LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
DIFFICULTIES OF THE FARMER RESERVIST IN SOUTH AFRICA.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR.1 Sin,—Being a constant reader of your most interesting paper here in my distant home, and being, naturally, intensely anxious that the Reservist settler, if he becomes a reality, should be a success and not a fiasco, I venture to trouble you with my views on the subject in case you should think them of any value. What South Africa has always needed is a settled rural population, of English extraction, to combine and work in harmony with the Dutch. So far the two peoples have never lived together in their daily occupations, and each has kept to his own particular part of the country. In Natal, save' on the edge of the Republics, the population is all English. In the Transvaal, Johannesburg is English and the remainder of the country all Dutch. In Cape Colony, the Western Province and the Karoo is practically all Dutch, and the Eastern Province largely English. • Thus, away from each other, each living in the prejudiced circle of his own race, and knowing of the' other only by biassed hearsay, the English and Dutch learn nothing from each other. The Englishman is by far a better business man than the Dutchman,—has more industry (the Dutchman is apt to slack off when things begin to run smoothly), a keener eye for the latest labour-saving inven- tions, and is a man who could develop, and would like to develop, an export trade. - If only he would believe that the Dutchman could give him many and many a wrinkle in the elements of Dutch farming! At the first glance it is natural that the Dutchman's farming should be underrated. His land is, to our eyes, dirty ; he relies too.much on irrigation and too little on cultivation; he has no rotation of orops and does little manuring. It can be said with certainty that a man who has English theory and is broad-minded enough to acquire some of the working rules of the Dutchman, is a far superior farmer to the man who sticks hard and fast to one or the other system, and of the very few forming this class are those who alone have made farming pay in this country. No unpreju- diced practical man can watch without admiration a Dutchman making a water furrow, for instance, by eye alone, unaided by levels, for hundreds of yards with perfect accuracy, for. he can tell you, without theodolites, where water w ill flow by gravity and where it will not. As a loader of waggons and a driver of them he is probably without a rival, and his knowledge of veldt lore, even in a newly opened up country, makes him a first-class stock-breeder. Now these are just the instances in which the English farmer has hitherto failed, especially in the details of irrigation .without the help of machinery. In superior cultivation (though here, too, he has much to learn) and in marketing the Englishman is decidedly better than the Dutchman, and yet neither takes a hint from the other. At the ,present time much is being .talked about Reservists settling in South Africa after the war. Let us hope, for the pod of the country, that many of them will become farmers and thus help to amalgamate the race, as they can never do in towns, where they are useful to their party in outvoting the Dutch; in the country they might wean the Dutch to vote with them. Now appears to be the time for organising. as far as possible, some scheme for inculcating on the as yet unprejudiced mind of the Reservist farmer the many " dodges " of the Boer, especially his manner of irrigating and cheap dam-making.. Later on, mix with his English knowledge so much of the Dutchman's skill as he thinks good. The ques- tion of making the country safe after the war is also being mooted. A way. of deing.this, and at the same time helping_ the Reservist to learn the principles of South Afritiall farming, is here earnestly suggested. Why not, on the cessation of hostilities, pass would-be settlers (whose famirmie are still in England) into the mounted police which will have to be formed 'to patrol the country ? During this time they, as police troopers, will be constantly riding over the • farms, learning to understand the Dutchman and his language, and beginning to grasp (which will be strange to them) the duty of -the white man in his dealings with the natives. Also, during such time the Reservist will _convince himself (before being committed) whether the life of a South African farmer will suit him. On completion of his time in the police, say after a year in that force, let a grateful country lend the Reservist farmer a military waggon and team, which he would hold at the disposal of the country in case of urgent need, during which time he—the farmer—would likewise remain attached to' a Colonial Reserve, liable to mobilisation in times of • danger. Such a man would start with a fairer likelihood of success than seven-eighths of the Englishmen who come. out here to farm. For the sake of the Empire and for his own sake, may he be so started. God grant that he may also be an instru- ment of great good to the country. Let him be assured that he will have the goodwill of all the English, and so long as -- he carelessly wounds no susceptibilities he will meet with fellowship from the Dutch also, when once he settles down and shows that he loves the country which they love, and battles with the difficulties with which they have to battle. So far the average Englishman has lived in the towns and abused the country and the dwellers in the country; what wonder, then, that the Dutchman has been prompted to adopt as his party cry " Ons Land " and "Africa for the Afrikander" ? Let the Reservist change all this.—I am, Sir, &c., [Our correspondent's letter is full of good sense, and we trust will be carefully noted .by those to whom will be entrusted the work of planting the soldier-settlers on the soil. —ED. Spectator.)
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