields, Swazieland, Moodie's, and of the
Witwatersrand and Heidelberg Fields, compiled from the most
reliable surveys.

Komatic ( )/w r: 'cr.

We hail with pleasure the issue of Mr. Mathers' long-expected
"Further Glimpses " of the Gold Fields of South Africa. In his
previous book on Moodie's, the author earned well-deserved laurels
as being the first traveller who gave to the world a collation of
useful and interesting facts regarding the Transvaal Gold Fields.
These notes proved of immense service to all interested in gold-
seeking, as well as to the many who were then turning their
attention to this country as a field for commercial enterprise.
Between three and four years have elapsed since then, and the
great strides which have taken place in the discovery and develop-
ment of the Fields have given ample matter for the compilation of
the present work, a work which is essentially of vast importance to
South Africa, and to the Home capitalist and operator in mining
matters. Besides being replete with statistical and general infor-
mation, it is illustrated with some capital maps — " Golden " South
Africa, the district of Delagoa Bay, the Kaap Fields and Swazie-
land, Moodie's and the Witwatersrand and Heidelberg Fields. Mr.
Mathers has done his work in his usual thorough style. He is well-
known as one of our best descriptive writers, with a faculty for
detail which is the outcome of his journalistic capacity and
training. These gifts he has used to their utmost, and the result is
a book that is in all respects creditable to the author, and which

must prove to be of infinite service to us all A

work that must have a place on every book-shelf in South Africa.

Kokstad Advertiser.

Not only agreeably and racily written, but plainly the work of
an experienced writer on his travels whose aim it was to chronicle
solid facts about the Gold Fields, which facts it was his mission to
discover and to clothe in as interesting a manner as possible. Mr.
Mathers was eminently successful in his efforts. As a permanent
record of the early days of the Gold Fields of the Transvaal, the
work is one which, as a book of reference, will remain of ever-
lasting interest to all those concerned in the present progress and
future development of the Fields. The book is supplied with a
number of most useful original maps, and is neatly bound in limp
cloth, and well printed. We can thoroughly congratulate Mr.
Mathers on the appearance of his book in every way, and
anticipate for it a ready sale.

Kimberley Independent.

Mr. Mathers is already known in the colony as the author of
" A Glimpse of the Gold Fields," the result of a trip to Moodie's.
The work at present before us deals with a larger area, and affords
a good deal of information of the different gold fields of the
Transvaal and Swazieland, and of the companies which have been

floated Will be read with the interest which attaches

to a continuous, unbroken narrative The book will

be found to contain much valuable information of companies. \<-..
and will prove an excellent handbook to the gold fields.

Johannesburg Republican.

Not only is it very interesting reading, but at the same time the
information about these gold fields is correct, as far as we are able
to judge. We would advise all who take an interest in the
Transvaal gold fields to buy the book, which is published at the
very reasonable price of ^s. !«!., and we are sure that they will not
be disappointed.

Mariizburg . Idvcrtiscr.

Mr. Mathers' book, "The Gold Fields Revisited," is eminently
readable. It contains something of interest for everyone ; good
sketches of the early days of the two principal gold fields, coupled
with a fair, and we think a just, estimate of their future ; graphic-
portraits of character, as of President Kruger and the Swa/ie King,
a description of the country sufficient to enable those who have not
visited it to form a tolerable idea of it, and, last but not least, some
sound advice by which persi >ns addicted to overmuch speculation

may profit Mr. Mathers' second visit to the Kaap

Fields found them at the height of the prosperity they have yet

seen From Barberton Mr. Mathers passed on to the

Komati and Swazieland Fields, and then to Pret<>na and the Rand.

and its Founder, told by others

The chapters on Swazieland and the Swazies are very pleasantly
written, and in a ver\ brief compass contain much varied information,
with some slight reference to the political complications which the
culpable inaction of the Home Government has rendered certain at
no distant date. " The country is one which is intimately
associated with the development of the gold fields of South-
Eastern Africa. It is also a country upon which many South
African eyes are at present turned, because of an attempt of
England to shuffle out of responsibilities solemnly entered into with
respect to it." The interviews which Mr. Mathers had with
President Kruger will prove how very little the diggers have to
expect from, and how completely he had made up his mind to a
policy of isolation months before the Conference met atHloemfontein.

There was the usual vague statement that, as things

improved, the Government would meet the diggers, but the
President's replies to Mr. Mathers were of quite a different complexion.
When asked if it would not be a good thing to make it compulsory
on companies to render returns of their output of gold, it was not
until it was pointed out that the system would bring more money
into the country that Mr. Kruger could see any use in it. Anything
more selfish than his first remark could not have been made. " If
a company have paid their licences, it is of no consequence to the
Government whether they keep their gold or lose it ; and it is no
business of mine to interfere." This selfishness, and the resolution
to get as much as possible out of the men who are opening up the
country was further illustrated in his replies to questions on
parliamentary representation. " Let him stay twenty and forty
years, and earn his right to it, the same as we have done " ; that is
to say, let us go on bleeding him till old age comes, when he will
care nothing for such follies as political rights. Mr. Kruger did
announce that he should frame a law to give the diggers repre-
sentation ; but we all know what a mockery it was ; and he could
not even make that announcement without a threat that, if the
diggers did not work with him or otherwise were in any way
against him, they would cause the scheme to be broken off. And
again, " If the people do not like to accept the law, let them go out
of the country. It is the unthankful people to whom I have given
protection that are always dissatisfied, and, what is more, they
would actually want me to alter my laws to suit them." Mr.
Kruger's feelings were bitter enough when Mr. Mathers saw him ;
they have been embittered tenfold by the " unthankfulness "
exhibited at Johannesburg and by his failure at Bloemfontein ;
and, when he finds himself secure of another term of office, we may
pretty safely affirm that he will give full play to those embittered
feelings, and be assisted in any attempt to revenge himself by his
creature of a Volksraad.

Natal Advertiser.

A perusal of Mr. Mathers' book proves conclusively the ex-
cellence of his handiwork. There is no hasty patchwork, and no
mere padding. The whole book is page by page eloquent proof
of admirable sequence, method, and indefatigable industry. So
suddenly have the auriferous areas of the Transvaal been expanded,
and so multitudinous have been the discoveries, that the keenest
local gold gambler must often be at fault as to the general run of
gold things. If the local men are thus nonplussed how much more
so must the eager watchers in distant countries of the new African
gold discoveries be in the dark as to both the whereabouts and the

details of the newer California The Australian

digger, the New Zealand reefer, or California hydraulicker who
reads the book through will have a more thorough knowledge of
the South African Gold Fields than most Natal folk have, aye,
than most residents on the Fields themselves have. Saying this is
mere criticism, for the book is nothing less than a gazetteer of the
South African Fields. And it is this practical usefulness whicli
constitutes the excellence of Mr. Mathers' handiwork. Little
reflection will be necessary to understand how difficult it must be
to take the census single handed of such a scattered population as
the reefs, concessions, mynpachts, alluvial areas, claims, and yields
of the widespread South African 'Gold Fields. Mr. Mathers has
done it, and tabulated everything exactly as he saw or found it.
Impartially all possible information for or against has been assidu-
ously gathered, and whatever the ups and downs of the many
properties so tabulated and described, the handbook shows them

all succinctly as they appeared on a given date. Mr. Mathers has
ever been a sanguine sponsor of the future grandeur of the South
African Fields, but, as the book repeatedly shows, he is also quite
alive to the evils which temporarily flourish and stultify proper
progress. The remarks on public wildness in .subscribing for
unknown things, the scrip gambling, the almost fraudulent —
wholly, we say — crushing from certain rich leaders, the fictitious
assays, and the syndicate wastrels, are all well timed and good
reading. Mr. Mathers is, however, confident that the inherent
virtues of the fields, their intrinsic value, will eventually outstrip

the evils The maps, which now for the first time

afford the general public a chance of locating things they have
ever been hearing about, are worth the price of the book several

times over The tables of distances from all points

and ports of South Africa to the gold centres will be tables of
everyday usefulness now and for years, and the list of gold mining
companies is likewise of interest and value. The local edition of
the book is presumably limited, but we look with certainty to a
large popular English edition. Granting an English edition, we
would find it difficult to estimate the good to all parties, especially
Natal, which would accrue, for by its very sequential fact-fullness
the book will be eagerly, widely, and profitably read in English

monetary circles. The printing is clear and good

To the gold immigrant or mining investor abroad the work is a
complete handbook and reliable guide. To the South African
reader who is interested in the fields — and who is not — the work
affords ample and specific information on every possible point, and
all up to recent date. To the general reader, foreign or South
African, the book is sufficiently interesting even from a mere travel
point of view, for Mr. Mathers' ready pen<and descriptive powers
afford ample entertainment. Mr. Mathers has revisited the Gold
Fields to some public purpose

Natal Mercury.

Within the last few weeks the literature of South Africa has
received a most valuable addition in Mr. Mathers' interesting and
copious volume, entitled " The Gold Fields Revisited." Knowing
the country as we do, we can fully appreciate the difficulties with
which the author had to contend, and while taking this oppor-
tunity of recommending the work to the favourable attention of the
public, would congratulate the author on the successful result of
his labours. The making of books is at all times a work of weari-
ness— even to men of leisure — but to a busy journalist the strain
is increased a hundredfold. It is to be hoped that Mr. Mathers'
new venture will meet with such a reception as to reward him for
his toil and careful compilation. The introductory chapter con-
tains much information touching the early history, conjectural and
otherwise, of the gold industry of this great continent. The
author reviews, very ably and fully, the attitude of the European
and Colonial Press, together with the opinions of nearly all avail-
able authorities, such as explorers, savants, editors, and practical
miners, who have within recent times turned their attention to the
mineralogical capabilities of Africa generally, and South Africa
particularly. In Part I. we have a recast of " A Trip to Moodie's,"
written by Mr. Mathers when, three years ago, he proceeded to the
Kaap Valley to report upon the real state of affairs there. His
journey is well told, and cannot fail to be of absorbing interest to
all those who " go down to the wilds, and who do business in the
desert places." In Part II. the events of his second and last journey
are recounted. Here the reader is posted up to date in many
matters of detail with respect to the different workings and com-
panies, while several statistical tables and five well-executed and
clear maps serve to illustrate and explain to the untravelled reader
the mysteries of that bourne usually termed " up-country." The
account of Mr. Mathers' travels in Swazieland, his interview with
the King, together with his remarks with regard to the Swazie
nation generally, will be seized upon with avidity by all classes of
readers. It has been said by those who have no faith in the
mineral resources of Africa, that the small annual output of gold
is a curious proof of the unreliability of our auriferous deposits.
\\V would refer those who hold such opinions to pages 157 and
158 of the work under consideration for the true cause of this
apparent lack of results. In these lines Mr. Mathers tells home
truths in plain language, for which he is to be commended.

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

The vast importance of the appearance of such a

trustworthy handbook as that which has just been produced must
be patent to all, and after going carefully through its pages we
can confidently recommend it as a publication which everyone
interested in African affairs will find useful to have at hand for
reference.

Diamond fields 1 Express.

English people are grumbling about the accumulation of the
National Debt ; the unemployed of London seek bread ; capital is
looking for investment ; the trade of the world languishes in con-
sequence of an insufficient output of gold, and yet we read in the
work lately published by Mr. Kdward P. Mathers, F.R.G.S., under
the title of "The Gold Fields Revisited," that "it is generally
agreed that Ophir, whence Solomon is said to have drawn gold to
the modern value of £900,000,000, was situated in South-Eastern

Africa." Following on we find that " King Solomon

made two hundred targets of beaten gold ; six hundred shekels of
gold went to one target." Besides all this, " Solomon in all his
glory " had his drinking vessels and other flummery made of pure
gold, so that Mr. Mathers' statement, taken altogether, may not be

considered very wide of the mark The book is

bristling with facts that will interest everybody, and the maps
which are interleaved are just what all are asking for now. We
strongly recommend its purchase ; it will be found instructive, and
we hope profitable, as it bears upon many subjects in reference to
the Gold Fields of which everyone should be cognisant.

Natal Witness.

This work has made its appearance at an opportune moment.
The Gold Fields are languishing for want of English capital, and
if anything is calculated to either invite or repel the English
investor it is this book of some 350 pages. It is a plain unvarnished
account of facts as seen by the writer personally. Although the
work has appeared in the rough in colonial journals, Mr. Mathers
has thoroughly overhauled the matter penned in out of the way
places, with packing cases or even a stone for a table and a camp
stool for a chair, and has added to it the results of longer delibera-
tion and a knowledge of new facts revealed at a later period.
The first part of the work under notice includes his " Trip to
Moodie's," published three years ago, and this capital bit of racy
writing, mingled with a sprinkling of advice and prophecy, is a
capital introduction to the more substantial facts embodied in the
newer and more comprehensive portion of the work. This,
although pleasantly written, is intended more as a statement of
work actually done on the South African Gold Fields, and there-
fore a style of writing more suited to the purpose has been adopted.
The chapters referring to Swazieland are, however, penned in a
more picturesque and descriptive vein, and form an agreeable relief
to the details of crushings, and sinkings, and returns. The Fields
treated of are those of De Kaap, Witwatersrand, Zululand,
Swazieland, Malmani, M'Fongosi, and the older diggings in the
Transvaal ; and chapters are devoted to the general aspect of both
the Rand and the De Kaap— the probabilities and possibilities of
the mining industries thereon being admirably dealt with. The
book contains several good maps, specially compiled for the work,
and is further provided with complete tables of distances from
Durban to the various gold mining centres, and also from Cape Town,
Delagoa Bay, East London, Kimberley, &c. It also contains a list
of all the known gold mining companies, with their head offices
and value in capital— which reaches the astounding total of nearly
£ 10,000,000 ; a fact that will either convince the home capitalist
that there must be payable deposits of gold in South Africa, or a
very confident number of investors in gold mining shares. There
is a capital introduction by Mr. Mathers, reviewing the gold mining
industry in Africa from the earliest known dates, and tracing it up
to the present time. The work is neatly bound, and well printed
on good paper by the publishers.

X a tit/ I!'// ness.

I hear that "Tin- (iold Fields Revisited" is meeting with a
large sale, and am glad to hear that Mr. Mathers' efforts have been
appreciated. Though 1 have not the same belief in the South
African Gold Fields that he has, nevertheless, his work is a careful

compilation of actual facts, to which is added calculations of
possibilities based on actual statistics as obtained on the spot.
I expect the work will be well received at home, and as a guide-
book to the South African mining centres it is the best work extant.
The life of a roving conespundent in the earlier days of the Fields
was anything but a bed of roses, and a due appreciation on the
part of the public of the meritorious efforts of a journalist goes far
to repay him for the hard work and rough usage he experiences in
the wilds.

Natal Witness.

The subject of gold cannot be dismissed without making
reference to Mr. E. P. Mathers', F.R.G.S., excellent work entitled
" The Gold Fields Revisited," which is the only real guide to the
South African Gold Fields ; and in addition to containing facts,
the outcome of keen observation, it contains a mass of valuable
statistics and calculations as to the future of the South African
Fields. The book is a credit to journalistic enterprise in South
Africa.

Natal Witness.

It must be encouraging to that energetic journalist, Mr. E. P.
Mathers, to see that his useful work has met with such a demand
as to be out of print. There are but a few cloth-bound copies
remaining. It may be suggested that, perhaps, the work may be
in print again, with additions, in consequence of the demand
from home.

Newcastle Herald.

Mr. E. P. Mathers' work under the above title has just seen the
light, and we were favoured with a copy by last Saturday's post.
The book has a formidable appearance —352 pages, and a large
number of advertisement sheets — it is bound in limp covers, and is
embellished with five very useful maps. We had read a great
many announcements relative to the forthcoming publication, but
we were scarcely prepared to behold such an imposing volume.
The " Gold Fields Revisited " will prove a handy work of reference
to practically disposed persons, and will furnish amusing and
instructive reading to those who are not in any way interested in
gold mining pursuits.

Excalibur.

Mr. Mathers has presented in this volume a mass

of interesting and useful matter in an attractive form. It is the first
attempt to bring the distant public en rapport with the practical

relation of the Gold Fiejds of South Africa Some

incidents of the journey are described with a graphic and amusing
pen. The Lourenco Marques of four years ago is characterised as a
" place to leave," and as it probably has not changed any of its
material features since that time, the following notes hold the
same amount of descriptive force to-day as at the time they were

penned Of course, there is the reverse side to this dark

picture. Some of the acclimatised inhabitants of the town regard
the place as healthy, and, we are told, laugh at the cry about fever
as a " Natal scare." One of these assures Mr. Mathers that " there
is far more fever in Durban than at Lourenco Marques." The
fatigues of this particular journey, together with a variety of in-
teresting incidents — some of them even pathetic— are by no means
calculated to reassure those who choose that route to the Fields.
The first description of Moodie's, and the subsequent description of
impressions of Barberton three years later, make a pleasant con-
trast. " Three years ago," says Mr. Mathers, " Barberton had no
existence. It was as destitute of evidences of civilisation as when
the now migrated lion and zebra, elephant and tiger, roamed un-
disturbed in the mountain solitudes now peopled by its energetic
inhabitants." The sudden rise of Barberton in one year from a
settlement of a few shanties and a population of about fifty to a well-
constructed town with 5,000 inhabitants does, indeed, strike one as
phenomenal ; only the rise and prosperity of liarberti.n has since
been eclipsed by that of Johannesburg. The author deals fully
with the rise and position and prospect of the companies both at
Barberton and the Rand, and the information which is thus placed
before the reader is exceedingly valuable and interesting. The
Komutie, Swa/ieland, Lydenburg, and Malmani Gold Fields also

and its Founder, told by others

REDUCED FACSIMILES OF "SOUTH AFRICA" PLATE SUPPLEMENTS

I 2

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

afforded a few interesting chapters, and not the least interesting
portion of the book is that which deals with the condition of the
Swazies, the position of Mr. Shepstone in the territory, and the
attitude of L'mbandine towards the aggressive Boers, who are
determined to make the situation of the King and his territory a
bone of contention between the English and Dutch. Of course,
the book deals mainly with the gold areas, and whatever politics
may incidentally outcrop they are the forced fruit of observations
made more or less on the spot, and are thus necessarily instructive
and useful. Mr. Mathers' book, if it secures an English circulation
— and it ought to — will do more to forward the interests of the Gold
Fields of South Africa than any number of leading articles printed in
Colonial papers, for, however influential or favourably placed the
latter may be, their rose-coloured views on gold prospects are
generally the result of collaboration ; and, sooth to say, their
articles are puffs expected as a quid pro quo and paid for by
advertisements. The tables of distances and maps, with which the
book is profusely illustrated, will be found of inestimable service
to the traveller. A wide circulation of the book will serve to dispel
a host of illusions, and to establish in the public mind a great
variety of interesting and instructive facts about the Gold Fields.

Transvaal Daily News.

The book is invaluable as a work of reference for the Transvaal
Gold Fields. Besides the copious information which is contained in
some thirty-three chapters, the book is supplied with the following
maps : " Golden South Africa," district of Delagoa Bay, Kaap Fields
and Swazieland, Moodie's,and Witwatersrand and Heidelberg Fields.
The author has exercised great care and diligence in collecting his
material from the most reliable sources, and his descriptive writings
are beyond all question excellent. Altogether, Mr. Mathers is to be
greatly complimented upon the capital get-up of his book, the
more so as it was put to press amid the worries and distractions
of a busy journalistic life.

Natal Weekly News.

The above is the title of a book we have just received, and is

from the pen of Mr. E. P. Mathers Mr. Mathers has

placed before the public, at a price within the reach of all, a book
that will give the new arrival every possible information that he
may require — from the details of the journey by the " Special," to
the table of distances and the list of companies. It is well and
carefully written, and Mr. Mathers is to be congratulated on the
compilation of the most useful book ever issued in Natal.

Times of Natal.

On Mr. Mathers' first visit to the Gold Fields he travelled via
Delagoa Bay, and as the book is prefaced by a rc'sumi'ot that visit,
readers are enabled to form a fair idea of what that favoured port
is like and the advantages which it possesses over its Natal and
Cape rivals. On the occasion of his second visit Mr. Mathers chose
the route through Natal, so that the public have in this handv
volume an unbiassed description of each route and the advantages
presented by them to the traveller. During the period between
Mr. Mathers' visits the Gold Fields have emerged from almost local
obscurity into world-wide fame. The work has been carefully
revised from the descriptive articles which appeared in the news-
paper. Some of these must have been written under very dis-
advantageous circumstances while travelling through a rough and
unbroken country. The book, as now presented to the public,
contains many points of merit, whether as a guide to intending
gold seekers or as a history of an industry which has brought about
a mighty revolution in the condition of the South African Republic.
Mr. Mathers states that, so far as he was able, he verified the
statements made to him as to the various mining companies, and
therefore they may be taken as substantially correct at the periods
to which they refer. The value of the work is i •nham -c <1 In BI
maps showing the principal points where gold mining is bein^
carried on, from Knysna in the Old Colony to Matabeleland in the
north, with a map of the Rand and Heidelberg Fields, and a table
of distances between the various mining centres. The book forms
a valuable addition to the literature of South Africa, and Mr.
Mathers may well be congratulated upon its production.

Port Elizabeth Telegraph.

Furnishes a vast deal of information in regard

to almost every company, and the descriptive matter is highly
interesting. There are five maps illustrative of Golden South
Africa, the district of Delagoa Bay and adjoining country, De
Kaap Fields and Swazieland, Moodie's, and Witwatersrand and
Heidelberg Fields.

Port Elisabeth Spectator.

Capital book on the Gold Fields of the Transvaal.
Invaluable to all interested in gold mining enter-
prises, and should have a very large sale both in South Africa and at
home.

Johannesburg Standard.

It is excellently got up, well bound, and should be read by
everyone interested in the Gold Fields.

Potchefstroom Budget.

The book is a very valuable contribution to the

Gold Fields literature, and perhaps contains more information on the
subject than is to be found elsewhere. It is enriched by several very
useful maps, which are themselves worth all the price of the book,
and also by a large mass of valuable statistics, and a table of
distances between the various Gold Fields and Colonial and
Transvaal towns. The book is admirably printed, well got up, and
published at a very cheap price.

English Papers.

Money Market Review. (A three column article.)

It is impossible to read the book without

coming to the conclusion that the author understands the subject
and honestly sets forth his facts. The sketch of the history of gold
industry in South-Eastern Africa will be interesting to those for

whom it is new But Mr. Mathers would probably

say of the gold mines of South Africa what was once said of Italy,
"Its life lies in .the past and in the future." The past is represented
by the 900 millions alleged to have been got by King Solomon ;
the future is even now at hand. Mr. Mathers has every confidence

in the future Among other interesting details in

this work we have accounts of interviews with President Kruger
and with the King of Swazieland. Mr. Mathers speaks of our
suzerainty over the Transvaal, and wishes to ask us what it means
and what good purposes it will effect. On this subject he might
apply to Mr. Gladstone, who is the only man that can be expected

to understand it One part of the conversation

between President Kruger and Mr. Mathers bears on this question
of British residents in an indirect manner. Mr. Mathers pressed
upon the President the propriety of giving some representation to
the mining districts. " Supposing," said Mr. Mathers, " that
Steynesdrop, Barberton, and Johannesburg were allowed each to
send one representative to the Raad, what danger is there that
those three would outvote your thirty and so be masters of the
country ? " But the President was not to be persuaded. He replied

The natural meaning of this is that President

Kruger intends only to allow such representation of the minii-g

interests as will not endanger Boer supremacy Mr.

Mathers gives a detailed account of every mining company.

On the political questions of South Africa Mr. Mathers speaks
with all the spirit of a true Englishman. Among other trenchant
passages we may quote the following: "It is said that one of
Bismarck's ubiquitous emissaries recently saw Lo Bengulo, the
King of Matabeleland, with a view to getting him to allow his
country to come under German protection. If the Gern.an
Chancellor succeeds in any such scheme he will deal a great blow
at Anglo-Saxon enterprise in South Africa. England would have
thrown her mantle over the Matabeles ere this if her present
statesmen had half the spirit of their forefathers and worked more
for State and less for party. Britain having neglected her oppor-
tunity, the Transvaal Government are now credited with carrying
on secret negotiations with Lo Bengulo to establish a 'friendly'

and its Founder, told by others

117

protection over the country. It is possible that Germany has been
using Pretoria tools. There is little doubt that Germany is leaving
no stone unturned to establish domination in South Africa. There
is equally little doubt that the British Government view German
intrigue south of the Equator with what may easily prove to be a
disastrous indifference." With these pregnant words of warning, we
may conclude our notice of a work which contains much valuable
information, given to us in an impartial spirit. Mr. Mathers does
not spare the errors or the faults of the past, but he looks on the
future of the South African Gold Fields with assured confidence.

The Scotsman.

Mr. E. P. Mathers evidently possesses a most intimate acquaint-
ance with South Africa, and especially with the territories north of
Natal. His book, "The Gold Fields Revisited," is full of details
respecting mining ; successes and failures are chronicled, usually
with indications of how they have been brought about. Mr. Mathers,
who has previously written on the subject of the African Gold
Fields, asserts that he has not lost faith in their ultimate productive-
ness. But he makes the proviso that the men who make money by
them will be those who have had experience and can bring to work
all the best appliances. Mr. Mathers calls attention to the condition
of Swazieland, threatened with Boer incursions. Here he urges, as
Mr. Mackenzie did in regard to Bechuanaland, that the policy
pursued by Sir H. Robinson is greatly to the detriment of British
interests. The book is excellently supplied with maps.

Investors Guardian.

has quickly taken the position of the standard

work of reference on the Transvaal Gold Fields. It is to be found
on the table of most merchants connected with South Africa. An
English edition is in the press, and will shortly be published.

The author is now recognised as a leading

authority in the Transvaal Gold Fields.

Sheffield Daily Telegraph.

" The Gold Fields Revisited " ought to be read by everyone
who is interested in the Gold Fields of South Africa, or in the
welfare generally of that important colony. Mr. E. P. Mathers,
the author, is a Colonial journalist of considerable experience and
of deservedly high reputation. While recounting in his valuable
work a series of important facts, he has prevented it from de-
generating into dryness by the pleasantly vivacious manner in
which he describes the varied scenes through which he journeyed
while collecting the materials for this work.

P"inancial Critic.

A most useful work for everyone interested in South African
gold mining. It gives an exhaustive account, from the inside, of
the gold fields, which are only so many names to Europeans, and
of the mines that are so plentifully besprinkled over them, in which

so much English money has been invested The text

is rendered easier of understanding by a series of large and carefully
prepared maps, which enable the reader to follow Mr. Mathers in

his travels step by step There is much to attract the

attention of enterprising investors in Mr. Mathers' instructive
observations upon the nature of the properties round about the

Sheba Company's Mine His remarks on the Wit-

watersrand properties are also of especial interest, owing to the
recent attention that has been given to them in London. We are
informed on good authority that the mines included in this district
are showing so much promise that a syndicate of City financiers
has been formed to operate in the shares. Chapter xxx. of the
book treats in a comprehensive and well-informed manner of these
mines ; but as the whole of it must be read to acquire anything
like a knowledge of the subject, we refrain from making quota-
tions. We must note an instructive account of a visit to Moodie's
Reef, which the shareholders in that company will probably read
with unusual attention, since it is cram full of facts and information
which, so far as we are aware, can be obtained from no other
published work. Interesting chapters are those which treat of the
Komati Gold Fields, the Swazieland Gold Fields, and the Lydenburg
Gold Fields. But it must not be supposed that the work is in any

way a technical manual, and without interest to the general reader.
Mr. Mathers believes in the new journalism, and his book, although
invaluable to the mining interest, contains much that is as amusing
and interesting as anything written by Lady Brassey. His accounts
of his interviews with President Kruger, the King of Swazieland,
and many other important people, are written in the best style, and
with unusual observation, and his remarks about the German
intrigues in South Africa must prove valuable to politicians.

financial NeiVS. (Leading article.)

The Gold Fields of South Africa have now such a deep interest
to British investors, that a book which gives a bird's eye view of
them is certain to be welcome. Mr. Edward P. Mathers, who three
years ago published " A Glimpse of the Gold Fields," has followed
that book with " The Gold Fields Revisited," a volume which will
form a favourite work of reference on the auriferous properties of
the Transvaal. The book is crowded with facts and details, so much
so that it is next to impossible to quote from the body of the text
without seeming to give prominence to one gold field or mine at
the expense of another. But Mr. Mathers summarises in an ex-
haustive introduction the conclusions he drew from his second close
inspection of the Transvaal Fields. "The following pages," he
writes, " will bear testimony that so far from my supposing that
the Gold Fields of South Africa will disappoint the expectations
formed of them by the shrewder section of an ever-growing
circle of investors, and by those who are looking to them to
give the world a substantial increase of the precious metal, I am
of those who believe that auriferous South Africa is but yet in the
infancy of its modern development." Mr. Mathers gives a resume
of all the previous literature of South African gold, and draws from
it, and from the records of mining before the Transvaal boom that
" the gold discoveries of the past in South Africa were as
promising as those of the present." The point of this remark is, of
course, to show that recent reports are not coloured, but are quite in
keeping with former experience. Mr. Mathers closes his intro-
duction by expressing the opinion that the quantity of gold so far
produced is by no means proportionate to the capital invested in
South Africa. But he believes that 1887 marks the real beginning
of the prosperity of the fields, the erection of efficient machinery
dating only from that year.

The first part of Mr. Mathers' book deals with his experience at
" Moodie's " three years ago, which are sketched with a graphic
pen, and make an effective contrast with the subsequent pages,
Passing on to the second part, which begins the book proper, we
find Mr. Mathers much impressed with the salubrity of Barberton.
where, he says, " the gravedigger, finding his occupation unprofit-
able, threw it up in disgust and took to digging for gold." The
introduction of capital into the fields has worked wonders, for the
companies have " taught a great lesson of economy and correct
working." After giving a general description of Moodie's, Mr.
Mathers plunges into details of the various properties, and from this
point onwards the book is intensely practical, and will be eagerly
studied by shareholders in the different mines. The Kaap District,
the Komati Fields, the Swazieland Mines, Lydenburg and Wit-
watersrand, Malmani, and so forth, are all thoroughly studied and
described, the whole being lightened with pleasant touches
illustrative of manners and customs —Boer, native and European —
of social life and of the political aspect of the influx of miners into
these regions. Mr. Mathers' readable volume is followed by a
useful table of distances, and is rendered more clear by a series of
very fair maps. The book is timely and acceptable.

The B itllionist.

According to Mr. Mathers, part, at least, of this was the Ophir
of Scripture narrative, the seat of the Queen of Sheba's kingdom,
and the area from which Solomon enriched the Temple and the
City of Jerusalem. He reminds us how Sir Roderick Murchison,
many years ago, in an address to the Geographical Society,
expressed his conviction that the region which feeds the Zambesi
and the Limpopo contains the ancient Ophir. The exact locality
of this interesting spot has been lost for ages, and, meanwhile,
geographers, historians, and others have found it, or persuaded
themselves that they have found it, in Africa and several parts of

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

Asia. We do not attempt to decide the knotty question. Now
attention is directed to the region on the eastern and south-eastern
side of the Dark Continent, and, if we are to believe the stories of
those who ought to know, the world will not be much older before
gold will be found in these regions in quantities hitherto un-
precedented. Mr. Mathers has seen the Gold Fields with his own
eyes, and has brought to bear on the consideration of the subject a
mind well qualified by special attributes and by large experience
to deliver a sound practical judgment. His faith in the ultimate
great productiveness of the Transvaal Gold Fields remains unshaken.

Those who wish to determine how Africa is likely

to rank ten years hence as the modern Ophir, should study Mr.
Mathers' book. It is brimful of information on the subject, and
supplies in complete detail ample material to assist in determining
the important question. The history, the present position, and the
future prospects of the chief gold fields is amply set forth, and we
learn all it is possible to learn of Moodie's, of Barberton, Eureka
City, the Golden Quarry, the Sheba Company, the Fig Tree Creek,
the Kaap, Komatie, the Swazieland, the Witswatersrand, and the
Lydenburg Gold Fields. We strongly recommend this useful
volume, with its five or six excellent maps, which illustrate the
letterpress and render the study of the volume both easier and more
profitable.

European Mail.

Will prove very suggestive to readers on this side. The maps
clearly indicate the districts visited.

Mining World.

This work is a laborious and conscientious attempt on the part
of Mr. Mathers to put before the public a mass of useful information
on the subject of the Gold Fields of South Africa. In upwards of
350 pages he does not claim to have exhausted the subject, but he
has thrown light upon many subjects upon which the " Dark
Continent " is more than ordinarily obscure. Three or four years
ago he first addressed the public upon the subject of the present
work, and since then the South African Gold Fields have received a
residential population of about 20,000 persons, and absorbed

ten millions of capital We must leave Mr. Mathers

and Mr. Abbott to fight this question out, and, doubtless, they will
end the combat by each being persuaded that the other is wrong.
The work is well written, and full of informa-
tion. It should be read with care by all interested in the develop-
ment of South Africa. Five excellent maps add greatly to its
value, and the appendices, comprising a list of companies, showing
the head office, the capital, and the district where situated, besides
a table of distances from all the parts in South Africa to the gold
centres, render it indispensable as a work of reference.

Newcastle Daily Chronicle.

(From a long leading article, headed " Golden South Africa.")
While people are discussing the existence of gold in Wales, as
though, forsooth, it were a new thing, Mr. Edward P. Mathers,
F.R.G.S., is calling attention to something of far greater conse-
quence— the vast and undeveloped auriferous tracts in South Africa.
During the last three years the South African El Dorado has
attracted a residential population of some twenty thousand persons,
and engulfed some ten millions of capital. Towns such as
Barberton have sprung up, so to speak, in a night. Three years ago
Darberton had no existence. The mountain solitudes were destitute
of civilisation. To-day it is a thriving place of about four
thousand inhabitants, the capital of the Kaap Gold Fields, and the
financial and trading centre for a population of another four
thousand. In view of the birth and rapid growth of these new com-
munities, Mr. Mathers has rendered an important service in
publishing his "Gold Fields Revisited." It contains, indeed, a
most exhaustive account of the vast treasure grounds which have
excited the minds of the adventurous ever since King Solomon drew
his enormous wealth from the Ophir region—believed by modern
geographers to have been situated in South-Eastern Africa. There
is a formidable array of facts and figures in Mr. Mathers' book.
He has been on the spot; all his descriptions, comments, and
suggestions are the fruits of a personal investigation, and there is
not the slightest trace of "digger madness" in his composition.

Everything is examined by him in a shrewd, cold, and critical
spirit, and, though he takes a hopeful view of wresting from
Golden South Africa " the auriferous quartz which seams her crust,
north, south, east, and west," his statements are evidently candid,

and influenced by a solemn desire to reveal the truth

In this highly interesting work Mr. Mathers describes more

particularly the region of Gold Fields, bounded

It is impossible, within the limits of the space at our
command, to offer even a tolerable summary of the contents
of Mr. Mathers' bulky volume. Those who would know all
about the Kaap and the Rand gold districts, and the prospect
they offer to personal enterprise and capital, must refer to the book
itself for information. One or two salient points may, however, be

touched upon The ruin of many hopes brought

the South African El Dorado into bad odour ; and it has been,
apparently, one of Mr. Mathers' objects to restore it to good repute.
The case he makes out is to all appearances a very fair one. The
Gold Fields have been the victims of reckless speculation, incom-
petent " prospecting," and occasional dishonesty. Of the vastness
and richness of the auriferous tracts there can, however, according
to Mr. Mathers, be no doubt. They require alone to be judiciously
worked and developed. On the qualifications of the persons best
fitted to try their luck in the Gold Fields, Mr. Mathers has also a
good deal to say. The risks and hardships of the gold-seeker are
pointed out in detail by Mr. Mathers, and they may be summed up
in the verses quoted by him. ...... None but the healthy

and vigorous need think of it. In spite of all, however, the Gold
Fields of South Africa are being fast populated ; and for those who
have learned from the legend of Miss Kilmansegg not to put too
much faith in the precious metal, there is opened a more legitimate
opportunity of making a livelihood by trade and by catering for
the diggers' wants. The best outcome of the gold fever in
Australia was the transformation of the Ballarat huts into a
palatial city, and the rise of numerous other prosperous communities.
If the present thirst for gold achieved this in the African region it
would be the realisation of a splendid dream.

Financial World.

All shareholders in, or intending investors in, South African
gold mines should purchase this work. Though bristling with
statistics, it is written in that free and easy style that makes the
reading light and pleasant, and the writer does not flinch in giving
his honest opinion on the various gold fields and the mines com-
prising them. Shareholders will learn more by a perusal of this
book than from the statements issued by the various companies,
and will find themselves able to gauge pretty accurately the value
of their property and the dividend it is likely to pay. There are
many humorous portions of the work, dealing with the King of
Swazieland and the customs of his people ; and there is also a good
deal relating to the Boer question. The author believes that the
South African Gold Fields form the long-lost but historical Kingdom
of Ophir, and possibly he is right. At all events, it is clear that the
South African Gold Fields have already made their mark, and we
agree with the author that provided the companies are not
overburdened with unnecessary capital and promotion money, they

are bound to do well It is clear that Mr. Mathers

has thoroughly mastered his subject, and he has the knack of
interesting his readers in what to most would be a very dry
subject.

Citizen.

The Citizen introduces a seven column extract as follows : — The
characteristics of Johannesburg, of which the above is an illustration,
as engraved from a photographic view, are detailed in a lively and
graphic way in an interesting book, by Mr. Edward P. Mathers,
F.R.G.S., just published.

Weekly Bulletin.

We have been favoured with a copy of this admirable work on
the Golds Fields of South Africa, by Edward P. Mathers, F.R.G.S.
It contains a mass of interesting and useful information respecting
the country which is now attracting universal attention. Some
carefully prepared maps accompany the work, which should have
a very large sale in this country.

and its Founder, told by others

119

REDUCED FACSIMILES OF "SOUTH AFRICA" PLATE SUPPLEMENTS

120

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

Morning Post.

In "The Gold Fields Revisited," Mr. Edward P. Mathers,
F.R.G.S., has revised and enlarged his valuable communications on

the Gold Fields of South Africa The author takes a

sanguine view of the future of these districts, which he considers

more extensive than is generally supposed Mr.

Mathers divides his book into two parts, the first on "The Kaap
Fields Three Years Ago," and the second "The Gold Fields
Revisited." In part I. he gives an account of his first trip to
Moodie's, his impressions of the country, and the digger's life, and
concludes with a repetition of the advice he gave in 1884 to those
who thought of trying their fortune in the auriferous regions. The
second part goes more into detail, and sketches the history of many
of the companies formed for working the various adventures. The
book contains much information and sound advice, and gives a
correct view of the present condition of the South African gold-
bearing regions, and an encouraging account of their future
prospects. In the appendixes will be found a table of distances,
and a list of the South African gold mining companies, with the
name of each, the situation of its head office, and the amount of
capital.

Money.

Gold-mining in the Transvaal has distinctly emerged from its

initiatory and tentative stage The work which has

been so much desiderated by everyone interested in South African
affairs has at last appeared. The historian and contemporary
chronicler of Transvaal gold-mining has arisen in the person of a
well-known South African journalist, Mr. Edward P. Mathers, of
Durban. This is not Mr. Mathers' first literary effort in connection
with Transvaal gold-mining--a subject of which he has made a

special study ever since the first discoveries were reported

Our author informs us in his preface that the work has been put to
press amid the distractions of a busy journalistic life. This
apologetic tone seems scarcely called for when we consider how
ably the scheme of the book has been conceived, the thorough
grasp of the subject it displays, and the skill with which the vast

array of facts are marshalled A chief merit of the

work is the unmistakable air of candour and truthfulness that
pervades every page, a quality that greatly enhances its value to
the mining investor and promoter. At every stage in his journey
he simply presents a literary photograph of what he saw going on.
Mr. Mathers, as will be seen by the following excerpt from his
introduction — which, by the way, gives a succinct account of what

has been so far known of the existence of gold in South Africa and
the views of modern geologists who have visited those regions - is
a firm believer in the richness of the Gold Fields as a whole,
though he frequently utters a note of warning where he thinks that
capital and energy are being expended with insufficient prospects
of pecuniary results. He says :—

Mr. Mathers is deservedly severe upon the company-mongering
and reckless financing that have grievously retarded the real
development of the fields, and he lectures the Barbertonians in the
following trenchant passages : —

The book is supplied with the following excellently lithographed
maps :- -" Golden South Africa," " District of Delagoa Bay," " Kaap
Fields and Swazieland," and " Witwatersrand and Heidelberg
Fields." The tables of distances from all points and posts of South
Africa to the gold centres will be of everyday usefulness for many
years to come, and the other appendix, showing the head office and
capital of each company, with the district where situated, is alone
worth the price of the book. To the general reader the book is
sufficiently interesting even from a mere travel point of view, for
Mr. Mathers' ready pen and descriptive powers afford ample
entertainment.

Truth.

You say that I have not yet fulfilled my promise of giving you
some information about the South African mines. Time and space
have not permitted my doing so until now, but I will give
you a long chapter on the subject later on. In the meanwhile, I
may tell you that I have been favoured by the publishers at
Durban, Natal, with a very interesting volume, " The Gold Fields
Revisited," being further glimpses of the Gold Fields of South
Africa, by Edward P. Mathers, F.R.G.S. This is a very useful
handbook, compiled from recent information. Respecting the De
Kaap Gold Fields, in which you are chiefly interested, the author
sums up to the effect that they have not been fairly tested yet, that
their payable character has been placed beyond all dispute, but
that syndicate supporters and company shareholders do not get a
return for their money, because, in nineteen cases out of twenty, the
wrong class of men have been sent to the fields, men who know as
much about mining as a cat does about the multiplication table.

Pall Mall Gazette.

Mr. Mathers is a recognised authority on South African
matters.

THAN Mr. Mathers, no better guide to South Africa could exist.
— Aberdeen Journal.

MR. MATHERS' valuable communications on the Gold Fields of
South Africa.— Morning Post.

MR. MATHERS' graphic and exceedingly interesting style tempts
even the indifferent reader to follow him. — Literary World.

MR. MATHERS describes everything he sees, and he sees with an
eye accustomed to note anything likely to make interesting
reading. — Eastern ProT.nnce Herald.

MR. MATHERS is a firm believer in the future of the South
African Gold Fields. He is an explorer and investigator, who in
person writes of that which he has seen. — Saturday Review.

" ZAMBESIA " may be counted in reality " the book of the season."
Mi. Mathers' views on Mashonaland as a field for colonisation should
neither be missed by investor nor politician.- -Financial Critic.

MR. E. P. MATHERS is to be heartily congratulated upon his
</>V>u/ in London, while the Gold Fields of the Transvaal are
equally to be congratulated upon the advocate they have secured
in the heart of the financial world. — Gold l-'iclds Times.

IN England and here Mr. Mathers' fifty-page weekly — brimful
as it is with the latest South African matter, from sporting to share-
broking, mining to manners — has become an institution in itself,
and specie-, of South African Bible by which people swear. —
Johannesburg Standard.

MR. EDWARD P. MATHERS, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., has sung South
Africa with sturdy voice and powerful pen these five years and
more ; and. in his capacity of editor of " SOUTH AFRICA "—a capacity
in which he is familiar to millions to-day— has rendered this
o mtinent services which are hardly to be calculated at this date, so
many and so peculiar are they. — Johannesburg Standard (1892).

ON Saturday night a complimentary dinner was given at the
Rand Club to Mr. E. P. Mathers, editor of " SOUTH AFRICA," by
Mr. Lionel Phillips and Mr. F. Eckstein. The occasion was in
every respect a brilliant one, and, as will be seen from the list of
names of those present, the gathering was large and thoroughly
representative of Rand interests, all Johannesburg's foremost men
assembling to do honour to the guest of the evening. --Johannesburg
Standard.

ONE eminent English pressman, speaking to us not long ago,
said he had only known one other instance of such rapid
journalistic success as that of " SOUTH AFRICA," and that was the
instance of the Graphic. We blushed, and raised our fan, or
whatever passes for that in an editorial den. The compliment
kept us pondering ; a short time afterwards the new daily issue ol
the (imp/lie was announced. The parallel we thought was now,
perhaps, more nearly complete ; only the chances are in favour of
"SouTH AFRICA" not having to wait twenty years before feeling
justified in venturing upon a daily issue. — " SOUTH AFRICA,'
January 4.th, 1890.

and its Founder, told by others

121

" Golden South Africa."

THE STANDARD POPULAR BOOK ON

GOLD IN SOUTH AFRICA,
WRITTEN BY E. P. MATHERS.

OLDEN SOUTH AFRICA," a book known all over the world, was published in London
in 1887, and following are some of the opinions expressed by the Press upon it : —

Aberdeen Journal.

At the present time, when so much attention is being directed
to South Africa, this book comes very opportunely. The success
which has attended its publication, it being now in its fourth
edition, shows how highly it has been appreciated by the public.
Than Mr. Mathers no better guide to South Africa could be got.
He has twice very carefully travelled over every part of it, and his
observations and inquiries, made calmly, deliberately, and impar-
tially, are to be found embodied in this volume. It is not a mere
guide-book, but is enlivened with accounts of many amusing and
curious experiences, as well as attractive descriptions of life on the
way to and at the Gold Fields. There are no fewer than five excel-
lent full-sized maps, which aid greatly in the understanding of the
purely practical part of Mr. Mathers' information.

The Bookseller.

Now that the gold fever has so decidedly settled upon South
Africa any work that undertakes to give trustworthy information on
that region is sare of a warm welcome. Mr. Mathers has collected
in this volume of nearly four hundred pages very much valuable
knowledge, particularly with regard to the gold mines which have
been started of late years ; and the fact that his work has now
reached a fourth edition shows that it has been found useful by
that portion of the public to which it especially appeals. It is
illustrated with five well-drawn maps, and all who are interested
in South African Gold Fields will find it a satisfactory half-crown's
worth.

Daily Telegraph.

So much interest now prevails respecting diamond mining and
gold finding in the Transvaal and the Cape Colonies, that
" Golden South Africa," by Mr. Edward P. Mathers, F.R.G.S., has
reached a fourth edition. The author has gone over the ground,
and his work furnishes comparatively full details within moderate
compass of all the principal areas where gold is being worked.
Accompanying the text are five useful maps, and the reader will'
find throughout information of a practical character.

Barbcrton Represcnlatii r .

A first-class work Should be in the possession of

all who are interested in the progress of these fields ; besides con-
taining maps of the districts of Delagoa Bay, the Kaap Fields, and
Swazieland, Moodies, Witwatersrand and the Heidelberg Fields,
it contains some very interesting travels and statistics, based on the
most reliable data. There are also to be found a list of companies,
tables of distances, and the progress of our principal companies is
very well portrayed. . . . . . "Should be in every library and

household at home and abroad. Considering the price, it is within

the reach of everyone.- Well put together, and

should be very interesting to those at a distance

Should have a large circulation amongst the people of the Colony,
England and elsewhere.

BEING
FURTHER

GLIMPSES

GOLD FIELDS
AFRICA

W. B. WH1TTINGHAM & CO.Ltd

91, GRACECHURCH STREET, LONDON, E.G.

REDUCED FACSIMILE OF FRONT OF COVER
Weekly Bulletin.

The book is admirably written, and contains a mass of infor-
mation of a most interesting character concerning the Transvaal
and other of the South African Gold Fields which are attracting so
much attention in England just now. Mr. Mathers has lived a
long time in the country, and he is to be complimented upon the
eminently readable form in which he has placed before us the
resources of a most important portion of the " Dark Continent."

122

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

Harberton Herald.

Mr. Edward P. Mathers' book may be said to be a summary,
descriptive, statistic, and topographical, of the Gold Fields of the
Transvaal and Swazieland down to the close of October last, and
its three hundred and fifty pages are crammed with information
gleaned from a personal tour and interviews with the best men at
the fields. It is at the same time written in a most agreeable and
entertaining manner. There are no less than five well-executed
maps from surveys by competent men. The volume, indeed, forms
a hand-book on the subject of South African gold, and ought to
have even a larger sale in England than it will command in South
Africa.

Daily Chronicle.

Covers a wide field, and gives a large amount of information.
Mr. Mathers believes that auriferous South Africa is but yet in the
infancy of its modern development, and sets forth his reasons at

length A work full of interest on the subject of the

Gold Fields of South Africa, the position and prospects of the lead-
ing gold fields being given at considerable length, while the
addition of several maps renders the letterpress more easily under-
stood.

77ie Capitalist.

The copy under notice is the " fourth edition," and completes
the issue up to date of publication of seven thousand copies within
a very short time. It is not surprising, for it is a bright and in-
teresting work on a subject that occupies a large amount of
attention at the present time. Mr. Mathers gives a brief account
of the various Transvaal and other fields, and particulars of the
claims, the reefs and the companies at work. No such information
is to be found elsewhere, and its great recommendation is the
complete disinterestedness and independence of the descriptions and
opinions set forth. For all who have visited South Africa the book
will be found a most agreeable souvenir ; for those about to go
there an excellent guide-book ; and for others who are pecuniarily
or otherwise interested in the country an encyclopaedia of facts.

Cape Times.

A complete and accurate guide to the Gold

Fields of the Transvaal. In May, 1884, Mr. Mathers made his first
visit to the Kaap, travelling by way of Delogoa Bay and
Swazieland. The impressions of that visit form the first part of
the present work ; the second part may be described as a verification
of the first impressions and something more — the something more

being the new impressions obtained at Witwatersrand

In the first part of his work Mr. Mathers gives an account of the
early days of " Moodie's," and of the then almost deserted Kantoor.

Mr. Mathers returned to Natal, convinced that,

though affording no scope for the poor adventurer, the Kaap
offered a good prospect for experienced minersand small capitalists.
But at that time it was uncertain whether the Transvaal Govern-
ment would throw the fields open, or persist in their fatal policy of
concessions ; and Mr. Mathers could only advise the digger to wait
until that point was settled before committing himself to what
might prove a bootless expedition. On his return to the Kaap this
year, Mr. Mathers is able to claim the distinction of an approved
prophet. Those who follow him in his journey will never have
cause to complain of lack of entertainment. An account of every
important property will be found, and of every place worth men-
tioning. The old faith is confirmed ; but still there is employment
for the prophet. " The Barbertonians of to-day," for example, he
writes, " may be, and I believe are, as a whole, the right class to
make the most of a developed gold field when created, but as the
Kaap Fields is far from being developed there is nothing but

distress ahead for some at present there if they remain

Barbertonians have to face the fact that Natal has been severely
drained of money to develop their fields, and that there will now
be a great falling-off in the influx of capital until the mines have
yielded gold in quantity. Many of them can do so, but they must
give the only proof which will now be accepted, viz., the gold."

But for further information about Witwatersrand,

and wherever else the irritamcntn inulontiii are dug out of the soil,
the patient reader is referred to Mr. Mathers' book

In addition to readable narrative and description, it contains an
ample supply of statistical information, tables of distances, and
useful maps. It is a work that, at the present time, no one whojis
interested in South African progress should be without.

The Empire.

This valuable and interesting work has now reached its fourth
edition, and no doubt will continue to have a large sale.

Eiiropean Mail.

This fourth edition of Mr. Mathers' highly appreciated book
may well be styled " The South African Gold Fields ' up t> >
date,' " for in each edition as it appears the latest finds, companies,
and their modes of working are included. The book is not a mere
dry statistical work either, for, valuable as it is in that respect, it
abounds with interesting notes of travel and anecdote concerning
the various gold centres the author has visited and the people he
has met. The maps, of which there are several, form a most useful
addition to the book, as do also the thoroughly well-worked-out
tables of distances at the end, which are not confined merely to the
Gold Fields of the Transvaal, but take in the much more distant Tati
and other northern Fields. We commend the new edition of this
little gold-mine compendium to all interested in South African
mines as a book that will yield them both pleasure and profit.

Daily News.

Put together with the aid of maps in such a way as to provide a
very good survey of the country and its history, from a mining
point of view. The author anticipates a large increase in the yield
of gold, in consequence of the erection of machinery to crush the
auriferous quartz of South Africa.

Dundee Advertiser.

At the present time when men, weary with the battle for riches
at home, are casting wistful glances towards the gold fields,
Mr. Edward P. Mathers' book " Golden South Africa " cannot but
be of surpassing interest. Mr. Mathers has visited the principal
gold-producing reefs of South Africa, and the work recently
published is the result of his observations and inquiries. The
history of the fields is given along with statistics which show the
annual yield of the metal, so that those intending to try their
fortunes in the gold fields will find a vast amount of valuable, and
indeed necessary, information. Mr. Mathers is equally interesting
to the intending traveller, and to the general reader, the descriptions
of his journeyings through that wonderful continent being always
graphic and lively. The work is accompanied by numerous maps,
and forms a capital hand-book for travellers or " diggers."

Engineering.

What a wonderful impetus is given to anything speculative
when the ancient legends of a long-forgotten world are entwined
about the common-place facts of to-day, and the whole rests
snugly under the halo of romance. 'Twas that halo that started
many an adventurer on the journey from which he has never amir
back to tell his tale ; it is the same halo which causes, and will
cause, many a man to start his hard-earned gold rolling away, to
gather, like the snowball in its course, from the sources wherein mi
our Biblical forefathers drew their inexhaustible store. Will the
gold be like the traveller and never return ? Perhaps it may be
like the snowball when the sunlight is too strong upon it? Truly
fortunate indeed is the country which can apply will-o'-the-wisp
gilding to the sombre realities met with in the search for the
" Almighty dollar." In the introduction to the work under review,
we are led straightaway unto that Ophir whence Solomon is said to
have drawn — in modern value— nine hundred millions pounds' worth
of gold. Still stranger discoveries await the reader. Authors are
quoted who locate, by ancient Arab tradition, the self-same Garden
of Eden of which we have all read. Then, coming to nearer
times, and to conditions more like these in which we now live, we
read how a Dominican friar landed at Sofala over three hundred
years ago, sailed up the great river Cuama (Zambesi) as far as Tete,
and thence penetrated over six hundred miles into the country, " and
saw the gold mines there working at a mountain called Afura." In

and its Founder^ told by others

123

one of the mines it has been recorded that " there has been found
a lump of gold worth twelve thousand ducats, and another of
the value of fourteen hundred thousand."

In some charmingly written chapters the author tells of his
experiences in 1884, during his voyage in a small coasting steamer
from Durban to Delagoa Bay, wherein some most laughable gold-
field anecdotes are told. He graphically describes his first im-
pressions on landing, and his journey to the Gold Fields, not
forgetting the grim and awful realities of the gold-seeker's life, which,
if men would only think, should weigh down a thousand-fold the
glamour of romance with which the wiiters quoted from, coloured
their tales of the wealth of the country. After staying for some
time amongst the motley crew, comprising the population at
" Moodie's," the author retured to Natal by the overland route. This
time the story of the journey is more enticing than that of the
uproad through the fever-stricken country lying between Delagoa
and Barberton ; the account of the game seen on the road awakes
all the "sportsman's" or savage instinct within a man ; unfortunately
the horrors, though not so apparent on this road, were still present ;
murder, suicide, starvation, sickness and death were frequently met
with. In closing Part I. of this work much sound advice is
given to would-be adventurers before starting " to make their pile."

Financial News.

The demand for this book has necessitated the issue of a fourth
edition, and Mr. E. P. Mathers must be complimented by the
appreciation it has met with from the public. While it is full of
information, it is written in an easy style, which renders doses of
fact much easier to swallow. Mr. Mathers has been all over the
various gold districts of South Africa, and one of his most exciting
journeys was from the fever-stricken district round Delagoa Bay to
Moodie's. To learn what he thinks of the relative value of the
Rand, De Kaap, Swazieland, or Lydenburg Gold Fields, readers
must peruse this book for themselves.

Financial Chronicle.

We must congratulate the author on the fact that the popularity
of the book has called for a fresh issue. " Golden South Africa " is
eminently readable and instructive, and in view of the deep interest
now being taken in South Africa the present edition will without
doubt be as well read as the previous ones. Of course, the most
interesting chapters, and the ones which readers will first turn to,
are those on the " Rand " and its various companies. These
chapters are accompanied by a map, which is very valuable for
reference.

Financial World.

All eyes are now turned to South Africa, and no one is better
able than Mr. E. P. Mathers to give reliable information.

The Graphic.

Emigrants and others journeying to the South African Gold
Fields will find a good deal to interest them in the fourth edition of
Mr. Mathers' book, " Golden South Africa." Full information
relating to the auriferous districts of South Africa is to be found in
this volume, together with other useful details concerning the
climate, &c. As a guide-book to the different mining centres the
book will prove specially useful. The work is supplemented by
several good maps of the mining localities, and a list of the South
African gold-mining companies is appended to the volume.

Homeward Mail.

It has already reached its seventh thousand .A

bright, clear, and complete account by an expert of the South
African Gold Fields, with every kind of information that may be
useful to an intending emigrant or investor, with many a useful
warning, and opinions and statistics of much value. There are
several good maps, and the tables of routes and distances add no
less to the interest than the utility of the book.

Glasgow Herald.

The world seems entering upon a new access of gold fever.
Everywhere one sees the symptoms— from New South Wales to
Ancient Cambria, and from the Madras Presidency to South Africa.

At such a time, then, a publication like that before us has a double
interest. So much that is vague and so much that is obviously
unreal has reached us with regard to the African mines that the
unbiassed narrative of a non-gold-seeking observer is of distinct
value. Mr. Mathers did not go to the Gold Fields on the yellow
hunt, but in his capacity as journalist. He went to spy out the
land and to gather all the information he could. In the present
volume we find what he saw on a first visit in 1884, and also what
he saw on a second visit three years later, and the reader has thus
the advantage of a comparative survey as well as the greater
advantage of the most recent authentic information. Mr. Mathers
writes with the pen of a practised penman, and his style is springy
and vivacious. But he is not content with a superficial sketch.
He goes fully into everything -statistics, geology, geography, and
even politics — as affecting the great gold question. And he
illustrates his narrative with a number of excellent maps. In an
introduction he makes a historical retrospect of the subject of gold
in Africa, and, like a good many other people, he seems inclined to
locate the Ophir of Solomon in South-Eastern Africa. The modern
gold seeker will not care greatly for that so long as he can find
anything like an Ophir still remaining. At present there is a
residential population of some twenty thousand persons, and a
capital of some ten millions sterling employed on these Gold
Fi'elds. As yet the yield of gold has been disproportionate to such
concentration of labour and capital, and Mr. Mathers estimates
that the total output for 1887 will probably not reach half a
million in value. But it is the future he looks to, and the present
he counts as the fair beginning of a time which shall place
South Africa in an important place among the gold-producing
countries of the world. The auriferous quartz seams the crust of
Africa- north, south, east, and west— and Mr. Mathers has great
faith in its future productiveness, although he is not quite so
sanguine as those who declare that the Transvaal Fields are second
to none in the world. In an appendix there is given a table of
distances, and also a list of all the South African gold-mining
companies and their capital.

Journal of Gas Lighting.

Anybody desirous of learning something about this remarkable
region will not be wrong in obtaining a copy of Mr. Mathers'
well-written book.

The Literary World.

The present excitement over the gold discoveries in South Africa
is due entirely to the Sheba Reef, which is the Mount Morgan of
Africa. It is situated in the De Kaap valley of which Barberton is
the centre. Forty miles away from Bray's golden quarry, which
has yielded on an average jA ounces to the ton, people claim still to
be on the same Sheba reef ; but the author suspects that more than
one reef in the Transvaal will prove " very like a whale," and that
many mines on the Sheba reef will prove to be mere names.

By the very mention of such facts as these, the

author shows a disposition to be cautious, yet after traversing the
ground and seeing things with his own eyes, he arrives at the

conclusion that His opinion is entitled to great

respect, because there are evident traces, all through the work, that
he thoroughly understands the intricacies of mining.

In connection with the total yield from Australia, vast as it is,
it may be interesting to remark that it contrasts poorly with
Solomon's Ophir, which is said to have produced £ 900,000,000 ;
so that Ophir, whether in South Africa or elsewhere, still heads the
list as to quantity of output.

Mr. Mathers concludes that whereas it will require one ounce
per ton to pay a profit in De Kaap, half an ounce will attain the
same end in the Rand ; and the latest returns show that the Rand
is passing De Kaap in the quantity of gold exported. So far,

Johannesburg is beating Barberton in the race The

size of the gold-bearing area is so vast, and the number of reefs is
so bewildering, that, in present conditions, not even those on the
spot can accurately judge of the relative merits of the properties.
Even Lydenburg, which the author disparages, has since publica-
tion, shown symptoms of vitality. It is in this district that are
situated the mines best known on the London market — viz.,
Spitzkop, Graskop, Balkis, New Lisbon-Bjrlyn, and a few others.

124

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

Besides, there are Malmani, Koniati, Swazieland, Waterberg, and
/.'utspansberg, entire districts with an unknown future before
them. How the last-named came into notice is worth citing.

This work is invaluable for anyone interested in South African
properties, except diamonds, of which no mention is made. It is
enriched with maps, and is marvellous value at the price. Very
sound advice and information are copiously given. Some of the
precepts we cite, as a guide to investors : — Assays are delusive ;
crack-crushings are pitfalls for the unwary ; one reef will pay at
five or six pennyweights, while another will not pay with one ounce ;
the best-paying properties in America are the low-grade ores ; hence
facilities for working are as important as richness of reef: and
insufficient working capital often wrecks a rich mine. As to
climate, it seems to be perfect, with the exception of the country
between Lorenco Marques and Barberton, where not only human
beings die of fever, but also oxen. And there is in this tract the
tsetse fly, the curse of Africa. Barberton itself is healthy, as also
Steynsdorp, Ladysmith, and Johannesburg ; and the doctors have had
to quit Eureka city because they could get no patients. The author
gives a very interesting account of his visit to, and conversations with,
President Kruger. In Swazieland a man may not look at his wife's
mother, but the reason of his prohibition, the very thought of
which would throw a Frenchman into raptures, could not be
ascertained. In this country they have such a regard for decency
that only the king is allowed to be abroad naked. The Swazies
once regarded the English as their protectors, but the cruel
indifference of England has alienated them, and, in consequence,
they will most likely fall a prey to the Boers. The Gaza people
have also a liking for the British, but they are waiting to see if we
are stronger than the Boers. Let us hope that the mistakes we
have undoubtedly made in South Africa will not be repeated there

or elsewhere.

(FURTHER NOTICE.)

We are not surprised that this work has reached a fourth edition.
The author's graphic and exceedingly interesting style tempts even
the indifferent reader to follow him in his account of the districts
where so many fortunes are now being made or — lost.

Mining News.

The fourth edition of this very popular work is before us, and
we must confess we have read Mr. Mathers' labours in the golden
land with pleasure and profit. The opening chapter reads like a
romance, so graphically are scene and country, produce and wealth
depicted : the possession of a knowledge of men and things dealt
with becomes apparent in every page and in every line. So far as
the information is concerned it may be accepted as absolutely
accurate, and no better guide to the gold fields exists than this
work. All details have been amended up to date, and the maps
which copiously illustrate the work are beautifully printed. We
cannot but recommend every one interested directly or indirectly
in South Africa to purchase this book ; and if they like pleasant
reading, combined with authoritative facts, they are sure to be
satisfied with their investment.

Manchester Guardian.

This is a London edition of a book the Durban edition of
which, published under the title " The Gold Fields Revisited," we
noticed).at some length recently. Both works appear to be identical,
but there is an obvious advantage in the change of title for the
home edition, as it conveys the needed information as to which of
the several gold-bearing regions of the earth is referred to. We
have already spoken of the book as being a complete manual of
information on the subject of the gold mines in the Transvaal and
its vicinity, and as being invaluable to all who are practically
interested in the opening up of the region and in the many and
important consequences, commercial and financial. We believe
that there is already a sufficient inquiry for the book to make it
unnecessary to add more than the welcome announcement that it
is now obtainable from a London publisher.

(FURTHER NOTICE.)

We noticed the earlier editions, and have now little more to do
than allude to the rapid appearance of successive issues as a note-

worthy indication of the interest in South African gold-mining
enterprises which has been aroused. The book is the best authority
on the subject of which it treats, and its utility is greatly enhanced
by the maps which it includes.

Neivcast/e Daily Chronicle.

The great success of this work is not surprising, as it is valuable
to the intending emigrant, and to the general reader most interesting
and instructive. The book is also remarkably cheap, containing
as it does nearly 400 octavo pages, and five large coloured maps.

(FURTHER NOTICE.)

We are sometimes asked by would-be wanderers over the face
of the globe for information about South Africa. The many books
in libraries do not afford the information required, for the globe-
trotter of to-day naturally wants to know all about the Land of
Ophir, whence Solomon is said to have drawn his supplies of the
gold and the ivory with which he beautified the Hebrew Zion.
Mathers' " Golden South Africa " is rich in information.

Mining World.

This is pre-eminently a book for the times. The question is
continually being asked, " What shall we do with our sons ? "
Mr. Mathers' book replies indirectly, send them to " Golden South
Africa." Why send them there? Again Mr. Mathers helps us
with the answer, for in this volume, of nearly 400 pages, he shows
the immense possibilities before those who no longer go to what
Livingstone called " The Dark Continent," but to a continent in
which Western ideas and civilization have already made rapid
strides, and which is being opened up with a rapidity beyond the
wildest dreams of 20 years ago. Mr. Mathers has become an
authority on South African subjects, and the present work will
increase the high reputation he already enjoys. It is well written,
and its value is enhanced by some excellent maps of the various
districts described.

Money Market Review.

We pointed out when the first edition appeared that the writer
had a sound and scientific acquaintance with gold mining, and
that he wrote with apparent impartiality, showing where good
work was being done and with sufficient capital, and in some cases
where the mining had been faulty or the capital insufficient. The
book has now reached a seventh edition, from which we may judge
how great an interest the British public take in the South African

Gold Mines i .

Mr. Mathers' book is practically divided into three parts, dealing
respectively with the Witwatersrand, the De Kaap, and the out-
lying districts, and the author has given especial prominence and
extra space to the De Kaap Mines. We think that this is a
judicious line of treatment. The British public know already a
great deal about the Witwatersrand Mines. We have monthly
accounts of the crushings in all cases where an office is established
in London, and in many cases where the companies still have
their headquarters in South Africa. We have regular reports of
the dividends declared ; and the prices at which the shares are
quoted prove that investors are taking into account, not only what
has already been done, but what may be still further expected
when the mines are fully developed and all the requisite machinery

is at work

The De Kaap Mines have been comparatively neglected since
the Rand proved itself so rich. But Mr. Mathers still holds to his
(.pinion that they will turn out exceedingly profitable, especially

considering the low prices of many of the shares

It is not possible to do more than give extracts and what may
' be called samples of the information supplied by "Golden South
Africa." We have probably said enough to induce investors to
purchase the bonk for themselves, and especially to consider the
prospects opening up for the De Kaap Mines, the shares in which
are still at comparatively low prices. We regret that want of
space compels us to reserve to another issue any notice of tin-
mines lying outside the boundaries of the Transvaal. There is
every reason to believe that great deposits of gold are to be found
in Komati, in Swazieland, in Matabeleland, in Bechuanaland, in
Damaraland. All these countries are so far under our influence

and its Founder, told by others

125

126

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

that they have undertaken to make no concessions except with the
consent of the British Government ; but Mr. Mathers inclines to the
view that the connection should be made still more intimate — in
point of fact, that these countries should all be proclaimed as
Crown Colonies or Provinces. In this we agree with him, and,
now that Prince Bismarck shows himself heartily sick of German
colonisation, we ought to have, once more, the future of South
Africa in our own hands.

Timber Trades Journal.

It is the only popular handbook on this part of the world, and
having been written upon personal knowledge of the country, and
also personal investigation of the facts dealt with, is extremely
reliable. The book contains five first-rate maps, and as a history
of a wonderful countrv, apart from its value as a guide to the
investor, is full of interesting and entertaining matter. We con-
gratulate Mr. E. P. Mathers, F.R.G.S., who is the author, upon the
excellence and the popularity of his work, and also upon his very
readable and useful weekly publication, " SOUTH AFRICA," which
continues and supplements, with a record of passing events, the
information he has given us of that region.

Times of Natal.

To investors both in Great Britain and British South Africa,
Mr. Mathers gives sensible advice, and places before them full
information as to the workings, and probable value of the
various properties in the different gold fields and South African
Republic. This information is worth careful study by all who

intend to give gold speculation a trial The writer

" claims to have made a conscientious effort to supply fairly reliable
information concerning a part of South Africa which is attracting
in an increasing degree the capital and labour of the outside
world." His claim is borne out on a perusal of his work, which
deals in a plain and critical manner with a veiy large number of
the most prominent properties. As we have previously reviewed
the work it is unnecessary to enter into details, but we cannot
help saying that not one single chapter in the whole volume is dull
or uninteresting. It is written in a cirisp, terse style, and the keen
sense of humour of the author is manifest throughout. Maps of
the various fields are appended, and the whole work is as complete
as it is possible to be.

The Scotsman.

The Scotsman recently gave a notice of a book written by a
prominent journalist in Durban, Mr. E. P. Mathers, F.R.G.S. That
gentleman seems to have been a painstaking collector of authentic
information on all matters connected with the gold discoveries, and
has produced a work which will be welcome to all who are
interested in South Africa.

Publishers Circular.

Is of great usefulness and of a comprehensive character. Mr.
Mathers possesses a close acquaintance with the country about
which he writes, and this, combined with a graphic and impartial
style, renders his work of unusual practical value.

Statist.

Mr. Mathers supplies a very great amount of useful information,
and his work is profusely supplied with maps of the gold fields,
including a general map of " golden " South Africa, of the Delagoa
I lay gold district, the Kaap Fields and Swazieland, Moodie's, and
the Witwatersrand and Heidellmrg Fields. One of the most
interesting features of the work is a complete list of the companies,
with the amount of their capital and location. There is al oa
considerable amount of information as to distances, how the fields
can be reached, as well as particulars of production and forecasts
of the prospects of mining enterprises in South Africa.

Stock ILvchange Times.

\Ye are not surprised to find that already the seventh thousand
of this book has been printed. It is well written and easily
comprehended, and reflects great credit on Mr. Edward P. Matin rs,
F.R.G.S., who is the author of the b"ok.

Pall Mall Gazette.

This is a London reprint of " The Gold Fields of South Africa,"
which we reviewed some time since. The book is admirably
written, and contains a mass of information of a most interesting
character concerning the Transvaal and other of the South African
gold fields which are attracting so much attention in England just
now. Mr. Mathers has lived a long time in the country, and he is
to be complimented upon the eminently readable form in which he
has placed before us the resources of a most important portion of
the " Dark Continent."

Public Opinion.

That this volume should have now reached a fourth edition
speaks well for the intrinsic merits of its delineations of the gold fields
of South Africa, that Ophir whence Solomon is said to have drawn
gold to the modern value of £900,000,000. Mr. Mathers writes
vividly and well of what he has seen ; he is amusing too, and has
a racy way of his own of telling a good story which wins the
reader at once. Much of the book is tantalising, for one naturally
sighs for means to unlock the wealth which is here disclosed as
being so abundant. To take one case only, and that no salient
one, we are told that a company, started with a capital of
£"21,000, should pay in dividends £7,000 a year. Mr. Mathers, who
knows, is very severe, and rightly so, on the policy pursued by this
country towards the Boers, and he desires to save Swazieland
from the greed and grip of those freebooters who are ever grasping
for more. Why should not Swazieland be British ? The various
gold fields are described in great detail, and there are excellent
maps which are very acceptable in a book of this description.
Mr. Mathers gives us exact accounts of the Kaap district, the
Komatie gold fields, the Swazieland mines, and others, and every
page bears the impress of being matter-of-fact. The volume is
quite a compendium of gold mining in South Africa, and of much
more, as the writer saw a great deal of the country generally, and
has the art of giving graphic verbal pictures of all he saw. The
book is quite a mine of information and a treasury of reference to
almost all current matters connected with the material development
of South Africa.

Saturday Review.

" Golden South Africa " is a comprehensive and apparently
trustworthy survey of the gold fields in the Transvaal and Swazie-
land, compiled by Mr. Edward P. Mathers, whose account of the
numerous mines is full of the most useful kind of information.
Mr. Mathers is a firm believer in the future of the South African
gold fields. He is an explorer and investigator, who in person
writes of that which he has seen. His book is well illustrated by
maps and statistical tables.

(SECOND NOTICE.)

Mr. Mathers' volume, " Golden South Africa," is ...
reminiscences, native history, and valuable information about

the Transvaal gold fields It will be useful to

all who are interested in the African gold mines. It is impossible
to read its pages without being amazed at the mineral
wealth of the Transvaal, and filled with speculation as to the
limits of that wealth— if, indeed, it has a limit. Here in one
country, and in close proximity, are to be found coal beds ex-
tending over scores of square miles, iron in mountains, gold in
quantities which at present seem inexhaustible, silver, lead, cobalt,
and copper. To these riches must be added the advantage of one
of the best and healthiest climates in the world, and a soil capable
of growing almost anything. Such is the Transvaal Republic
to-day, and it is by no means certain that the surrounding
territories do not share to an equal extent in these gifts of Nature.
What they and it may become in another twenty years is beyond
the reach of calculation ; but, if things go on at the present rate, it
will be something very wonderful indeed. A few years ago the
traveller might outspan his wagon on the site of Johannesburg,
and scarcely see a house or a human being for miles round. N.'W
it is a town populated by twenty thousand diggers, or thereabouts,
and the scene of the monthly investment of hundreds of thousands
of pounds of English capital. Moreover it is not the only site of

and its Founder, told by others

127

this vast gold industry; there are several others; and every week
new reefs are reported from various parts of the country. Of
course this state of affairs, this sudden discovery of sources of
incalculable wealth, has begotten a fever of speculation, which is
often unjustifiable, and sometimes dishonest. Judging from Mr.
Mathers' pages, we should nnt be in the slightest degree astonished
tn hear of a great collapse in the scrip of many of the mining
companies. But, if such a collapse occurs, its reason will be
obvious, and it would not touch the fact that the mineral wealth
of the Transvaal is to all appearance very great indeed. Of the
ultimate effect of this inrush of Anglo-Saxon population in search
of riches, Mr. Mathers has not much to say ; indeed, he rather
avoids political questions than otherwise. Still we gather that, in
his opinion, it must in time settle the Boer question effectually.
Englishmen take English ways with them. Perhaps the Transvaal
will never again become a British possession ; for few South
African colonists have sufficient love for Downing Street and its
ways to voluntarily put their necks beneath the yoke ; but that it
will become an English Republic seems very probable indeed.
We do not propose to follow Mr. Mathers into the various carefully
prepared details and statistics which he gives in his book. The
would-be emigrant or investor can consult them there for himself.
More interesting to the general reader will be his account of a
journey undertaken some five or six years ago from Delagoa Bay
to " Moodie's," in the Lydenburg district of the Transvaal, once a
centre of the nascent gold industry. For actual " roughing it,"
with an excellent chance of dying of fever or starvation, this walk
of a hundred and fifty miles or so would be " bad to beat."
Among other incidents, we hear how the party, when about fortv
miles from Lourenco Marques, came to a hut where a middle-aged
Englishman named Williams lived while engaged in sinking wells
for the Portuguese Government. They entered, and found the
remains of Williams upon his bed, a carbine between his legs, and
a shocking sight to see, for his head was blown off, and he had
been dead some time. He was buried by digging a hole and
pulling the bed with its burden and the entire side of the hut into
it. The poor man had committed suicide, driven to desperation
by solitude. Such things are common enough in the wilds.
Mr. Mathers' account of the condition of Swazieland is most
interesting, and may be commended to the notice of the Aborigines
Protection Society. It will be remembered that, notwithstanding
the repeated requests of Umbandine, the Swazie King, and of his
people, the Home Government, fearing to give offence to the Boers,
steadily refuse to declare a protectorate over the country. Con-
sequently the land is infested with Dutch and English speculators,
holding titles, real or imaginary, to gold or grazing concessions,
who quarrel among themselves, and bring evil on the natives.
The King, indeed, has made great advances in civilisation. For
instance, he sits upon a gin-case instead of on the ground, and gets
drunk every day on sweet champagne. But neither the gin-case
nor the champagne seems to have modified his native brutality.
Mere is Mr. Mathers' account of a little domestic tragedy connected

with Umbandine's own household

Surely it is time that England interfered in the interests of all
parties, and even at the expense of offending President Kruger, to
put a stop to the ruin of Swazieland and the occurrence of such
horrors, of which the above quoted is only a sample. But Her
Majesty's Government appears to think otherwise.

rrintcr and Stationer.

This work, previously noticed in our columns, has now passed
into its fourth edition. To intending emigrants we think it cannot
fail to be of use.

Natal Advertiser.

This is the English edition of a book which may be described
as the history of a personal effort to answer the question asked by
the author on the concluding page. " The world's gold supply,"
he there says, "has fallen something like a half since the middle of
the century, the present output being under £"20,000,000 per annum.
If South Africa in 1889 supplies an additional tenth to this amount
she will lie well entitled to rank as a gold-producing country. How
will she rank ten years hence ?" The problem thus enunciated is
one which does not concern South Africa alone, but which concerns

the whole civilised world, forupon the increase or further diminution
of the supplies of gold may depend in a great measure the
commercial prosperity of a dozen States. Whatever, then, can serve
to throw light upon the probable capacities of any new source of
gold supply is of value not only to those more immediately con-
cenied in gold enterprises, but to all who are in any way dependent
on those fluctuations of value which variations in the supply of the
precious metals are liable to cause. Mr. Mathers has visited the
gold producing districts of the Transvaal as a ready and
unpredjudiced observer, and has in consequence been able to bring
back with him an amount of information which is both fresh and
reliable, and calculated to prove of the highest value both to
investors and prospectors. Indeed, it is not easy to see, at the
present moment, what other authority exists upon this important
subject. It is easy to theorise about gold discoveries, but all the
theorising in the world will not approach the value of the report of
a man who has made it his business to see with his own eyes the
work that is being done. Some of the most interesting and
instructive pages in the volume are those in which is recounted the
history of the discovery of the " Rand." Referring to the
political aspects of his subject, Mr. Mathers is naturally desirous of
seeing the rich districts, so far as is now possible, secured to the
British flag. Here is what he says on page 360 : —

" It is for the British people to decide what the great Mother
Country, which has given these fields their enterprising populations,
is to do to maintain or establish an interest in them. She threw
California away when Drake had it, and in later times has flung
the prizes of New Guinea and the Transvaal to others. Rome before
her fall left her colonies to shift for themselves and so hastened
her end. Recent developments seem to point to the fact that
England has taken a leaf from ancient history. How far will she
profit by the reading of it ? She can have her share in golden
South Africa by hoisting the Union Jack in Swazieland. Will she
do so, or must that prize also go to the Boers ? Vexed questions,
doubtless, and somewhat beyond the scope of these observations,
now drawn to an end."

It might, perhaps, be remarked on the other side that the fact of
there being a Dutch Government at Pretoria does not seem to have
very seriously interfered with the enterprise of English gold
prospectors. In an appendix the volume contains a most service-
able table of distances, which will be appreciated by those who
may think it worth while to tread in the author's footsteps. On
the whole, the book may be regarded as the most useful and
complete collection of information on the subject of the South
African gold fields that has yet been given to the public.

Natal Witness.

This is a new English edition of Mr. Mathers' work, and as we
have already referred to it at length, it will be sufficient to add
that the new edition is well got up, bound in neat covers, and is
published at the moderate price of half-a-crown. Among the
many Press criticisms quoted by the publishers, the very essence of
the Witness's critique is embodied in the following words : ' The
gold fields are languishing for want of English capital, and if any-
thing is calculated to either invite or repel the English investor, it
is in this book. As a guide to the South African mining centres, it
is the best work extant.' Mr. Mathers is a thorough believer in the
South African gold mines, but he fearlessly points out the dangers
attending mining enterprise, at the hands of unskilled and
unprincipled men. There is not a dull chapter in the book from
start to finish, and it is replete with information, not only on gold
matters, but in connection with the civil and political aspect of
the Transvaal, Delagoa Bay, and Zululand. There are copious
maps and tables of distances in connection with the book.

// 'cstcrn Morning Neivs.

Very extraordinary reading to those unacquainted with South
Africa, and still more so to those familiar with the localities in past
times. The rapid growth of the industry is truly amazing.

Evi RVTIHNG is examined bv Mr. Mathers in a shrewd, cold, and
critical spirit. Newcastle Daily Chronicle.

MR. MATHERS is able to claim the distinction of an approved
prophet.— i 'tipc 'nines.

128

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

"South Africa
and How To Reach It."

IN 1889 Mr. E. P. Mathers was commissioned by the Castle
Packets Company to write a guide to South Africa. A great
many thousands of the work were printed in English and the
illustrated book was translated into several languages. A few of
the great array of home and colonial newspaper notices of the
publication may be given : —

Sut ii rda\ ' AYe 'iew.

It appears to contain a great deal of information that will be
useful to the intending emigrant or visitor to the gold fields.

Morning Post.

Contains much useful information on the resources of our
southern colonies in Africa, and sketches of the scenery and settle-
ments.

Whitehall Review.

Good to look at, and pleasant to
information.

use. .... Excellent

Queen.

Information as to the journey, the scenes to be

met with on the way and when the destination is reached, and also
much further up country.

Court Circular.

Ably edited by Mr. Mathers. A Murray and Bradshaw com-
bined. Got up in excellent style, and we strongly recommend it to
the attention of those persons who project either a visit to or a
permanent stay in South Africa.

Mining Journal.

The glimpses of South African life, of its gold fields, its harbours
and its towns, render the volume extremely interesting and well
worthy of perusal.

Literary World.

Abundance of miscellaneous information, which is made easily
available by means of a full index.

City Press.

Nicely got up.

Evening News.

Most useful and interesting. Full of valuable information as to
the various fields for emigrants to that part of the world.

I > iillionist.

Written by an authority upon the country.

Money Market Review.

\ great part of the volume is occupied by a description of
Town, its buildings and prosperity, of the Cape Colony ami
Natal, and of the various itineraries for exploring South Africa.
The remainder is devoted to the more sober and more satisfying
account of the wealth of diamonds, gold and silver, and copper and
iron that abound.

Era.

Scarcely a subject upon which the intending emigrant to South
Africa would like to be informed is not dealt with.

Manchester Examiner,

Giving some brief accounts of the region to the north and east
of the Cape.

Manchester Guardian.

Mr. E. P. Mathers has provided a useful book of information.

Liverpool Journal of Commerce.

Attracting great attention. A book that will give in a concise
form all the useful information on the subject is likely to be a
success. Such a book is the one before us.

Liverpool Courier.

Mr. Edward P. Mathers, F.R.G.S., has collected together in the
pages of this guide-book much useful information respecting the
colony.

Glasgow Herald.

The work gives many interesting details regarding the colony -
the railways, descriptive sketches of the towns, the industries, tin-
physical features of the Cape, the political and social institutions,
mineral and agricultural resources, and particulars on many other
subjects, including, of course, the gold fields.

Glasgow Scottish People.

A sumptuously got-up guide-book. The descriptive letterpress
is interesting reading even for those who have no intention of
visiting the Cape.

Sheffield Telegraph.

An excellent guide-book, compiled by Mr. E. P. Mathers in
obedience to the demand for information about South Africa.

Bristol Evening Neivs.

Should be a veritable -<>ade iiiccuin to all who contemplate a
journey to the land of gold and diamonds, wool, wine, and

ostriches Will be found to contain a vast amount

of information of value to all who think of emigrating, and of
interest to all who watch with concern the gradual building up of
" new worlds " under the influence of modern enterprise aided by
modern science.

Inith Gazette.

A comprehensive guide to the land of gold and diamonds.

Equal, if not superior, to any yet issued — all the

requisite information respecting each place or province being
extremely prolific. The index at the end (numbering fifteen small
type columns) will at once convince the reader of this assertion.

lielfast Morning News.

Very interesting descriptions are given of the scenery on the
voyage, and graphic word-pictures of Lisbon, Madeira, the Canary
Islands, and other landmarks that will attract the traveller's atten-
tion on his way to the South of the "Dark Continent." A great
amount of information is compiled about Cape Colony, Natal,
Basutoland, Bechuanaland, Orange Free State, the South African
Republic, and the South African Gold Fields.

Derby Times.

The reader is taken on an imaginary voyage and

on arriving at Cape Town is shown the many attractions of our

splendid colonv.

and its Founder, told by others

129

Dumfries Courier.

Mr. E. P. Mathers, the editor, has dune his work conscientiously
and well, and has compressed within the pages of the book nmst
interesting details regarding life at the Cape, as well as colonial
scenes and economical statistics, which every emigrant will find of
great value for his guidance in selecting a field of operations in
South Africa.

Perthshire Advertiser.

Gives a good account of the voyage out and what travelling
is like.

Northern Advertiser.

No book of which we have any knowledge contains in so con-
cise and handy a form such a large amount of thoroughly useful
information bearing upon South Africa, its trade, industries, and

financial Chronicle.

A useful handbook for anyone making their first trip to South

Africa.

Home and Colonial Mail.

Much useful information both to the intending traveller and
the general reader.

Colonies and India.

The information in the book is comprehensive and succinctly
given.

Contract Journal.

It contains a vast amount of very interesting information about
the colony.

MR.

ARRIVAL IN NATAL.

REDUCED FACSIMILE OF A "SOUTH AFRICA" PLATE SUPPLEMENT.

resources as the attractive volume now before us. All should read
the book who wish to acquire an intelligent knowledge of Britain's
greatest colony, a colony yet in its infancy as regards the develop-
ment i if its natural resources.

C 'oni is/i Telegraph .

This really excellent description of voyaging.

Capitalist.

A comprehensive and efficient guide to this territory of gold and
diamonds is just the thing that is wanted, and in this book will be
found an excellent and genial companion.

Health.

Stands unrivalled as a guide-bunk.

/("•<>.< is/l C /I roil 1C /C.

The information it contains down t
evidence of careful compilation.

the minutest details bears

Natal Witness.

The information it contains is reliable, and the fact of the work
having been prepared by Mr. Mathers is indeed a sufficient guarantee
on this head.

Homeward Mail.

Contains a vast amount of information suitable to the traveller
and the emigrant, and not a little that will interest tl)e general
reader.

\\~\'llbcrg Times (Cape Colony i.

Contains a large amount of information that cannot fail to be
of interest to all classes at home who are looking this way for a
land of promise.

// 'atckman (Kingwilliamstown).

I'srful and well written Crowded with varied

information.

130

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

The Natal Advertiser.

Such a guide has long since been felt to be necessary

Capitally and characteristically written The editor,

Mr. Mathers, has done his work well, and the book is full of interest
from start to finish.

Scots Observer.

Prepared by E. P. Mathers, who is recognised as an authority on
the subject.

Gardner s Magazine.

The book that Mr. E. P. Mathers has put forth was much
wanted, and we must give it high commendation for usefulness,
and very happily meeting the case of the many who look towards the
Cape as a field for the exercise of their talents and industries,
offering better rewards and larger prospects than the old country.

Eastern Province Herald.

Very neatly printed Miscellaneus information

will be found useful.

"Zambesia: England's El Dorado

in Africa."

BY EDWARD P. MATHERS.

Remarkably Successful Work Published in 1891.]

THE book "Zambesia," which rapidly ran through several
editions, was published in 1891, and met with a most
favourable reception at the hands of the British and South
African press. Kindly things were said of it by Royalty which were
not published, but the best test of its popularity and worth was the
unanimous chorus of approval with which it was hailed by South
Africans, and the many extracts taken from it and comments made
on it by the newspapers of the world. During its publication
"SOUTH AFRICA" said: —

The Sale of " Zambesia."

The success of the book " Zambesia " has been as great as it has
been gratifying. Though it was a costly production, we determined
to keep the price a popular one, and the result has more than
realised our expectations. We had wished for a large sale among
all classes of book buyers, and we had made special arrangements
for the work to be easily available in all parts of the country. But
we had scarcely hoped for such a rapid fulfilment of our desire. If
the sale continues at the present rate, the first large edition will
soon be exhausted, and it may be that we shall have to go to press
•with a further edition — necessarily a prolonged operation.

Preface to the Book.

Mr. Mathers, in the course of his Preface to the book, said : —
Immersed as I am by my daily occupation in the chronicling
and critical dissection of South African affairs, it seems to me as if
it were hardly necessary to offer any explanation of the reason
which has called this work into existence. It is as true to-day as
when the ancient writer said it, that there is ever something new
from Africa. The founding of Zambesia . by a royally-chartered
Company is the latest development in the advance of South Africa,
and that development well merits the attention of the historian,
however imperfectly, on account of partially-concealed tendencies,
he may be able to fulfil his function. Though the mighty pro-
portions of the Imperial edifice which is now being reared in South
Africa will only be accurately gauged by a fuller distance of Time,
a justification for the publication of this book may be found in
the rapid northern expansion of British South Africa, and the
consequent accompanying desire for information about the territory
brought recently under the control and civilising influences of the
colossal corporation which sways the fortunes of Zambesia. There

is also possibly a special fitness in issuing this record at the
conclusion of the prolonged negotiations with Portugal in respect of
her claims to recognition as a South African Power. If the result
of these negotiations has left much to be desired from one point of
view, it may, at least, be welcomed as an indication of an
aspiration on the part of Portugal to live at peace with her
British neighbours in South Africa. Let her but infuse the same
wish into the hearts and minds of her representatives on the
borders of Zambesia, and the march of great events may now go
on uninterruptedly. The acts of these representatives have handi-
capped Portugal heavily in her endeavours to arrive at an
amicable understanding with Lord Salisbury ; but it may be
assumed, now that so much has been achieved towards a pacific
partnership of progress, that she will answer honourably for these
acts. However the concession to Portuguese aggrandisement in
Northern Zambesia may be regarded, " we are a people yet," and
the destiny of the Anglo-Saxon race to open up Africa from
south to north may safely be left to the hereditary capacities of
that race.

A Review and a Forecast — Contrasting Boer
Ambitions and British Policy.

The author also wrote the following Introduction to
" Zambesia " : —

With the formation of the British South Africa Company, and
the founding of England's latest possession, Zambesia, the nations
of the world — some of them with ill-concealed envy — saw a
welcome new departure in the policy of the Mother Country towards
South Africa. Albeit that it was taken at the eleventh hour, they
witnessed a great step forward in the vitalisation of British centres
of activity in South Africa, are-quickening of that English national
life which is to be all-potent in fulfilling the Imperial destiny in
that most interesting, most wealthy, and most romantic of all the
continents of the earth. The successful inarch into, and peaceful
occupation of, Mashonaland by the Pioneer Force of the royally-
chartered Company mark yet another distinct epoch in the history
of Africa south of the Equator — yet another landmark in the
progressive journey when it will be convenient to again survey the
scene behind, beneath, and before.

Events political, and developments industrial, have alike moved
with wonderful rapidity in South Africa during the past lustrum.
A mere five or six years ago, before the eyes of men had been
turned to the Northern Territories, and before the more important

and its Founder, told by others

AMBE

ENGLAND'S
EL DORADO

*f'f/ BEINS * OESCHimOK OF

THE GOLD FIELDS OF
RITISH J^OUTH AFRICA

E.P. MATHERS, F.G.S.ER.G.S

DITOH OF "SOUTH AFRICA"

AMD AUTHOR or

"GOLDEN SOUTH AFRICA' *C

TH» RUINS AT ZIMBABWE

THE VICTORIA FALLS

REDUCTIONS OF SOME OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS IN "ZAMBESIA"

K 2

132

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

proofs of those golden possibilities in the Transvaal Republic, of
which I wrote a decade back, had been given, the political
student in looking out over the various civilised territories of
South Africa and casting the horoscope of their future, would have
unhesitatingly given it as his opinion that English domination
was diminishing year by year, and that an Anglo-Boer policy of a
consolidation of the States of South Africa, under a Republican
form of government, was swiftly reducing this dominion to a
vanishing point. Since certain deplorable occurrences, which
need not be further referred to here, had shocked the national
amour propre and astounded the Empire by their disgracefulness,
the policy of England and of English people in South Africa was
largely that of drift. The policy of the Boers, and the Dutch
generally, was, on the other hand, an active one. Their political
keel was laid upon the lines of increasing the area of the Dutch
Republics in all directions, and so minimising the chances of, and
extinguishing the opportunities for, British expansion. The cry
of a strong party, which got daily recruits, was "Africa for the
Afrikander, from the Zambesi to Cape Town." It must not be
forgotten that the conclusion of our supposititious studious seer
would have been based to some extent on calculations showing the
numerical preponderance of Boers or Dutch in South Africa over
British-born subjects or their African-born descendants. In the
Cape Colony alone, it was some five or six years ago estimated
that of everv three white people two were Dutch ; that in the
Transvaal and Free State, out of every ten white people nine were
Boer or Dutch ; and that in Natal alone was the scale weighed
down in the other direction. There the estimated proportion was
four English to one Dutch resident. The change came suddenly.
The development of the gold industry in the Transvaal drew to that
country comparatively great numbers of English-speaking people,
whether from the Mother Country or the maritime colonies in
South Africa. This fast-growing industry also attracted many
millions of English capital, and this circumstance, in its turn,
compelled thousands of Englishmen residing in England to take a
new and deeper interest in South Africa. Swazieland also absorbed
some hundreds of thousands of pounds in a similar wav, and also
drew the attention of more English shareholders to political events
in South Africa.

These factors of industrial, commercial, and speculative enter-
prise indirectly influenced the tone of political feeling in South
Africa. It rapidly became essentially English, and the turn of the
drifting tide took place. Concurrently with this change in the hue
of South African public affairs, Mr. Cecil Rhodes and his friends
turned their attention to the great native territories lying to the
north of the Cape Colony and the South African Republic. Fortu-
nately for the Empire, the position was swiftly realised. As if
there had been some sudden and mightier revelation than
before, it was seen that unless the blow was instantly struck to
s:cure these territories for England, a few months would see them
in the hands of Republicans concentrated in Pretoria, to be used
for the purposes of Boer aggrandisement, either with or without
the co-operation of some alien European power. The effort was
made, but not without difficulty, for a strong and strange struggle1
ensued, of which the Grobler incident gave an unmistakable clue.
Luckily, however, the powers that rule in Downing Street became
convinced that if British supremacy in South Africa was to be
conserved, a determined stand must immediately be taken. It
was taken, and the slight preliminary intimation given to South
Africa in general, and to the Boers in particular, by Sir Charles
Warren's expedition, was logically followed up and strengthened
by a declaration of British rights, under various names and dis-
guises, to the whole of the native territories lying to the north of
the Cape Colony and the Transvaal. As I have said, a mere
lustrum has served to change the whole position in South Africa.
Whereas some five nr six years ago the gathering force of Repub-
licanism, which aimed at an independent United States of South
Africa, was apparently on the eve of fruition, it has now berome
not only a vanished dream, but a political impossibility; and in its
stead we find an almost universal aspiration to prosper under the
protection of the Union Jack. We find the name of England once
more in an honoured ascendant evrrvwheie, and that, excluding
malcontents, Boer Republicanism is discovering that the truest
and best development of Boer interests will he found in a cordial

co-operation with an enlightened and non-bureaucratic British
policy.

To Britishers generally this is a consummation to be greatly
grateful for. As I have pointed out, two factors helped to it. One
of these was the extraordinary and rapid development of the gold
industry, and the other was the step taken in the north by Mr.
Rhodes and his friends. To my mind the latter was the chief
operating factor from a political point of view. The gold interests
across the Limpopo might have been, and doubtless would have
been, fostered under a Republican form of government, so that so
far as these are concerned, the transfer of dominion or political
sway from Dutch Republican to British Imperial need not necessai ily
have followed ; but Mr. Rhodes and those associated with him,
although nominally pursuing a commercial undertaking, in
securing enormous rights in the native territories to the north,
invariably enunciated the political gospel of British supre-
macy in all their enterprises. The Union Jack was nailed to
the mast, the word " British " figured as the first word in their
title, the imprimatur of the Privy Seal was placed upon their docu-
ment of title, and a civilised-nineteenth-century letter of marque was
issued to the Duke of Abercorn and others to carry ascendancy and
Empire under the British name from the boundaries of the Cape
Colony and the Transvaal to the Zambesi and beyond. Owing to
the enterprise having been undertaken in this spirit, we find the
reason for the full stop in the policy of English drift in South
Africa, and for the reinstatement of British supremacy in that part
of the continent. A great new English colony is being founded.
Zambesia is hardly born, and already three railways are being
planned to approach it from the south and east. A land that up
to ten years ago was a sealed book to all but intrepid adventurers,
to half-a-dozen men of the Selous stamp, will before long feel the
splitting wedge of the locomotive, and it is safe to predict that ere
the century closes it will be possible to take a tripper's ticket at
Messrs. Cook & Son's bureau in London which will frank you to
the Victoria Falls, via the Pungwe Railway on the East Coast, and
carry you along the Central South African Railway to Cape Town,
thence back to England within three months.

Not the least satisfactory and pleasing feature in the retrospect
is that in the process of asserting this supremacy again for all time
little or no violence has been done to any shade of national
feeling. Despite the fact that Mr. Rhodes, the leader of the new
departure, has always nailed the British colours to his mast, and
has been in all things an ardent Imperialist, he has contrived to
carry with him through all the phases of his colossal enterprise the
stolid and invaluable support of the would-be Republican Boers
and Dutch of the Cape 'Colony. And this following has been
secured on this very logical basis — that the policy for the strongest
and best development of South Africa must necessarily be one
recognising Great Britain as the dominant power there, though
there must be underlying that recognition the counter-recognition
and affirmation that each State in South Africa has perfect freedom
to govern itself in all local matters without interference from the
Crown. Freedom from foreign interference, freedom from the
muddling of Downing Street, were the aspirations which led
thousands of men in South Africa to drift into a hesitating
acceptance of uncongenial Republicanism, not from any wish to
sever from England, but from a mere desire of self-protection and
self-preservation. Granting the realisation of this longing, and the
creation of this freedom, by a system which would not necessitate
severance from England, and the rest naturally followed, and it
was left to Mr. Rhodes to show as a part of his great scheme the
\\a_v whereby this freedom and retention of the English tie could be
combined.

In truth, it must be recalled that a certain amount of soreness
lias been evolved in the Transvaal. And naturally so. For the
first time in the history of that country in fact, for the first time
in the history of Boerdom, the way to the north no longer exists.
During a period of 250 years, the Dutch in South Africa have ever
had the north as a direction in which to migrate should necessity,
demand, or choice dictate, and decade after decade through the
centuries the Boers have steadily advanced from their original
hamlet on the shores of the Cape peninsula till they now reach
Mossamedeson the West Coast, two thousand miles from their point
of departure. This, ho\\e\er, is now all ended. There is no

and its Founder, told by others

133

BELOW THK VICTORIA FALLS

REDUCTIONS OF SOME OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS IN "ZAMBESIA"

134

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

further north for the Boer to carve into according to his individual
licence or liking. To the north the Boer may yet go, but it must
be under restrictions imposed by British civilisation and British
control. England is no longer content to penetrate Africa from the
south, on the back of the Boer. The conditions are reversed. This
feeling of soreness, however, is passing, and its ready cure is being
found in the rapid Anglicisation of the South African Republic
itself. Nominally, the Transvaal is a Boer Republic, and
nominally the men who at present sway its destinies are Boers, and
in some cases ultra-Boers; but practically the territory and the
Government are swayed by a new set of needs, required and
demanded by a great population of English-speaking people who
have settled in that golden land. Thus it is we have it that the
prospect lying now before South Africa is a consolidated dominion
under the British flag, and thus it is that the retrospect founded on
the facts we have been summarising prompts us unhesitatingly to
largely give the credit for that prospect to that Company which
found its inception and cause of being in the brain of Mr. Cecil
Rhodes.

" One people, one destiny," was the motto under which the
Australian colonies recently took their first united step towards
Federation, and it will be under that motto that the future

Federation of South Africa will be accomplished. For the moment
that Federation may seem far away, but the grand consummation
is all the nearer through the founding of Zambesia. Has am "in
any doubt as to how the nationalities will compare in the near
future in South Africa ? He is answered when I say the British
now outnumber the Boers in the Transvaal. Has he still any
doubt ? I would then say to him — go to the Paddington or
Waterloo Railway Station on any Friday morning and see the
crowds of well-to-do emigrants shoaling to the fair land which
stretches its limitless expanse underneath the Southern Cross.
While the Boer remains practically stagnant, the British popula-
tion of South Africa is multiplying fast, and will soon multiply
faster ; and in course of time the former will merge in the latter in
feeling, thought, language, and method. As I contemplate the
course of current events in the great Northland of which Zambesia
in its turn will but form the southern starting-point in the ceaseless
march of British progress through to the blue Mediterranean —

I hear the tread of pioneers

Of nations yet to be,
The first low wash of human waves

Where soon shall roll a sea.

Opinions of the Press on

"Zambesia."

Antiv and Navy Gazette.

Mr. Mathers has brought together in this volume a vast array of
facts relating to South Africa and the territory of the British South

Africa Company The territory of the Company contains,

he believes, the veritable Land of Ophir, and he foresees a great
future for a united British dominion in South Africa. Putting aside
malcontents, Boer Republicanism itself, he tells us, is discovering
that the truest and best development of Boer interests will be found
in a cordial co-operation " with an enlightened and non-bureau-
cratic British policy." Those who would learn the past history
and present condition of Matabeleland, Mashonaland, and the
adjacent territories, or the constitution and prospects of the British
South Africa Company, cannot do better than have recourse to
Mr. Mathers' pages.

Admiralty Gazette.

Those who are interested in the movement which is now going
on for opening up South Africa cannot do better than read
" Zambesia." It is written by Mr. E. P. Mathers, F.G.S., F.R.G.S.,
the editor of " SOUTH AFRICA," and coming from such a pen
displays, it is almost needless to say, a most intimate acquaintance
with all that is being done. In addition to the career and policy
of that remarkable man, Mr. Cecil Rhodes, who is at one and the
same time Premier of Cape Colony and chief director of the
Chartered Company of South Africa, there are sketches and
portraits of many other South African notabilities, European and
native. There is, moreover, much interesting information about
the manners and customs of the native peoples as well as about the
history of their countries. Indeed, this part of the book is as
readable as the most readable book of travels. The question is
discussed as to the exact locality of the Land of Ophir and where
the Queen of Sheba lived, and incidentally it is mentioned that the
amount of gold King Solomon obtained totalled up to nine
hundred millions sterling in modern English currency. The value
of the work is enhanced by two maps and numerous illustration-,.
it is remarkably well printed in large type on good paper.

The Bullionist.

Every new fact which is revealed in the ceaseless progress of
contemporaneous events tends to show that here is the modern
El Dorado. We welcome, therefore, all sound and authentic
information on this interesting region. The latest contribution to
this subject is a characteristic volume by Mr. Mathers. It teems
with information. It is useful for students who will be at the
trouble to evolve its significance by painstaking examination.
There is a peculiar fitness in bringing out this volume at the
present time, when the agreement between Portugal and this
country has been finally ratified — an agreement which, if faulty in
some respects from the British point of view, hands over to us
immense regions of fertility and mineral wealth. Of the events
that led up to the formation of the British South Africa Company,
of its Pioneer Force, of its boundless possessions, of its splendid

prospects — Mr. Mathers tells us fully in his book A

storehouse of information, and it comes to us stamped with an
authority which makes it doubly valuable.

Black bit rn Sta n da rd.

Just now a most useful and complete book dealing with Africa,
from Cape Town to Cairo, and written by E. P. Mathers, F.G.S.,
F.R.G.S., who is perhaps the best extant authority on all South
African questions, comes in very handy for reference, and is
published in the nick of time. It would be impossible even to
glance at the great variety of topics with which "Zambesia " (that
is the title of the work) deals. It extends to 476 pages, and it is
plenteously illustrated, and well supplied with maps, clearly
coloured, and upon which the river systems of the country are
plainlv delineated. It is just the book, in fact, for the man who
wishes to be posted up in the contemporary and living history of a
strange world bent upon extraordinary developments in countries
which have hitherto been lands of " outer darkness " and mystery.
Nowhere is the flowing tide of civilisation and progress exerting
itself with more force than in these strangely named lands, with
their duskv monarchs, which border on the Zambesi and the great

and its Founder, told by others

135

lakes. No politician or publicist can afford to be without
" Zambesia," unless indeed he wishes to be written down an
ignoramus on the great colonising problem of the time.

Barberton Herald.

It is a splendid compilation, in one sense ; smartly written,
ingeniously put together, displaying immense industry and enter-
prise Dealing now with " Zambesia " in a literary

aspect, I must acknowledge its many merits, and its great interest
at the present juncture of affairs. It is thoroughly up to date, and
brings the narrative of events down to last May. Its 470 pages are
profusely illustrated, and the maps are admirably executed and

well up to date " Zambesia " is a very useful

book for anyone wanting information on the subjects it treats of,
and many a pleasant half hour can be spent over its pages. Not
the least interesting pages are those that deal with the problem
presented by the massive monuments of the past known as the
Zimbabwe ruins. Mr. Mathers goes very thoroughly into the subject.

Leeds Mercury.

The literature of the South African Gold Fields grows apace.
Among the more recent accounts of England's El Dorado is
" Zambesia," in which Mr. E. P. Mathers, editor of " SOUTH AFRICA "
and other works, gives a highly interesting description of Matabele-
land and Mashonaland, and the Gold Fields
of British South Africa. It is likely to fire the
imagination of adventurous spirits and excite
the cupidity of the company promoter. A
couple of good maps, numerous portraits, and
drawings of scenery and of incidents exhibiting
the difficulties which the pioneer forces had to
encounter and overcome, help materially to
heighten the interest of a picturesque narrative.
So fully supplied with "the resources of civili-
sation " was the expedition to Mashonaland
that an engine for electric lighting purposes
formed part of its impedimenta.

Bookseller.

No better qualified writer than Mr. Mathers
could easily have been found to supplv those
interested in South African affairs with informa-
tion about the territory recently brought under
the control of the great English Chartered
Company.

Bradford Observer.

Mr. Mathers holds a brief for what is prac-
tically the country of his adoption, and his
enthusiasm blinds him to some possible draw-
backs and difficulties. But he is an able and
skilled witness, and may safely be listened to alike
by emigrants and gold-seekers, as well as by investors of capital.
There is a mass of valuable information condensed into this stout
volume, not only about Matabeleland and Mashonaland and the gold
fields of British South Africa, but about the outlving districts of
Tropical Africa. It is profusely illustrated, and is prefaced by a large,
clear map. Mr. Mathers shares the ardent Imperialism of Mr. Cecil
Rhodes, and has unbounded faith not only in the inherent rights of
British supremacy, but also in the golden future of the new British
territories. Cock-crowing apart, he is a very interesting companion.

The City Leader.

Mr. Mathers is a journalist who has made South Africa his
special study for years, and therefore speaks with authority on all
that relates to that rapidly developing portion of Her Majesty's
dominions. He describes the vast territory over which the British
South Africa Company holds sway as England s El Dorado in
Africa. The present volume is one which every Englishman should
read, no matter whether he have an interest in South Africa or
not. The book is written in a pleasant style, and is as interesting
as any work of travel we have read. Before proceeding to describe
Zambesia as it is to-day, Mr. Mathers takes us back to ancient days,
and thus makes his book perfect from an historical point of view.

That mining for gold was carried on in Mashonaland in long-for-
gotten ages is proved beyond a doubt. Old documents have been
drawn upon by the author of this work for information about the
Zimbabwe ruins in Mashonaland and other signs of an ancient
civilisation. A full description of all the expeditions which have
been made by private adventurers into this vast territory of
Zambesia and the discoveries made by them, is given down to the
time when the Chartered South Africa Company assumed control
and marked a new era in the history of South Africa. Perhaps
the most interesting portion of Mr. Mathers' work is that dealing
with the .history of the British South Africa Company and the out-
look for trade under its auspices. Mr. Mathers gives a brief and
succinct account of the origin of the Company and the events which
led up to its formation,- whilst the disputes with Portugal, and the
different treaties entered into between that country and England,
are fully dealt with and explained. Numerous illustrations, and
perhaps the best map of the district yet published, add to the
attractiveness of the work. Portraits of everyone who has made a
name in South Africa are given, and it is interesting to note that
a number of young men have made their mark in connection with
the Chartered Company. "Zambesia" is a book that everybody
should buy, carefully read, and then place on his bookshelf for
future reference. On the title-page we notice the words " Book
from Cape Town to Cairo via Victoria Falls," which are given as

This is a black and -white representation of a coloured card sent out in large numbers by " SOUTH AFRICA " to
its friends in the Mother Country and South Africa. The card •was a beautiful and artistic piece of
•work. The Union Jack in the corner -was picked out in its proper colours, the pole being in gold. The
card •was khaki coloured, and the " SOUTH AFRICA " title block •was in blue.

the railway instruction of the near future. The words are significant
as indicating what the believers in the future of South Africa expect.

Chester Courant.

This volume comprises the most complete information with
regard to our latest acquisitions in South Africa. It is at once a
history, a novel, and a " Murray." When all eyes are turned
towards the Dark Continent as a possible outlet for our overgrown
population, the interesting story before us almost tantalises the
reader as he learns from its pages of the grand climate, the vast
resources, and the boundless gold that belong to the region known
as Matabeleland and Mashonaland. The author is well fitted to
speak of this country. He is a well-known authority on South
Africa, and whether he is telling of gold mines, or penning a bio-
graphy of pioneers, or recounting the result of missionary work in
some lonely spot, or detailing a lively anecdote of the bush, or
describing the kind of chiefs that rule over the natives, such as " Lo
Bengula and Khama," we feel that nothing more profoundly
real has been depicted since Rider Haggard first stirred the
public with his powerful sketches of African life. A glance at the
maps is enough to show the obstacles that lay ahead of the pioneer
expedition that first penetrated as far as Fort Salisbury. In one

136

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

year, we are told, " the British South Africa Chartered Company
established a good wagon road of 440 miles in extent, laid down
140 miles of railway, and 480 miles of telegraph, and
obtained a further concession of 300,000 square miles." The
stream of emigrants is flowing fast to this land " flowing with milk
and honey." Already the British outnumber the Boers in the
Transvaal, and it is no unjustifiable boast to say that the day is
not far off when you will be able to go straight through from Cape
Town to Cairo. Of Mr. Rhodes, the Cape Premier, the writer
has a high opinion. He is no doubt a strong man, and appears to
be only another instance of the grand success in the world of a
University failure. His college career by no means prefigured his
future greatness. As the head of the British South Africa Company
he has worked hard to rival the deeds of the old East India
Company, and this book, if it conveyed no other teaching, is a
grand tribute to the personal prowess and the moral qualities of
Englishmen in days when the cry is only too often repeated,
"England is going steadily to the wall." The amusement, apart
from the instruction to be derived from its contents, is well illus-
trated in the account of the reception of the Envoys of Lo Bengula,
the Matabele Chief, by the Queen at Windsor. "You have come
a long way to see me," Her Majesty remarked ; " I hope the
journey has been made pleasant for you, and that you did not
suffer from the cold." In acknowledgment one of them stepped
forward with truly courtier-like gesture, and replied, " How should
we feel cold in the presence of the Great White Queen ? " adding,
with a shrug of his shoulders, " Is it not in the power of great
kings and queens to make it either hot or cold ? " Needless to say,
the intending emigrant to this new " El Dorado " can have all the
information he may require concerning the prospects of British
South Africa in these pages. The book is thorough, exact, and
entertaining.

City Press.

This is in every respect the most ambitious and notable work we
have yet had from the facile pen of Mr. E. P. Mathers, the clever
and far-seeing editor of " SOUTH AFRICA." In the pages of this
volume, we are given an exhaustive review of the advantages we
are likely to derive in the future from our Zambesian territory.
Though the author pays due regard to the wealth of the country in
other directions, and discusses with weight the prospect it offers to
young fellows anxious to seek their fortune away from overcrowded
England, the bulk of the work, as might have been expected, is
concerned with the mines, of which a very exhaustive account is
given. As an unbiassed and straightforward sketch by a journalist
who has been on the spot and writes from experience, the volume is
worthy of all attention, more especially at the hands of those who
are thinking of emigrating and commencing life afresh in the
El Dorado of which Mr. Mathers speaks.

Capitalist.

The development of history in South Africa is now so rapid and
the events so dramatic that Mr. Mathers' new book is a most
valuable contribution, bringing the facts down to the latest date.
The whole narrative is put together in a masterly style, and is most
interesting reading.

L 'ape TilllCS.

The literature originating in the enterprise of the British South
Africa Company by far outstrips any of its more substantial
rewards. Mr. Mathers does not let the grass grow under his feet.
While we wait for proof of the gold fields between the Limpopo
and the Zambesi he treats them as a recognised geographical fact
anticipating the prospectors' discoveries. As, however, in
"Golden South Africa" he had written of unexplored auriferous
is northward of the Transvaal and Swazieland, and quoted
the hunter Hartley's testimony to the extent and beauty of a gold
field on which thousands might work without jostling one another,
Mr. Mathers is naturally forward to assert the verification of his
statement. When it first appeared the interior country was known
to liut a few adventurers in the cause of sport or of trade. Now
that hundreds and thousands of the lusty youth of South Africa
and of Europe are flocking towards the Zambesi in faith of the
i treasures awaiting their search, Mr. Mathers is fairly

justified in saying " I told you so," though in a more agreeable
tone than is usually associated with that emphatic reminder. In
the present volume Mr. Mathers traces the story of African
exploration from the beginning. He is historical, descriptive,
practical. Going back to ancient maps and ancient pioneers, and
the traditions of which the mysterious ruins of Zimbabwe are the
silent witness, he quickly advances to the more sure ground of
modern experience, that of the missionary Moffat and of the
travellers who first made the world acquainted witli the barbaric
wonders of the Matabeleland Court. About Matabeleland and the
ways of the chief and the people, and the mineral discoveries of
Mr. Baines and the earlier diggers, Mr. Mathers collects a mass
of interesting information. Thus the story of the Chartered
Company is related from the concession to the last Anglo-
Portuguese Convention, of which the text is printed in an
appendix. The Directors and chief officers of the Company are
introduced by portrait and biographical sketch. Maps, tables of
distances, geographical and other statistics are added to the heap
of information, and frequent illustrations assist the fascinated
imagination. The volume is really encyclopaedic in the abundance
and variety of its matter.

Colonies and India.

Mr. Mathers may be congratulated on having written a most
interesting volume on a most interesting subject, and one which
throws much light on " England's El Dorado." The fact that a
second edition has been called for within a few months shows the
great public interest taken in the future of the territory of the
Chartered South Africa Company.

Cape Argus.

We have a full and particular account of the origination of the
Chartered Company, biographies and portraits of the men who
founded and control it, a description of its progress hitherto, and a
glowing apocalypse of its future greatness. As a work of reference
the book will be most useful to all who are — and who nowadays is
not ? — interested in South African enterprise.

Horse Guards Gazette.

Mr. E. P. Mathers' " Zambesia : England's El Dorado in Africa,"
has now reached a second edition. The book gives a concise
history of the country since it came under Portuguese observation
up to the present time, and comprises a mass of useful information
of every kind necessary for those who contemplate proceeding
thither, either as visitors or settlers.

Daily Graphic. (A column notice.)

OUR ELDORADO IN AFRICA. — Mr. E. P. Mathers is an authority
on South Africa. He has travelled in that hopeful region with his
eyes wide open, and he has written much about it that has proved
of value to the crowds who are now seeking their fortunes in its
trackless wilds. His latest volume deals with those Cis-Zambesian
countries which have lately been taken under the capacious wing

of Great Britain It is a kind of undigested Ba'decker

to this region, but has been compiled with a prodigious amount ol

industry Each of these sections is fully treated by

Mr. Mathers Mr. Mathers is himself of opinion that,

together with the old gold workings, they prove Mashonaland to
be both the Queen of Sheba's country and the Land of Ophir.

Mr. Mathers quotes, in evidence of his contention,

some interesting Portuguese travellers' tales and Moorish legends.

" Zambesia " is on safer ground when it reaches its

third chapter. Here we are told much that is both curious and

authentic about the recent history of Matabeleland

This, briefly, is the history of Mashonaland. It is, however, but the
merest outline of only one portion of Mi. Mathers' well-filled
volume. We have said nothing of the Portuguese connections
with the country Mashonaland is identical with the much talked
of Empire of Monomotapa — of Bechuanaland, which Mr. Mathers
deals with at length ; of the Zambesi River, which he follows
along its entire course ; or of the several dusky potentates who rule
over various parts of Eastern and South Central Africa, and of
whom Mr. Mathers has much to tell us, biographical and anecdotic.
Nor have we said anything of the gold of Mashonaland, which is
to make all our fortunes. What Mr. Mathers reveals to us on this

and its Founder, told by others

137

subject maybe summed up in a sentence there is plenty of the
precious metal in the new country. Hoary Upends, the narratives
of the mediaeval Portuguese explorers, the naive admissions of the
natives, and the reports of recent mineralogists, all attest that it is
an El Dorado such as even Tom Tiddler never dreamt. . . .
To its other attractions "Zambesia" adds a large number of
very excellent illustrations, and a couple of maps which are up to
the latest date in the matter of frontier delimitations.

Home News.

In his admirable and exhaustive work entitled "Zambesia: Hampshire 1 elegrapk.
England's El Dorado in Africa," Mr. E. P. Mathers tells us that he
once remarked to Mr. Rhodes: " I want to see you take Colonial

The Herald.

A new field for our surplus population is strongly recommended
to the public in " Zambesia England's El Dorado," by Mr. E. P.
Mathers. Mr. Mathers is an enthusiast about Soilth Africa, and is
filled with the conviction that everything may be found there which
the heart of man can desire. He supplies an ample fund of infor-
mation, by means of which intending emigrants may be able to
form an idea of the prospects before them. The book has the
further advantage of containing some excellent maps.

Mr. E. P. Mathers, a well-known authority on South Africa,
publishes from his office, 23, Austin Friars, E.G., " Zambesia,"

" SOUTH AFRICA " AT THE EARL'S COURT EXHIBITION

England through to Cairo"; and the quiet but significant reply
came, "Well, I have got to Tanganyika." Mr. Rhodes' policy,
according to Mr. Mathers, "is to realise in Africa the destiny of the
British race to one day colonise the Globe. He saw the Boer
intriguing with the German to bar the progress of English-speaking
people to the Zambesi and bevolid, and he pondered deeply and
successfully as to how the intrigues might b,> defeated; he has
delined his policy as a South African policy, but that carries with
it what Sir Hercules Robinson once called 'the ultimate estab-
lishment of the federal dominion of South Africa under the
British Hag.' "

which is a picturesquely coloured description of the new lands that
were till late the subject of a European scramble. Mashonaland
and Matabeleland unfold their riches in Mr. Mathers' glowing

pages The book is amply illustrated, and contains

a useful map up to date.

Devon and Jixctcr Cmzcttc.

There is, perhaps, no part of the globe which has so far been
trodden by Englishmen, and which is being opened up to the
blessings of civilisation by Britisli pioneers, that is creating greater
interest or providing greater attractions than that portion of Africa

138

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

which is included under the wide cognomen of Zambesia. And for
this reason "the founding of Zambesia by a royally-chartered
company is the latest development in the advance of South Africa."
The book also conies most opportunely at the conclusion of the
negotiations with Portugal, and gives much valuable information
which will be eagerly read bv all who are interested in English
influence in this quarter. It is meet that the work of the historian
should have fallen into such able hands as Mr. E. P. Mathers, the
gifted editor of " SOUTH AFRICA." No more competent authority
upon African affairs exists than Mr. Mathers, and the result is that he
has given us in the interests of the British South Africa Company a
book which is not only a masterly written record of the raising and
proceedings of the undertaking, but a history of a country which
can no longer be called Darkest Africa, but which, if progress
proceeds at the rate it is making now, will be an open route from
Cape Town to Cairo, via the Victoria Falls. Mr. Mathers aptly
calls Zambesia, England's El Dorado in Africa. He describes
minutely, but graphically and pleasantly, Matabeleland, Mashona-
land, and the gold fields of British South Africa. Starting at the
beginning, the author opens with an account of the early explorations
and history of the-vast continent, and gradually traces the progress
which has been made century after century down to the present
time. Monomotapa, Ancient Ophir, and Manica all come within
the ken of Mr. Mathers' pen. Apart, however, from the work being
an invaluable I'adc mccum, touching the labours and negotiations
of the British South Africa Company and their predecessors to
colonise and civilise Zambesia, for the purpose of opening up
vast mineral and agricultural resources to the advantages of
commerce, it is one of the most attractively written descriptions of
an interesting portion of the world we have read for some time.
There is not a feature or a striking incident which has been left
untouched. The Charter and the part played by Mr. C. J. Rhodes
and his colleagues are exhaustively dealt with, and the writer
convincingly shows that the congested labour market of the Mother
Country will find relief in the 500,000 square miles of territory now
occupied by the British South Africa Company. In " Zambesia,
in fact, the remains of a cruel and despotic barbarism are quickly
vanishing, and England's El Dorado is fast being peopled by men
who will be true to the traditions of their race, and plant in the
heart of Africa a nation ever rejoicing in the blessings that flow
from a loyal love for the Union Jack and England's Throne." Mr.
Mathers is a realistic writer, and a delightful companion, and his
word pictures of African life and exploration are as graphic as they
are artistically painted. He makes his presence felt in every page.
He is no mere enthusiast, but a very real and earnest historian.
Indeed, the amount of instructive information he has compressed
into some 500 pages is simply marvellous, and the charm over all
is that there is not a dull line in the whole of it. The book is
profusely illustrated with sketches of the scenery, the people, their
customs, &c., in the countries described, and capital photographs
are given of every notable person who has had or has any connection
with the company, as well as of leading statesmen and others
interested in, or connected with, South African exploration and
affairs. There are also several valuable maps, which enhance the
value of the book as a work of reference.

Journal des Mines.

•* En mars dernier, M. E. Mathers, directeur du journal hebdoma-
daire " SOUTH AFRICA," fit paraitre une magnifique brochure in-
quarto qu'il appela modestement " Numero Special." C'etait un
travail plein de documents, d'illustrations sur le continent sud-
africain.

Aujourd'hui M. E. Mathers vient de faire paraitre sous forme de
livre le " Numero Special " de mars dernier, mais, combien plus
complet, soigne, corrige, enrichi de documents nouveaux controles
a ce jour, de gravures fideles et interessantes.

Ce charmant volume est pratique, elegant, instructif; ses 500
pages representent une enorme somme dY-tude ; un talent reel dans
le choix des renseignements scrupuleusement exacts.

C'est le plus nouveau et le plus substantiel des ouvrages sur le
Sud-Afrique ; les cartes sont tres clairement faites. Tous ceux
qu'occupent les proges europeens en Afrique voudront lire cet
interessant travail et faire, dans leur fauteuil, ccmnaissance avec
1'Afriqueen compagnie de M. Mathers.

Dundee Advertiser,

At a time when attention is being directed by Lord Randolph
Churchill's letters and moralisings to South Africa and its com-
mercial, mining, and financial enterprises, Mr. E. P. Mathers'
interesting book " Zambesia " comes opportunely to hand. Mr.
Mathers is a recognised authority on South African affairs, and this,
his latest publication, fully sustains the reputation which by
" Golden South Africa" he gained. The author finds justification
for the publication of his work in the founding of Zambesia by a
royally -chartered company, which is the latest development in the
advance of South Africa, and there is also, he thinks, a special
fitness in issuing such a record at the conclusion of the prolonged
negotiations with Portugal in respect of her claims to recognition
as a South African power. " If the result of these negotiations,"
says Mr. Mathers, " has left much to be desired from one point of
view, it may at least be welcomed as an indication of an aspiration
on the part of Portugal to live at peace with her British neighbours
in South Africa." Concessions to Portuguese aggrandisement
notwithstanding, " we are a people yet," and, according to the
author, the destiny of the Anglo-Saxon race to' open up Africa from
south to north may safely be left to the hereditary capacities of that
race. Mr. Mathers goes thoroughly into his subject in a workman-
like manner, and his book is full of facts and information written
in a most readable and entertaining style. Some of the illustrations
are very fine. The history and prospects of Zambesia are fully set
forth, and with them the origin and policy of the British South
Africa Company. This is Mr. Mathers' summing up — " The moral
now to be drawn from all that I have set down is that a great new
country — an El Dorado and a Goshen rolled into one — is being
opened up for the benefit of the Anglo Saxon emigrant and the

British merchant At present Britain's share of this

trade to Africa is quite 45 per cent, of the whole. But other
countries, notably France, are treading close on her heels, and it is
for her home merchants to grasp what is really going on in that
great continent south of the Equator."

Detroit Free Press,

In " Zambesia," Mr. E. P. Mathers, the indefatigable scribe of
South Africa, gathers into a focus all the rays of light which have
so far illuminated our darkness regarding the new countries at the
Cape. It is a most exhaustive compilation of 480 pages, contains
some excellent maps and portraits, and is capital reading. What
one does not know about Zambesia, after going through Mr. Mathers'
book, is simply what is not yet discovered.

Irish News,

A book which will take a high place among kindred works.
It is interspersed with numerous interesting illustrations of natives,
public officials, scenery, &c. ; also some coloured maps of the country
in question.

Land and Water.

The formation of the British South Africa Company furnishes
Mr. E. P. Mathers with the text for another valuable book on
South African affairs. In " Zambesia " he supplements his own
extensive knowledge with numerous extracts from other recognized
authorities, and the result is a mass of information regarding the
history, topography, climate, people, game, resources, and prospects
of the new territory which leaves no reasonable question unanswered.
" Zambesia " is a most readable book ; whether Mr. Mathers is
discussing the mystery of the ruins of Zimbabwe, following the
march of the Company's pioneer force, or quoting Mr. Selous on
big game shooting, he contrives to be equally interesting. There is
scarcely a page in the whole book we did not read with pleasure.
Antiquarians will eagerly devour the many quotations from ancient
and modern writers relative to the true locality of the Ophir of
Solomon ; the non-antiquarian and practical majority will pro-
bably find more to their taste in the numerous facts on which Mr.
Mathers bases his opinion that the British South Africa Company's
territory will prove the Ophir of the immediate future. The most
cautious and sceptical cannot fail to be impressed by the unanimity
of the reports touching the marvellous wealth of these regions ; for
whether the ruined gold workings there discoverable are those of

and its Founder, told by others

139

King Solomon's miners or not, there seems no question asTto the
richness <>f the reefs which only await the hand of the enterprising
prospector.

The " gold history " of the country naturally receives'prominent
attention, but the stay-at-home reader will perhaps find more
absorbing those delightful chapters which shed a lurid light on
His Matabele Majesty, King Lo Bengula, "at home." As this
potentate has recently brought himself before the British public
through the mission he despatched to ascertain if the Great
White Queen still lived, we quote a few lines describing his
personality

The visit of his " eyes," the two Indunas, Umshete and Babjaan,
is fresh in the memory of everyone, and the story of their doings in
this country is very amusingly told. What, we wonder, did the
Aborigines Protection Society think when these two guileless men
about town went to the Alhambra, and considered the ballet the
finest thing they had seen ? More important than these lighter
matters, but not less interesting, are Mr. Mathers' views regarding
the suitability of Mashonaland for colonisation by Europeans.
On these plateaux, between four and five thousand feet above the.

present condition and capabilities of the country and people, the
author devotes a very interesting chapter to the Zimbabwe Ruins in
Mashonaland, which are evidently the work of a civilised people,
and which, in the absence of any inscriptions, have been variously
ascribed to Phoenicians, Egyptians, Arabians, Persians, Chinese.
The pursuit of the builders was unquestionably gold mining, and
the author appears to be impressed with the view that the region is
included in the Land of Ophir from which Solomon drew his gold
supplies.

For the American reader generally the feature

of the greatest interest in the work will centre in the Anglo-
Portuguese struggle for supremacy, and as it would be impossible
to make anything like a fair presentation of the author's treatment
of the whole subject in the space at our disposal, we will limit
ourselves to a digest of the author's presentation of the "little
difficulty" with Portugal.

The work abounds in information on every-
thing pertaining to the newly-acquired region, which embraces
some 500,000 square miles, and the writer closes with a glowing
picture of the fruitful plains of Matabeleland and Mashonaland,

SPECIMEN OF ILLUSTRATION IN "SOUTH AFRICA."

MATABELE HEADMEN.

level of the sea, the white man may live and thrive. " Children
may be reared there," says the author ; and in these pregnant words

he taps the foundation-stone of true colonisation

Truly, when we look upon this picture, and remember what Mr.
Selous has done with his rifle, and what Mr. Mathers promises the-
diligent digger, we are more than half inclined to throw down
our pen and start off for Mashonaland "right away." ....
Space forbids us to linger over Mr. Mathers' book as we should
like ; we close it, convinced that for the sportsman, the digger, or
the farmer, a new world has been opened. The illustrations are
good — many of them excellent.

Literary Digest. (A very long notice.) New York.

The present work appears to be written with both a general and
a special motive, the former originating in the author's desire to
add a new chapter to the history and description of the Dark
Continent, the latter with the object of presenting the British side
of the question in the recent struggle of the English and Portuguese
for the possession of Manica, to which the latter set up claims
which are characterised as unsubstantial. In the course of the
work, which embraces all that is known of the past history and

teeming with well-to-do agriculturists, and Africa becoming the
birthplace of a new and sturdy nation, destined to take a
prominent place among the nations of the world.

Financial Observer.

A mass of notes and facts have been intelligibly strung
together, placing before the public the immense possibilities of -the
El Dorado in a very practical manner. Mr. E. P. Mathers must at
least be coupled with such pioneers as Rhodes and Maund, for the
"educational" dissemination of the wonders of South Africa.

The Field.

There are few persons so well qualified as Mr. Mathers to give
an accurate description of the past history and future prospects of
Matabeleland, Mashonaland, and the adjacent territories, while
with regard to the Gold Fields of British South Africa he is probably
the best authoritv in this country. In the compilation of the
present volume he has freelv drawn on all available sources of
information, with the result that he has produced a reliable work
of reference on matters connected with the political and industrial
development of that portion of South Africa which has come

140

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

under British rule, or within the sphere of British influence. The
author commences by giving a short account of Africa from the
time of Herodotus to the middle of last century, when the cele-
brated geographer, d'Anville, on his map of Africa, made a clean
sweep of the whimsical features that his predecessors had intro-
duced, retaining only those of the existence of which there was
clear evidence, and by so doing leaving the central portion a
complete blank. The author then proceeds to deal with the
explorations which have taken place between 1790 and 1890, the
year in which Zambesia was founded by the British South Africa
Company. African exploration has always been a subject in

which the British public have evinced great interest

The book is well illustrated ; the portraits of those who have taken a
leading part in the development of this portion of Africa are, in nearly
all cases, remarkably good ; the large map at the commencement of
the book is nicely drawn, has been carefully brought up to date,
and is worthy of special commendation, and, taken as a whole,
this book constitutes a valuable addition to the literature of South
Africa.

Fairplay.

The book is certainly one to be read by those interested in
South Africa.

Freeman.

We strongly commend this work as one of great interest. It is
well illustrated, and has good maps.

Financial World.

Comes at a very opportune moment Of the rest

of Mr. Mathers' book we can speak highly. He is skilled in
compilation, and knows the subject. The result is an eminently
readable volume, full of valuable information from cover to cover.
It is abundantly illustrated with woodcuts and with reproductions
from photographs.

Financial Critic.

Since interest in Zambesia is growing daily, Mr. E. P. Mathers'
book bearing that title will be found a most useful addition to
the literature pertaining to Africa and the rich regions of which it
treats. "Zambesia" contains a large fund of information con-
cerning the new territory, which, but for Mr. Mathers' indomitable
energy, might have been denied us. It contains also numerous
verbal sketches of the antiquated ruins to be met with in Ophir-
land, of the people who inhabit it, and gives comprehensive details
of the various native tribes, climate, and mineral resources of the
coming country. Matabeleland, Mashonaland, and all the gold
fields of British South Africa come in for a fair share of attention,
while the references to the Chartered Company's territory shed a
light upon the actual conditions of Mashonaland which is at
once instructive and entertaining. Under all the circumstances,
"Zambesia" may be counted in reality " the book of the season."
Mr. Mathers' views on Mashonaland as a field for colonisation
should neither be missed by investor nor politician.

Money.

The author of " Golden South Africa," and editor of " SOUTH
AFRICA," is a prolific writer on all matters pertaining to that part
of the globe. His latest contribution is a portly volume of some
500 pages, devoted to a description of Matabeleland and Mashona-
land, and the less known adjacent territories, together with an

account of the Gold Fields of South Africa Mr.

Mathers does not assume the role of historian only ; his book is
a chatty comparison of South Africa of the past with South Africa
of the present. The illustrations, which are numerous, are by no
means the least interesting feature in the volume. Anyone desiring
to be well posted as to the steps being taken for developing South
Africa cannot do better than read "Zambesia."

/''ircmans Journal.

The founding by a royally-chartered Company of Zambesia,
which is deemed by some to be England's African El Dorado, has
given rise to the birth of this highly important and bulky volume.
Its author is a well-known and rarely-gifted journalist, who must
have devoted considerable time, research, and labour to the

accomplishment of the task which he had set himself, and which
he has so capably performed. As a literary work alone " Zambesia "
is of the superlative order. It is couched in bold, nervous,
interesting phraseology, whilst the multifarious subjects dealt with
are brightened by charming vivacity and marvellous graphic
force. Without at all detracting from the unquestionable ability
of the author, it must be acknowledged that the extraordinary
section of the globe treated of gave every opportunity for a clever
knight of the pen to show the stuff of which he was made. The
Dark Continent abounds in what appear to many to be mysterious
matters. These have been so artistically utilised by Mr. Mathers
that he has presented us with a work far more attractive and
attention compelling than many a leading sensational novel—all
the more so on account of the affairs he writes of being hard,
unquestionable realities. Matabeleland, Mashonaland, and the
Gold Fields of British South Africa are a few of the regions
described. Arguments are advanced with the view of proving that
the possessions of the British South Africa Company embrace the
veritable Land of Ophir. Antiquities and the socio-political
economy of the rude aborigines are verbally photographed with
surprising accuracy, and England's recent troubles with the
Portuguese are impartially and lucidlv recounted. Perhaps one
of the most interesting chapters is that devoted to the memorable
march through Mashonaland of the British Chartered Company's
pioneers. This remarkable work is richly embellished by illustra-
tions depicting inscrutable ruins, semi-civilised natives, famous
explorers, vicissitudes of travellers, and glorious and impressive
scenery.

Durham Chronicle.

" Zambesia : England's El Dorado." Such is the leading title
of a massive and lavishly-illustrated volume which Mr. E. P.
Mathers, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., an ex-journalist of Durham county,
has just sent out. • Work after work has Mr. Mathers published as
the result of his long and fruitful experience in connection with
the newspaper press of South Africa, but in this, his latest contri-
bution towards the making and consolidation of our vastly-extended
dominion north of the Cape, he seems to have exhausted every
conceivable particle of information which it is in his power to
communicate. There is within its 480 pages material for the
thoughtful statesman, the enterprising trader, the eager gold-seeker,
the hardy husbandman, as well as for the men who are proud of
this England of ours, and who do not despair of lighting up the
gloomiest regions of the Dark Continent with those glorious beams
of varied hue which have' matured our bounteous civilisation.

Mr. Mathers has done more for South Africa during the last ten
or twelve years than probably any other person outside the ranks
of high Colonial officials, and we are not so sure if those gentle-
men, as well as their co-workers at home, would have got on so
well as they have done but for what the author of " Zambesia "
did when he was out yonder, to say nothing of what he has been
doing in London, for a year or two past, as editor of " SOUTH
AFRICA." But for his travels into unforbidding — even into forbidden
— regions, his tact with wily chiefs, his unconquerable perseverance,
his personal courage, his mastery of literary technique, and his
dogged Caledonian determination to " do or die," the development
of the South African Gold Fields would, in all probability, have
been delayed for years. What the British South Africa Company
owe to him is best known to themselves.

In the opening of his second chapter, Mr. Mathers enters upon
the question, Where did the Queen of Sheba live? At first we
imagined that a gentleman, who, at one time, was not noted
amongst his journalistic colleagues for articulate joking, was
actually going to turn professional humourist when he had got
well into the forties, but reading on, the author gives as his
deliberate conviction that the territory now held by the British
South Africa Company is really and truly the Land of Ophir.

Referring to what he had set forth in a previous work, "Golden
South Africa," Mr. Mathers thus quotes himself: "It is generally
agreed that Ophir, whence Solomon is said to have drawn gold to
the modern value of £900,000,000, was situated in South Africa."
Writing, now, in " Zambesia," he remarks: "To me, it is a striking
fact, in this connection, that so far as I am aware, in no other part
of Africa than in Zambesia and its environs is the rule of a woman

and its Founder, told by others

141

permitted. In the neighbourhood <>f Sofala, and southwards, there
are five native queens, and the destinies of Tongaland are swayed
by a dusky female. May not we have here a recognition of the
fitness of women to hold the sceptre handed down from the time of
the Queen of Sheba ? " It would be an unpardonable omission to
make no allusion to the exquisitely-finished maps with which
"Zambesia" is enriched.

The Evening News and Post.

Those who have read Mr. E. P. Mathers' "Golden South
Africa" will readily believe that "Zambesia: England's El
Dorado," another book by the same author, is an authoritative
and readable description of Matabeland and Mashonaland, those
two territories which are just now the cynosures of all eyes in
financial England. As in all his other works, Mr. Mathers writes
of Zambesia in the form of a narrative, and a very readable
narrative it is -profusely illustrated with maps and portraits of
well-known men. A feature that will make " Zambelsia " specially
valuable to financiers is the full and excellent account given by
Mr. Mathers of the Gold Fields of British South Africa.

Manchester Guardian.

This is a description of the territories of the British South Africa
Company — that is, of Matabeleland and Mashonaland. Mr. Mathers
is an enthusiast for the Chartered Company and for the new lands
by the Zambesi, which he describes as " at once an El Dorado and

a Land of Goshen." His book contains a valuable

mass of information, and will be useful to all who have anv
special reason to study Zambesia. It is profusely illustrated,
many of the pictures being portraits of South African explorers,

and of the directors of the Chartered Company He

gives a good map of Zambesia and a sketch map of South Africa.

Don caster Gazette.

The exploitation of Central Africa by the British South Africa
Company and other forces, both English and foreign, and the
development of the gold mining and other industries in South
Africa, are bound to produce an important, interesting, and useful
literature. " Zambesia " is a volume of some five hundred pages
descriptive of Matabeleland and Mashonaland, and also contains an
account of the Gold Fields of British South Africa. The author
is Mr. E. P. Mathers, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., editor of the weekly journal,
" SOUTH AFRICA," and author of " Golden South Africa," the latter
being a well-known publication descriptive of the Gold Fields in
the Transvaal. As a journalist who has spent at least ten years in
South Africa, and who has made one or two memorable journeys in
exploitation of South African Gold Fields, Mr. Mathers possesses
special qualifications for compiling any work on South African
affairs. In "Zambesia" we are presented with a vast amount of
reading matter intended principally to place us in possession of
full particulars of the constitution of the British South Africa
Company, and detailed information of the proceedings of the
company since its establishment. There is also in the work an
immense amount of valuable information respecting the vast field
of operations over which the company holds sway. The value of
tin- book is greatly enhanced by several maps, specially prepared
for the work, and also nearly two hundred illustrations. The
illustrations include men of note in connection with the South
Africa Company and South African contemporary history, por-
traits of natives, scenes in Zambesia, and pictorial reproductions
of stirring scenes in the exploitation of the country. The prepara-
tion of the hook must have involved a tremendous amount of
labour, as well as an exceptionally large expense ; but the author
has at any rate the satisfaction of knowing that he has placed
in the hands of the public a work which is interesting to the
ordinary reader, and an indispensable vatic mci'iim to those who
take special interest in the exploitation of South Africa and the
<•< iui.-,e of events there.

The 1-cho.

Of all the books that have lately been published about South
Africa we know none more interesting than " Zambesia : England's
I'.] I )i iradi i," by Mr. E. P. Mathers. " Zambesia " gives an exhaustive
account of Matabeleland and Mashonaland, and of the South African

Gold Fields This general survey is given by Mr.

Mathers. One impression which the many-sided story of South
African adventure leaves upon the reader is an impression of
romantic realism. South Africa, instead of being regarded as it
was a few years ago — ugly, uninteresting, unfruitful is now
recognised in its true character as a region of boundless wealth.
and, in many parts, of romantic beauty and interest. Mr. Mathers
and his publishers have spared no pains to make their Ixiok
as instructive as possible, by means of maps, portraits of South
African celebrities (both native and European), and drawings of
pioneering scenes, Zulu life, and African mountains, tracks and
rivers. For home-staying folk there are worse pleasures than
travelling in imagination, with Mr. Mathers for guide, through
Zambesia.

The (il'dplnc. (Accompanying a portrait of Mr. Mathers.)

A new edition of Mr. E. P. Mathers' " Zambesia : England's
Eldorado in Africa," has been called for by the events now passing
in Mashonaland. It is an admirable summary of knowledge upon
Matabeleland, Mashonaland, and the Gold Fields of British South
Africa. The book contains an excellent map of the Chartered
South Africa Company's territory, a map to which Mr. Mathers, out
of consideration for newspaper readers interested in the war with
Lo Bengula, has also issued in pocket form, brought up to date and
witb the principal features of the country clearly marked. Mr.
Mathers' book is now well known as the best hand-book on the

A PORTRAIT OF MR. MATHERS IN "THE GRAPHIC"

country now the scene of the campaign against Lo Bengula and
his impis ; and it is especially useful at the present crisis, as it gives
a sketch of Mashonaland and its inhabitants, and summarises the
dealings of Lo Bengula with the Boers and with the unfortunate
Mashonas. Mr. Mathers, besides being the editor of " SOUTH
AFRICA," is the author of "Golden South Africa," "A Glimpse of
the Gold Fields," " South Africa, and How to Reach It," and other
books on the country. He was in 1884 sub-editor of the Niitnl
Mercury, and in that year he volunteered to try and find a road
from Delagoa Bay to Moodie's, a spot where the eastern boundary
of the Transvaal touches Swazieland. He succeeded in making
his way to the gold fields after an adventurous journey. It was
from Mr. Mathers' book that the portraits in our last week's
Supplement on Matabeleland were taken.

Literary Jl'orM. (A four-column notice.)

A mere glance at the cover of this book should enable the
reader to form a shrewd guess at the probable character of its
contents. The bright yellow colour — symbolic of gold— the figure
of Britannia displaying a map of Zambesia to the admiring gaze
of a band of diggers, and the audacious, if somewhat previous,
motto, " Book from Cape Town to Cairo via Victoria Falls ! " are
indicative of the fact that the book before us is written in the

interests Of the great South African " boom." The

task of selection has been carried out with admirable judgment,
and the author's original contributions are so excellent that
one is not inclined to grumble at any process that has resulted in

142

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

so readable and useful a production. The book contains some-
thing for every reader. Mr. Mathers has accumulated a vast store
of information upon matters historical, geographical, and geological,
upon the customs of savage tribes and of others who have come
more readily under the influence of Christianity ; nor has he
omitted thrilling narratives of sport. Beginning 116 ovo with a
disquisition upon ancient Africa, the Zimbabwe ruins in Mashona-
land, and speculations upon the Queen of Sheba and the gold of
Ophir, the author brings us down to such recent events as the
origin and progress of the great British " forward " movement.
Not the least interesting chapters of the book are those which deal
with the early history of Matabeleland under the great chief,
Mosilikatse, and its present condition under Lo Bengula. There is
also an excellent description of the Bechuanas, who appear to be
making considerable progress towards civilisation under their
Christian chief, Khama, whose efforts for the development of his
country are truly remarkable. Even in Bechuanaland events are
beginning to move rapidly, and we confess to a feeling of wonder
at Mr. Mathers' information that the town of Shoshong, which we,
in common perhaps with most English people, imagined to be the

within the next twelve months. Zambesia, as he says, is hardly
born, and already three railways are being planned to approach it
from the south and east. Mr. Mathers predicts that ere the century
closes it will be possible to take a tripper's ticket at Messrs. Cook's
bureau in London which will frank the traveller to the Victoria
Falls, via the Pungwe Railway on the East Coast, carrying him
along the Central South African Railway to Cape Town, and
thence back to England in three months.

Liverpool Post.

A popularly written and very comprehensive account of
Matabeleland and Mashonaland and of the Gold Fields of South
Africa, with map and illustrations.

Lloyd's News.

A valuable description of Matabeleland and Mashonaland and
the Gold Fields of British South Africa is given by Mr. E. P. Mathers,
editor of " SOUTH AFRICA," in his " Zambesia." Those who have
followed the course of events in this quarter of the world will find
a great deal both to interest and to instruct, for the author is a

SPECIMEN OF ILLUSTRATION IN "SOUTH AFRICA"

THE JOHANNESBURG TOWN COUNCIL

great commercial centre in Bechuanaland, is now deserted and in
ruins, the enterprising Khama having transferred his capital to
Palapye, where, within the space of a few months, a new town has

sprung up literally out of nothing Mr. Mathers has

much to say respecting the great River Zambesi (with its wonderful
Victoria Falls), the Limpopo, and Pungwe, of which we have
heard so much in connection with recent Portuguese disputes ; he
gives, indeed, an admirable general view of the whole immense
tract of territory, extending from the Limpopo to the very borders
of the Congo Free State, which has slowly come under British
influence. The prevailing tone of the book is, of course, auriferous.
Healthy country, abundant waters, wonderful gold reefs with
unparalleled richness of yield— this is the staple of the narrative:

We may add, in conclusion, that the volume

before us is enriched with two excellent maps and a copious supply
of illustrations, and that Mr. Mathers has been thoughtful enough
to append, for the benefit of intending emigrants, the text of the
South African Charter, the company's regulations for the working
of the Gold Fields, the Anglo-Portuguese Convention of 1891, an
itinerary of routes from various places on the roast to the most
desirable localities in the new El Dorado, and a general table of
distances. He expects a rush of 10,000 colonists into Zambesia

recognised authority on the affairs of that country, which he calls
" England's El Dorado in Africa." By no means the least im-
portant feature of the work is the sketch of the British South
Africa Company, with portraits and biographies of the directors.
Two maps of Zambesia and Southern Africa are by Mr. Mathers.

The Morning.

" Zambesia," or, as the author calls it in a second title,
" England's El Dorado in Africa," is a work that all who are
sufficiently interested in our Empire to want to know its extent
and capabilities ought to get and read. There is not much con-
cerning our new territories in Africa which it does not tell us all
about in its upwards of 450 closely printed pages. The author is
Mr. E. P. Mathers, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., who is one of our best
authorities on the subject of which he treats, and has published
several other works on South Africa and matters relating thereto.
Not the least valuable portion of his book is its Introduction, in
which he gives a rapid, historical glance over affairs in South
Africa during the past few years. How short a time it is since
" certain deplorable occurrences " shocked " the national amour
proprc, and astounded the Empire by their disgracefulness " — since,
as Mr. Mathers puts it, " the policy of England and of English

and its Founder, told by others

'43

people in South Africa was largely that of drift." Great has been*
the change in the aspect of affairs [from that time, and especially
during the last five or six years. What the condition of things
might have been but for the strong hand of Lord Salisbury at the
helm nobody knows. But with the man at the head of affairs who
was chiefly responsible for the policy of "drift," we shall do well
to be on the alert. " Zambesia " is provided with two excellent
maps and numerous portraits, and other illustrations.

Manchester Examiner.

The magnificent territory secured to this country by the diplo-
macy of Lord Salisbury, and handed over to the British East
Africa Company, has, owing to its vast size, the importance of its
position, and the putative wealth of its resources, greatly enhanced
the interests of the home country in that portion of the continent
lying within the Tropic of Capricorn. Mr. Mathers' book is
essentially the work of a geographer and traveller, who is at once
a keen observer, a man of business, and a citizen of the world.

Morning Post. (A long notice.)

The book under consideration is concerned with

only a comparatively small portion of the territory alluded to, and
is of much greater pretensions than the author's former contributions
to knowledge of South Africa. The present conditions of political
life in the northern districts, and the gradual ascendency there of
the British over the Boer, are commented on. This latter the
author ascribes to the gold discoveries and to Mr. Rhodes.

The author foreshadows some trouble with these

Matabele before their young warriors learn the blessings of civilisa-
tion. ..... There is no doubt that this newly-opened

country is exciting great interest, and Mr. Mathers' glowing and
enthusiastic descriptions of the scenery, fauna, and capabilities of
the land, pastoral, agricultural, and mining, will tend to increase it.
Gold is, of course, the alluring cresset. To an intending adventurer,
whether as explorer or settler, hunter or miner, the book may be
recommended as a useful and reliable guide. The regulations of

SPECIMEN OF ILLUSTRATION IN "SOUTH AFRICA"

A MARITZBURG GROUP

He knows a great deal about Zambesia, and is anxious to impart

his knowledge to others It gives a straightforward

statement of facts in the writer's possession, tells of a region whose
stupendous resources can as yet be but vaguely surmised, and
invites enterprise and capital to unite with honest labour that man
may reap rich harvests from the teeming soil, win the treasures
that lie hidden beneath it, and bear both in triumph to the sea.
The expedition to Mashonaland, with which the name of Lord
Randolph Churchill is connected, is one of the kind which must
necessarily precede more permanent and general colonisation.
Our author considers it the best equipped expedition of its class
that ever ventured forth. In this connection a portrait of Lord
Randolph is given — one of a well-executed series that lends interest
to the book. The excellent maps which the author has drawn
form a further embellishment to the book. Mr. Mathers has, in
short, compiled a sort of guide, in which he anticipates, with an
enthusiasm all his own, a time when a frequent instruction to
tourists and travellers will be, " Book from Cape Town to Cairo
via Victoria Falls."

the South Africa Company, the mining districts, itineraries with
distances, and much miscellaneous information, are given, and to
all there is an index at the end of the book. Others will find in
its pages much fresh and interesting reading. It is illustrated by
portraits and views, both scenic and incidental, apparently from
photographs, most of which are exceedingly good. Essentially
useful are two maps, a large one of Zambesia, the other of South
Africa, showing by lines and coloured patches both boundaries and
dimensions.

Morning Advciincr.

Mr. Mathers is well known as the author of several works on
South Africa. In the 500 pages or so which compose the present
portly contribution to the literature of the Dark Continent we have
a careful and exhaustive description of the vast region which
furnishes the title of the book. The founding of Zambesia, which
includes the territories of Mashonaland and Matabeleland by a
royally chartered company, is the latest development in the
advance of South Africa. As Mr. Mathers remarks, that development

144

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

well merits attention, and the intellectual labour which he has
devoted to the subject is fully justified by the rapid extension
of British South Africa, and the consequent desire for information
respecting the embryo empire brought recently under the control
and the civilising influences of the colossal corporation which
sways the fortunes and shapes the future of Zambesia, " England's
El Dorado in Africa," as the writer terms it. Those seeking
enlightenment on the topic cannot do better than apply to Mr.
Mathers, who, we believe, will entirely satisfy their curiosity. He
displays not only a thorough acquaintance with his theme, but an
acute literary taste in dealing with it, and presents an enormous
mass and variety of details in a manner which has the vivid
interest of a highly-written narrative of exploration. The book is
profusely and admirably illustrated ; in fine, " Zambesia " may be
confidently recommended as one of the best works of its kind.

The Oracle.

It not only appeals to the financier and man of business, and
the politician, but to everyone with British blood in their veins.

Glasgow Herald.

Mr. Mathers' survey of a territory with " a strange, romantic
past, a hardly less mysterious present, and having possibilities for
the future unrivalled by any other in the world," is, no doubt
largely coloured by enthusiasm for the Chartered Company, of
which Mr. Cecil Rhodes is the originator and head. In so far it is
partisan, but it is not the less interesting. Much, of course, is said
about the gold resources of the new El Dorado. The position of
the Boers is treated in an interesting manner, and the political
aspects of British expansion in South Africa regarded in a spirit of
complete sympathy with South Africans, but also of Imperialism.
The author is intense in his admiration of Mr. Cecil Rhodes, and
implicit in his confidence in the loyalty and stalwart Imperialism
of that remarkable man. A single lustrum has, Mr. Mathers
declares, served to change the whole political position in South
Africa. The name of Britain is once more in honour and in the
ascendant, and even Boer Republicanism, we are assured, is dis-
covering that the truest and best development of Boer interests will
be found in a cordial co-operation with an enlightened and non-
bureaucratic British policy. One would like to believe this ; but it
is to be feared that Mr. Mathers has not sufficiently appraised the
dangers ahead. The British now outnumber the Boers in the
Transvaal, but what if the Boers of the Transvaal, the Orange Free
State, and the Cape Colony make common cause against the new
paramount power, and attempt to found a new and greater Republic
upon our borders? Mr. Mathers is too optimistic — after the fashion
of Colonials — to weigh the chances of disaster, and he is steeped to
the eyes in belief in the boundless wealth of the new British sphere.
Still, the fact that a great new British Colony is being founded
ought not to be belittled.

Glasgow Weekly Herald.

People with an eye upon South Africa cannot do better than
procure Mr. E. P. Mathers' "Zambesia: England's El Dorado in
Africa." Mr. Mathers, as editor of "SOUTH AFRICA," is in touch
with all the sources of information regarding the new El Dorado,
and he has gathered together in this book a mass of matter which
cannot fail to be of value to intending emigrants and to others
interested in the latest developments of the Empire.

Manchester Courier.

An excellent hand-book t»the newly-acquired British territories
in Soutli Africa has just been issued by Mr. Mathers, who is well
known as one of the best authorities on the subject. It is
thoroughly up to date, for it contains the treaty with Portugal and
the first map which I have seen giving the new boundaries.
Mr. Mathers, who writes with a thoroughly practical knowledge of
his subject, takes a very favourable view of the future of Zambesia,
and predicts that the present year will see a rush of 10,000 people
to Mashonaland. To those who think of trying their fortunes in
the new country, as well as to those who arc interested in England's
new possessions, this hand-book will prove most valuable.

North British Daily Mail.

The book is got up in an exceedingly attractive style. Portraits
are given of the best known African explorers, and there are
innumerable illustrations of African scenes and scenery and pioneer
experiences. The author has done his part with the skill and
intuition which only a practised writer shows when he conies to
deal with an overwhelming mass of blue books and books of
travel. We have here within readable compass all that is really
worth knowing on "unknown Africa." The book is brimful of
practical information, and must prove invaluable as a work of
reference, everything in it being up to date.

Northern Whig.

Matabeleland and Mashonaland and the less-known adjacent
territories are very fully described, and an account is given of the
Gold Fields of British South Africa. The writer is most hopeful of
the political, industrial, and commercial future of South Africa.
He looks forward with confidence to a federation of the British
people in South Africa. For the moment federation may seem far
away, but the grand consummation is all the nearer through the
founding of Zambesia. The British now outnumber the Boers in
the Transvaal. While the Boer remains practically stagnant, the
British population of South Africa is multiplying fast, and will
soon multiply faster. In the course of time the Boers even will
merge in the British in feeling, thought, language, and method.

The Mining World.

The facile pen of Mr. Edward P. Mathers has again been busy
in the production of the above-named work, which comprises a
description of Matabeleland and Mashonaland, and an account of
the Gold Fields of British South Africa. A mere glance at the
volume is sufficient to show that the author has exercised great care
and discretion in the selection of his material ; and besides being
delightful reading, the book contains a mass of useful information
which no one interested in South Africa can afford to neglect. Mr.
Mathers deals with various interesting epochs in the history of
South Africa, making particular reference to the rapid strides,
political and industrial, which have been made since the formation
of the British South Africa Company. The south-eastern territory
of Africa contains, in Mr. Mathers' opinion, the veritable land of
Ophir, whence Solomon is said to have drawn gold to the modern
value of £900,000,000. In the final scramble for Africa, Great
Britain has managed to appropriate a very satisfactory share, and
the author tells us that there is an almost universal aspiration to
prosper under the protection of the British flag rather than be subject
to the vagaries of Boer Republicanism. Nominally, the Transvaal
is a Boer Republic, and nominally the men who at present sway its
destinies are Boers, and in some cases ultra-Boers ; but practically
the territory and the Government are swayed by a new set of needs,
required and demanded by a great population of English-speaking
people who have settled there. Mr. Mathers predicts that the motto
under which the future federation of South Africa will be accom-
plished will be that under which the Australian Colonies recently
took their first step towards federation— namely, "One people one
destiny." Zambesia --the territory which the British South Africa
Company by the terms of its charter is granted power to develop,
administer and govern —includes some of the finest and fairest
portions of the earth's surface. Matabeleland and Mashonaland,
which are included within the scheme of the Company's operations,
are eminently fitted for permanent occupation by Anglo-Saxon
settlers. The climate is everything that could be desired, and "a
mere superficial exploration of British Zambesia reveals unlimited
commercial and agricultural potentialities — wonderful fertility of
soil, magnificent forests, plentiful streams and abundance of useful
minerals and precious metals." A large portion of the work is
devoted to a histoiy of the British South Africa Company, its origin
and objects being fullv and clearly set forth, and the charter itself
is printed /// cxti'iiso. The author warmly commends Mr. Rhodes
for his spirited policy, and tells how the Prime Minister of Cape
Colony on one occasion, some years since, pointing to a map, and
indicating what is now Zambesia, said to a friend, "All that
British ! That is my dream." How soon the dream would In-
fulfilled was little thought at the time. Mr. Mathers gives it as his
opinion that a new country an El Dorado and a Gosheu rolled

and its Founder, told by others

145

into one— is being opened up fur the benefit of the Anglo-Saxon
emigrant and the British merchant. We advise our readers to
procure a copy of the work, which is literally brimful of useful
information, a large portion of which cannot be procured from any

Xcwaslle Daily Chronicle.

This substantial octavo volume (480 pages) contains a vast
amount of information upon "the latest development in the
advance of South Africa." The book is written in the same clear,
lucid, and readable style as Mr. Mathers' former work, "Golden
South Africa," and will doubtless be equally successful. The
volume is copiously illustrated with maps and engravings, all of
which are excellent.

Newcastle Daily Leader.

Gives a mass of information to all who may be interested in
these vast new regions of the " Dark Continent." The work is
copiously illustrated with portraits and maps.

Nottingham Daily Express.

Whoever wishes to know the latest respecting this part of the
world, to which all eyes are turned, and which is now a huge
receptacle for English capital and spare manhood, will find what he
wants in this readable and informing book.

Xcw York Herald.

\ new field for our surplus population is strongly recommended
to the public in " Zambesia — England's El Dorado," by Mr. E. P.
Mathers. Mr. Mathers is an enthusiast about South Africa, and is
tilled with the conviction that everything may be found there
which the heart of man can desire. He supplies an ample fund of
information, by means of which intending emigrants may be able
to form an idea of the prospects before them. The book has the
further advantage of containing some excellent maps ......

Neius of the World.

The writer describes Matabeleland and Mashonaland and the
less known adjacent territories, and an account of the gold fields of
British South Africa. A deeply interesting work, part of which, by
reason of its poetic language, reminds us of Rider Haggard's
marvellous descriptive powers.

X'atal Mercury.

It is a voluminous production ...... In Europe it will

doubtless have proved an attractive book, and we shall deal with
it more fully in a review of its contents.

Northampton Herald.

Mr. Edward P. Mathers, the capable editor of " SOUTH AFRICA,"
a weeklv journal dealing with South African and financial affairs,
has issued a bulky volume of nearly 500 pages, entitled " Zambesia
--England's El Dorado in Africa." The work is devoted to a
description of Matabeleland and Mashonaland, and the less known
adjacent territories, and an account of the gold fields of British
South Africa. Its publication, as the author indicates, is amply
justified by the rapid northern expansion of British South Africa
and the consequent accompanying desire for information about the
territory "brought recently under the control and civilising
influences of the colossal corporation which sways the fortunes of
Zambesia." Mr. Mathers' new book is written in a most enter-
taining style, contains a mass of useful information, and is unique
in that it is, we believe, the only thing of the kind.

Xalal II 'it ness.

Mr. Mathers' theme is largely historic, and it must be confessed
that to the dry bones and dust of bare annals he has infused much
new life and imparted many charming embodiments ......

Reading rather like some well-sustained and interesting fiction
than cold fact ...... As a work of reference, or as a guide

to travellers in Mashona and Matabele lands, it is at present
without a rival. The sketches of life at I.obengula's kraal are very
well set forth ...... "Zambesia" is well and plentifully

illustrated throughout, is- admirably furnished with maps, and
contains some valuable appendices dealing with the various sub-
companies engaged with the Chartered Company in carrying on
the work of exploration and development in /.ambesian territorv.

The Newspaper.

A full and extremely interesting account of the Mashonaland
ii, which is now being as much discussed by investors

and speculators as by politicians and geographers'.

Handsomely illustrated with maps and wood-cuts, and the letter-
press abounds with useful and interesting informal! not only

about the character of the country and its various native inhabi-
tants, but also about the different missions and explorations which
have been, and are in course of being, conducted, and about the
work of that very successful and enterprising concern, the British
South Africa Company, which is making haste to absorb and
civilise what is called "The Golden Country."

Review of Reviews.

The author of this work, who is also editor of that excellent
weekly, " SOUTH AFRICA," has here given us an exhaustive and
concise account (illustrated with maps, plans, portraits and
sketches) of Matabele, Mashonaland, and the South African gold
fields. Mr. Mathers is a believer in the future of the country, and
what is more, he makes his readers believe with him.

New York Daily Tribune. (Long, exhaustive notice.)

The book is, as a Frenchman might say, if

minded to translate himself literally, "everything that there is of
most Nineteenth Century " ; end of the century at that. Once
allow for the fact that it is one big advertisement for the British
South Africa Company, with a fine boom for Mr. Cecil Rhodes in
tow, and you may alternately read and skip to the close with
interest and comfort. For Mr. Mathers is more than the mere
geologist and geographer the letters tacked to his name imply;
more even than the author of a trilogy of earlier books on South
Africa the country ; he is the editor of " SOUTH AFRICA " the news-
paper, and thus it is that he knows what you wish to know, and
just how to tell it to you. This he does, not carelessly and
perfunctorily, as is the fashion with most authors or editors of
works of this commercial nature, but with an earnestness and vigi >ur
that are as pleasant as they are unlooked for. Two capital maps,
the one of Zambesia on a good large scale, the other of South

Africa in outline, complete the attractions of the book

Mr. Mathers places the half-mythical land of Ophir on the high
watershed between the River Zambesi on the north and the
Limpopo on the south. In this Sir Roderick Murchison is with
him. Auriferous quartz is there, with abandoned gold workings of
great antiquity, and against the hypothesis there is really nothing.
If ancient Ophir was not in Monomotapa, and if Monomotapa of
the middle ages did not take in the Zambesia of our day and Mr.
Mathers' and Mr. Cecil Rhodes' and the great " Chartered
Company's," then, where was Ophir, please ? Not only are gold
and gold-bearing quartz there, but the remains of smelting works
have been found with slag and scoriae, and among them even

traces of lead ore And next ? The author of

" Zambesia " told Mr. Rhodes, " I want to see you take colonial
England through to Cairo." On the cover he prophesies as the
"railway instruction of the near future, the legend, Book from
Cape Town to Cairo, via Victoria Falls." What said the Colossus
of Rhodes as Mr. Punch calls him ? " Well, I have got to
Tanganyika."

Pretoria Press.

Reflects the greatest credit on the compiler, and is simply a
mine of information and a treasure trove of reference to the dark
regions which are called British Zambesia. Mr. Mathers has
collected a mass of wonderful information, some of which is from

the highest authorities, either living or dead AL valuable

addition to every South African libraiy.

St. J aines s (Jazette. (A long notice.)

In "Zambesia," by Mr. E. P. Mathers, the editor of " SOUTH
AFRICA," there is a vast mass of information concerning the lands
soutli of the Equator and north of the Cape Colony which have
recently been " painted red " on the maps of the world. Mr. Mathers,
as might be expected, is very sanguine as to the prospects of the
new Land of Ophir in British hands, though he has no belief at all
in Portuguese enterprise.

146

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

The Star.

A volume of almost inexhaustible information on South African
affairs, told by one who knows thoroughly the subject on which he
writes. Whether the anticipations of the author, E. P. Mathers,
as regards the future in store for this land be realised or not, it
cannot be denied that Zambesia — on paper — seems an admirable
place for emigration. This book is replete with knowledge on
African affairs, and whether the author is describing " where the
Queen of Sheba lived," or discussing Mr. Rhodes' policy, he is
equally at home, and what is more to the purpose, equally interest-
ing. A series of capital portraits of public men interested in
African affairs adorn the pages, amongst whom figures Lord
Randolph Churchill. As we gaze at it we are reminded of his
lordship's voyage to these regions, and of the limited library (two
books) he took with him. It is a pity he did not delay his %'oyage
until the publication of this book, as it would have been a library
in itself, and a splendid handbook for reference when penning those
wondrous £100 epistles that appear in a morning contemporary.

entertains a very gloomy opinion of Portuguese enterprise and of
the fate of the territory which is now ruled by the Portuguese
Government. The statistics furnished by Mr. Mathers show how
enormously British influence has extended in Africa during the
last fifteen years, the increase being 1,630,278 square miles. How
few Englishmen really estimate the priceless value of this enormous
territory of nearly two million square miles, or the additional
strength it gives to the British empire !

Southampton Times.

Zambesia is the name which has been given to the immense
territory which has recently come under the sphere of British
influence in South Africa. Public interest is being fixed upon this
quarter of the Dark Continent in ever increasing measure, and a
book just published at the office of " SOUTH AFRICA," 23, Austin
Friars, London, E.G., and written by the editor of that journal, will
be welcomed by all seeking a fuller knowledge concerning that
part of the world. Mr. Mathers is well qualified to write on the
subject, and the present voluminous compilation of official

SPECIMEN OF ILLUSTRATION IN "SOUTH AFRICA

A PORT ELIZABETH GROUP

Southampton Observer.

The author is E. P. Mathers, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., editor of
"SouTH AFRICA," and author of various works bearing on that
country. It is a description of Matabeleland and Mashonaland,
and adjacent territories, together with an account of the Gold Fields
of British South Africa. It is profusely illustrated, contains most
valuable information, has coloured maps of a comprehensive
character, and the whole may be regarded as a standard work.

The Scotsman.

It is written by Mr. E. P. Mathers, who gives an interesting
description of these places, and exhibits the places developed by
the British South Africa Company in an attractive light. The
history, both of the Colony and Company, is given in a readable

and informative fashion A series of illustrations that

serve well to supplement the written account. To anyone intending
either to visit any of the territories described or to settle in them
will prove invaluable, while it serves all the ordinary purposes of a
book of reference on the organisation and aims of the Company.

Shrewsbury Chronicle.

Mr. E. P. Mathers in his work, " Zambesia," gives the British
public some idea of the enormous extent of our territories south of
the Equator and north of the Cape Colony. Mr. Mathers, whose
long residence in South Africa enables him to speak with confidence
as to the golden prospects of the possessions in British hands,

documents and other recent information cannot fail to be very
useful. It is in this region that much of the world's history is likelv
to be made in the course of the next few generations, and
Mr. Mathers furnishes abundant material to enable the student to
trace the various steps which have led up to the establishment of
British influence in this part of Africa. It is fully illustrated, and
contains a number of useful maps. The title of Mr. Mathers' book
is " Zambesia : England's El Dorado in Africa."

Sheffield Weekly Telegraph.

Mr. E. P. Mathers, in his book " Zambesia " — which, by the way,
contains pretty well all that is known concerning our new South
African possessions — gives us several very graphic sketches of the
girls and women of the Matabele, the warlike race of Zulu
extraction who own the sway of King Lo Bengula.

Standard and Diggers JVews. (A long notice.)

Mr. Mathers makes an effort to solve the profound problem pre-
sented by the massive monuments of the past known as the
Zimbabye Ruins. The chapter devoted to this fascinating question
is profusely illustrated and deals exhaustively with the matter in
hand well illustrated throughout, besides, &c.

The Times.

A voluminous compilation of official documents and other
recent information, derived from many sources, concerning the
topics with which it deals Should prove useful to

and its Founder, told by others

147

all who desire t<> make themselves acquainted with the most
recent history and the present, or at any rate the penultimate, con-
dition of a region in which not a little of the world's history is
likely to be made in the course nf the next few generations.

Daily Telegraph.

Mr. E. P. Mathers, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., has issued a second edition of
his " Zambesia," and in it he records the advances made in the rapid
northern expansion of British South Africa. He describes Zambesia
as" England's El 1 >• >radi >" in Africa, and enters fully into the origin and
progress of the British South Africa Company. The book is supplied
with maps, and the illustrations are interesting and instructive.

Trade and Finance.

This is a thoroughly written book, and the author has spared no
pains in making it a first-class, up-to-date reference for this portion
of Africa. He writes with the authority of intimate and personal
knowledge, and the book should have a great popularity.

volume mueli wanted, as there previously was no accessible account
of the territory handed over to this Company.and no way of getting
at its delimitation. The work is fortunately from the hand of one
well versed in South African affairs, and an .extensive writer
thereon. The founding of this Company was a very timely and
prudent proceeding, as it gave form and defmiteness to our claims
in this quarter, put them in a position to be taken care of, and to
be skilfully developed. The excellent map that prefaces the book
gives us the first definite notion of the limits of this new settlement,
and seems to us, unfortunately, to emphasize the great mistake
made in allowing Portugal to command the mouths of the Zambesi.
..... The volume before us contains much information
about this hitherto, at any rate in modern times, unknown land.
It appears at an opportune moment, and will be eagerly received
by the adventurous spirits who are looking out for new and rich
loca tions. The book has a famous series of maps and portraits
and is a wonderful storehouse of information.

SPECIMEN OF ILLUSTRATION IN "SOUTH AFRICA"

A RHODESIAN GROUP

The Whitehall Review.

In nearly 500 close but clearly printed pages, Mr. Mathers, who
was for many years a leading member of the fourth estate, tells the
story of the creation of Mr. Rhodes' Chartered State. In the
course of his narrative much occurs which will, we doubt not, be.
read with avidity bv that inexhaustible reservoir for the working
of such a Company — we mean the sons of the British middle class.
Among them are to be easily found hundreds of adventurous young
men, who only ask a small salary and what they are fond of
calling a chance, and they will go anywhere and do anything : set
up stations, clear roads, build villages, open up trade — which
means making advances on produce to arrive, or even to be
grown ; and, lastly, lick all manner of their coloured brethren into
useful and semi-civilised police. They are doing these things by
the thousand in every tropical or semi-tropical region of the globe,
and their number never seems to grow thin. They die very fast, but
apparently they do not care very much for that, and those who survive
are usuallv the ablest among them, and grow into not the most in-
efficient of our race. To this type, then, of "our boys" we would
essentiallv recommend the perusal of Mr. Mathers' " Zambesia."

Warrington Guardian.

This volume is devoted to an interesting and intelligible account
of the territory of the new South Africa Company. It was a

Weekly Times and Echo.

A most useful and interesting book. Mr. E. P. Mathers, the
editor, shares to the full our anticipations of the certain spread of
British dominion in Africa, and the immense amount of informa-
tion he has gathered together about Matabeleland, Mashonaland,
and the less known adjoining territories cannot fail to be of the
utmost service.

Weekly Bulletin.

We have received Mr. Mathers' new volume on Zambesia, as
he calls the splendid domain we and other nations have recently
acquired on the Dark Continent. It appears to us to be a record
as complete as it is interesting of " South Africa up to Date." The
illustrations with which the volume is embellished are both
numerous and attractive.

Yorkshire Post.

Mr. Mathers' volume, entitled " Zambesia," certainly offers a

good deal for its money People who wish to know

what the new territory is like, what its people are like, how
the explorers got there, and how the land lies between Portugal
and ourselves, should by all means ask for " Zambesia." They
will be well repaid.

L 2

148

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

The Writings of
Mr. Edward P. Mathers.

HOW HE FORETOLD THE GREATNESS OF THE
SOUTH AFRICAN GOLD FIELDS.

THE RACE OF THE WORLD'S FIELDS FOR
PREMIER GOLD OUTPUT.

What Mr. Mathers Wrote Many Tears Ago.

BESIDES the books which have been issued under his name,
Mr. Mathers has written almost daily for the Press on South
African affairs for the last quarter of a century. The sixty
quarterly indexed volumes sketched on the inside of the front cover
of this compilation would alone bear testimony to his industry in
this direction. Since he established " SOUTH AFRICA" he has
frequently visited South Africa, and on each occasion has written
lengthy series of articles descriptive of his tours. He wrote thirty-
one letters under the heading " In and Around Africa." In the
course of these he had something to say about the Kimberley
Exhibition, which had previously been dealt with in three
Kimberley special numbers of " SOUTH AFRICA." At Bloemfontein
he subjected President Reitz to a long interview, which was
published in " SOUTH AFRICA" of January yth, 1893. Writing
from Johannesburg on December i/th, 1892, he said, referring to
the gold output from the Rand :--•

These are big figures, getting bigger and bigger. The Standard
Bank is shipping by the steamer which leaves Cape Town this week
« tun nj ' ifnlil .' I saw the blocks and bars and ingots which made
up this rich shipment. It was a welcome sight to me. I could not
help indulging in reflections as I stood in the vaults of the bank,
and as my readers will have entered on a new year when these lines
are scanned, I may as well put some of these reflections into words.
Ten years have come and gone since 1 began to write about the
Transvaal Gold Fields. What a ten years ! Beginning with the
Kant. . <,r, Moodie's, Barberton, and then the Rand. What a ten
years of struggle and achievement! If the yeais arc marked only
by the memories of pioneers, we may console ourselves with the
knowledge that, as the poet sings, we have risen on our dead selves
to better things. Had the realisations of to-day and the certainties
of to-morrow been prophesied ten years back, they would have been
dismissed as chimeras- as the idle fancies of a dreamer. But when
1 took my early trips to the Gold Fields, I saw enough to convince
•at there was to be, not only a silver, but a great g, ,lden lining
to the clouds of depression that ever and anon hung over the land.
As the great possibilities of the gold fields opened out befon
and as all the developments which would follow in their train
suggested themselves to me, 1 detemime.1. single-handed, to start in
London tin trade journal of the fields— a journal that should see to
it that the fields had fair play, and were described truthfully to the
world. When the mad " boom " was with Us that was a compara-
tively easy task. The great I!.]', swallowed any gilded pill offered
to them. But when we entered on the long lane of stagnation ami
depression and re\iling of the fields, I found my occupation but

beginning. Alone among the newspapers of London, I championed
the cause of the gold fields. Scarcely a paper but held up the fields
and all concerned with them to scorn and ridicule and cheap sneers.
But the grand work here told its tale at last. The papers which
knew the workers here only as devils admit them for the moment
among the angels. And what do we see here. To use an
illustration that may be permissible at holiday time, we see the
young horse " Witwatersrand," running and wearing down all
comers in the race for first position in the gold output of the
world. The horse had an adventurous career. Many attempts
were made to get at him. Touts and rival owners pretended that
he was going 'to pinch out in the legs, that he was blind because
his eyes had been picked out, that he had blue-bar in his belly and
must die. But the trainers of the horse knew his sterling qualities,
and spent patient months in getting him fit for the post. He was
heavily handicapped, ashe had to carry a great weight of incompetent
management and bogus .mines. There was some delay at the post
owing to the young horse bolting off the course into the Stock
Exchange; but Hermann Eckstein got him back again into the
race. " Witwatersrand " soon disposed of such gold-producing
crocks as "Mexico," "Asia," and "Brazil," and some months ago he
drew alongside " Russia." The other day " Russia " was sent into the
rear, and only three were left in the great gold output race. Now,
the runners have entered the straight, and "Witwatersrand" is
collaring "Australia" and "America." He is touching their
flanks almost. Look forward, reader, two years with me ; what do
you see ? It is a gallant fight, a neck-and-neck race, but the result
is never in doubt. " Witwatersrand " sweeps past the winning-post
an easy winner of the World's Gold Production Cup, and the crowd
at the "Corner" and in Throgmorton Street are flinging their caps
in the air. At settling day many of the men here draw their great
stakes and vanish from the course. But they leave behind them a
heritage which will bring many millions of money to their
successors. At last the sun sets on the Rand ! It has been producing
too much gold, and this has brought down the price of the present
precious metal with a run. The cost, then, of your morning paper
will be half-a-sovereign, and you will toss a sovereign to the
newsboy for your copy of "SOUTH AFRICA. " But that is a problem
which will affect only our Great Grandsons. It need not trouble us
to-day, as we speculate on what 1893 will do for us all. The
members ol this great community may well face the New Year
cheerfully. They have come from all corners of the earth to catch
Dame Fortune's golden smile; they are determined assiduously to
wait upon her —

To gather gear by every wile
That's justified by honour.

and its Founder, told by others

149

Not for to hide it in a hedge,
Nor for a train attendant,
But for the glorious privilege
Of bring independent.

May they all, and may all readers of " SOUTH AFRICA" become
independent, at least. May they also have a " A Happy New Year,"
and many on 'em.

Mr. Mathers as a Prophet.

But it was twelve years before that that Mr. Mathers began to
hammer away at the question of gold recreating South Africa.
Mr. Tom McLachlan — one of the recognised early authorities on the
Transvaal Gold Fields—said in November, 1885 : "All that Mr.
Mathers said in his book is coming out quite true " ; and in the same
month Mr. Mathers wrote : " It has long been our opinion that the
Gold Fields of South-eastern Africa would one day astonish the
world with their yields."

In August, 1886, writing of the Gold Fields, Mr. Mathers said
they would show " developments which would compel the world
to join with South Africa in acknowledging that the truth about
a great factor in the world's gold supply was being told. Our
prophecies were discounted as the visions of an enthusiastic
dreamer, our statements as thoughts which were the offspring of
ardent wishes. Time alone could prove us, and Time has proved
us to the hilt. All we have claimed for the Gold Fields of South-
eastern Africa has come to pass, and South-eastern Africa is but yet
standing on the threshold of a gold industry which will grow
vaster and more wonderful as the years roll on."

On January aoth, 1888, Mi. Mathers wrote in a South African
journal:— "As for what gold the Transvaal is capable of pro-
ducing, that is a question it would be impossible to form even a
reasonable estimate of. It is all a question of the judicious
expenditure of capital and labour. I think thai, according to the
amount of money and muscle spent on the industry, the country is
capable of producing gold to a practically limitless extent."

It has become fashionable among modern Daniels who have
come to sit in judgment on the Transvaal Gold Fields, to use
expressions very similar to those Mr. Mathers used twenty years
back and further. What are self-apparent truisms to-day were
prophecies which had to be stubbornly insisted upon in the olden
days ; the gold itself has silenced the sceptic for ever. At the
public dinner given to Mr. Mathers in England in 1888, he said :
"The Chairman has been good enough to refer to what I have
done to bring the gold fields of South Africa to the world's notice.
I am not going to weary you by giving you all the reasons for my
profound faitli that these gold fields will not only make South
Africa a greater country than it is, but will help to increase in a
very substantial manner the world's supply of a metal of which
there will never be too much. My books supply all these reasons."

Some Reflections — The Wrong Class to Emigrate.

In 1892 Mr. Mathers travelled from end to end of the Witwaters-
rand Gold Fields several times, writing fully of what he saw. He
found it necessary then to caution the unfit or the unwanted
classes from rushing to Johannesburg in the expectation of
immediate money-making. A few lines of what he then wrote
may be given • —

To .the man who knew the Transvaal Gold Fields in the now
long past, what a train of reflections is suggested if he takes his
stand outside the " Corner " and watches the faces in the busy
human streams which here cross and intermingle with each other !
If he wants one more lesson on the mutability of mundane affairs,
here he has it. The general topsy-turveydom of South African
existence especially South African mining existence— is here
exemplified in perfection. Look at this youth coming along ; to
your own certain knowledge, he had a large sum to his credit in a
Cape bank only a year or so ago. I may be wrong, but his
appearance to-day suggests that he would be glad to know
that his balance was. /_[. Gone the careless laugh, gone the
tasteful and gentlemanlike jewellery which he was wont to wear.
The slender figure has vanished into the past, and a corpulent,
seedv, bseiy-looking sot is all that is left of the lad who promised

so well. Here comes along another man I have met in other
scenes not so busy as these. A purse-proud snob would, in the
days I knew him before, hardly have cared to be seen asking him
for a light. To-day the diamonds that sparkle on his clumsy
fingers arc worth a thousand Robinson shares, and the many gold
cables stretched across his paunch make one think of a provincial
mayor in full dress. Will he stick to his easily-gotten gains, or
will he too become, in his turn, another example of the truth of
the old saying, "Lightly come, lightly go"? These arc the
extremes. A busy, contented, happy-looking throng are the clerks
who dodge in and out of the Stock Exchange and the oflu
their employers. But here and there are to be seen some young
men neither happy nor contented-looking. Theirs are the un-
mistakable faces of the unemployed, and if I can be of any service
in preventing young men from rushing to this place in the hope of
immediately bettering themselves, to say nothing of will <>' the wisp
ideas of fortune-making, my train of reflections will not have
started in vain. No doubt these healthy, likely-looking young
men I see before me came to this place either from the Home
Country or from some of the Colonial towns full of high 1
Through no fault of their own, they are finding that these hopes
are being blasted, or at any rate not being realised. The fact of
the matter is that it requires a man of peculiar composition to rise
above the herd in this place. The ranks of the average young man,
with his accuracy in totalling figures, and the usual stereotyped
testimonial as to possessing all the virtues under the sun, are
swollen to repletion. For the present that man should stay in the
moderately comfortable crib, wherever he has it. He will find that
his lot in life here, taking it all round, will not be any happier
than his lot where he has been. He will find that the footpaths of
this place are no more edged with gold than are the pavements of
Cheapside. Here he will have to work hard, morning, noon, and
night, for his daily bread. Here he must sow before he can reap.
Here he will have at once to recognise that he has come among a
people ten chances to one a great deal more shrewd, intelligent,
and enterprising than himself. I have spoken only of the average

young man with The young man who has the

peculiar qualities necessary to rise here will find that Johannesburg
offers fuller scope for his abilities than any other spot on the earth.
But, under any circumstances, let nobody come here in search of
employment who cannot keep himself for at least six or nine
months without work ; or, better still, let him come to an assured
engagement. I find my train of thought being switched on to
another line of rails as I see this hardy pioneer of Pilgrim's Rest
and the Kaap coming along. What has he made of it all ?
Exposed to all the elements and they can be very severe in South
Africa, as elsewhere — living the roughest of lives, feeding on the
hardest of fare, drinking very often the very worst of liquor, he has
helped many men in South Africa and Europe to make their tens of

thousands of pounds. Well, trudge on, old ; if you've made

no money for yourself, you are at least happy in your careless,
roving life, and who shall say that after all you are not healthier
and happier than the moneyed guzzlers you pass bvwith contempt?
And what about the faces of those who can no longer mingle with
this throng- the faces of those who have passed over to the great
majority? Alas! that reflection conjures up many sad memories.
How seldom in this bustling place is a thought cast on the good
men and true who lie up there in that sad new cemetery ! How
little do we think of those hard}' brave pioneers who have fallen by
the wavside

/Idling a "Hippo."

Mr. Mathers returned to England via Zanzibar and Egypt. An
extract from one of his letters from Beira, written when a little
steamer was the onlv transport up the Pungwc River, mav be of
interest.

We started on our return journey about 5.30, and we were
destined to soon have si > me excitement. About six or eight mile?
down the river, just after sundown, there was a cry of " hippo."
A rush took place for the three rifles, and, fortunately, owing to the
self-abnegation of Captain Jones, I was the lucky holder of one of
them.- The doctor, one of the most modest, heartiest, and most
enthusiastic sportsmen I have met for a long time, held another

150

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

gun, ami the skipper potted with his own at another part of the
ship. We saw a huge hippopotamus, well out of the water, about
300 yards off, and " broadside on " to us. We slowed and crept
down another hundred yards. The game stood still, though it could
have saved itself by wading into deep water. The doctor and I
planted ourselves on the top of one of the paddle-boxes, and at 200
yards I was allowed to fire the first shot. The bullet took the
monster behind the left shoulder, and, amid applause, he rolled over
a little. He soon righted himself, when the doctor planted a shot
well in his side. The firing then became fast and furious. The
medico and I blazed away, making, I am pleased to say, very good
practice. It was warm firing for ten minutes, and we had hippo
well within a framework of bullets. One would have thought it
was a night attack on the ship, so rapidly did the fusilade go on,

guard over the dead hippo. He went for his rifle, but the brute
bolted before the barrel could be levelled on him by Leclercq, who
went ashore to get the head. Some natives showed a disposition to
o mtest the right to the huge remains, but, for a " consideration "
they agreed to let the skull go. It was kindly taken charge of by
Captains Leclercq and Jones, and ultimately found its way to
23, Austin Friars. My friend, Mr. Rowland Ward, was good
enough to make it thoroughly presentable, and now it remains a
reminder of the happiest quarter of an hour I had in a trip, the long
drawn-out description of which should soon come to a close. The
excitement of the shooting put us all in good humour for our New
Year's Eve dinner of wildebeeste, eaten with a rare relish, as the
boat steamed along between the now dark and desolate-looking
river banks. Then, with pipe, grog, and song, we gradually reached

SPECIMEN OF ILLUSTRATION IN "SOUTH AFRICA'

THE LATE MR. BARNEY BARNATO SURROUNDED BY SOME OF HIS FRIENDS

Captain Jones, good man, being content to hand me cartridges.
The quick flashes from the rifles must have rather astonished any
natives who saw them in the gathering gloaming. It was unani-
mously voted that the shooting had been very good, and that the •
doctor and I had got an equal number of bullets well into tin-
hippo. When we found we could not make the life of the game
any more unendurable, we turned our attention to another hippo,
400 yards off, and gave him some digestive pills. So smart had
been our firing, that it was almost impossible to hold our rifles at
the end of it. It was too late to stop to pick up the big quarry,
but it was agreed that the body should be looked out for on the
next trip, and the skull sent to SMI m AFRICA" office. When
Skipper Leclercq returned in the murning he saw a lion standing

" home." After our hundred mile spin, we got to the ship exactly
at midnight, as the crew were clanging the bells to speed the parting
year and welcome in the new one. The little town had not heard
such a hubbub in the bay before. The bells of the Induna rang out
on the merry air, and both the Rennie and the Union steamers sent
up rockets. The little tugs set tlu-ir tin kettles going to

RUIL; out the old,
Ring in the new ;

Ring out the false,
King in the true.

We all sang "Auld Lang Svne,"and, after toasting the Captain, we
turned in to dream of the hippo reading an account of his death in
"SOUTH AFRICA."

and its Founder, told by others

LETTERS DESCRIPTIVE OF

Other Visits to South Africa.

The {Memorable Days Succeeding the Jameson Raid.
VISITING THE REFORM PRISONERS IN GOAL

Paul l\ruger*s Preparations for

IMMEDIATELY after the Jameson Raid Mr. Mathers went to
South Africa, and was in the Transvaal during the stirring
period of the trial of the Reform prisoners at Pretoria. He
wrote a series of letters entitled " The New South Africa," and
interviewed Paul Kruger for a third time, as will be seen elsewhere.
He also cabled interviews with Sir Hercules Robinson, Mr. Hofmevr
and others. His letters were verv long and very factful, attracting
much attention at the time. In the course of one of them from

FANCY SKETCH or MR. MATHERS on ONE or HIS SOUTH AFRICAN VOYAGES

Johannesburg he said, " I have a number of note books crammed
full of notes of what the prominent men of the Rand tell me was
tin- position of affairs foi the few days subsequent to the Jameson
Ride. It is impossible without spinning this letter out to an
inordinate length to give here a tithe of the information I have
collected ; it must be worked off gradually." The experiences of

the men whom Paul Kruger clapped in gaol as soon as he saw it
was safe to do so were fully dealt with by Mr. Mathers, and here
is a portion of a letter dated Johannesburg, February I3th, 1896 : —

SCENE AT THE PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION OF THE REFORM

PRISONERS.

When in Pretoria, the other day, I looked in at the preliminary
examination of the Reform prisoners being held in the Second Raad-
zaal. The proceedings were dreary in the extreme, being lighted
up, however, occasionally by a flash of unconscious humour on the
part of some of the witnesses. It is a queerly run country this.
The corridors leading to the hall in which the examination took
place were lined with armed policemen and artillerymen, and these
also guarded the entrances to the Court and the various doorways in
the corridors. I walked past a number of the clumsy Ceiberuses,
and was not once challenged for my authority to enter the Court.
Another instance of the easiness of the whole proceedings was
that Mr. Halliwell, the cricketer, who was present as a witness,
asked the State Attorney to let him off to play in a match at Port
Elizabeth, and permission was at once granted. The presiding
Landdrost, or Magistrate, was taking his notes like a pelican in the
wilderness, removed by some yards from the others at the trial.
Behind him was an expanse of big empty leathern chairs, in which
sit the Progressives who try to legislate in vain. The prisoners
were accommodated with chairs, which occupied fully half the floor
space of the Hall. Through the sport of circumstances I had a seat
alongside one of the prisoners, who were surely the most philosophical
and resigned lot of captives ever collected together. It was
oppressively hot, and many of the accused Reformers used straw fans
freely. Mr. Solly Joel looked fresh and fascinating in a light suit,
from the front top left-hand corner of which protruded an immense
bunch of pink roses. He left the Court occasionally, and it was
understood that an attendant was in waiting to water the blooming
garden which rested on his manly bosom, special pipes having been
laid on from the Johannesburg waterworks for the purpose. I
understand that the garden is renewed every morning. Mr. Joel
spent his time in exchanging reminiscences of the arrests with a
neighbour ; laying down the lines of the coming campaign against
the Wonderfontein scheme ; in showing Mr. King telegrams saying
that everything was booming, Primroses, £6 8s., &c. ; and in
languidly fanning himself with a pretty blue fan, which looked like
a large cerulean butterfly fluttering about the roses aforesaid. Mr.
King, with firmly-set lips, was improving his mind with a paper-
covered novel. Mr. Bettelheim looked a little forlorn, but brightened
up when some ladies came into the gallery. He was next to Mr.
Abe Bailey, still cheery and chaffy. I could not help thinking that
it was but the other day that the same two were beside each other
at Sydenham, as bridegroom and best man. Mr. Phillips, Colonel
Rhodes, and Mr. George Farrar sat together, and were calm and
collected and as cool as the hot air would allow them to be. Mr.
Hammond was too ill to attend, and being admitted to bail of
£10,000, occupied a private house in the suburbs of Pretoria.
Captain Bettington, still well remembered by Xatalians for his part
in the Zulu War, sat, glass in eye, deep in a book, and caressing his,

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The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

long moustachios. Dr. Sauer looked as if he would rather be back
in Rhodesia. Mr. \V. St. John Carr successfully restrained himself
from jumping down the throat of one of the witnesses who was
palpably drawing the long bow. Mr. Fritz Mosenthal looked
surely the last man in the world to have anything to do with
" Inciting to Rebellion and High Treason." Another who might
vciy well be placed in the same category was Mr. H. B. Marshall,
who looked in the pink of condition, and had altogether a cheerful
air of conscious innocence. Somebody was reading "Beside the
Bonny Briar Bush." Was it Mr. J. A. Roger ? He looked as if he
had not yet got over his surprise at the strange surroundings in
which he found himself. Mr. J. W. Leonard was on the alert to
prompt Mr. Wessels, the leading counsel for the defence. Mr. J. J.
Lace appeared to consider the whole proceedings a confounded bore.
Mr. Max Langermann declined to keep awake any longer and fell
fast asleep, and Sir Drummond Dunbar and Mr. A. Mackie Niven
might have been saying that it was bad enough that their forbears
should have been ground under the heel of the Sassenach, but that
it was altogether intolerable that they, their descendants, should
have to submit to the yoke of the Boer. A French novel was here
and there to be seen ; indeed, the last thing the prisoners seemed to
think of doing was to pay any attention whatever to the pro-
ceedings. They occasionally looked up and joined in the laughter
of the Court when anything especially funny was heard from the
witness-box. The State Attorney, Dr. Coster, examined all the
witnesses in Dutch, an interpreter translating into and from English
when necessary. The State Prosecutor is a young, fair Hollander,
with a closely-cropped head, fair moustache, and short peaked
beard, which he twisted and chewed all day. As a whole, he got
very little change out of the witnesses, certainly nothing that in my
mind seemed to justify for one minute the detention of any of the
prisoners on the grave charges laid against them. A word or two
may be said about

SUCH WITNESSES AS RELIEVED THE DULL MONOTONY OF
THE WARM HOURS.

One man who had belonged to a curious scratch American corps
was explaining that when he was made a prisoner at the Gold Fields
office he was not in the least afraid. He said : " I was not afraid ;
I am an American, and not an Englishman." A Scotsman said
that he had seen 5,000 rifles in a space in which it would have been
difficult to accommodate fifty weapons. He was teased in cross-
examination by Mr. Wessels, and altogether reminded one of the
story of the man who had seen 100 crows, and was ultimately
obliged to admit that it was "either a toad or a fern bush" that
had arrested his gaze. A lordly young gentleman said that he had
been appointed to the " commawnd " of a corps that was supposed
to be one of light cavalry, only they had no horses. There was
an explosion of [laughter, in which the State Attorney joined ; and
even the stern, scowling German policeman failed for once to call
silence, as he had twigged the joke himself. In reply to a question
as to whether he had drilled his corps, the cavalry captain said
he had drilled them, but it was with six knobkerries. Asked what
money he had received, he said three [sovereigns ; but that he
had expended more than that out of his own pocket. Another
witness was excessively funny. He was brought in to prove
that Detective Trimble had kept a Court of his own, and had
sentenced white men to lashes. He was asked if he remembered
receiving a thrashing during the troublous times. He admitted
that he had received such a thrashing, but had not the faintest
idea why. Had there been any conviction against him ~: Heli.nl
no idea. Why was he beaten ? He did not know, his memory
was gone. Where was he beaten ? He did not know. (Roars.)
Was there anything wrong with his brain faculty? He could not
say. And then Dr. Coster rose to the occasion. He was determined
to get something out of his man. "When you were beaten, it
made a deep impression on you?" The witness admitted, amid
great laughter, that it had. But couldn't he tell why he had Urn
beaten ; could he not remember anything about it ? Would he not
just tell the Court a little about it? Well, then, he would, and
said : " I felt the following morning very, vet\ sore : " and went on
to admit that he had been drinking hard previously for -

The same [dav one of the witnesses, R. W. Schumacher, a
clerk in Messrs. Eckstein ><: ( e, had been committed to

prison by the I.anddrost on the ground that he would not answer
questions properly. In the afternoon, however, Mr. Justice De Korte
ordered his release, and on the following morning everybody .was
startled by the announcement of the State Attorney that the pre-
liminary examination of the Reform prisoners had been postponed
sine (//('. It was understood that this was because the State Attorney
wished to appeal against the decision of Mr. Justice De Korte in the
matter of Schumacher's evidence ; but it must also have been to allow
that functionary an opportunity to review the situation and revise
the evidence for the prosecution. So far, it had all told dead in
favour of the prisoners. Officers enrolled to drill Scotch, American,
and Australian corps had all sworn that the object of the corps was
to protect life and property — not a very treasonable object.

THE ARRESTS OF THE JOHANNESBURGERS.

A DlSGRACEFI/L ScENF. AT PRETORIA.
How THE REFORM PRISONERS PASSED THEIR TIME IN GAOL.

THEIR TREATMENT AND EXPERIENCES.

While in Pretoria I, of course, had many talks with the Reform
prisoners, and I succeeded in having conversations with the leaders
of the Reform Committee in their places of incarceration. Detailed
particulars of what the prisoners had to undergo during their
earlier experiences in Pretoria have not yet seen the light of day,
and I propose for a brief space to hark back on these. The first
arrests were made at the Rand Club at a quarter to 8 o'clock
on Thursday evening, January gth. The first persons to be arrested
were Mr. W. Van Hulsteyn, Mr. W. St. John Carr, Dr. W. T. F.
Davies, Mr. A. Mackie Niven, and others. They were taken in cabs
to the old gaol, where their numbers were gradually augmented, until
at 12 o'clock midnight there were twenty-one prisoners in all. They
were confined in a small sitting-room about 12 ft. by 10 ft., and
kept there till 3 a.m. Many tried to sleep on their rugs. It has to
be stated that at this time liquors and cigars were supplied at the
Government expense, and they were told that quarters had been
secured for them in hotels at Pretoria. At 3 a.m. they were marched
to the Park Railway Station, under a guard of twenty-four of the
Johannesburg Volunteers,commanded by Lieutenant De Korte. Here
they were joined by Colonel Rhodes, who had been arrested in his house
at 2 a.m. The party now numbered twenty-two in all, including Mr.
John Hays Hammond, Mr. J. G. Auret, Mr. J. J. Lace, Mr. George
Richards, Captain Sampson, Mr. C. Mullins, Mr. W. E. Hudson,
Dr. Mitchell, Dr. Duirs, Mr. J. A. Roger, Mr. H. A. Rogers, Sir
Drummond Dunbar, and Mr. Fritz Mosenthal. Of these, some had
been taken into custody at the Rand Club, and others at their
residences. Mr. Hammond was arrested at Heath's Hotel. He
was in a very fatigued condition, and had retired to rest at 9
o'clock. He had left word that if anyone came to take him, and
treated him like a gentleman, he would submit quietly ; but if any
attempt was made to handcuff him he would resist. He was verv
gently treated by Lieutenant Petersen, and obeyed the order to
march to Pretoria very quietly. The party of twenty-two were
taken on to Pretoria by special train, each compartment being
locked, and being under the guard of several Volunteers. Arrived
at the capital, the party were marched to the gaol under the same
guard of Volunteers, strengthened by about twenty armed burghers
on horseback. Here the roll was called, and all baggage which
the prisoners had been allowed to bring with them was rigorously
searched, all liquors and razors being removed. This was about
half-past six in the morning. After this operation was completed
the prisoners were marched to cells on the left-hand side of the
gaol square. The gaoler informed them that thev could have
prison fare or send out for their food if preferred. Naturally they
preferred to have it sent in from the outside. About 9.30 Mr.
\d\ocate Sauer sent up a very substantial breakfast, to what was
now known as the "Auret party," or "The 22." Mr. Auret had
sent a note to Advocate Sauer, and immediately a committee of
Pretoria residents was formed to secure every comfort possible for
the prisoners. Some of these put up a good deal of money, one
sum of £500 being given, I believe, by Mr. Sam Marks — always to
the front in good work. All the prisoners are full of praise of Mr.
Ad vi icate Sauer, win > was s< > unceasingly, unselfishly, and untiringly

and its Founder, told by others

'53

active on their behalf. He t<H>k endless trouble to see that fruit
was got from the coast, and ice got into Pretoria for the captives,
and in this connection he was at the prison gate at least three
times a day. The cells provided for the Auret party consisted of
two rooms, one 12 ft. by 12 ft., and the other 12 ft. 6 in. by 13 ft.
Both cif them had been cleaned out, but appeared to have been
used at one time as stables. The floors were of brick, and of very
irregular surface. The walls were whitewashed, and light and air
were admitted by a small unglazed window near the ceiling,
measuring about 36 in. by 12 in. Between these two rooms, or
disused stables, there was a small apartment, about 5 ft. by 4 ft.,
which was requisitioned as a kind of pantry or storeroom by the
prisoners. On the first evening of their incarceration, about sun-
down, the Auret party of twenty-two were locked in and provided
with about ten coarse mattresses of prison manufacture, and
pillows to match, with a supply of blankets. The mattresses had
been used by all and sundry — very sundry — previously. The heat
was extreme, but fortunately, in response to repeated protestations,
about 9 o'clock seven of the twenty-two were removed to some
other cells in a different part of the gaol, otherwise very serious
sickness would have broken out, and, indeed, it is a wonder it did
not break out as it was. The gaoler had locked all his prisoners
in and gone his way. The accommodation for the calls of nature
was practicallv nil, and there was very much inconvenience in
consequence. At about 6.30 p.m. the very loud approach of the
other batch of prisoners was heard. The next body of Reform
prisoners had arrived, and they ran in at the gate from a howling
and hooting mob of about 1,500 persons. These gentlemen
numbered twenty-seven, and were afterwards known as " Hull's
party." They had been brought through by special train ; but
their march from the railway station to the gaol was

A NIGHTMARE OF MISERY, NEVER TO BE ERASED
FROM THE MEMORY

of any one of them. Even though in process of time they could
forgive those who so grossly insulted and abused them, it is
impossible, human nature being what it is, that they can ever
forget the terrible treatment to which they were subjected by the
yelling, groaning, and jeering Hollanders who accompanied them
from the station. The mounted armed Boers who accompanied
them did not take much trouble to keep them off, and, in con-
sequence, a large number had very narrow escapes from being
trampled under the horses and done to death by the mob. Any-
thing like an orderly march by the prisoners was impossible.
They were separated, many of them feeling on their backs, and
being practically urged on by, the bobbing heads of the Boer
horses. Others, Captain Mein among the number, were every now
and then kicked or struck by the forelegs of the moving horses.
Fortunately the prisoners were unarmed. Had they carried
revolvers, it would have been quite impossible to resist the
temptation to empty them, even at the cost of almost certain
death to themselves. Some of them were prodded by guns from
behind by the Boers, among these Mr. Abe Bailey and others, and
Mr. J. S. Curtis and others were spat upon. Getting near the gaol
it was absolutely necessary for the prisoners to run, in order to
save their lives. I would not accuse the Boer Government or the
Boer leaders of any part or parcel in organising this brutal,
despicable, and most cowardly demonstration ; but further than
this I cannot go. It was undoubtedly the duty of the Government
to see that the prisoners were conducted decently and in safety
from the station to the gaol, and it was equally undoubtedly the
duty of the Government to arrest and punish very severely those
ruffians who took part in what was very nearly becoming a fatal
affray. The howling mob was a nondescript one, composed
chiefly of Hollanders; among them, however, there was one
so-called Englishman of concession fame, who took a leading
part in this base outrage. But to return. When Hull's
party were safely within the gaol gate, they, like Auret's
party, were submitted to the 'indignity of being personally
searched. They likewise had all firearms, liquors, and razors
removed from their .baggage. They were immediately locked
up without food or water in small cells on the opposite side of
the prison yard, measuring 4 ft. by -, ft. each. Shortly after
this, dinner for the twenty-two armed, and they at once

divided the provender with their less fortunate colleagues on the
other side of the square. There were no tables, no plates, no knives
or forks, but there was food ; and, sitting on their mattresses, the
pris. mers tried to make the best of things. One man tried to eat
peas with a penknife, but failed. He succeeded, however, in making
a paper spoon, and was envied in consequence. When the food
came the cell doors were opened, and it was practically flung at
the captives. There were no means of dividing the f. »>d ; M >me had
plenty, and others had practically none. But for a time they were
beyond caring for it. The chief cry was for water, and they could
get none.. Hull's party had had nothing to eat or drink since they
left Johannesburg at mid-day.

THE MISERY OF THE UNFORTUNATE 27 CAN BE BETTER IMAGINED
THAN DESCRIBED.

Hull's party were from day to day augmented by further arrests
in Johannesburg, until it was made up to 40, the total number of
the Reform prisoners in the gaol reaching 62. The 40 were confined
in a row of ten small cells; but afterwards some eight or ten of
them were removed to some other cells in another part of the prison,
the whole of the prisoners spending the day together in the yard.
On the Saturday morning some native convicts, with whitewash
buckets and brushes, proceeded to mark out the gaol square into
divisions. Lines were drawn distant about 40 ft. from the cells
of both parties; and outside these lines neither party was allowed
to trespass. For quite a week the party of 40 and the party of
22 had no communication with each other. Within these lines the
prisoners were allowed to take exercise and amuse themselves as
they pleased from sunrise to sunset. On the third day Mr. Hammond
and Colonel Rhodes were removed from Auret's party, and Messrs.
Farrer and Phillips from Hull's party, and confined in cells, in a
very small yard, close to the mule stables. They were not allowed
to communicate with any of the others. This was in theory ; in
practice the regulation broke down, as from time to time other
prisoners were put in cells near them, and the doors of the cells
being left open, through the extreme heat, communication between
the leaders and several others took place. When the prisoners
reached the gaol first they found that Dr. Jameson and a number'of
his officers were confined in a cottage adjoining the row of cells
occupied by Hull's party ; but the whitewash brush was requisi-
tioned to mark off a strip of neutral territory between Jameson's
party and the Reform prisoners. The officers used their small
exercise ground freely, but Dr. Jameson took exercise by himself in
a small plot of ground at the back of the cottage.

WHEN JAMESON AND His OFFICERS WERE LEAVING THE GAOL THE
REFORM CAPTIVES DREW UP IN LINE AND SALUTED HIM.

The chief misery of the prisoners now became the excessive
heat. It was nearly a week before any canvas awnings were
put up against the outside walls of the cells. Previous to this
being done, the thermometer frequently registered as high as
96 degs. in the cells, and the only relief from this was to go out into
the sun, which registered nearly 130 degs. On the second day the
Committee of Pretorians sent up a full supply of clean mattresses,
pillows, and blankets, and that evening, after earnest representa-
tions and protestations, the cell doors were opened at nine o'clock,
and were kept open all night. I am told that a number of prisoners,
but for this, must have succumbed. A few nights later permission
was given to sleep in the open, but close up against the outside
walls of the cells, which took a long time to cool after the day's hot
sun rays. It is unnecessary to say what amount of British currency
was needed to obtain this luxury of sleeping in the open air. The
Governor of the prison is a rough Dutchman named Du Plessis. He
is a relative of the President, and I understand that when he was
speaking to his Honour one day about the prisoners, he said, " Why,
these men at the prison are not like you and me ; they are gentle-
men." The President was too busy to order his head to be taken off.
The prisoners speak in the highest terms of the consideration shown
them by the gaol staff as a whole, especially by Chief Constable
Burgers, who did all in his power within the regulations to make
tin lot of his charges'as happy as possible. The sanitary arrange-
ments were of the very worst kind, and can hardly be referred
to in terms of decency. Ultimately the prisoners •_;, <t portable
latrines. Fortunately there was a stream of water running

154

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

through one corner of the gaol yard, and the prisoners re-
velled in [their ablutions here every morning. The stream was
about two feet deep and was a great luxury. Still no tables and
still no chairs, but liquor cases had accumulated sufficiently to
take their places. When the scheme for supplying provisions, so
generously and thoughtfully initiated by the Committee of
Pretorians, was thoroughly under way, the prisoners lived like
fighting cocks. They had the best cigars and food from the club,
and the supplies of ice and [fruit ran in cost into hundreds of
pounds. There were unlimited supplies of mineral waters,
Apollinaris water, and ginger ale, but only a limited supply of
whisky was allowed, and it was remarked that those who seemed
to care most for ardent spirits outside, seemed to want them least
inside. The doctor allowed a bottle of whisky per diem for
eight men, and the calculation and distribution of the allowance

A CARTOON OF THE PERIOD

was left to a wag. He said, " Let me see, one bottle is
allowed for eight men per day, and there are twenty-seven men in
this lot ; that will be ten bottles," and somehow or other this
allowance was granted ; the arithmetic of some of the gaol
attendants not being their strong point. When this failed it was
seriously contemplated to get in spirits in Eau de Cologne bottles.
Burgomasters were appointed ; indeed, all the officials of a small
municipality were elected to look after the general wants of the
Reformers. Commissariat officials were installed in office, as
were also sanitary inspectors, whose duties were to see that the
cells were properly cleaned out and the mattresses aired, ft was
also their part to take care that no fruit refuse was thrown about.
Stringent regulations were laid down by this council. One of
these was broken one day by Mr. Niven. A visitor had called on
him and he had gone to see him at the gate. Information was
laid against him and he was tried before the Reform Prisoners'
Court, and <•< .ndeiimed in future to sleep beside— — . He
pleaded for mercy, and was ultimately let off with a fine of half
a crown. Mr. Bailey says he will never be able to play tennis
again, as he got quite accustomed to the idea that he must not
cross whitewashed lines. The prisoners had to amuse them-
selves as best they could, but their resources in this way were very
slight. Many of them were early risers, getting up about 5 o'clock.
For Hull's party it was the duty of Mr. J. A. Roger to make tea,
and he made it very well. Athletic exercises of various kinds were
indulged in. Kmpty bottles and bottles full of sand did duty for

dumb-bells, and odds and ends of lengths of wood for Indian
clubs. Skipping-rope dancing was a favourite pastime, some of
the prisoners proving adepts at it. Mr. J. G. Auret, even with his
220 Ibs., did wonders in this direction, as did also Mr. Williams.
Bathing followed, and was succeeded by breakfast about 8 o'clock.
After this such exercise as the sun would permit was taken.
Marbles were then played. The best experts at the South African
three-hole game were Attorney Hull, Captain Sampson, Mr. Alf.
Brown, and Mr. Niven. Some played poker, but low stakes were
the rule. Thanks to Mr. Advocate Sauer, there was always a
supply of the latest books and newspapers, despite the regulations
against them, and when " SOUTH AFRICA " arrived all the restraints
of prison life were, for the time, forgotten. Permits to see the
prisoners were granted by the State Attorney ; but interviews were
confined to five minutes, and these had to take place in the
presence of a warder at the gate. For some days there would be
as many as six or eight prisoners standing at the gate, or at the
bars of the gate-keeper's office window talking to their friends.
After about a week the regulation keeping the Hull and Auret
parties separate was relaxed, and they were allowed to amalga-
mate freely. It was altogether a strange and never-to-be-forgotten
experience. Some of the prisoners arranged with convicts to
attend to them. Mr. King had a murderer for his body servant ; a
highway robber cleaned his boots; and a criminal whose crime
may not be mentioned looked after his mattress.

Dr. Jameson's officers chatted freely with the Johannesburgers
after a short time. Sir John Willoughby wrote on the white-
washed walls of the cottage in which they were confined : —

" It is better to have fought and lost
Than never to have fought at all."

When Mr. Phillips saw these lines he wrote below them : —

" Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
Who had the best of it ?

VISITING THE REFORM LEADERS IN CONFINEMENT.

My second attempts to have a chat with the leaders of the
Reform Committee in their places of confinement were successful.
On the first occasion of my going to the gaol, I met the prisoners
coming away in cabs, accompanied by armed policemen. On the

} BEWIJS VAN TOEGANG,

om dm gevangenc ycnaamd ...ff.... .....

le bezoekrn m uwe tc'jcnwoordighcid. /]

189 .

CR1MINEELE AFDEEUNG

STWTSPROCURtURS DEPARTMENT
MR. MATHERS' PASS TO SFF THE RKFORM PRISONF.RS IN* GAOL

occasion of my second visit, which was about nine o'clock in the
iimniing, I took with me a special pass endorsed by the State
Attorney, granting me permission to go inside the gaol between
eight and ten o'clock in the morning. In rough letters on the gate
it is printed that visitors are only allowed between one and two
o'clock. The Governor of the gaol was just leaving. I showed
him my pass, and he gruffly said I must come back between one
and two o'clock. I called his attention to Dr. Coster's special
permission, but lie said he did not care, the regulations must be

and its Founder, told by others

155

obeyed. I said I came from Johannesburg, and was just returning.
He said, " You are all just coming from Johannesburg, and just
returning." I controlled my temper, as I was just as eager to get
into the gaol as many were, no doubt, to get out of it. I pleaded
that the prisoners were friends of mine, and I had come a long
distance to shake hands with them ; would not he let me speak to
them for a minute ? He considered for some time, during which I
saw the process of relenting was going on. He said, "You can
have five minutes," and I got through the gate. 1 was now
escorted by a very genial young Dutch giant, who took me to the
wretchedly forlorn, broken down, whitewashed cottage, in which
were the gentlemen I was in search of. In a tiny front room,
without any furniture but a small deal table and a chair or two,
were Colonel Rhodes, Mr. Phillips, and Mr. George Farrar. They
were in their shirt sleeves, and had just finished breakfast, of
which I was invited to partake. They extended me a cordial
welcome. I said, " I have five minutes ; what can you tell me in
that time ? " and we got through some fast talking. In five
minutes the Boer giant appeared at the door to tell me my time
was up. Mr. Farrar seized half a loaf of bread, and, with unerring
aim, shied it at the gaoler, catching him on the left shoulder with
it. The Dutchman thought it was a splendid joke, and exploded
with laughter. He went away, and I was left with my friends
for another quarter of an hour. Colonel Rhodes went out of the
room for a minute, and returned, holding up delightedly in one
hand a huge bouquet of flowers, and in the other a basket of figs,
which had been sent in by friends. I was loth to leave these
gentlemen, struggling so well to keep a bright face on their
miserable lot, and I had already made up my mind before I heard
what they had to say that they had been more sinned against than
sinning.

A CALL ON MR. HAMMOND.

The previous afternoon I had driven to the little cottage where
Mr. J. H. Hammond is kept in custody. When he fell ill he was
allowed to remove from gaol to this cottage, where I am glad to
say he has the unceasing attention of his wife. The house is
closely watched by a guard under Lieutenant De Korte. That
officer informed me very civilly and kindly that Mr. Hammond
had just fallen asleep, and it would be a pity to disturb him ; if,
however, I liked to come back in the morning, I could do so. I
cordially assented to this, and next morning paid the cottage a
visit. I had a long conversation with Mr. Hammond, who was
looking better than I expected to find him. A great strain had
been put upon him in Johannesburg, and as it is an ill wind that
blows nobody good, enforced retirement was the best thing that
could have happened to him. He is gradually recovering again
from an old enemy, and was in fair spirits. Little more need be
added about the strange times at Pretoria just now. During the
trial, crowds surrounded the court exits to witness the departure in
cabs of the Reform leaders to gaol under their armed escorts, while
knots lingered about to watch the departure of the President after
the afternoon meeting of his Executive. He drives about in a
rather seedy looking carriage and pair driven by a black coach-
man, evidently proud of his post.

THE FIGHTING STRENGTH OF THE BOERS.

I was informed on good authority that the Boers just now can
count on 24,000 men, old and young, capable and willing to bear
arms. I was informed that further additions to the armament of
the Boers was being hastily made. They have at Pretoria
12,000,000 rounds of rifle ammunition, and had just ordered two
batteries of big guns, one from France and the other from
Germany.

So if the English War Office did not know what was going on
in the way of importing huge armaments into the Transvaal it was
not for want of being told.

Another letter written about this time gives some notion of the
evil wrought then by the Boers allowing unscrupulous persons to
sell poisonous liquor to natives. " A portion of the letter may be
given : —

THE CANTEENS ARK WRETCHED DENS OF INIQUITY,
chiefly carried on by a low class of Russian and Polish Jews. They
are also centres of illicit dealing in gold amalgam, and if they

were swept away 1 am certain the figures of the output would be
considerably increased. While mentioning this, I may refer t<> a
recent instance of the biter bit. A person, who shall be nameless,
employed by one of the local mines, made up some stuff to look
like amalgam, and taking it to one of these canteens, got the sum
of £"70 for it. When the canteen-keeper came to sell it, it was
found to be worth about 255., but of course he had no remedy
against his partner in crime. There is only one cure for. the
frightful drink traffic on the Rand, and that is the total prohibition
of the sale of liquor to natives. To my mind this is perfectly
feasible. No native can buy liquor in Natal or the Orange Free
State bordering on this country. Why then should he be allowed
to purchase it in this State ? It is said that some mine managers
are cynical enough to rather encourage the drink traffic, inasmuch
as it prevents their natives from saving money and returning to
their homes. Surely this is a very short-sighted view of the
position. There might be some sense in the argument if those
victims of the canteen poison worked effectively while drawing the
pay and eating the food of the Companies, but they do nothing
of the kind, and in the long run must, therefore, be very much
more costly than sober boys working even a shorter period. And
what about the frightful effect on the natives themselves ? I suppose
those Johannesburg merchants who sell the stuff retailed by these
canteen-keepers go to church on Sundays and pray to be forgiven
for their sins. They may do so, but they come back all the same
to business on Monday morning to carry on the infernal traffic.
I know of one merchant who sells yearly to canteen-keepers about
£2.0,000 worth of spirits of wine. He does not care to ask what is
to become of this spirits of wine, but he knows perfectly well what
the destination is.

IT HELPS TO MAKE A VILE DECOCTION OTHERWISE COMPOUNDED

OF BLUESTONE, CAYENNE PEPPER, TOBACCO JUICE, AND HELL KNOWS

WHAT ELSE BESIDE.

This frightful poison the native stands in front of for a minute
before he can make up his mind to swallow it. When he does lift
his glass, he shuts his eyes, screws his face, swallows the stuff, and
then as it is proceeding through his body he smacks his lips and
exclaims " Guyaaquma " (anglice, " It cuts down the centre "), and
as he says so he makes a slow motion with his hands down his
body indicating how the drink knife is going. The native never
quite gets rid of the influence of this poison, and even when he is
presumably sober and returns to work he often faints in the mine,
and has to be brought to the surface. He not only suffers himself
from many accidents due to his condition, but many of his fellow
labourers fall victims to his vices. The awful compound which
the natives imbibe very swiftly demoralises them. Every atom of
self-respect is soon gone. They send home no money to their
families, and have never any to take home. Their families become
scattered, and their women swell the ranks. of prostitution. That
not only the native, but the whole community, would benefit
enormously by the total abolition of the liquor traffic, was well
proven the other day during the political crisis here. As soon as
the Reform Committee realised that they were responsible for the
life and property of Johannesburg, they immediately tackled this
problem. With pockets full of money they sent men along the
whole line of mines to destroy the contents of these vile dens. The
expert agent went into the canteen, and taking a quick survey of
the contents of the bottles, and learning what the contents of the
casks were, he made an immediate agreement with the owner to
pay him for his stock. The moment this was done, the bottles
were smashed, the casks were uncorked, and the contents poured on
to the grass. This was a rough and ready way of dealing with
the liquor traffic, but it was so successful that the Government
quickly followed suit, and ordered the whole of the canteens in the
town to be closed up. What was the consequence ? The peace of
Johannesburg was never so perfect and profound as during the days
of the so-called revolution. The testimony of the mine managers
was to the effect that their natives became different boys altogether.
They were ready and willing for their work. The _liquor traffic is
at the bottom of the faction fights we hear about. It is at the
bottom of the abominable assaults on women and children that

156

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

make our blood tingle with impotent anger ; anil yet the suppliers
of this hellish poison which works such damnable havoc in this
community worship at Christian shrines on the Sunday !

Two Tears after:

Reign of Terror.

One • if Mr. Mathers' trips to South Africa was "Two years
after" the Jameson Raid. He cabled home interviews with
Mr. Rhodes, Sir Alfred Milner, and other notabilities, and he
wrote strongly about Paul Kruger's reactionary policy, and nearly
two years before the war sent these words along the cable :
" The President and his party are strenuously attempting to abolish
all the safeguards provided for the convention, and no stone is
being left unturned in the endeavour to throw off once and for all

and with some respect for the administration of justice among the
various peoples which go at the moment to make up this nation
divided against itself. In Pretoria, few dare call their souls their
own. Sentiments of loyalty to the powers that be are fervid only
in proportion to the strength of the golden rills which flow from
the Pactolean stream smitten from the uitlander rock. Fat
salaries secure the lip loyalty of officialdom ; sinecures tempt
invertebrate malcontents to temporary adhesion, and the Secret
Service Fund does the rest. It gags the pimps, prostitutes, and
paragraphers of a renegade Press here and in Europe. There are
some noble and honourable men in Pretoria, Heaven be thanked —
men who decline to bow down to Baal : men who, baffled at
present in the battle for freedom, know that one day it must be
won ; men of whom it cannot be said

The jingling of the guinea helps the hurt that Honour feels.
If you be not prepared to shout in the chorus, " Hail to Kruger in
the Highest," you must here wear the mask of silence. You may
not say the thing you will. There are plenty of dirty birds to

COMMITTKK

BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA.

I /»//'/'

THE SOUTH AFRICAN PARLIAMENTARY INQUIRY

the yoke of the Suzerain Power." This was the state of affairs
in Pretoria and Johannesburg as described by Mr. Mathers from
there in March of 1898: —

A couple of days' stay here is about forty-eight hours too long
for any freeborn man, as things go just now. The moral atmosphere
of the place is stifling. Ignorance and prejudice have done their
worst. The too easily deluded Dopper Boer has given Paul Kruger a
fresh lease of the power he uses with such tyrannical dourness. On the
fears — not the love of the bucolic Transvaaler, the wily President
lias once more successfully played. With the cards of Archfiend
Rhodes and Jeopardised Independence he has tricked them again
out of their suffrages. To them the result is of less immediate and
,;il consequence than to the Pretoria residents. Here the "(in)
famous victory " has been received in half-hearted fashion, even by
so-called KruKerites. They may "crunk the piegnant hinges of the
knee " at the President's house given him by Mr. Nelmapius for
very substantial favours received but their heart is soured at last
against the man who is dragging their country through a mire of
misery and possible bankruptcy. They have helped to put Kruger
where he is ; but the Kotze scandal has ti scale of forbear-

They wish to see the throne ncvupied by one who will
D for the peace of South Africa as a whole,

carry unwelcome criticisms to the President's chamber. Every
utterance that does not square with the morality of Hollander
serfdom is hastily jotted in the spy's notebook ; your hourly actions
are chronicled at political detective headquarters with the fidelity
and minutiae of a Gaborieau. Pretty barmaids are bribed to get
innocent men to wag their tongues indiscreetly. A reign of terror
is established ; but it is the late rebels against Her Majesty's
Government who are for the moment reigning. The man who
sways the destinies of nearly a hundred thousand British subjects
has been false and treacherous to the pledges to their Queen to
govern the Transvaal for the benefit of all classes.

******

In my letter from Pretoria, I remarked that I should in my next
communication have something more to say on the political situa-
tion in this country'. I have spoken on it with authorities of all
shades of opinion. In Pretoria and here I have listened to the
Imperial view as privately propounded by England's able represen
tatives, Mr. Conyngham Greene and Mr. Evans. I have interviewed
leading uitlanders in Johannesburg not men who desire another

boom to enable them to make ne\ i ii.mgh to quit the place, but

men who have come here to settle with their families, relying on
the Su/erain Power to safeguard their ordinary rights. I have

and its Founder, told by others

'57

talked with leading burghers who reflect the most intelligent Bon
view, and I have conversed with some of the leading politicians of
the Cape Colony, Natal, and the Orange Free State. To-day, my
\ie\\ is stronger than ever, that there is but one man to blame for
the wretched z'////Wxir which has been reached in South Africa, viz.,
Paul Kruger. 1 did not do myself the honour of waiting on that
gentleman while in Pretoria. Had there been even a remote chance
of achieving any public good by undertaking a personally repulsive
task, I should have added another interview to the three 1 have
already had with Paul Kruger. In 1887, 1892, and 1896 Mr. Kruger
spoke through me to the public, and made solemn promises of
political reforms in the country. My interviews with him have
each been frequently published, and need not be repeated here.
Suffice it that far from carrying out the promises, the President,
aided by the deplorable raid, and egged on by his Hollander
advisers, has plunged the country into a deeper Slough of Despond
than ever. In taking any backward glance at the history of the
Transvaal — say, to the date when Evelyn Wood and Paul Kruger
put their signatures to certain terms of peace after the ghastly
business of Amajuba — the extraordinary feature of the retrospect
is that one man should have b?en permitted to so systematically
violate the Convention which allowed the Boers again to control the
internal affairs of the Transvaal. A strong assertion. Let me
endeavour to prove it.

Transvaal politics dominate the politics of South Africa. From
the Zambesi to Cape Town these, conjoined with the movements of
Mr. Rhodes, form the staple of conversation in every counting-
room at every farm-steading, and at every dinner table. For Paul
Kruger, marching on with impunity from one flouting of the flag of
the Paramount Power to another, has begun to dream dreams
which, though England may take care they are not realised, cause
the dreamer to be a very disturbing factor in the whole body politic of
South Africa. Paul Kruger has a personal policy apart altogether from
his so-called national one, and that is the bold and colossal one of
the elimination of British Government from South Africa altogether.
Unceasingly all his actions and schemes tend towards that one
object. Sleeplessly he pursues his one aim, whether by means of
constantly whittling away the provisions of the Conventions with
England, or by means of humiliating in the Transvaal everything
English with a view to make it absolutely irksome and unprofitable
for anyone, black or white, to claim to be a subject of the Queen
in the Transvaal. By cruel oppression of all blacks or coloured
races that dare to claim to be Queen's subjects, and by petting and
pampering the coloured races who will profess to adopt the opposite
view of everything British, he slowly attempts to oust British
influence and British traditions from the land. By a system of
setting at naught the Firearms law of the country, he keeps the man
who dares to be an Englishman in the position of a defenceless
serf, and he exalts and enriches anyone who will act disloyally to
the Queen of England. The law I have mentioned recites clearly
that any white inhabitant can have as many guns or rifles as he
e.u<s to have without check or hindrance, so long as they are for
his own use and not for sale. Paul Kruger, for his own purposes,
has substituted for that law Executive resolutions which state that
every burgher shall be armed with rifles and supplied with ammu-
nition free of cost to himself, but that every non-burgher or
uitlander desiring to purchase a rifle or sporting gun must obtain n
certificate of goad character from n burgher, and obtain thereupon
a special permit to purchase and hold a firearm. By these means
the Boers are armed to the teeth, and the uitlanders are rendered
defenceless: and this in defiance of the law of the country itself,
and likewise of the provision of the Conventions with England.
The retort may be made : " Surely if it is against the law of the
country, the legal tribunals are there to give redress, and they
would have no hesitation in giving this redress on a local law,
whatever hesitation they might feel on a constitutional question
arising under the Convention." My reply is that however effective
that retort might have been when there was supposed to be a High
Court administering. the law, and independent of the Executive,
now that Law No. i of 1897 has abolished that Court, and has
substituted for it a Bench of junior lawyers of time-serving dis-
position, who have agreed to take every order of the Government

as a law, there is no Bench now to appeal to, and there is no law
in the country save what President Kruger declares from time _to
time to be law. For what he declares law, the Bench, as at | i
constituted, has sworn to respect and administer. This Kruger
system of law regards only the necessities of his own Anglophobist
policy. From time to time Executive or Volksraad resolutions are
made law on the lines I have just recited, to differentiate between
the Boer of the country and the ordinary white or uitlander

inhabitant.

******

It is, I repeat, a persistent humiliation to be British in
the Transvaal, so far as the Government and its subordi-
nates are concerned. In the same way, outside the domestic
sphere, and in the wider sphere of South Africa as a whole, the
Anglophobist policy of Kruger finds scope at all points. The
primitive and poverty-stricken Free State has gradually succumbed
to the blandishments of Paul Kruger, and is now in his pay.
Their railways have been taken away from the partnership
contract with the Cape Colony, although they naturally belong to
it, and have been forced into an agreement with the Netherlands
Railway Company, that will cut the Cape Colony from the
Transvaal, and that will feed the port which Kruger hopes to call
his own, namely Delagoa Bay. Quite recently a large order was
about to be given for rolling stock for the Orange Free State
Railways. Mr. Brounger, the head official, after consultation with
Mr. Middleberg, the Controller of the Netherlands Railways, pro-
ceeded to Europe to place orders for the stock. The existing stock
is all British, having been imported by the Cape Colony, on behalf
of the Orange Free State, in the best and cheapest market — Great
Britain. Acting on behalf of Kruger, Mr. Middleberg's orders to
Mr. Brounger were to proceed to the Continent and place his
orders there. English manufacturers, knowing that Mr. Brounger
was coming home with orders, got on his track at the time of his
arrival, but ascertained that Mr. Brounger was met by two
Hollanders, and taken by them

STRAIGHT TO HOLLAND, WHERE ALL THE ORDERS WERE PLACED.

In the same way, the burghers of the Free State are being armed by
the Pretoria Treasury chest, not only as regards rifles, but as regards
all war material, whether guns, horses, or commissariat, Mr. Kruger's
hope being that with the suppliant President Steyn in the Free
State he can look upon the burghers of that country as a second
standing army of his own, to assist in the pursuance of his
Anglophobist policy.

Elated with securing the Free State, his friends are attempting
in the Cape Colony to tamper with the Dutch Boers there, and
with renegade Englishmen who can only find virtues in countries
other than their own. Owing to the immense wealth exacted from
the mining industry, Mr. Kruger has at his disposal, in unlimited
quantity practically, the modern sinew of war, namely, cash. The
fight is an unequal one. Kruger is a man of strong personality,
and autocratic to a degree, and has obtained complete ascendancy
over his own people ; in fact, 25,000 out of 27,000 Boers in the
Transvaal are for the moment absolutely his puppets. With his
strong personality and 23,000 rifles always ready, with his country-
equipped with all the materials of war of the best quality, and
with unlimited cash, it is quite evident that there is no one in
South Africa moved by any wider and more humane policy has
much chance in the long run of getting the best of the stubborn
English-hating President, who keeps the whole Transvaal world
alternately in awe and disgust. Uitlanders in the country resent
and writhe under their humiliation ; but as soon as they were
disarmed by Lord Rosmead speaking in the name .of the Queen,
they became a defenceless mob, and can do no otherwise than
writhe. In the Orange Free State a large number of Boers are
strongly opposed to the suppliant policy of President Steyn, but do
not feel strong enough to take active and antagonistic action.
These better informed Boers are well aware that the true progress
of Soutli Africa depends wholly on the preservation and permanency
of the 1'it.v llritniinicii, and they are equally aware that the
ascendancy of Kruger and Krugerian methods would spell ruin to
South Africa ; and that in any case, whatever temporary success
these methods obtained, they could have no longevity. In the

158

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

Cape Colony such disaffection as there is, is the growth chiefly of
supine officialism on the part of those holding the Queen s
commission in the past, and of the work of the few politicians who
happen to have the ear of the disaffected, and who voice disloyalty
loudly or whisperingly according to the quality of the Imperial
officer who happens to hold the Queen's commission at the time.

Thus it is that it is not so much a question of economic
grievances at the Rand, which have got far beyond the range of
grievances, and are simply gross and crying scandals which make
even Tammany pale. The question, as has been frequently pointed
out in " SOUTH AFRICA" of late, is wholly one of Paul Kruger and
Anglophobism against the firm establishment of British influence
and methods which alone can bring healing in their wings to South
Africa as a whole. One rock alone stands as a point of safety in
this Krugerian surge, and that is

CECIL RHODES.

In his loyalty to his friend Jameson, Cecil Rhodes proclaimed him-
self guilty of sins of which he was absolutely guiltless. His troth of
friendship was greater than his troth of patriotism in South Africa,
and having labelled himself guilty to that extent, his efficiency as
a patriot and effective factor of the Pax Britannica in South Africa
was diminished. The result of this is that Cecil Rhodes feels some
amount of disgust at the Imperial system of handling matters in

and if England, through her officials, whether in Cape Town or
Downing Street, acts imperially in spirit, the issue will be a very
simple one, and it will fructify in a short space of time. But
whether Cecil Rhodes sulks or fights, the issue remains, and it is
with England, either through Mr. Rhodes or through any other
instrumentality she chooses, to take up the battle with Kruger, for
if she does not he will succeed, and his death will not alter the
campaign, as for a certainty an Elisha will arise to put on his
Kngland-hating mantle.

I have said enough on the dreary subject of Transvaal politics.
A few weeks will settle the question whether Paul Kruger means to
run the country a little more on the lines advocated by his best
friends. If he is sincere in his assertions that he wishes to bring
back prosperity to the country, he will take out of the pigeon-hole
in which he has placed it the admirable report on economic
reforms handed to the Volksraad by his own nominees. This he
will ponder carefully, and as time goes on he will give more and
more effect to it. I think stern necessity will compel him and his
satellites to adopt this conciliatory and encouraging attitude
towards Johannesburg, and I am again almost hoping that we shall
see some of the long talked of reforms before we are many months
older. Meanwhile, I am writing this beneath the Johannesburg fort,

SPECIMEN OF ILLUSTRATION IN "SOUTH AFRICA"

A MEETING OF THE MAYORS OF SOUTH AFRICA

South Africa, and at the measure of tolerance accorded to Kruger
in his continuous onslaught on Britishhood in South Africa. The
question of the moment is : " Will he be patriotic enough to allow
this disgust to become a subsidiary sentiment, and to take up now,
as he took up ten years ago, the burden of holding up the English
standard in South Africa ? " If he does, then the issue becomes a
question of Britishhood speaking through its exponent in South
Africa, Cecil Rhodes, and the British hatred issue being fought by
Paul Kruger. If Cecil Rhodes accepts the gauge of battle frankly,

and in the pleasant companionship of four guns trained upon the
town. I have had a close inspection of the fort, and it certainly
is a very business-like affair. Any number of truck loads of shells,
powder, and ammunition have been deposited there. The guns
consist of several field-pieces and four Maxims.

It is to be remembered that all this was written two years before
the war broke out, and the extracts are made to show that " SOUTH
AFRICA," at all events, was telling the world what to expect.

THAN Mr. Mathers no better guide to South Africa could be
got. — Aberdeen Journal.

OF all the books that have lately been published about South
Africa, we know none more interesting than " Zambesia : England's
I.I Dorado," by Mr. E. P. Mathers. Mr. Mathers and his publishers
have spared no pains to make their book as instructive as possible,
by means of maps, portraits of South African celebrities (both
native and European), and drawings of pioneering scenes, Zulu life,
and African mountains, tracks, and rivers. For home-staying folk
there are worse pleasures than travelling in imagination, with Mr.
Mathers for guide, through Zambesia. — Rcho.

MASHONALAND and Matabeleland unfold their riches in Mr.
Mathers' glowing pages. — Hampshire Telegraph,

WHO on this side of the water, and who on the other side that
is interested in any way in this country, has, say, a son, cousin,
sweetheart, or sovereign in it, does not know " SOUTH AFRICA,"
with its sunshiny frontispiece, where, over the separating sea,
shines old Sol illuminating St. Paul's and Table Mountain at one
and the same time, and lighting two gold laden argosies on their
way, heavy with the spoil of the Sunny South. — Johannesburg
Standard.

and its Founder, told by others

159

The Record Issue of " SOUTH AFRICA."

112 PAGES ON DECEMBER

LAST.

So Crowded was the Space that Advertisements were declined at the Last.

THE following appeared in " SOUTH AFRICA" on the I3th
December, 1902 I—-
THIS DAY'S "SOUTH AFRICA."

OUR RECORD ISSUE.

This issue of " SOUTH AFRICA" consists of 112 pages, and is con-
siderably the largest yet printed by us. The presentation of our
popular coloured Map of South Africa with the paper creates an
extra demand for copies, which strains our resources. Ample as
these resources usually are, they have, after all, their limit, and
advertisers would do well to bear this in mind. It would be

affectation on our part to say we are sorry that advertisers have this
week favoured us so freely with their attentions, but it is perhaps
only right that we should express our regret that we have had to
disappoint a number of them. It is not usual for papers to have
to adopt an apologetic tone to advertisers for declining their orders,
but circumstances this week justify us in doing so. And the moral
of it all is that it is the steady and persistent advertiser who has
the best of it, especially if he makes a special effort on special
occasions. If manufacturers and exporters desirous of obtaining
and retaining a fair share of the great and growing South African
tra.de but cast their eyes through our present number, they will have
little difficulty in coming to the conclusion as to the right medium
to adopt for their advertisements.

SPECIMEN OF ILLUSTRATION IN "SOUTH AFRICA"

A GROUP OF SOUTH AFRICAN RAILWAY MEN

" Golden South Africa"

A VERY interesting volume. — Truth.

CHARMINGLY written chapters. — Engineering.

BEST authority on the subject. — Manchester Guardian.

WELL written and easily comprehended. — Stock Exchange Times.

A MINE of information and a treasury of reference. — Public
Opinion.

THROUGHOUT information of a practical character. — Daily
Telegraph.

MR. MATHERS is a recognised authority on South African matters.
—Pall Mall Gazette.

MR. MATHERS has done his work in his usual thorough style.
— Komatie Observer.

VALUABLE work Pleasantly vivacious manner. —

Sheffield Daily Telegraph.

MR. MATHERS' account of the condition of Swazieland is most
interesting. — Saturday Review.

CONTAINS a full account of this field of employment for capital
and labour. — Lloyd's Newspaper.

As a guide book to the different mining centres the book will
prove especially useful.— Graphic.

EVERYTHING is examined by him in a shrewd, cold and critical
spirit. — Newcastle Daily Chronicle.

As a guide book to the South African mining centres it is the
best work extant. — Natal \Vitness.

THE author's graphic and exceedingly interesting style tempts
even the indifferent reader to follow him. — Literary World.

To many people will prove of more interest than the most
startling novel or the most learned philosophical dissertation. —
East London Advertiser.

The book contains much information and sound advice, and
gives a correct view of the present condition of the South African
gold-bearing regions. — Morning Post.

A MOST graphic and complete account of the early history and
present prospects of many auriferous spots in South Africa. . . .
That admirable work. — Weekly Hulled n.

i6o

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

Letters About "SOUTH AFRICA."

COMI'I.IMKXTARY letters from conespondents are a daily
experience of " SOUTH AFRICA," and a weekly pleasure when
the South African mail arrives. By publishing particulars
of lost relatives, " Soi in AFRICA" has restored many long-separated
friends to communication, and it is the constant recipient of gratef al
expressions for services in this direction. Here are a few of the
letters about itself which have been published within the past few
years in " SOUTH AFRICA " : —

ONE OF MANY.

To THE EDITOR OF " SOUTH AFRICA."

DEAR SIR, — In this week's number of " SOUTH AFRICA " I notice
that my sister Annie is inquiring for my address. At the foot of
this letter I give the same in full. Will you kindly let my sister
have the address ; and oblige,

Yours faithfully,

C. GOLDIXO.
Bowker's Kop, Berry Street,

Queen's Town, Cape Colon v,
South Africa.

WE BLUSH.

To THE EDITOR OF " SOUTH AFRICA."

SIR, — After reading your interview with Sir Gordon Sprigg, I
thought what a pity that Mr. Chamberlain should go out to
Africa : he would have derived more benefit from an interview
with you than from seeing all the leaders at the Cape. It needs an
African to understand Africa, and you could have told him more
in an hour than he will extract from the statesmen at Cape Town
in a fortnight.

D. Z. BEAUMONT.
Pavilion Parade, Brighton.

WHAT ALL SOUTH AFRICANS SAY.

To THE EDITOR OF " SOUTH AFRICA."

DEAR SIR, — A client of ours, — — , Salt River, Cape Town,
who is at present over here, writes us: — "Please enter me as a
subscriber to " SOUTH AFRICA " ; it is a paper the reading of which
has given me a good deal of information, and I should not like to

miss it."

We are, dear Sir, yours faithfully,

London, K.C., November I3th.

WE ARK READ EVERYWHERE.
To THE EDITOR OF " SOUTH AFRICA."

SIR,— It is with much interest that we peruse your weekly paper

n TH AFRICA "), which finds its way even to our obscure village

of Petrusburg. We regard " SOUTH AFRICA" as pre-eminently the

best paper on South African affairs, and your columns express

matters relating to South African affairs in the thorough Colonial

style

Apologising for trespassing so long on your valuable time,
Believe me,

Yours sincerely,

ALBERT H. SMITH.
Petrusburg, O.R.C.,

October i8th, 1902.

WE GET ALL SORTS.
To 'I in ! " Soi i ii AFRICA."

SIR, — Having this opportunity. I derm it necessary to write
early in behalf of somi \eiv important matters, which you shall
know after. Sir, the opportunity spoken of above is something of

advertisement which 1 respectfully beg not to think me in any way
akward or stealing on your important time, but I hope \ou'd be
enough to giant same when mention. Sir, I am a steuait for
the Company of nr doing pretty well, but through the

mountainious life I shall i,. l)Lit would be more

glad in obtaining a position previous same. Sir, I am a coloured
Jamaican. My Father one of the oldest Overseers for Sugar
plantations. Mv ellementary stage of education from last school
day was fourth year government Pupil Teachers' exam. My cause
for leaving home was an account of my enthusiasm for travelling.
Thus if it be possibly you can advertise and get me an employ-
ment within a month or two as a " Valet," or " Private Sectrav," I
shall be awfully glad and prepared to deal for the cost of same
towards you. Sir, you'll be confering on me a very iminint favour
if you concurrenc in reply as I am ready with my money to know
how much you will charge me. I must ask to be excused as I am
quite new towards advertising details. There I shall in repettion
humbly beg you to be good enough in sending me answer towards
all particulars. Trusting to oblige same,

I have the honor Sir, to remain yours very
respectfully, PERCIVAL A. JAMEISON.

Darien Gold Mining Co., Caira, South America Rep. Of

Columbia, via Panama, nth Nov., 1902.

N.B. — Sir, I truely beg you not to throw away this letter but
oblige same as your labour won't be in vain. — P.J.

"SOUTH AFRICA" IN SCOTLAND.

To THE EDITOR OF " SOUTH AFRICA."

DEAR SIR, — Please supply me with your journal, " SOUTH
AFRICA," for another year, for which I enclose money order
for 255.

Wishing you the compliments of the season and continued
prosperity to South Africa the country, and also " SOUTH AFRICA "
the journal, which has done so much to educate the British public
on South African affairs generally, and Boer bluffs and tyranny in
particular. Long may you be spaied, Sir, to wield your pen in the
cause of truth and justice.

Faithfully yours,

DUNCAN McIsrosH.
43, Ardley Road, Rothesay,
December 3oth, 1901.

ENJOYS EVEN THE REMNANTS.
To THE EDITOR OF " SOUTH AFRICA."

SIR, — Being a Canadian by birth, though now residing here, I
see many amusing things done for political effect in this country.
Not the least humorous of the many things that have occurred of
late, is that of which I enclose you herewith a newspaper report.

I have taken your paper for a year or two now. It comes as
one of the exchanges of the North- Western Christian Advocate, 57,
East Washington Street, this city, and after they are tlnough with
it, I get the remnants, which I enjoy very much, and have been in
the constant habit of handing to two of my friends after I read it.
They also enjoy it, one being a Scotchman and the other a
Welshman.

Allow me to say that I enjoy exceedingly every issue of the
paper, and have used it in one or two instances to the discomfiture
of enemies of Great Britain in arguments.

I simply have taken the liberty of writing you. and enclosing
you these clippings, because of my thankfulness for the information
" SOUTH AFRICA " has given me during the war, and believing vou
would enjoy the clippings. The sensible, thinking American
people only smile at the efforts of the enemies of Great Britain to
stir up trouble.

God bless the King! Long live the King! I have the
Canadian Han on my mantelpiece in the parlour, and love to think
of my nali\e countiy and her motherland. Success to "SOUTH
.URIC \."

Cordially,

(Rev.) JOHN G. ARMSTRONG.

i»'C,x, Park Avenue, Chicago, 111.
December i(>th, icjoi.

and its Founder, told by others

161

" (i olden South Africa."

As a permanent record of the early days of the gold fields
of the Transvaal the work is one which, as a book of reference,
will remain of everlasting interest to all those concerned in the
present progress and future development of the Fields. —
Kokstud Advertiser.

" Golden South Africa."

THE work which has been so much desiderated by every one
interested in South African affairs has at last appeared. The
historian and contemporary chronicler of Transvaal gold mining
has arisen in the person of a well-known South African jour-
nalist, Mr. Edward P. Mathers A chief merit of the

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OFFICES OF
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3«),01J)JJR071IJ

COVER OF A "SOUTH AFRICA" PUBLICATION

CONTAINS an account of the author's doings and experiences
during a prolonged tour through the gold mining districts. Mr.
Mathers describes everything he sees, and he sees with an eye
accustomed to note anything likely to make interesting reading. —
Eastern 1'iwhii'i1 llenild.

work is .the unmistakable air of candour and truthfulness that
pervades every page, a quality that greatly enhances its value to
the mining investor and promoter. At every stage in his journey
he simply presents a literary photograph of what he saw going
on.— Money

I 62

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

"The Passing of Krugerism."

MR. MATHERS' LETTERS FROM
THE SEAT OF WAR.

SHORTLY before the war Mr. Mathers went to South Africa,
and was there during the earlier months of the hostilities,
escaping being shut up in Ladysmith by a few hours. He
sent to his paper a score of long letters under the above title, and
accompanied by many specially taken photographs for repro-
duction in " SOUTH AFRICA." He despatched many important
cablegrams which were reproduced in the leading English papers,
and here is a portion of one of his letters dated October 2nd,
1899 :—

ON THE VERGE OF WAR.

A GLIMPSE OF THE SITUATION IN SOUTH AFRICA AS IT STOOD AT
THE BEGINNING OF OCTOBER.

Quos Deus vult perdere prills deincntat. Was the; truth of the
Roman proverb ever so strikingly exemplified as by the vainglorious
bluster of the Boers just now ? I cabled you before I left Cape
Town a long message, in which I summed up the situation as it
appeared to me then. I indicated that I thought there was a slender
chance that Paul Kruger would submit to the reasonable demands
of England if the Imperial Government kept firm and did not raise
her terms beyond snapping point. But events are moving here with
lightning rapidity ; far faster than the)' were occurring in England
when we left on the gth ult. The men who still think there may
be a peaceful solution of the crisis are a dwindling little band.
Peacemakers from England might read in imagination in
flaming letters along the crest of grand old Table Mountain,
" Abandon hope all ye who enter here." Public opinion is a
seething whirlpool tormented on all hands by rumours of war. The
Krugerites after years of sowing the wind are now verily reaping
the whirlwind. They would fain recall their criminal efforts to
sweep, with their puny power, the might of England from S< >uth
Africa ; but as well try to bring back to the river-bed above the
waters in the abyss beneath Victoria Falls. As " SOUTH AFRICA"
put it long ago, they dared to dream of setting up the corruption
of Kruger against the virtues of Victoria, and to-day they are
appalled at the extent of the mischief which they have wrought.
As for the Boers themselves, a growing wave of madness is rolling
over the Free State and the Transvaal, and they will be engulfed
in it if sanity does not swiftly supervene. President Steyn has
brought his country to the brink of ruin. His impertinence to the
Paramount Power is of a grossness worthy of the most ignorant
Dopper. Well might a Free Stater, or for the matter of that any
leal-hearted South African, exclaim, "O for an hour of President
Brand ! " I cabled you the other day the fact, which I had on the.
best authority, that Mr. Steyn last May, after some insulting
references to England and the Queen, said he would back up the
Transvaal and personally lead his burghers in the field. I 'rave
'orts, my filibustering friend ! Let's see if you are as good as they
are, or whether others only are to suffer from the reckless claptrap
you have preached to y<iur Raad for a year past. Kor some days
South Africa has been hanging breathless on the decision of the
Free State Raad as to the attitude of the country in the crisis. It
got an excellent chance from Sir Alfred Milner (in a most courteous

despatch) of remaining neutral, but the poison of Krugerism as
administered by Dr. Steyn was too potent. The opportunity was
flung away, and some gratuitous insolence telegraphed to the
High Commissioner. Now the Raad has been in secret session for
several days, and has given forth a series of resolutions worthy of
Dugald Dalgety himself. Bloemfontein had been in labour for
some time, and it gave forth a mouse. It took the Raad several
days to come to the conclusion that it would be honest and faithful
to its obligations to the Transvaal. But what are the obligations?
The Free State is bound to help the Transvaal in the case of any
attack on its independence. Where is the assault on the Trans-
vaal's independence — such independence as she has had since the
country was given back to her on terms ? This may be the loop-
hole through which the brave President Steyn may yet creep.
When the members of the Raad were leaving the building after
passing the resolutions already cabled to England, they were
observed to be very grave, and one said to a pressman, " This may
be the last occasion that we shall ever sit here." Perhaps he was
right. Meanwhile Bloemfontein is beginning to have the appear-
ance of a deserted village. As yet, tossing about in the Scot in
Algoa Bay this fine morning, we cannot tell what the omens are
for peace or war. Nobody knows what the reply of the Transvaal
Government was to the recent Imperial despatch presented by
Mr. Convngham Greene ; nobody here knows as yet what was
decided on by the Cabinet Council last Friday. We have before
us obviously doctored versions of both decisions, and they need not
be discussed. We scan the horizon in doubt, but as loyal Britons
we thank God that at Cape Town, through these past few
miserable months, there have been and are such men as Sir Alfred
Milner and Colonel Hanbury- Williams, his Military Secretary, to
hold high the flag of old England.

RACIAL FEELING.

This is, as I said in my cablegram of Thursday last, intense.
I am by no means led away by it. It is to some extent spurious,
and where it is genuine it is but a safety-valve for the cheap
platitudes of disappointed Krugerites. Such as the sentiment is it
permeates every nook and cranny of Cape society at present. Up-
country farmers have sent down withdrawing their sons and
daughters from the scholastic institutions at Cape Town. The
boys are going back to the enlightened homesteads saying they
want nothing better than to " kill an Englishman." The big
brothers at home talk likewise, and it may be that these pot-valiant
heroes who are spoiling for a fight will be accommodated as long
as they like — and longer. If things go on at the rate they are
proceeding the sooner the better. I am no believer in war per-
petuating race hatred ; what will do it will be a prolongation of
peace under present conditions. Dutch and English have to live
alongside each other and fight the battle of life together in South
Africa, but they can only do so on terms of equality and mutual
respect. Place one below the other and contempt rapidly takes the
place of respect. This has been done by Paul Kruger in his own
country, and he has dared to dream it possible throughout South
Africa. His creatures at the Cape have taken their cue from him, and
he and they are on the eve of a great awakening to things as they
are — not as Hollander agitators would have them seem. After this
settlement takes place by the diplomatic pen or by the arbitrament

and its Founder, told by others

'63

of the sword, race hatred will die out just as it did after
Amajuba, after the Warren Expedition, and just as it died out in
America after the Civil War. Meanwhile it is not the worst thing
that could have happened that a Bond Ministry is in power at the
Cape. The colonists will in time realise what the ravings and
mouthings of the ultra-Bond party really mean. I should be very
sorry to hint that one of the Cape Ministers is either actively or
passively disloyal to Her Majesty, but it is unquestionable that the
party at present in power were largely returned at the polls by
rebels as rabid as ever deserved their fate at a drumhead court-
martial. I regard it as more fortunate than otherwise that such a
man as Mr. Schreiner was available to form the Ministry. He at
least is a gentleman and an upright politician. To the limit of his
power he insists on the decencies of debate in the House of Assembly,
and that is a tremendous advantage at this crucial juncture. But
the Cape Parliament will be prorogued in a few days, and that
before the Ministry has taken any very active steps to bring to
justice those who are propagating sedition and enrolling burghers
for service in the Free State in some of the northern and western
districts of the colony.

A SOUTH AFRICAN " MLISS."

I could repeat some stories I have heard of the absurd lengths
to which racial feeling has been carried lately. I need not dwell
on them, but there is one too good to remain in oblivion. Many of
my readers will remember Bret Harte's charming tale of " Mliss."
They will not forget the hot schoolroom, the red-shirted diggers
crowding at the windows, and the sanctimonious sky pilot trying
to impress the children with the wonder of the sun standing still
when Joshua bade it to. They cannot but recall that the patience of
the wild, bright ey'd lassie Mliss burst all bounds when she thumped

her hand and cried out, " It's a d d lie." I can parallel the

incident with a South African story, and it has the advantage
of being solemn fact. The other day, in a country school not a
hundred miles from Worcester here, the awfully smart school-
mistress, with an eye possibly to promotion when Paul Kruger
takes over Cape Colony, was giving out a dictation lesson. Part
of it ran : " And when the British troops saw the Boer burghers they
laid down their arms and fled." This was more than my little
loyalist heroine could bear. She had endured to this point, but the
strain was too great. She was one of the pupils, and she stood up
and said, " Please, that is not true, and I cannot write it." Con-
sternation reigned, but the brave girl stood her ground. Something
was done in the way of correction by the mistress, I believe ; at any
rate, the girl's father has just been to Cape Town to consult one of
the most eminent and popular lawyers there, Mr. Graham, Q.C.,
as to whether he has any cause of action in the matter.

The Struggle for Freedom.

Writing on October 1 3th from Durban, Mr. Mathers said : —
The die is cast. Paul Kruger in his blindness has played into
the hands of Joseph Chamberlain and Alfred N]iluer. England's
representatives have conducted the uitlanders' case with such
marvellous adroitness and circumspection that they have succeeded
at every step within the past twelvemonth in putting the obstinate
hypocrite in the wrong. Now when, with the outbreak of insanity
in the Free State.it was no longer possible to cnntnil the avalanche
he had created, he has given the signal for it to come down. In
his deplorable wrongheadedness ho is oblivious of the fact that it
will overwhelm him. He has set his life on a cast like Richard III.,
and he will stand the hazard of the die. As it was with that
monarch, so it will be with the traitor who has sustained himself
in power all these years, solely because England took him for an
honest, if an ignorant man. He must now go. England may have
to wade through blood to the settlement of South Africa, but that
she must and will do so at any sacrifice of life and treasure is now
recognised universally. To-day has been one of great excitement
in Durban. But it was not of the panic order, and there was no
sense of despair about it. Natal has heaved a huge sigh of relief
because Paul Kruger has at last taken a step which at one swoop
stops all the miserable negotiations which have been going on and
challenges mighty England to fight for her supremacy in South
Africa. " SOUTH AFRICA " long ago said it must come to that.
Slowly but certainly that journal has been justified of its pro-
nouncements. Now it behoves not to discuss the screeds of reckless
falsehoods which have emanated recently from Pretoria and
Bloemfontein in the guise of diplomatic despatches. The mask of
subterfuge has been removed, and we are face to face with the
naked enemy who is to be fought with d. entrance. The monster
of sedition is to be slain, and even-handed justice is about to be
dealt to all whites from the Cape to the Zambesi. Whatever
miseries the horrors of war may have in store for us, they will be
boldly and unflinchingly coped with. The best British blood of
Natal, Cape Colony, Rhodesia— aye, and of the Republics, is
prepared to bear any strain on its patriotism. I have spoken with
merchants to-day who stand to lose great sums of money whatever
the result of the great South African campaign may be ; but they
are ready and willing to face all eventualities. One man said, if
it should cost him a hundred thousand pounds, he is ready to see it
go, providing England from now sends down her roots of
supremacy in South Africa in such a way that they will stand
firm for all time.

As for the letters written by Mr. Mathers generally at this time,
they have taken their place in the war literature dealing with that
period.

BOROUGH OF* DURBAN.

PASS UNDER MARTIAL LAW.

(P 0^ s4

Commandant.

Durban.

M 2

164

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

" SOUTH AFRICA'S" Weekly Money Article.

THOUSANDS of readers diligently peruse " SOUTH AFRICA'S"
financial articles and critical dissections of schemes appealing for
public support, and they do so to their great benefit, as many letters
from them testify. On January 3rd, 1903, the following appeared
in "SOUTH AFRICA " : —

OUR RECOMMENDATIONS.

WE again call the special attention of our readers to a few
instances in which our recommendations of shares to buy show
very substantial profits to those who acted on them.

CORONATION SYNDICATE. — Absolutely first in London to publish
full details of this huge concern, we said in our issue of October
1 8th last, when the shares were quoted at under £500, that they
were a "rising market," and appeared to be "an excellent
speculation." Subsequently, in our issue of November 2gth, we
remarked that the shares were " passing from the speculative stage,
and look as if they were about to leap to as many thousands as
they were hundreds a short time back." Our subsequent lengthy
articles attracted considerable attention in the market, and shares
have changed hands this week at £3,000 apiece. It may be a " rich
man's gamble," as the Westminster Gazette says, but rich men as
well as pour like such profits as these.

EAST RAND MINING ESTATES. — We published a map of the
properties of this Company some months back, and in the course
of an article dealing with it we strongly recommended a purchase
of the shares at the then market price of £2. They gradually
forged ahead to £•/%.

EAST RANDS. — We have always had a good word to say for
this Company, and when the shares were quoted at between 135.
and 155. we strongly advised our readers to lay in a stock and
lock the scrip away. To-day the shares are standing at just under
£g, and are good for an advance beyond the figure they have
already touched, viz., £io\].-.

VEREF.NIGING ESTATES.- -We issued a plan showing this
Company's farms, and called the concern a " most interesting
speculation." The shares were then standing at 353., and we said
that we should not be surprised to see them double in value in a
short time. They touched £$&, and are very little under that
price to-day.

CROWN REEF. — When these shares were obtainable at about £2
apiece we strongly recommended them for investment purposes.
Our advice has been strikingly justified, as the Company has paid
1,029 Per cent, in dividends and the market price for the shares is
now £18.

ANGLO-TRANSVAAL LAND. — We gave some particulars of this
Exploration Company when the shares were to be had at 253., and
in less than a fortnight they had advanced to over £ 2. At the
present price of £1% they look a good speculative purchase.

BRITISH TRANSVAAL MINES. — A plan showing the position of
the farms in the Eastern Rand owned by this Company appeared
in " SOUTH AFRICA," when the shares were being dealt in at £i
pm. We said they appeared to be " a safe speculation for a quick
profit." They have since been well over £2 pm., and look like
returning to that figure in the near future.

RAND MINES is another favourite of ours. Consistently, since
the shares were to be had at £6 and less, we have said they should
be bought. At the present quotation of £n§ the old shares which
we recommended at the low price named are worth about £46^.

ELANDSDRIFTS. — When the shares of this Company were intro-
duced to the market at £1$, we said that " there should be room
for a considerable advance in the price." They were not long in
reaching £1$.

LACE DIAMONDS. — Those of our readers who took our advice to
buy these shares at 355. had a substantial profit to take when they
were quoted, as they were within a short time, at over £7.

TRANSVAAL " DEVILS." — From a half-sovereign upwards we
consistently recommended a purchase of these shares, and as they
are over £2 they have shown substantial profits to those who
bought on the lower sum.

H. E. PROPRIETARIES. — This is another case of " SOUTH AFRICA "
being early in the field with particulars of a concern on its intro-
duction to the market. When the shares were quoted at £2\ pm.
we said that they were " a good purchase " ; they have shown
several hundred per cent, profit since.

TRANSVAAL EXPLORINGS. — The properties of this exploring, land
and minerals Company were enumerated in " SOUTH AFRICA" when
the shares were round about 8s., at which price we considered
them " among the best of the low-price shares in the market."
They were not long in rising to 125. 6d., and at to-day's quotation
of us. seem bound for higher figures.

EI.ANDSLAAGTE COLLIERIES. — When we published the prospectus
of this Natal colliery we advised our readers to buy all they could
get at par. They are now standing at about 355., and have already
returned 40 per cent, in dividends.

NIEKERKS. — Half-a-guinea was the market price at the time we
said that the shares offered prospects of early and steady apprecia-
tion. They have changed hands at i8s. 3d., and are rapidly
reaching that level again.

FRANK SMITH DIAMONDS. — At a time when the low-priced
diamond shares were attracting some attention in the market we
reviewed the position of this Company at some length and advised
a purchase of the shares at £i\. The latest price is round
about £^.

These are a very few specimens of many instances in which we
have afforded our readers special opportunities of making money.
They will have plenty more chances if they continue to study our
pages intelligently.

" Golden South Africa."

MR. EDWARD P. MATHERS, F.R.G.S., has revised and enlarged
his valuable communications on the gold fields of South Africa.

The book contains much information and sound

advice, and gives a correct view of the present condition of the
South African gold bearing regions. — Morning I'ost.

WILL form a favourite work of reference on the auriferous

properties of the Transvaal Will be eagerly studied

by shareholders in the different mines. The Kaap district, .the
Komatie Fields, the Swazieland Mines, Lydenburg and Wit-
watersrand, Malmani, and so forth, are all thoroughly studied
and described, the whole being lightened with pleasant touches
illustrative of manners and customs — Boer, Native, and European
cial life and of the political aspect of the influx of miners
into these region*.— Financial News.

MR. MATHERS believes in the new journalism, and his book
contains much that is as amusing and interesting as anything
written by Lady Brassey. /•"///< iiitinl Critic.

THIS book, by an able Natal journalist, Mr. Edward P. Mathers,
F.R.G.S., has quickly taken the position of the standard work of
reference on the Transvaal gold fields. It is to be found on the

table of most merchants connected with South Africa

The author is now recognised as a leading authority in the
Transvaal gold fields. — Investor's Guardian.

A COMPLETE and accurate guide to the Gold Fields of the

Tninsvaal In addition to readable narrative and

description, it contains an ample supply of statistical information,
tables of distance and useful maps. It is a work that no one who
is interested in South African progress should be without. — di/if
Times.

and its Founder, told by others

165

< --ri^t,\>

ENVELOPES OF WAR LETTERS, WITH THE CENSOR'S STAMPS

1 66

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

Under the Union Jack."

A VISIT TO MR. RHODES' TOMB.

THE first of the above lines was the title chosen by Mr. Mathers
for the letters he wrote for " SOUTH AFRICA" on the occasion
of another trip to South Africa he recently undertook. He
toured all over the country to note the progress already being made
by the colonists now enjoying the inestimable blessings of peace and
justice under the freest form of Government on earth. Mr. Mathers
went 1,360 miles in 75 hours on his journey from Cape Town to
Bulawayo in a train tic luxe equal for comfort to anything running
elsewhere, and he told his readers about the coming wonders to
be seen by travellers in the great country named after the lamented
Mr. Rhodes. Americans will understand what wonders are meant
when they are told that the Niagara Falls " ain't a circumstance "
to the Victoria Falls of the mighty Zambesi River. A dozen years
ago Mr. Mathers foretold that the railway traveller of the near
future would " Book from the Cape to Cairo via the Victoria Falls."
The prophecy was regarded as ridiculous, if harmless. But it is
all coming very fast, as Mr. Mathers wrote from Bulawayo last
September : —

While we are all still talking of the African trunk line probably
being built to the Victoria Falls by the end of next year, Sir Charles
sees it already an accomplished fact, with not only a large hotel
built there, but a great busy town rivalling Birmingham in its
manufactures and Manchester in its commerce. Nor is that all.
We are to " do " the remaining distance from the Victoria Falls to
Cairo'by rail in four days. Well, perhaps -we shall not do that,
but our children may, and they may be able to buy local afternoon
editions of " SOUTH AFRICA " at the various bookstalls en route, only
the title will have to be changed to " Central Africa," and " North
Africa," according to the locality of publication. Thus does Sir
Charles magnetise one with his dreamy persuasive eloquence. But
to descend to the actualities of the near future, 1 have cabled y< m
that the capital has been already allocated to bring the British
Association to South Africa in 1905. It is intended that it shall hold
meetings at Cape Town, Kimberley, Johannesburg, and the Victoria
Falls. The invitation has been sent out, and possibly ere these
lines are in print, it will have been accepted. If it is, the greatest
scientists of the age will listen to the roar of the stupendous Zambesi
cataract. They will gaze down the marvellous gorges cut during
the ages by the mighty stream and on which, I am credibly
informed, not one hundred white men have yet looked. They will
be on the spot on which is to arise a city to be called into being
because of the limitless iron and coal in the district, and they will
say that the city should be called either Rhodes or Metcalfe. It
will manufacture its own rails to carry on the trunk line to Cairo
or to be used in the ever growing network of lines to the South.
By that time the output of gold from Rhodesia will rival that of the
Transvaal, and it will have another great industry in its copper.
So a new and entrancing trip for the world's tourists is opening up,
and the train <ic luxe I have been writing about is but a tiny
harbinger of the great passenger traffic that is to be to this place and
to the mysterious beyond. It will be the correct thing ere long to do
the Grand African tour. Coming to the Cape in October tin-
most charming month — the traveller will visit the battlefields of the
great and just war, and "do" the Diamond and Gold Fields, in
which the equally heroic battles of Peace are being fought against
Nature. He will come to this place whose name will al\\avs
conjure up the human shambles of the past, and returning to Bcira
on the East Coast, he will proceed northwards, getting to Egypt for

January and February. The leisurely journeying homewards by
the Riviera in March and April will bring him back to his own
delightful spring.

Describing a visit he paid to the lovely grave of the late Cecil
Rhodes, Mr. Mathers wrote : —

I went into the Matoppos to linger by the tomb of the great
departed Rhodes. The drive is a pleasant one. The distance is
short of thirty miles, and an agreeable break on the journey is made
half-way at Fuller's Hotel. Leaving the big dam behind, the road
into the Matoppos will be found to be fairly good. I left my cart
at the base of the " World's View " and made an easy ascent to the
grave. The path is clearly marked by a zig-zag white line on the
ground. At every foot the prospect becomes grander and a sense of
the solemnity of the spot steals upon you. You have just been
reading printed notices requesting that respect be paid to the lonely
and hushed surroundings. There may be people to whom these
appeals may be necessary, but I do not think they dwell in
Rhodesia. One at the estates we have just passed asks you not to
leave bottles or their straw envelopes about. When you come to
the foot of the mountain you read : —

" NOTICE.
THIS is CONSECRATED GROUND.

The public are earnestly requested to show their respect for the
memory of the late Mr. Rhodes by refraining from marking with
their initials or otherwise defacing the tomb and surrounding
rocks."

As you stroll upwards and view the rocky wilderness that stretches
on every hand, you feel that it would need a Byron or a Poe to do
justice to the wild and weird scene. To understand why the
founder of the country you are travelling in should choose such a
place for his sepulture, you need to remember that strange tempera-
ment that was never less alone than when alone. To him his mind
was a kingdom, and to roam freely in it he needed to wander away
from the haunts of men. He thought some of his greatest thoughts
when he could muse alone in scenes "where things that own not
man's dominion dwell." To you, perhaps, it is all a dreary desolate
waste of tumbling granite, stretching for well-nigh a hundred
miles on one hand and about filty on the other. But it was
just the spot where Mr. Rhodes could let his mighty spirit take
its flight to realms of imagination, some of which may now be
for him a reality. Gazing on the vast ocean of rugged stone, with
its " barren barren shore " beneath, the strange fancy came to him
that here hard by where Mosilikatse, the former ruler of the
Matabele, is buried, he, the saviour of this great country for the
British Empire, would one day lay himself down beside him. The
native name given to the hill is associated with the monarch who
left 'Tchaka to establish a separate nation, and signifies the
" dwelling-place of the Guardian Spirit." The Matabele feel it is
doubly so now, and have it firmly implanted in their minds that
Mnsilikatse and Rhodes now watch over them from this hill.
Mighty proud of their charge they were when Colonel Frank
Rhodes handed the grave over to them to keep and to cherish for
ever.

You are thinking these things when, rounding one of the
fantastically-shaped boulders which stand sentinel round a little
rocky plateau, you see the massive horizontal slab of granite which
covers the shallow grave. The suddenness with which the
tomb is at last revealed rivets you to the spot. I do not envy the

and its Founder, told by others

167

man who can look on that sepulchre and listen to the wind sighing
round it as I did in solitude, without emotion. I had found Mr.
Rhodes' spirit everywhere in South Africa ; here now below me
was the poor harassed body that contained it. Looking on the
large, thick brass plate affixed to the surface of the stone, with its
plain inscription, the simplicity of the clause in the Will of the
dead came upon me with a new meaning :—

" 3. I admire the grandeur and loneliness of the Matoppos, in
Rhodesia, and therefore I desire to be buried in the Matoppos on
the Hill which 1 used to visit, and which 1 called the View of the
World, in a square to be cut in the rock on the top of the Hill,
covered with a plain brass plate with these words thereon : ' Here
lie the remains of Cecil John Rhodes,' and accordingly I direct my
executors, at the expense of my estate, to take all steps and do all
things necessary or proper to give effect to this my desire, and

forest slopes of Table Mountain, so that it might be saved for ever
from the hands of the builder, and the people, attracted to it by
gardens, wild animals, and stately architecture, might be educated
and ennobled by the contemplation of what he thought one of the
finest views in the world. This love of mountain and distant
view — the peaks of the South African plateaux are seen 100 miles
away across the Cape flats — was deep-seated in his nature, and he
would sit or ride silently for hours at a time, dreaming and
looking at the views he loved — a political poet.

But from these create he can
Forms more real than living man,

Nurslings of Immortality.

There are many stories of him telling worried and disputing
politicians to turn from their 'trouble of ants' to the mountain

SPECIMEN OF ILLUSTRATION IN "SOUTH AFRICA"

' A RHODESIAN GROUP

afterwards to keep my grave in order at the expense of the
Matoppos and Bulawayo Fund hereinafter mentioned."

I sat beside the grave for about three hours. " The silence was
unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, and the only words
there spoken were 'Never, Never More.'" It was only a few
months before that I had been following in Mr. Rhodes' foot-
steps up the Nile, where he loved to imbibe architectural ideas
which he might work out some day in South Africa. Mr. Herbert
Baker, his trusted architect, studied for him also in Egvpt.
Speaking of the artistic side of Mr. Rhodes, that gentleman says :
" Artistic problems first presented themselves to his mind when, as
Premier of Cape Colony, he made his home in the Cape Peninsula.
His intense and genuine love of the big and beautiful in natural
scenery prompted him to buy as much as he could of the

for calm, and in the same spirit he placed the stone Phoenician
hawk, found at Zimbabwe, in the Cabinet Council room, that the
emblem of time might preside over their deliberations. The
ennobling influence of natural scenery was present in his mind in
connection with every site he chose and every building he con-
templated ; such as a cottage he built, where poets or artists could
live and look across to the blue mountain distance ; a university,
where young men could be surrounded with the best of nature and
of art ; a lion-house, a feature of which was to have been a long
open colonnade, where the people could at once see the king of
beasts and the lordliest of mountains ; the Kimberley 'Bath,' with
its white marble colonnades embedded in a green oasis of orange
grove and vine trellis, looking to the north over illimitable desert.
Such things would perhaps occur to most men, but with him they

1 68

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

were a passion, almost a religion. Of his more monumental
architectural schemes few have been realised. For these his tastes
lay in the direction of the larger and simpler styles of Rome,
Greece, and even Egypt, recognising the similarity of the climate
and natural scenery of South Africa to that of classic Southern
Europe. He had the building ambition of a Pericles or a Hadrian,
and in his untimely death architecture has the greatest cause to
mourn."

Sitting beside his grave it was natural enough that 1 should
think deeply and long about my late friend, the friend of every
earnest worker for South Africa. It need be no secret now, that he
told me " SOUTH AFRICA " was the only paper he read, and the
Review of Reviews the only magazine. It was a kindly thing to
say, and not meant as an empty compliment, as members of his
entourage have said the same thing to me. It was surely the
occasion of all others to reflect on how the dead man beside me
regarded the hereafter. Mr. Rhodes was a religious man in the
best sense of the term. He was an Evolutionist, but he did not
trouble himself about the past. To Mr. Stead, with whom he
seems to have spoken on sacred subjects more than with any other
man, he said : " Life is too short after all to worry about previous
lives ? From the cradle to the grave — what is it ? Three days at
the seaside. Just that and nothing more. But, although it is only
three days, we must be doing something. I cannot spend my time
throwing stones into the water. But what is worth while doing ? "
He strove earnestly and thoughtfully to find out what God wanted
him to do, and then he went and did it. The first thing that
impressed Mr. Rhodes, as a result of a survey of the ways of God
to man, is that the Deity must look at things on a comprehensive
scale. If he himself thought in continents he felt that his Maker
must at least think in planets. In other words, the Divine plan
must be at least co-extensive with the human race. The con-
ception of the Divine credentials, Mr. Stead tells us, seemed to
Mr. Rhodes to be immediately fatal to the pretensions of all the
churches. He said they might be all very good in their way, but
one and all were sectional. He was Catholic in his sympathies.
Speaking in support of the Salvation Army at the Mansion House
once, he said he had been told by other organisations that they
objected to the details of the Army's methods. He had been told
that objection had been taken to the use of the bands and military
titles ; but he knew that in his own church there were many
disputes as to details, disputes as to the use of incense, the use
of the confessional, the lighting and non-lighting of candles,
and as to the wearing of embroidered garments ; but, after all
(and Mr. Rhodes waved his hand to emphasise his contempt for
these narrow-minded objectors), let them, he remarked, put these
details aside. Whether a man was an officer of the Salvation
Army, a minister of his own church, or a priest of the Roman
Catholic church, they all had a high object, and they gave their
lives for the bettering of humanity. Not very long ago, at
Bulawayo, Mr. Rhodes pleaded for religious teaching in schools,
and said he was quite clear that a child brought up with religious
thoughts made a better human being than one not so brought up.
In laying the foundation stone of a Presbyterian chapel at
Woodstock, near here, in 1900, he expressed himself as follows:
" You have asked me to come here because you recognise that my
life has been work. Of course I must say frankly that I don't
happen to belong to your particular sect of religion. We all have
many ideals, but I may say that when we come abroad we all
broaden. We broaden immensely, and especially in this spot,
because we are always looking on the mountain, and there is
immense breadth in it. That gives us, while we retain our
individual dogmas, immense breadth of feeling and consideration
for all those who are striving to do good work and perhaps improve

the condition of humanity in general The fact is, if

I may take you into my confidence, that I do not care to go to a
particular church even on one day in the year when I use my own
chapel at all other times. I find that up the mountain one gets
thoughts, what you might term religious thoughts, because
they are thoughts for the betterment of humanity, and I believe
that is the best description of religion, to work for the betterment
of the human beings who surround us. This stone I have laid will
subsequently represent a building, and in that building thoughts
will be given to the people with the intention of raising their

minds and making them better citizens. That is the intention of
the laying of this stone. I will challenge any man or woman,
however broad their ideas may be, who object to go to church or
chapel, to say they would not sometimes be better for an hour < >r
an hour and a half in church. I believe they would get there some
ideas conveyed to them that would make them better human
beings. There are those who, throughout the world, have set
themselves the task of elevating their fellow-beings, and have
abandoned personal ambition, the accumulation of wealth, perhaps
the pursuit of art and many of those things that are deemed most
valuable. What is left to them ? They have chosen to do what ?
To devote their whole mind to make other human beings better,
braver, kindlier, more thoughtful, and more unselfish, for which
they deserve the praise of all men."

If a man must be either religious or irreligious, Mr. Rhodes was
assuredly not the latter, and, if one must confess it, the thought had
comfort in sitting in spirit beside him at the World's View.
Marcus Aurelius was his pocket bible. It was always near him,
and his copy was dog-eared and scored by pencil. A passage
marked by him was : " You have been a citizen of the great world
city. Five years or fifty, what matters it ? To every man his due
as law allots. Why, then, protest? No tyrant gives you your
dismissal, no unjust judge, but Nature, who gave you the
admission. It is like the praetor discharging some player whom
he has engaged — ' But the five acts are not complete ; I have
played but three.' Good ; life's drama, look you, is complete in
three. The completeness is in His hands who first authorised your
composition, and now your dissolution. Neither was your work.
Serenely take your leave ; serene as He who gives you the
discharge." I have said Mr. Rhodes strove earnestly to find out
what God wanted him to do, and then did it. It matters not to
trace here how he came to the conclusion, but he did, that God had
chosen the Anglo-Saxon race to enlarge on earth the Kingdom of
Freedom, Justice, and Happiness, and he determined to be one of
His instruments in doing so. If I remember aright, these are the
words, substituting " Commerce " for " Happiness," he selected as
the watchwords of the people amid whom he remains for ever.
His life was plain to austerity ; his personal wants for a year were
purchasable with the amount he would give away any morning in
secret charity. So he lies taking his rest with a simplicity that has
about it more than the stateliness of all your Westminster Abbeys.
With heaving hearts the people of the country, white and black,
laid him there. They carved, according to his direction, but one
line on his tomb ; they laid, by his will, but one stone on the
cavity which holds him, and " they left him alone in his glory."

EXAMINING MR. RHODES' WILL.

The will of Mr. Rhodes has already appeared practically ///
cxtcnso in " SOUTH AFRICA," but portions of it merit further
reference. I paid my two shillings to see the document at the
Master's Office here, and as regards its codicils, several of them on
the merest scraps of paper, surely it is one of the greatest curiosities
of wills in existence. It embraces 7,800 words, and the main
portion of it is engrossed in the ordinary legal handwriting. There
are six codicils. Three in the writing of the deceased are charac-
teristically rough, as will be seen by the facsimiles of them
reproduced herewith. The last of these is dated March 4th, 1902,
and appoints Dr. Jameson a co-executor and co-trustee under the
will. It was written only a short while before Mr. Rhodes died,
and the manuscript bears evidence of the weakness of the hand
that produced it. Another autograph codicil bequeaths to poor
Jack Grimmer, who died a day or two after his employer, £10,000
and the use of the Inyanga farms for life. Beyond bequests to
servants on the Groote-Schuur estate and the provisions for
members of the family, there are no bequests to Mr. Rhodes'
personal staff, who were dealt with while Mr. Rhodes still lived.
The third codicil revoked the appointment of Mr. W. T. Stead as
an executor in consequence of his " extraordinary eccentricities,"
which, Mr. Rhodes added, were calculated to embarrass the carrying
out of his views. The customary signature at the foot of each page
of the will is large and firm, and in marked contrast to those of
1901 and onwards. The fifth clause of the will gives to one of
Mr. Rhodes' servants " called Tony " an annuity of a hundred a
year. Tony was a faithful body servant familiar to the intimates

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FACSIMILES FROM "SOUTH AFRICA" OF THE

CODICILS TO THE WILL IN THE HANDWRITING OF

THE LATE RIGHT HON. GENTLEMAN

1 7o

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

of the departed gentleman. I came across him at Muizenberg, the
other day. I went down to see the cottage Mr. Rhodes died in,
and found Tony in possession of it. He told me the room in
which the statesman had breathed his last had been altered beyond
recognition into his own private sitting room. Mr. Rhodes had
intended staying more at Muizenberg. Indeed he found Groote-
Schuur too close for him latterly and made a point of sleeping at
Muizenberg, alas ! only to fall asleep in death. On a site a few
feet from the cottage he had resolved to build a substantial house
for himself. It had been levelled and buttressed, but there the
work had stopped. Mr. Abe Bailey, M.L.A., may build on it. To
return to the will, it is an absolutely unique human document,
which represents the vagrant ideas and deeper thoughts of the
testator, jotted down at all hours of the day and night, on cards
and scraps of paper, torn correspondence, backs of envelopes, shirt
cuffs, and foolscap. And they were inspirations in conversation, in
company, and in solitude ; cast up in a railway carriage, in a Cape
cart, in a garden, on the veld, aboard a boat, in a solitary ramble,
in a lonely bedroom, at breakfast, lunch, or dinner, in the
mysterious stillness of the Matoppos, and in the Legislative
Chamber. And in time these gathered ideas were collated, given
definite shape, drafted, and finally engrossed, signed and duly
attested. But Rhodes' brain was ever active, and the ideas for his
last Will and Testament were not exhausted until Time's effacing

coloured and otherwise. A contrast truly to the contempt felt for
the surly, corrupt, loafing Zarp who formerly made believe to do
policeman's duty in the Rand capital. Another feature of the
place just now is khaki. It is less in evidence than it was, and
will gradually disappear. At night you will see a picket of kilted
soldiers perambulating Commissioner Street, and incongruous
enough they look with their smasher hats instead of glengarries or
busbies. But that is a detail. You are not ashamed to own
yourself a Briton now that Johannesburg is " Under the Union
Jack." When I was there last all was chaos. The bulk of the
uitlanders were, as I called them long ago, helots and felaheen.
They were inert and demoralised from a feeling of hopelessness,
and they were passively permitting things to drift to disaster.
Cursed by imperial official ineptitude they had worked out all
their veins of philosophy. The Boers were waxing more fat and
kicking more insolently and persistently than ever. Mr. Chamberlain
was biding his time. He was but waiting to play the role
of the friendly Quaker and say to Paul Kruger, " Friend, enough,
thou must recall all this wicked anti-English legislation and
respect the Charter of Administration we gave thee in 1880."
There would have been no war if we had compelled the Boers
to toe the mark in time, but when we simply chalked up "No
Popery " and ran away, war became inevitable, and a blessed
thing it has been, difficult though it may be to realise this yet.

SPECIMEN OF ILLUSTRATION IN "SOUTH AFRICA"

MEMBERS OF THE LAST ORANGE FREE STATE VOI.KSRAAD

finger stilled the pulsations of that great heart and chilled the
warm blood of that broad brain. This is amply demonstrated by
the many codicils, from the legal-looking engrossments on the
sheets of brief to the paragraphic instructions— of the first
importance — on sheets of paper, with " Groote-Schuur " either
printed or embossed thereon. Generations afar off will study the
document with ever-deepening admiration for the giant among
men who died in 1902.

Progress in the

> Johannesburg.

Mr. Mathers, from Johannesburg, wrote last October, inter alia : —
Johannesburg is forging ahead once more. The interruption to
its progress by the war is of the past. It is steadily growing in all
directions, and some of its buildings are already little behind the
most opulent looking of the large business palaces in the city
of London. Perhaps the most striking feature about the new
Johannesburg is the policeman, in full London uniform, regulating
traffic at the busier street crossings. Just as at home, the helmeted
man in blue holds up his hand and is instantly obeyed by drivers

Kruger ultimately declared the issue to be himself or Victoria in
South Africa, and he and his wretched hirelings have had their
answer bravely spoken. England is represented here by a man at
last. Disastrous policies, rotten ultimatums begotten of puerile
timidity and empty bluff, are done with. Now, with Chamberlain
at Home and Milner here, South Africa is being ruled by English-
men, honest, but skilled in the world's battles. It is already " Half
speed ahead " on the Rand ; eie long it will be " Full speed
ahead " to an inevitable destiny of millions of white popula-
tion and a million ounces of gold a month. Meanwhile the best
men are returning to the Rand, and brilliant intellects they are,
many of them. It is questionable whether the crowd which passes
the portals of the Monte Carlo Casino year after year is a more
mixed assemblage, more virile and purposeful, more restless, more
mixed in notables, notorieties, and nonentities, than the crowd
which has gone backwards and forwards from and into the Rand
Club since 1887. It is a mixed crowd, but it is on the whole a
greatly capable one. A humane crowd, aggressive in work, skilled
in industrial organisation, but intensely generous and charitable,
and recognising only one unpardonable vice, viz., meanness to man
or woman. The men of the Rand Club, and also now of the New
Club, are the men who have made the Rand gold industry, and
that wondrous structure was not reared by ordinary men. Looking
round the Club dining room once a friend of mine — one of the

and its Founder, told by others

171

leading practical politicians of South Africa said, "There's a
grand collection of live men here ; I could pick a team that could
rule the world." If the Cockney pressmen would but try to realise
something of this when he is airing his views as to what is best for
South Africans it might make him a little less cocksure in his
penny-a-lining fiats. Fortunately for England, Lord Milner knows
his own race and the other one also. Let the British electors see to
it then that the guidance of South Africa is left to the man on the
spot, and let us have no more of the miserable betrayals of the past
with their hideously lamentable consequences.

Naturally the fast multiplying population of the Rand is
suffering from the temporary high cost of living and the lack of
house accommodation ; but as regards the latter the stories afloat
are only partially true. People who returned as early birds did so
to pick up the worm, and they must expect some of the dis-
advantages of the process. In any case the prices of provisions,
the high rents of houses, and the want of suitable dwellings are
only passing phases of the resettling of the Rand ; and after all, I
have found nothing to justify the howls of anguish reflected in
English newspaper letters during the past few months. It is a mere
question of supply and demand. The latter is ahead of the former
at the moment, but the adjustment is taking place rapicHy. You
have to pay a pound a day at the best hotels (such as they are) for
vour living (whether you take your meals out or not), but before

is plenty of capital available to go into dwelling house building,
and a large number of villa residences aie being erected in beautiful
Parktown and the district north-east of the Hospital Hill. As
regards business premises, these are in many cases being reconstructed
or entirely rebuilt. The familiar "Corner" house next "The
Chains" is now no more, but a new building of steel from America
will shortly raise its lordly proportions on the same site, while
Messrs. Thorne, Stuttaford and Co., the drapers, are about to erect
a building fifteen storeys high. This will show how valuable
ground is becoming in the Golden City. A man told me he had
arrived a .month ago to take advantage of the boom in property,
and had sold at once at a very fine profit, but he lamented that he
had not waited a month to get a better one. And so it is with the
average speculator everywhere. He bemoans his fate that he did
not wait longer or that he waited too long. It is the rare man
who cheerfully strikes the happy medium who makes the money.

Writing later on from Cape Town about the Transvaal, Mr.
Mathers said : —

Making all allowances, then, it will be seen that the progress of
the Colony is already really astonishing. The repatriation of the
Boers is proceeding as fast as the exigencies of transport will
allow. The settling on the land of a large number of British
immigrants is engaging close attention, and an army of surveyors
is at work surveying ground in different parts of the country

SPECIMEN OF ILLUSTRATION IN "SOUTH AFRICA"

REPRESENTATIVES OF SOUTH AFRICAN COMMERCE AT DURBAN

many moons have come and gone there will be enormous
palatial hotels in Johannesburg, in which ten times the comfort of
to-day will be obtainable for half the price. A sovereign will then
be worth twenty shillings instead of ten, its value to-day. People
with moderate salaries will then be able to make both ends meet ;
to-day they find it difficult to make one end meet. But new houses
are being built fast, and already the new tariff is lowering the
prices of necessaries. The plans of fifty new buildings — mostly
dwelling houses — are being sanctioned by the authorities every
week, and building materials are coming through faster every day
from the coast. The cry of overcrowding is a very much exagger-
ated one. There is nothing like the overcrowding to which the
refugees were subjected all these weary months here, and the houses
are all round better than those which had to be used here. The
fact is that the returning people are all flocking to particular
quarters. They will not live in certain streets, and in, say,
Marshall's and Ferreira's Townships there is a lot of property not
wholly occupied. It is not a question of extortionate rent at all.
The representative of an important syndicate says he has one large
building that he would be only too glad to let for the same rent as
obtained before the war. There are a number of houses standing
empty at a moderate rent, but people prefer particular districts and
pay the present high rents to go there. This will alter fast, as there

suitable for agriculture. The public expect to hear shortly the
composition of the nominated Legislative Council to meet some
time next month in Pretoria, and its deliberations will be narrowly
watched. But people will not be too critical for a year or two.
The Government in the past has been so utterly wicked that it will
be for a time enough to know that honest men are assisting in the
control of affairs. Corruption has had its day, and the armed
power of tyranny has passed. The new Transvaal, with its excep-
tional climate and agricultural resources and marvellous mineral
wealth, has begun its march to a population of several millions of
happy, healthy, and prosperous Colonists, to a gold output of over
a million ounces a month, or a million pounds a week, with all
other latent industries proportionately progressive and lucrative.
Nothing, humanly speaking, can now stop the realization of that
prophecy. I hear news from the Transvaal which, if it be true,
will bring it all the sooner. I am told that Lord Milner has had
information from Mr. Chamberlain that he proposes to pay a visit
to South Africa, and will probably voyage out in a man-of-war
some time next month. This is indeed welcome information, and
when it is generally known in South Africa there is certain to be
great rejoicing at a step which will do much to heal local
differences and give the Colonial Secretary that fuller knowledge
of South African questions which can only come of sojourning in

172

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

the country. Truly the whirligig nf Time brings its revenges.
When Paul Kruger was offered, in 1896, a passage to England in a
warship as the nation's honoured guest, I asked him if he proposed
to accept it, and I remember how insolently he toyed and trilled
with the invitation. He was engaged in a clumsy duel witli Mr.
Chamberlain then. He was using poisoned weapons, but they
have been shivered. The warship

is going the other way, and the
conquering hero comes hither.

THERE are few persons so
well qualified as Mr. Mathers to
give an accurate description of
the past history and future pros-
pects of Matabeleland, Mashona-
land, and the adjacent territories,
while with regard to the gold
fields of British South Africa he
is probably the best authority in
this country.— F'ielii.

IN " Zambesia " Mr. E. P.
Mathers, the indefatigable scribe
of South Africa, gathers into a
focus all the rays of light which
have so far illuminated our

. . . . It is clear that Mr. Mathers has thoroughly mastered his
subject, and he has the knack of interesting his readers in what to
most would be a very dry subject. — FitMiifinl U'or/d.

FROM the Western Figaro, Plymouth. — Lord Randolph
Churchill's letters are getting more reasonable: but I warrant nit
that his lordship took with him my friend E. P. Mathers' " Golden

South Africa," and drew — well,
inspiration from it. E.P.M. and

ft. Jetty Gat£S, Port Elizabeth. I are old chums. A handsome

Hi 1 - I r Scotchman, we sojourned to-

li*^\\_/\ '\AjlV A/vVA^J eether once upon a time in a

••-•y If •Byt^-%>N^' V"-** •

quaint old midland town editing
two weekly rags, long since dead
and gone. He always had an
ambition for the land of gold ;
and I hope that: by this time he
has got gold if not land.

Proceeding by S.S.

has been medically examined by me and

passed.

Date .......................... Signed

Bearer will NOT Toe allowed to pass out of'the Jetty Gates?

AIOOO.2000.8.1901.

A PORT ELIZABETH PASS

FROM the London Star. — Mr.
Mathers is a Scotchman, who,
after having been connected with
the Press in this country, has
spent ten years on the Press in
South Africa, and for some time
before he returned was editor of
the Natal Advertiser. He has

darkness regarding the countries at the Cape spent a large amount of his time in journalistic expeditions over the

What one does not know about Zambesia after going through
Mr. Mathers' book is simply what is not yet discovered. — Detroit
Free Press.

" GOLDEN SOUTH AFRICA." — Shareholders will learn more by a
perusal of this book than from the statements issued by the various
companies, and will find themselves able to gauge pretty accurately
the value of their property and the dividend it is likely to pay.

country, more especially in the Transvaal, and had, therefore, excel-
lent opportunities for estimating the importance of the auriferous
deposits of the Republic, and of judging its prospects. He has
written several important books on the subject, and his last work,
entitled " Golden South Africa," has been very successfully
published in London recently. He has now returned to London to
start a paper called " SOUTH AFRICA."

CAPE COLONY.

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• r.. i.. Mil .1 .1 »••! i«jui,..i

v»j" Htllli : " . ., ,,*., lir.

FACSIMILES OF TRAVELLING PERMITS REQUIRED DURING THE LATE WAR

and its Founder ^ told by others

'73

" SOUTH AFRICA" Publications.

POPULAR MAPS AND HANDBOOKS.

THERE are continually being issued from the office of " SOUTH
AFRICA," low priced but high class publications suitable
to the requirements of persons seeking information con-
cerning South Africa, or for the convenience of all those doing
business with that colossal field for business enterprise. One of
the most popular of these regular publications, is

THE RAILWAY MAP OF SOUTH AFRICA.

It is published every year, and it is a large coloured map, always
brought up to date, and showing clearly the complete railway
system of South Africa, together with the political divisions, all the
towns, large and small rivers, and enlarged insets of the harbours.
It may be had, bound in cloth covers, from the offices of " SOUTH
AFRICA," at the price of is. ; by post, is. 2d. ; and mounted on cloth
at 2s. 6d. post free.

Some Press Opinions on the
" South Africa ' Map of
South Africa.

ONLY a few of the hundreds of laudatory references to the Map
by the Press need be given, as they will sufficiently convey an idea
of what manner of map " SOUTH AFRICA" gives away in one of its
issues every year and afterwards binds up at the price named.

Daily Mail.

" SOUTH AFRICA " has issued an excellent map of the present and
future railway systems in South Africa.

Newcastle Daily Leader.

An excellent railway map of South Africa has just been issued
from the offices of " SOUTH AFRICA." One of its most interesting
features is that it shows at a glance the proposed route from the
Cape to Cairo.

Dundee Advertiser.

From the offices of " SOUTH AFRICA," Old Broad Street, London,
there is sent out a shilling map in colours showing the railway
systems of South Africa. This should prove extremely useful to
home speculators and those concerned in the development of the
country.

Mining 11'orM.

Our contemporary, " SOUTH AFRICA," has published an extremely
useful map of the territory from which the title of that paper is
taken. Lord Salisbury has advised us to study maps of a large
scale. It is difficult to do so when there are no such maps ; but so
far as South Africa is concerned, that objection no longer applies.
The present map is large enough for persons even with less than the
usual visual power.

Newcastle Daily Journal.

Mr. Edward P. Mathers, the proprietor and publisher of " Sor ru
AFRICA" — the leading newspaper 'published in this country in the
intf'K-sts of those who have capital invested, or friends residing in
the African continents-has just issued a new edition of his trust-
worthy Railway Map of South Africa. The map is thoroughly
up to date and shows at a glance the great progress of railway
enterprise in the country.

Western Morning News.

The looked-for expansion in trade is exemplified in the many
projected railways that are marked to connect the existing long-
distance routes.

Manchester Guardian.

" The Railway Map of South Africa " (" SOUTH AFRICA " office,
is.) if we mistake not, a new edition of a map already noticed in
these columns, forms a handy supplement to the guide. According
to the Map, the Beira-Umtali-Salisbury Railway, at present under
construction, is now much nearer to Salisbury than the guide-book
would lead us to suppose. The table of distances printed on the
map is very convenient for reference.

Morning Post.

A very useful " Railway Map of South Africa " has just been
issued from the offices of " SOUTH AFRICA." The railway systems
of the country and their projected extensions from Cape Town on
the South to Lake Tanganyika on the North are clearly set forth,
and a map on a smaller scale showing the Cape Town to Cairo
route is also included. Well; and boldly printed, the map will be
of the utmost value to all who have to deal with South African
affairs.

The Graphic.

" The Railway Map of South Africa," published by " SOUTH
AFRICA," is particularly interesting just now, when there is talk of
the Cape to Cairo route. With it one can see clearly how far the
railway from the South has progressed. The line to Bulawayo is
shown as completed. So, too, is that from Beira to Salisbury.
That dream of Englishmen — the connection of the Cape with Cairo
— is on the way towards being realized to the extent that two-fifths
of the distance are already covered with a railway.

Birmingham Daily Post.

The publishers of " SOUTH AFRICA" have just issued a new
coloured railway map of that part of the world, brought up to
date, showing the railways in operation, those under construction,
and those proposed, together with the coach routes in connection
with the train services. The map, which is of the folding variety,
in cardboard covers, is on a fairly large scale, and remarkable for
its clearness and cleanness of execution, and it is published at a
price that brings it within the reach of every newspaper reader.

The Irish Tunes.

" The Railway Map of South Africa." Only a very few years
ago the map of the Continent of Africa was all but a complete
blank. Now the interior is traced by lines indicating the attempts
at least of many countries to colonise its wastes. These boundaries
are popularly known, but those who consult this map (published
at the offices of " SOUTH AFRICA," 39, Old Broad Street, London)
will have a more correct idea of the grasp which Great Britain has
upon the route from the Cape to Cairo, over which a line of railway
ere many years pass will run. From Bulawayo to Uganda, and
hom Uganda through the Nile Valley, this means of communication
will most certainly be provided, and here the course to be taken is
shown, and an estimate suggested of the great uses, for Christianity
and for trade, which this iron road will serve. The map is a most
interesting one, costs only a shilling, and should be in everybody's
hands.

1-tinniiigliain Daily Gaiclte.

The railways are clearlv defined in bold black lines.

'74

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

^\ 'ottinghain Guardian .

It is of large size, and has been brought thoroughly up to date.
The lines and stations from Cape Town as far north as Bulawayo
and Salisburv are clearly marked, and projected extensions in
various directions indicated. Supplementary to the large maps are
sectional ones of the Natal railways and the Cape Town sub-
urban lines.

Aberdeen Journal.

From the offices of " SOUTH AFRICA," 39, Old Broad Street,
London, we have received the latest railway map of South Africa.
It gives a capital map of South Africa, showing all the lines,
and also a small one indicating the route of the Cape to Cairo
railway. There is a table of distances, which shows the mileage
on each line, and the height above sea level of each station on
all the lines in Cape Colony, Natal, Rhodesia, and the conquered
territories.

/)'ri.\-/o/ Times.

"SouTH AFRICA" have revised their exceedingly useful railway
map of South Africa, bringing it carefully up to date. The old
map was a useful adjunct to the newspaper reader during the war.

Field.

The present issue of this useful map shows all the railways in
operation brought up to date, as well as those in course of construc-
tion and proposed extensions. Telegraph and telephone lines are
also laid down. A table is given in which the distances between
the starting points of each line of railway and the several stations
are stated, together with their heights above sea level. In addition
to the principal map there are insets showing the proposed route of
the Cape to Cairo railway, the Cape Town suburban lines, and the
Natal railway system, these two latter being drawn on enlarged

scales It is an excellent map for general reference,

so far as the positions of every place of importance are concerned.

-'***.*»

"SOUTH AFRICA" IN EVIDENCE AT THE CAPE TOWN RAILWAY STATION BOOKSTALL.

Yorkshire Post.

A very clear shilling railway map of South Africa, on
stout paper, with the smallest stations marked, is published for
intending colonists at the offices of '' SOUTH AFRICA," 39, Old Broad
Street.

Glasgow Herald.

\ new edition of "The Railway Map of South Africa" is
published from the offices of " SOUTH AFRICA," 39, Old Broad
Street, E.C. It shows all the railways in operation, and also those
under construction or authorised, and those which are merely
projected. So it would appear that at present the only lines
authorised in the Transvaal are one from Pretoria to Rustenburg
and a continuation of the Dundee branch of the Natal line to
Yryheid. In the Orange Colony three lines are authorised or being
built, branching from Bethlehem to Harrismith, Kromistad, and
Hcilbr'.n i . The specialty of this map is the table of

stations with distances between in miles.

St. James s Gazette.

An excellent railway map showing all the lines working, under
construction, authorised, or proposed, in every part of South Africa.
The map is clearly printed and is most useful.

Cape Argus.

We have received from the publishers of " SOUTH AFRICA"
(London : 39, Old Broad Street, E.C.) a copy of the latest edition
of their railway map of South Africa, which is sold at the low
price of one shilling. The map preserves all its old-time features,
and has been brought thoroughly up to date. It is one of the most
generally useful maps of South Africa that is in existence.

Transport.

The publishers of " SOUTH AFRICA" have sent me the railway
map of South Africa, in a neat cloth cover. Railways in operation,
railways proposed, railways under construction, coast routes in
connection with railway services —all are given very clearly and on
a very convenient scale.

and its Founder, told by others

'75

The 1903 Edition.

The following are selections from some of the opinions expressed
concerning the 1903 Edition of this vastly popular Map : —

Financial News.

A big affair Clearly shows the

position of the railways, in operation and proposed, of British
South Africa.

Capitalist.

One of the most complete and up-to-date maps of South Africa
yet published. Railway lines in operation are shown, also those
lines in course of construction and proposed. The name of every
railway station is given. The map is a most useful one for
reference.

Western Morning News.

This is a good map of South Africa, showing the system of
railways throughout the country. It is published under the auspices
of the weekly paper " SOUTH AFRICA," and is to be obtained from
the offices of this journal, the address of which is 39, Old Broad
Street, London, E.G.

Yorkshire Herald.

We have received from the publishers of the periodical " SOUTH
AFRICA," a railway map of the Central and Southern portions of
the " Dark Continent," though the majority of the railroads in
Central Africa are as yet prospective. The map is a good one, and
anyone who intends going out should obtain a copy, (is., cloth
edition 2s. 6d.).

King.

The proprietors of " SOUTH AFRICA" have just issued a remark-
ably good map of the new Colonies, showing all the finished
railways up to date, and those in course of construction. The
map, which is by far the best yet published, may be obtained at
39, Old Broad Street, E.C. The price is one shilling, or, mounted
on cloth, two shillings and sixpence.

Northern Whig.

We have received from the publishers of "Sorni AFRICA," the
best known and best informed of the newspapers dealing with our
interests in that part of the world, a revised copy .of their "railway
map of South Africa." It is a very clever and accurate " indicator "
not only for travellers but for all interested in South Africa and
its industrial resources. We have here marked for the first time the
new boundaries of Natal as extended by the inclusion of Swazieland.
All the railways, existing and projected, from the Cape to the
Zambesi, and into Rhodesia, are clearly indicated, as well as all
the gold fields and coal fields. In the margin there are large scale
plans of Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Beira, Lorenco
Marques, and other ports.

Newcastle Journal.

An up-to-date railway map of South Africa has been issued
from the offices of " SOUTH AFRICA," 39, Old Broad Street, E.C.

Aberdeen Journal.

A Railway Map of South Africa for 1903 has just been published
by " SOUTH AFRICA " (39, Old Broad Street, London), bringing the
delineation of the various railway lines up to date. It will be
found of great service.

Glasgow Herald.

A large coloured " Railway Map of South Africa " has been
issued from the offices of " SOUTH AFRICA," 39, Old Broad Street,
London, E.C. The insets add to the usefulness of the map, as also
do the very complete tables of distances. The price on paper is is.

Naval and Military Record.

This is a good map of South Africa, showing the system of
railways throughout the country. It is published under the
auspices of the weekly paper " SOUTH AFRICA," and is to be
obtained from the offices of that journal, the address of which is
39, Old Broad Street, London, E.C.

Rhodesia Times.

The issue of " SOUTH AFRICA " to hand by the mail is supple-
mented by a railway map of South Africa for 1903, a very careful
and complete production, giving not only the railways already at
work, but those under construction and authorised. Coach and
post-cart routes and telegraph lines are included in the map, which
makes a very useful addition to the fittings of an office.

Financier and Jlullionist.

From the office of " SOUTH AFRICA," 39, Old Broad Street, we
have received a map of the sub-continent, and, as a quite distinct
publication, an atlas of the Rand. The former is published at a
shilling, or, if mounted on cloth, at half-a-crown. It is a large-
sized map, showing the configuration, the localities, and the
railway systems of all British South Africa, from the southern
shore of Cape Colony to Nyassaland beyond Rhodesia. It is of
manifest value for general reference.

77^6' Evening Post (New York).

From the office of the weekly journal " SOUTH AFRICA,"
published at No. 39, Old Broad Street, London, E.C., we receive
a timely folding map of South Africa, mounted on cloth, and sold
for two and a half shillings. It is primarily a railway map, ex-
tending from Cape Agulhas to the southern extremity of Lake
Tanganyika, embracing the whole of Lake Nyassa and its outlet
the Shire, with the coast line from the mouth of the Orange River
to the Zambesi delta. A small map exhibits the whole of Africa
and the Cape-to-Cairo route ; the Natal railway system is shown
on a larger scale, as are also Cape Town's suburban lines ; and
there are plans of eight seaports. For every line there is a table of
stations, distances, and gradients.

" Golden South Africa"

IT fully supplements the knowledge of the local man, and it is
replete on every given point, without exception, with all details
which are required by the foreign inquirer. — Natal Advertiser.

IT would be difficult to obtain a larger amount of information
with regard to the Transvaal mining industry than is to be found
condensed within these pages, and we heartily commend it. —
Transvaal Advertiser.

THE only real guide to the South African Gold Fields, and in
addition to containing facts the outcome of keen observation, it
contains a mass of valuable statistics and calculations as to the
future of the South African Fields." Xatitl M'itness.

THOSE who have money in a gold venture should read the book,
for it will give them valuable information, and those who care for
a description of a phase of rough life, unique of its kind, will read
it also as a study of mankind. — Eastern I'ruviiice Herald.

TEEMS with interesting information, and should be in the
hands of all who take any interest in the rise and development
of the Gold Fields of South Africa.- -Digger? News.

IT is impossible to read the book without coming to the con-
clusion that the author understands the subject, and honestly sets

forth his facts Contains much valuable information,

given to us in an impartial spirit. Monty Marktt Revi

MR. MATHERS is an explorer and investigator

who in person writes of that which he has seen

Carefully prepared details and statistics Useful to

all who are interested in the African Gold Mines.- Saturday
Review.

THE vast importance of such a trustworthy handbook must be
patent' to all, and after going carefully through its pages we can
confidently recommend it as a publication which everyone interested
in African affairs will find useful to have at hand for reference. —
.\ntiil Mercury.

i76

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

Advance South Africa!

THE CAPE TO CAIRO RAILWAY.

THE RAILWAY BRIDGE AT THE VICTORIA FALLS

"SOUTH AFRICA" of December 2ist, 1901, had the following: —
" Our readers may rub their eyes when they look on this picture.
And yet the reality is coming fast. More than ten years ago— in
the middle of 1891 — when Mr. E. P. Mathers published his book,
' Zambesia,' a very prominent line on the front of the cover of the
work ran as follows :

BOOK FROM CAPK TOWN TO CAIRO VIA VICTORIA FALLS
( Rtiihi'av Instruction of the iVcnr /-'it tare).

Perhaps Mr. Rhodes was the only man in the world who did
not think Mr. Mathers, when he wrote this, was merely dreaming
dreams. The Cape Trunk line at that time did not extend north
of the Vaal River, and railway communication with Dulawayo
was regarded as a long way off. But the line of print about
booking to Cairo riii the Victoria Falls and the remarks on the
subject in ' Zambesia ' are hard facts, and the prophecy is already
about to be fulfilled. The construction of this railway northwards

from Bulawayo towards the Zambesi River, a distance of approxi-
mately 300 miles, has already been commenced. The photograph
reproduced here from a drawing shows the gorge through which
the Zambesi flows, a short distance below the Victoria Falls, and
the proposed bridge which will carry the railway over the gorge.
The section of this gorge has been drawn from an actual survey on
the spot by Sir Douglas Fox and Partners, the engineers of the
railway, and the drawing of the bridge, which is to be constructed
of one span of 600 feet in length and at a height of 400 feet above
the water, has been prepared from a detailed design of the structure.
A plan (to be found on the opposite page) of the Victoria Falls and
River shows the proposed course of the railway at this point in
relation to the River, and the plan of Niagara will enable a com-
parison to be made between these two Falls, the greatest and most
magnificent in the world. Victoria has a fall of 400 feet and
Niagara a fall of less than 170 feet."

and its Founder, told by others

177

This Map
shows

the Proposed Course
of the

Cafe to Cairo

Rat/way at the

Victoria Falls

SOUTH AFRICA"

MAP

VICTORIA FALLS

ZAMBESI RIVER

1 Height of perpendicular cliff at this point 420 feat tMunsergfit.

2 Profit cliff.

3 Leatl green grass.

4 The knife edge.

5 Giese's Store 500 yards up stream.

6 Rocky bure, nearly hidden at full mater (June).

Canadian Rapid.

CITY OF
NIAGARA FA LLS

VICTOBK F»LL.S

VILLAGE OF
N I AC ARA FALLS

NIAGARA FALLS

NIAGARA RIVER

1 Hei'jht of perpendicular cliff at this point 158 feet.
3 167 .

This Plan
enables a
comparison to be
made

between the
Localities of the
Niagara and
Victoria Falls

i78

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

Sir Henry M. Stanley Represents
"SOUTH AFRICA" in South Africa.

A NOTABLE SERIES OF LETTERS AFTERWARDS

REPRINTED IN BOOK FORM.

IN October, 1897, "SOUTH AFRICA" was fortunate enough to be
able to arrange with the great author and explorer H. M.
Stanley — his plain name sounds best — to send it a series
of letters from South Africa. These were printed in due course,
and were perused with absorbing interest not only by the readers
of " SOUTH AFRICA," but the readers of most of the leading British
newspapers, which quoted from them very fully. Under the title of
" Through South Africa," the articles in which " SOUTH AFRICA "
held the copyright were reprinted in book form. Regarding this
work a very few of the Press opinions may be here given : —

financial Truth.
Not one dull line in it.

Rhodesian Weekly Review.

Lively and picturesque.

St. James s Budget.

An interesting series of letters.

Cape Times.

" SOUTH AFRICA " had no reason, we think, to regret its enter-
prise in securing the letters.

Home News.

Mr. H. M. Stanley commits himself to the bold opinion that
Rhodesia will not be much inferior to the Transvaal.

Saturday Review.

" SOUTH AFRICA " and its editor, Mr. Mathers, are to be con-
gratulated on having got Mr. H. M. Stanley to write on South
Africa.

Investors' Guardian.

Mr. Stanley has a downright manner which is very telling. His
picture of President Kruger is striking, and is, we believe, quite
lifelike.

Financial News.

The letters of Mr. Stanley throw useful light upon many South
African problems in which the average Britisher takes a keen and
abiding interest.

Birmingham Post.

Of the country he traversed Mr. Stanley speaks with enthusiasm
and of the energy of our people who are converting a waste
wilderness into a fruitful and profitable country.

The World.

Mr. Stanley gives us an interesting picture of the country through
which he travelled, and throws out a number of valuable suggestions
concerning the colonization and settlement of the country.

Shareholder.

Mr. Stanley writes at length, and in quite an unhesitating tone,
as to the clear indications of extensive auriferous deposits left
untouched by the ancient miners who, in the remote past, exploited
the country.

Literary World.

The author has evidently been at some pains to glean his
information first hand, and his book will, doubtless, be eagerly
sought after by all who are interested, financially or otherwise, in
the territories he deals with.

Cape Argus.

Mr. Stanley records his impressions very clearly and vigorously,
and even those who disagree with his views will find his book
capital reading. There are several illustrations — including a
frontispiece of President Kruger, and a map.

Westminster Gazette.

Mr. Stanley's "Through South Africa " is an account of that
gentleman's recent visit to Rhodesia, the Transvaal, Cape Colony,
and Natal, reprinted, with additions and several interesting illus-
trations, from "SOUTH AFRICA."

Black and White.

Though these letters of Mr. Stanley's must of a necessity be
considered as memoranda rather than conclusions, they have the
peculiar interest of being the work of a man well fitted by Nature
and training to observe and to note carefully. Brightly written
and well expressed, they ought to be helpful to all students of South
Africa's possibilities.

Daily Graphic.

The letters are racy reading ; Mr. Stanley bustles through the
country in a very different style and by very different methods from
those which he was compelled to adopt on his own painful,
dangerous journey across Africa nearly a decade ago ; but the keen
eye, the ready observation, the power of noting exactly what is
important and interesting are the same with him now as then.

The Field.

These qualities give weight to Mr. Stanley's opinions, especially
as regards the state of affairs in the Transvaal. We are not going
to discount Mr. Stanley's book by giving long quotations from it,
and will, therefore, refer those interested in South Africa generally,
and in the very serious position of our relations with the South
African Republic, to the book itself, which is nicely illustrated and
furnished with a good map.

European Mail.

This new volume consists of a series of letters contributed by
Mr. Stanley to our contemporary " SOUTH AFRICA," and they are well

worthy of reproduction in book form Mr. Stanley

writes with good sense, his remarks are to the point, and the work
may be termed highly interesting and instructive. A large map of
South and East Africa and several illustrations, including a portrait
of President Kruger, add to the value of the book.

Daily Chronicle.

Its spirit is indicated in some observations which occur in the
preface. Says Mr. Stanley : " I prefer peaceful relations between
England and the Boers of South Africa, if possible. I love what is
just, fair, and best to and for both Britons and Boers. I naturally
admire large-minded enterprise. I pity narrow-mindedness, and
dislike to see a people refusing to advance when all the world is so
sympathetic and helpfully inclined towards them."

and its Founder, told by others

179

The " SOUTH AFRICA"
Handbooks.

SOME PRESS OPINIONS RESPECTING THEM.

ABOUT a score of useful sixpenny handbooks have been
issued from " SOUTH AFRICA " offices. Their titles and scope
will be learnt from the following list, as also what some
of the leading British and South African papers have said respecting
them : —

Nottingham Guardian.

Excellent little handbooks.

Field.

A series of useful handbooks.

Bulawayo Chronicle.

They are well printed and illustrated.

Morning Post.

Impart a good deal of information in a compact and popular
form.

Birmingham Gazette.

Intending emigrants and investors cannot do better than study
these handbooks.

Edinburgh Evening News.

A series of handbooks for the use of persons who are thinking
of setting out for the Cape and neighbouring lands.

Bloemfontein Post.

Form a distinct accession to the literature of South Africa, and
may be perused with pleasure and profit by those desirous of
putting themselves in touch with South African questions.

Natal Mercury.

This well-known London weekly devoted to South. African
affairs is publishing 6d. handbooks, which cannot fail to be both
acceptable and useful, particularly to newcomers to this country.

North British Daily Mail.

The "SOUTH AFRICA" Handbooks issued at the office of
"SoUTH AFRICA," the weekly conducted by Mr. Edward P.
Mathers, F.G.S., contain a good deal of information in a compact
and popular form.

Bristol Mercury.

Under the title of "The Future of South Africa," the Bristol
Mercury devoted a long leading article to these handbooks. In the
course of it occurred the following passage : —

The "South Africa" Handbooks, published at the office of
" SOUTH AFRICA," 39, Old Broad Street, London, E.G., contain
quite a compendium of information on the conditions of life and
the prospects of- settlers in South Africa. They relate much that is
of general knowledge, but, in addition, they impart in familiar
language an acquaintance with the life and "atmosphere" of the
country which many statistical accounts and official reports would
fail to convey.

The handbooks published to date are numbered and named, as
follows, .and condensations of press opinions concerning the
publications are given : —

No. i.— ADVICE TO EMIGRANTS TO

SOUTH AFRICA.
The King.

Giving valuable information to intending emigrants.

Mining Journal.

They contain advice and information which the emigrant will

find of great value to him.

Nottingham Daily Guardian.

A useful pamphlet. The three sections treat of the possibilities
of South Africa as a field for emigrants.

Birmingham Daily Gazette.

A useful handbook, containing articles upon the possibilities of
the country and the best ways of getting there.

Financial Times.

A series of ably written articles upon the opportunities which
the newly acquired colony offers to prospective emigrants.

Revue Sud-Africaine.

Our London contemporary, " SOUTH AFRICA," has just published
a little brochure containing all possible information respecting the
voyage to South Africa.

The Field.

Persons who contemplate emigrating to the Cape Colony,
Natal, the Transvaal, the Orange River Colony, or Rhodesia, will
find much in it that will be of service to them.

Ne^vcastle Daily Journal.

A reprint from articles which have already appeared in
" SOUTH AFRICA," where they attracted considerable attention.

A handbook that should be in the possession of

those who contemplate residence in South Africa.

Financial News.

"SOUTH AFRICA" has just published an admirable booklet of
" Advice to Emigrants to South Africa," which can be had from its
offices, 39, Old Broad Street, E.C., for the trifling sum of 6d.
Apart from its usefulness to the class for whom it is intended, it is
good reading even for people who have no intention of emigrating.

Mining World.

Our contemporary, " SOUTH AFRICA," has issued No. I of a series
of South African handbooks. We have no hesitation in saying
that no person should think of going to South Africa in search of
employment without purchasing (which he can do for 6d.) this
admirable handbook. Every page of it contains information
which it is of the first importance he should study before starting
on his journey.

X 2

i8o

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

No. 2.— A CENTURY OF SOUTH AFRICAN Cape Argus.

HISTORY. Contains a good deal of information.

Financial Times.

Distinctly interesting.

Daily Graphic.

Evening Journal, Wisconsin.

Contains a large amount of information.

Very instructive and interesting at the present time.

Ha > -rogate A dvertiser.

A first-rate reference book of the events that led to the war.

Mining Journal.

Readable as a journalistic effort, and useful as a document
of reference.

The King.

Giving the latest information obtainable on the subject.

Morning Post.

Offers some useful information to those contemplating settling
in these colonies.

Natal Mercury. Newspaper Owner.

Cannot fail to be read with interest and instruction. It puts Neatly printed Reference to special portions

the new comer au fait with important historical events, and of the pamphlet is easily accessible.

SPECIMEN OF ILLUSTRATION IN "SOUTH AFRICA"

COMMISSIONER STREET, JOHANNESBURG

prepares him for a better understanding of many problems that Mining Journal.
will present themselves.

No. 3.— CAPE COLONY AND ORANGE
RIVER COLONY.

WITH MAPS.
\ciccastlc Journal.
Full of information.

Bradford Observe i:

Many practical hints.

Financial 7 'iuu-s .

The maps will be appreciiiti-il.

Nottingham (iitanUan.

Serviceable for general reference.

Gives a mass of information as to their resources, industries,
climate, &c., which the emigrant will find invaluable.

Financial News.

The resources and possibilities of the two colonies are ex-
haustively treated, and the bonk contains a wonderful amount of
information.

No. 4.— ANNALS OF SOUTH AFRICA.

FIRST SERIES.

MAjniA, ZIMBABWE, Scm. VUMFK'S XKK. AI.AX WILSON'S LAST
STAND, AND A LIFE OF KRTGER IN KRUGHRESQUE.

Morning Post.

Information in a compact and popular form.

and its Founder, told by others

181

Mining Jon rnal.

One of the well-known " SOUTH AFRICA " handbooks.

Birmingham Gazette.

The little book contains brief histories of stirring incidents
which have left their mark on history.

Field.

Interesting at the present time The other

stories all have a bearing on the early struggles of the colonists in
South Africa ; they are well written and accurate.

Bloemfontein Post.

Contains picturesque descriptions of the Majuba disaster and
Alan Wilson's last stand, historical fragments concerning Zimbabwe
and Schlaagter's Nek, with a satirical drawing of " Kruger in
Krugeresque."

Kent Messenger.

Should have an exceptional interest.

Financial News.

Of public interest at the present juncture.

Contractors Journal.

Undoubtedly interest a number of our readers.

Capitalist.

The subject is ably dealt with, and will repay perusal.
Country Gentleman.

Anyone thinking of going out would do well to obtain this

book.

SPECIMEN OF ILLUSTRATION IN "SOUTH AFRICA"

A MORNING MARKET SCENE IN JOHANNESBURG

No. 5.— NOTES ON IRRIGATION IN
SOUTH AFRICA.

WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
Morning Post.

Admirable monograph.

Eastern Morning News.

Will repay careful study.

Weekly Budget.

Of particular value just now.

Cape Argus.

The subject is ably dealt with.

Rialto.

Its appearance is most opportune.

Field.

The author goes very thoroughly into the important question of
irrigation.

West Sussex Gazette.

Intending emigrants will find valuable information in this

handbook.

Bath Chronicle.

Excellent A complete and interesting treatise

on the subject.

The Tiiucs.

Useful and instructive Interesting remarks upon

irrigation works as a paying speculation may be commended to
the notice of investors.

Yorkshire Post.

The immense scope there is for the extension of irrigation works
in the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony and the improve-
ment in the value of land therefrom are treated.

182

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

No. 6.— USEFUL ADVICE TO EMIGRANTS:
RHODESIA.

WITH MAP.

Birmingham Gazette,

Useful information for emigrants.

Field.

Furnished with a map, carefully compiled, and contains infor-
mation which cannot fail to be of service to intending emigrants.

Newcastle Journal.

It includes a map, and gives every information as to the future
of Rhodesia, both in respect of mining and agriculture. The cost
of living and rates of wages to Europeans are set forth in tabulated
form, and the handbook is sure to meet a growing want at the
present time.

summed up the main features of current information. The mining
position and prospects of the country are first detailed, then cost of
living, supply of labour, followed by a varied store of information
on the agricultural and pastoral prospects of the country. Besides
fulfilling its primary object of being a handbook for settlers, it is a
capital guide for all who desire information as to the position of a
country which we hope may ere long become a part of the
Empire.

No. 7— ANNALS OF SOUTH AFRICA.

(SECOND SERIES.)

LANGALIBILI, DICK KING'S RIDE, Louis TRICHARD'S TREK, THE
ROOT OF EVIL, AND THE FIRST COLONISATION OF NATAL.

Birmingham Gazette.

Records of eventful episodes in the career of pioneer colonists.

SPECIMEN OF ILLUSTRATION IN "SOUTH AFRICA"

THE JOHANNESBURG STOCK. EXCHANGE

Nottingham Guardian.

Particulars are given of the possibilities of the development of
gold and coal mining, general trading, and the agricultural and
pastoral resources of the country, and there is some sensible advice
to emigrants on the cost of living and the most serviceable apparel
with which to provide themselves.

Mining World.

Our contemporary, " SOUTH AFRICA," has published another of,
its useful sixpenny handbooks, entitled " Useful Information for
Emigrants to Rhodesia," and there is also a map. We are disposed
to regard it as an act of folly for any emigrant to Rhodesia to set
sail thither without this useful brochure in his pocket.

Mining Journal.

Much has been written concerning Rhodesia of late, but we do
not remember to have seen any book which so conveniently

Mimng Journal.

The account of the early colonisation of Natal will be found
especially interesting.

No. 8.— SOUTH AFRICAN COMPANIES
ANALYSED.

(FIRST SERIES.)

GEI.DENHUIS DEEP, FF.RREIRA, CROWN REEF, CROWN DEEP,
AND GELDENHUIS ESTATE.

Financial Times.

A comprehensive analysis of the achievement and present
position of leading Rand Gold Mining Companies.

and its Founder, told by others

183

No. 9.— SOUTH AFRICAN COMPANIES
ANALYSED.

(SECOND SERIES.)

BONANZA, ROBINSON, ROSE DEEP, JUMPERS DEEP, AND
NOURSE DEEP COMPANIES.

Field.

Handbooks 8 and 9 contain analyses of some of the principal
South African Gold Mining Companies. These have been reprinted
from articles which have appeared in " SOUTH AFRICA," and are
intended to be guides to investors. They appear to have been
carefully prepared, and statistics, together with other information,
are given of each mine dealt with.

settlers. It includes the story of the lives of 'Tchaka the Terrible
and Cetywayo, the massacres of Pieter Relief's party and the
Weenen camp, and concludes witli a chapter on alluvial gold and
diamonds in the earlier days.

No. n.— SOUTH AFRICAN COMPANIES
ANALYSED.

(THIRD SERIES.)

LANGLAAGTE DEEP, FERREIRA DEEP, GLEN DEEP, DURBAM-
ROODEPOORT DEEP, AND RAND MINES.

Cape Argus.

We have received a copy of No. n of the " SOUTH AFRICA"
Handbooks (" SOUTH AFRICA " : 39, Old Broad Street, London,

SPECIMEN OF ILLUSTRATION IN "SOUTH AFRICA"

COMMISSIONER STREET, JOHANNESBURG. THE BUILDING ON THE LEFT, MESSRS. H. ECKSTEIN & Co.'s OFFICES, HAS BEEN TAKEN DOWN

TO MAKE WAY FOR A MORE COMMODIOUS STRUCTURE

No. io.— ANNALS OF SOUTH AFRICA.

(THIRD SERIES.)

THE BOER " FATHERLAND," 'TCHAKA THE TERRIBLE, CETYWAYO :
THE LAST OF THE BANTU WARRIORS, ALLUVIAL GOLD AND
DIAMONDS IN THE EARLIER DAYS, THE MASSACRES OF
PIETER RETIEF'S PARTY, AND THE WEENEN CAMP.

Rhodesia A <k 'crtiser.

Fully up to the previous high standard of the " SOUTH AFRICA "
handbooks.

Nottingham Daily Guardian.

Another of the convenient sixpenny " SOUTH AFRICA " Hand-
books is issued from the offices -of that journal, continuing the
historical narrative of the country.

Field.

Handbook io contains historical information concerning the
hardships, struggles, and fights with the natives of the early

E.G., 6d.), which contains the third series of analyses of South
African Companies. The companies dealt with are the Glen Deep,
Rand Mines, Ferreira Deep, Langlaagte Deep, and Durban-
Roodepoort, and the information is reprinted from the pages of
" Sor ni AFRICA."

No. i2.— ANNALS OF SOUTH AFRICA.

(FOURTH SERIES.)
THE EARLY KAFFIR WARS, How THE CAPE BECAME ENGLISH,

I'.MZILIGAZI, THE LlON OF THE NORTH, JAN VAN RlEBEEK

AND THE EARLY DUTCH SETTLERS, MOSHESH OF THE
MOUNTAINS, THE WARRIOR DIPLOMATIST.

Financial Times.

Replete with interesting adventures, told in popular language.

184

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

No. 13.— SOUTH AFRICAN COMPANIES
ANALYSED.

(FOURTH SERIES.)

ANGELO, NEW GOCH, DRIEFONTEIN CONSOLIDATED, NEW COMET, AND
MEYER AND CHARLTON GOLD MINING COMPANIES.

Mining World,

Our contemporary, " SOUTH AFRICA," has issued No. 13 of its
popular handbooks. The present brochure is entitled " South
African Companies Analysed." It gives interesting matter, together
with statistics relating to certain of the chief mines of the Rand.

No. 14.— ANNALS OF SOUTH AFRICA.

(FIFTH SERIES.)

TALES OF THE DRAKENSBERG, THE SIEGE OF DURBAN,

THE REPUBLIC OF NATAL, THE BLOT ON THE 'SCUTCHEON,

THE BOER REPUBLICS UNDER BRITISH RULE.

Morning Post.

Information in a compact and popular form.

No. 15.— SOUTH AFRICAN COMPANIES
ANALYSED.

(FIFTH SERIES.)

TREASURY, EAST RAND PROPRIETARY,

THE WEMMER, MAY CONSOLIDATED, CITY AND SUBURBAN

GOLD MINING AND ESTATE COMPANY.
Truth.

Furnish the mining investor with information about the
principal mines, their production, present position and prospects.

Newspaper Owner.

"SouTH AFRICA" Handbook No. 15, issued from the office of
" SOUTH AFRICA," is devoted to an analysis of South African

companies, of which this number contains the fifth series of such
analysis. We feel sure that information of this kind emanating
from the office of " SOUTH AFRICA" may be relied upon so far as
the bona-fides of the writers is concerned, and such statistics should
prove of considerable value to investors.

No. 1 6.— SOUTH AFRICAN COMPANIES
ANALYSED.

(SIXTH SERIES.)

NEW STEYN ESTATE, HENRY NOURSE, SIMMER AND JACK,
THE JUMPERS, AND LANGLAAGTE ESTATE.

Pall Mall Gazette.

No. 16 of " SOUTH AFRICA" Handbooks analyses the position of
five leading South African mines, and contains a great deal of
statistical information useful to mining investors.

Truth.

"SouTH AFRICA" has favoured me with copies of its useful
little handbooks, " South African Companies Analysed," which
furnish the mining investor with useful information about the
principal mines, their production, present position, and prospects.
Price 6d. each.

The Taller.

It would be unwise for anyone interested in these mines not to
possess this little book, which in a very small compass tells the
reader practically all that is officially disclosed about each
property, the tables being particularly valuable and compact.

No. 17.— ANNALS OF SOUTH AFRICA.

(SIXTH SERIES.)

RORKE'S DRIFT, BOOMPLAATS, THE VIERKLEUR,
MAKAPAN'S POORT, AND BRONKHORST SPRUIT.

SOME amusement was caused in Natal in February, 1879, by the
appearance in the Natal Atii/erliscr of a letter signed " Grand-
mathers," a pseudonym adopted for the occasion by a well-known
Colonial legislator. It provoked some correspondence, a portion of
it being as follows : —

SIR, — It was with real regret that I read the letter which
appeared in your columns the other day, respecting my esteemed
friend and able colleague, Mr. E. P. Mathers. Men who push
forward and elevate themselves above the ruck of ordinary mortals
may expect — and indeed are sure to receive — criticism. They are,
in fact, public property ; their actions are debated, their suggestions
criticised in a spirit of carping hostility, and motives are imputed
which never found for a single moment a lodgment within their
breasts. Mr. Mathers was one of the most able, conscientious, and
painstaking journalists that Natal has ever had or is likely to have.
Educated under the best and most learned professors that Caledonia
possesses, trained as a journalist upon the leading journals of the
United Kingdom, he was devoted heart and soul to his profession ;
no labour was too heavy, no sacrifice too great, if he could but
advance the interests not only of his journal but of the Colony at
large. I do not say that his views were my views, or that they
were those which were likely to be extremely popular with the
great majority of the Colonists — far from it; but when he con-
sidered he had a duty to perform, that duty was performed, no
matter what might be the cost. Although he may have incurred
the displeasure and called forth the inarticulate ravings of vour
correspondent " Gramlinathers," and some of his compatriots, Mr.
Mathers has this satisfaction, that what he has done he need never
be ashamed of, and his contributions to the Press of this country
will long be remembered as one of the brightest, happiest chapters
in the history of Xatai journalism. [An editorial note to this letter
(written by the late Mr. Phelan, a gentleman remembered for gome
fine work as a Colonial pressman) ran as follows: — We entirely
agree witli our correspondent. We published the letter referred to
with great reluctance, but could scarcely have refused it, as our

rule is to give free discussion to all. No one, however, is more
ready than we are to bear testimony to Mr. Mathers' most valuable
contributions to the Press, and, as a young Colonist, we think lie
may congratulate himself, rather than otherwise, on the fact that
his able writings have so soon attracted attention and called forth
criticism. The road to fame and position is made in this way. — ED.]

DEAR SIR, — Allow me to thank your City correspondent and
yourself for the far too flattering terms in which I am written of in
your issue of yesterday. Such an expression of feeling was as
unexpected as it was kind, but I hardlv think that the hoarse
braying of the Tongaat slasher merited so much attention. I am
painfully conscious that I also am equally undeserving of this
publicity, but I should just like to say one word on \\\epost obit kind
of element in your City correspondent's generous communication.
Whatever I was as a subaltern in the small but plucky Press army
in this Colony, I hope I still am, and, with your permission, sir,
trust still to be. Apologizing for thus trespassing on your time and
that of the public,

I am, yours, &c.,

EDWARD P. MATHERS.

Maritzburg, Marcli 5th, 1880.

"SouTH AFRK \ of August loth, 1901, had the following: —
WF. have been asked to settle the following bet : —
COPY OF BET.

I do hereby bet Mr.

the sum of Twenty-five Pounds that the Share Market
was lower on December ist, 1900, than it was from
August ist, 1899, to December ist, 1899.

The decision of the newspaper, " SOUTH AFRICA," deciding
this bet.

Signed

The market was lower during the period from August to
December, 1899, than it was on December ist, 1900. The second
party therefore wins the bet

and its Founder, told by others

185

THE HEAD OFFICES OF "SOUTH AFRICA," 39, OLD BROAD STREET, LONDON, E.G.

i86

The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper

The ' SOUTH AFRICA' Atlas
of the Rand."

DURING the spring of 1903 there was issued from the offices
of " SOUTH AFRICA " a very complete atlas of the Wit-
watersrand Goldfields, and it immediately created a
great hit. Some of the Press notices are subjoined : —

Morning Post.

No more appropriate time could have been chosen than this —
for in spite of the depression great interest is being taken in Rand
affairs — for the issue of two maps which have just appeared from
the offices of the well-known weekly paper " SOUTH AFRICA." One
is a map of South Africa, framed with advertisements, but showing
the railway systems very clearly, and the other is a complete map
of the Rand Goldfields, including the Eastern extensions. This
map is divided into sections, and presented in convenient atlas
form. Though the booklet could be carried in the pocket, by the
aid of an index the position of any of the innumerable properties
can be instantly found. The arrangement makes " The ' SOUTH
AFRICA ' Atlas of the Rand " the most convenient map of the
goldfields in existence.

Daily Telegraph.

"SouTH AFRICA " has issued a first-class map of South Africa,
1903, also an atlas of the Rand. This book contains 13 separate
maps.

Glasgoiv Herald.

" The 'SOUTH AFRICA ' Atlas of the Rand " will prove a highly
useful addition to the broker's and investor's library. It consists
of a complete map of the Witwatersrand Goldfields and Eastern
Extensions divided into 13 indexed sections, boldly printed, with
figures displaying the number of claims in each of the mines
marked, and, in some cases, of the depth to which borings have
been carried, with the location of the latter. A key map and a
complete index are bound up with the work, which is issued at
35. 6d. by " SOUTH AFRICA," 39, Old Broad Street, London, E.G.

Truth.

" SOUTH AFRICA " has favoured me with a very excellent map of
South Africa, which shows at a glance every place one is likely to
want to locate ; and also with an Atlas of the Rand, which is a
complete map of the goldfields and their eastern extensions, in
thirteen sections conveniently indexed with a key map. The price
of the first is is., and of the second 35. 6d.

Financier and Bullionist.

The " Atlas of the Rand " is issued from the same office at
35. 6d., or, if mounted on cloth, at 55. In a series of 13 maps
the whole of the Witwatersrand Goldfields are shown ; also the
eastward extensions, which have been exciting so much interest of
late. The atlas is quite up to date, seeing that so recent an enter-
prise as the Coronation Syndicate has its concession in the
Heidelberg district shown.

Financial Times.

In very convenient form is the " Atlas of the Rand," just issued
by our weekly contemporary " SOUTH AFRICA" and published at 39,
Old Broad Street, E.G., at 35. 6d. This claims to be a complete
map of the Witwatersrand Goldfields and eastern extensions, the
Coronation Syndicate properties being shown. There are thirteen
sections, all indexed, and a key map is supplied.

Capitalist.

This is a most convenient atlas, issued by " SOUTH AFRICA "
and published at 39, Old Broad Street, at 35. 6d. It is a complete
map of the Witwatersrand Goldfields and Eastern Extension in
thirteen convenient indexed sections, with key map.

Standard.

We have received from the offices of " SOUTH AFRICA " the
" Atlas of the Rand," which is a complete map of the Witwaters-
rand Goldfields and Eastern extensions, in thirteen convenient
indexed sections, with a key map.

Statist.

We have received from our contemporary, " SOUTH AFRICA," a
useful series of maps of the Witwatersrand Goldfields. The maps
are in 13 sections, and a copious index of companies and
properties. The atlas itself is of convenient size, <) inches by
4^ inches. Price 35. 6d., or with maps on cloth, 55.

Daily Chronicle.

There are also to hand from the offices of " SOUTH AFRICA " two
valuable maps, the one showing the railways of the country, and
the other being a complete map of the Witwatersrand Goldfields
and eastern extensions, in 13 indexed sections, with key. Prices
are respectively is. and 33. 6d.

Times.

We have also received the " SOUTH AFRICA" Atlas of the Rand
and map of South Africa (published at the offices of " SOUTH
AFRICA," 39, Old Broad Street, E.G.).

Financial News.

The " Atlas of the Rand " gives a complete map of the Wit-
watersrand Goldfields and Eastern Extensions, divided into ij
convenient indexed sections, with key map. The whole folds into
a very handy size, and will be found most convenient for reference.

Mining World.

This atlas is exceedingly well prepared, and very complete.
It embraces the Rand and its Eastern extensions in 13 convenient
sections, with key map and index. The atlas is very handy, and
can even be carried in the pocket without inconvenience. It
should be in the possession of all those interested in South African
mining.

Min ing Jon rnal.

" The 'SOUTH AFRICA ' Atlas of the Rand." 35. 6d. (with maps
on cloth 55.). 1903. (London : " SOUTH AFRICA.") This atlas,
comprising within the convenient size of 9 in. by 5 in. the Wit-
watersrand area, will be received by all who desire to possess a
plan of the district of sufficient scale in a portable form with much
appreciation. There are 13 maps in all, besides a key map, and
a full index to facilitate reference. The new districts in which the
extensions of the Rand series are looked for are included, besides
the claims secured on the dip of the Central portion of the main
reef to a distance of some eight miles from the out-crop. The
ordinary shareholder interested or likely to become interested in
any of the Rand properties, would do well to acquaint himself
with the position of any property he may select, which he has now
the opportunity of doing, and without which knowledge pages of
description are of little value.

and its Founder, told by others

.87

SOME OF THE MEMBERS OF THE STAFF OF "SOUTH AFRICA"

1 88 The Story of SOUTH AFRICA Newspaper and its Founder, told by others

Mr. Mathers Visits America.

DURING April, 1903, it was announced that Mr. Mathers was shortly about to leave for a tour
in the United States and Canada,

mm.

Price Sixpence.

THE COMING
GREAT
TRADE
ROOM

REDUCED FACSIMILE or RECENT " SOUTH AFRICA '
CONTENTS BILL

SOUTH traict .TUB OF rut R»D is m CREIT nauum.

UNION-CASTLE LINE.

South African 11^ Royal SKail 3en>tcf.

WEEKLY SERVICE 'rom jj LONDON and SOUTHAMPTON

SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA.

I PALMAl. TE""l"E'y"sct|"SI<1J'^t)il<AJRL|!ffuY'' OA" <****"

Mttwaao t.t. !«..!•

Jag! || ... s „ „

1 1 -

DONALD CURRIE & Co., MANAOEM.

3*4. FEPCHURCH BTREET LONDON, B.C.

STEWARTS AND LLOYDS^jjouTH AFRICA). LTD.
WROUGHT IRON AND sfEEL^TUBES AND FITTINGS.

FREDERICK SAGE & CO., LIMITED

6863. OKAY'S INN ROAO. LONDON

PORTABLE JHOPJFRONTS

tHM K«A»I .'*•.!•»>• HL«I> ft ACREI

» B01TA.Z.

REDUCED FACSIMILE OF FRONT COVER or
"SouTH AFRICA"

In most instances the illustrations in this
work are from photographs and designs specially
taken and made for " SOUTH AFRICA" news-
paper. In some cases they are from pictures
supplied by the following photographers and
others mentioned in the body of the book :
Burnett S- Co., E. H. Short, Wright and
Andrew, Wallace Bradley, W. Rausch, Duffus
Bros., Elliott <~ Fry, J. E. Middlebrook,
Russell <&> Sons, C. H. Newberry, A . H. Smith,
J. W.Goldsborough &= Son, and James Watson
and Co. The photograph of Mr. Chamberlain,
which was specially autographed for " SOUTH
AFRICA," is by Draycott of Birmingham, the
copyright being vested in Miss N. Murrell
M arris, and the picture published by the London
Stereoscopic Company. For the right to re-
produce miniature facsimiles of the fine picture of
Lord M ilner by Tennyson Cole, and the famous
picture of " The Wreck of the Birkenhead,"
we are indebted to Messrs. Henry Graves and
Co., who own the copyright of the handsome
engravings.

THE "SOUTH AFRIO «TLAS OF THE B»0 IS in GREUT DEH.ND.

UNION-CASTLE LINE.

South Jt/rican |lj§| Sloyal SXail Seroice.

LONDON »nd SOUTHAMPTON

SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA.

MADEIRA, LAS PALMAS. TENERIFFE. ASCENSION. ST HELENA. CAPE COLONY.

NATAL, DELAQOA BAr. iEIRA, AND MAURITIUS.

DONALD CURRIE & Co., MANAQERS.

3*4. FENCHURCH STREET. LONDON, B.C.

STEWARTS .NO . LLOYDS^souTH AFRICA . LTD

WROUGHT IRON AND STEEL TUBES AND FITTINGS.
iOM.- .,....«! FREDERICK SAGE & CO.,

PORTABLE SHOP-FRONTS

REDUCED FACSIMILE OF FRONT COVER OF
" SOUTH AFRICA "

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICES OF " SOUTH AFRICA," 39, OLD BROAD STREET, LONDON, E.C.

"SOUTH AFRICA" PUFFS NO CLIQUES TO ORDER.

ICA

A WEEKLY JOURNAL FOR ALL INTERESTED IN SOUTH AFRICAN AFFAIRS.

No. 771. VOL. LX.J STA™^Ir., SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1903.

REGISTERED FOR TRANSMISS
IK THE UNITED KINGDOM

I0" [PRICE 60.

SOUTH AFRICA"

Has stood for England and the right
ever since it was established, and
its proprietor has contemptuously
declined offers to do otherwise

SOUTH AFRICA"

Was founded Fifteen Years ago to
tell the World about the Transvaal
Gold Fields, their opportunities for
Capitalists and Manufacturers,
and to fight for British Freedom
in South Africa

- "SOUTH AFRICA" IS ABSOLUTELY INDEPENDENT.

'SOUTH AFRICA' SPEAKS 'OF AFRICA AND GOLDEN JOYS.'

OF ANY SOUTH AFRICAN NCWSPAPER.

, i*ti«t' J00«*^ • •* «^ *Tt»«*'lt> « SOUTH mNM *

«B»OI.UTtLY UMUKMUCP «S »N »OVIHTI»ING MtOIUM

THE

RAILWAY MAP

SOUTH "AFRICA

PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICES OF " SOUTH AFRICA/

39, OLD BROAD STREET, LONDON. EC

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