THE NAVAL BRIGADE AT LADYSMITH SHELLING THE BOERS, OCTOBER 30, 1899.
The large gun mounted on Captain Scott's carriage is shown in action.
THE LEICESTER REGIMENT RETREATING TO LADYSMITH BOMBARDED BY THE BOERS
This action of the Cape Parliament was an effective evidence of the growing political influence of the Dutch population in the Colony. Another was the establishment in 1882 of the dual language system. Prior to this date, and since 1828, the English language alone could be used in Parliamentary debate, in the Courts of Law, or in the Public Offices. But now the local Dutch farming population had awakened to its real political influence—largely through the formation of the Afrikander Bund in 1881—and its representatives in the Assembly soon obtained a change in the law. Henceforward either language could be used in any place or position, and it was also enacted eventually that no one should be admitted to the ordinary branch of the Civil Service without a perfect knowledge of both English and Dutch. Such a result was inevitable, under the circumstances, but it is hard to see any real advantage which has ensued. The measure did not improve the standard of public life, and even Dr. Theal, who is disposed to give the brightest view of Dutch development in the Colony, declares that it would be incorrect to say that the change "raised the tone of debate in Parliament or improved the administration of justice in the slightest degree." As a matter of fact it helped still further to isolate the Dutch people, encouraged the publication of Dutch newspapers, helped the progress of Dutch political organization in Parliament and in the Afrikander Bund, and promoted the use of a patois which was very far, indeed, from being the mother-tongue of the race.
General Progress
Meanwhile, Cape Colony was making considerable material and general progress. It was largely an English development, as the Dutch population still adhered to the slow-going ways of its ancestors, and cattle and sheep remained the chief support of the farmers under British rule as they did of those beyond the Orange or the Vaal. At the beginning of the century, when the Colony finally came under the control of Great Britain, its products had been limited to grain, cattle and wine—the total exports being under half a million of dollars in value. At present they include aloes, coffee, copper ore, ostrich feathers, dried fruits, guano, angora hair, hides, horns, skins, tobacco, wine, wool and diamonds. In 1875 the vines of the Colony yielded four and a half million gallons of brandy. In the same year three million pounds of tobacco were produced; while the Colony, as a whole, possessed eleven million sheep, twenty-two thousand ostriches, over three million goats and a million horned cattle. The trade of the country has always been chiefly with Great Britain and carried in British vessels. Facts and Figures Between 1861 and 1886 the imports doubled and the exports trebled. From 1872 to 1897 they rose by leaps and bounds—the imports increasing by $67,000,000 and the exports by $66,000,000. Since English agricultural settlement and work has increased the growth of grain in some of the richer regions has been considerable. Wheat, maize, oats, barley and millet are common crops, while rice and cotton are grown in certain localities—the latter being still an experimental production. Merino sheep have largely taken the place of the big-tailed sheep of the early Dutch settlers. The following table,[[2]] beginning with 1854 and including 1872, as the years marked by important constitutional changes, will illustrate the general progress in this connection:
1854 1872 1897
Receipts, $1,479,010 $ 5,770,205 $ 36,949,830
Expenditures, 1,562,605 4,612,840 34,261,930
Public Debt, none 7,755,470 136,412,025
Shipping, tons (inwards), 1,202,715 2,412,780 32,101,005
" (outwards), 1,197,975 2,353,455 32,166,020
Imports, 7,740,185 21,943,640 89,659,390
Exports, 3,822,305 30,347,645 97,181,520
[[2]] Condensed from official figures in the Statistical Register. Colony of the Cape of Good Hope. 1897.
In 1868 the declared value of diamonds exported was $750, while from 1881 onwards the export averaged twenty millions a year—in 1897 being $22,271,880. In 1872 the export of wool reached its highest point, and exceeded sixteen millions in value. Since then it has diminished, owing to the effect of frequent droughts upon the sheep, and, in 1897, was but little over seven millions. Of all the exports Angora hair is now the most important, and excels gold, diamonds and precious stones. In 1857 its export was about $5,000 in value; forty years later it was $60,900,000. The population had meantime been growing slowly. The Census of 1865 gave the Europeans as numbering 181,592, and the natives 314,789. Ten years later the figures were 236,783 and 484,201, respectively, and in 1891 the Census of that year showed an increase to 382,198 Europeans and 1,217,762 natives. How far these figures are accurate it is difficult to say. There has been an objection to differentiating between European races in the official returns—partly from the English portion not liking to appear in so marked a minority and partly, perhaps, from the Dutch themselves not desiring to have their full strength known. And it is not improbable that the last Census very greatly understated the numbers of the latter; as seems to have also been the case with the figures of Boer population in the two Republics.