Through South Africa: His Visit to Rhodesia, the Transvaal, Cape Colony, NatalStanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)
History
Through South Africa: His Visit to Rhodesia, the Transvaal, Cape Colony, Natal
Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)
South Africa -- Description and travel
"Yes, I do, because South Africa is as pleasant a place to live in as
any part of the world that I have visited. It is certainly more
pleasant than the cold north of Canada. America was very good, but it
is not superior to South Africa. The United States Government, however,
had a very large reserve of land which they could afford to give at 2.5
dollars an acre, and they gave 160 acres of land to anyone who would
promise to settle there for five years and build houses and improve the
land. That is what the Chartered Company should do. If you have an
estate, you must invest a portion of your capital in seed and in
machines for cultivating the land; if you regard a State as a farm, the
best seed you can put into it is a farming population. Settlers who
develop the soil contribute as much wealth to the State as those who dig
for minerals. Perfected communication also adds value to every acre. I
had at one time to explain why I did not consider the land of the Congo
State worth a two-shilling piece, because it was impossible to reach it,
but, I said, if you make it accessible to me it is worth so much an
acre. If you leave me isolated in the heart of the Congo, I throw away
my life and the two-shilling piece."
"Is there in Rhodesia plenty of land beyond what is required for the
Matabele and the Mashonas?"
WHAT THE CHARTERED COMPANY SHOULD DO.
"Well," replied Mr Stanley, "the natives have always got the slopes of
the country. It is, of course, a white man's land, because the white
man has taken it. At the same time there are reserves, and the question
is, how much of the reserves for the whites has been put aside for
agriculturists. Ought the Company to be satisfied with having only
miners in Rhodesia who will employ the natives, and after all the gold
is got will retire and leave Rhodesia the black man's country that it
was, or do the authorities intend to plant an English race permanently
there? What are their offers? The Chartered Company ought to give 160
acres of land to any settlers who will undertake to develop it and
remain on it for five years, after which the land would be their own. A
somewhat similar system is adopted with regard to the mines. If you peg
out claims you must work them. So it ought to be with the agricultural
land. Having done this, it would remain for the Chartered Company to do
their utmost to increase facilities for communication. If they gave
reserves free to the natives whom they had conquered, they certainly
ought to give at least the same advantages to the white settlers who are
to make the country prosperous and to yield revenue by the payment of
taxes."
RHODESIAN RAILWAYS.
"Did you observe the criticisms of the _Financial News_ on your proposal
regarding the railway from Bulawayo to the sea?" asked the interviewer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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