Cecil John Rhodes, the promoter of so much that was adventurous and history-making in British South Africa, died in March, 1902, the immediate cause of his death being, not political heart-break (though that was the cause of his weakened constitution), but vexation resulting from a law-suit affecting his private affairs. Dr Jameson, however, recovered from the check to his career which followed his unsuccessful raid. He set himself in a spirit of moderation and tolerance to grapple with the local questions and general interests of Cape Colony, of which country he became Premier in 1904, remaining for four years afterwards at the head of the Cape Ministry. In 1908-9 he was one of the representatives who discussed and settled the conditions of the South African Union. In 1911 he was knighted as Sir Starr Jameson, and in 1912 he retired from South African politics. President Kruger died in Holland in July 1904. In the same year his political opponent, Lord Milner—whose seven years’ work in South Africa, though it inspired many fierce contentions, yet cut through several Gordian knots—retired from the control of South African affairs to enter political life at home. But the prosperity of South Africa did not at once revive with the conclusion of peace in 1902. It was found that the devastations of the three years’ war had reduced much of the Orange Free State, the eastern parts of Cape Colony, and above all, of the Transvaal to a desert, and time was required to repair the ravages to crops and agriculture and bring about the re-establishment of homes. So many of the inhabitants—Boers and Britons alike—had drifted towards the towns and there found it hard to maintain themselves under the extravagant cost of living; which seems to be at present an irremediable evil in South Africa, due to unwise fiscal laws, shipping combines, and railway rates. It was hoped that prosperity would return so soon as mining operations on the Rand could be resumed. But the local supply of unskilled labour proved to be insufficient for the enormous development of mining enterprise projected by individuals and companies. The labour problem is not yet completely solved. Some propose to meet it by drafts on the abundant negro population north of the Zambezi, these labourers being conveyed to and from South Africa under proper guarantees. Others urge the throwing open of the land and the mines to white labour, so as to increase the European population of temperate South Africa. Many reasons have been put forward to combat the practicability of each scheme, either the increase of the black labour supply or the introduction of the white man in considerable numbers. Those in power in the period 1904-6 preferred to redress the balance by the importation under special restrictions of the Chinaman.