Wellwood Farm in Graaff Reinet District
(Mixed grass and karroo veldt)
Some one has said South Africa must irrigate or perish. This may be a truism; but it is also very certain that South Africa, while irrigating, must offer homes to a leavening mass of sound and desirable British settlers before the irrigation schemes under discussion can effect the agricultural transformation which, in British hands, might speedily come to pass. The nature of this settlement and the expedition of it, from an economic, social, and political point of view, is declared by Lord Milner to be of supreme importance. A new and progressive farming population must reinforce the old; for, it is most essential “that the old condition of things shall not be reproduced, in which the race division coincided almost completely with a division of interests, the whole country population being virtually Boer, while the bulk of the industrial and commercial population was British.” The three great essentials of any successful scheme, according to Lord Milner’s showing, are these: it must have magnitude, it must deal with land of good quality, it must attract settlers of the right kind. In the matter of magnitude there are many and intricate questions to be discussed. Land settlement must be undertaken on a large scale else it will be politically unimportant, the Boer States will remain Boer States in all but name, and any money advanced by the British speculator will be like the talent hidden in a napkin—just a talent and nothing more, till the end of the chapter! The Government must assert its paternity; it must control, it must assist. On all sides simultaneous effort must be made to march in time with the progressive note that, once struck, must be continuously and consistently re-echoed throughout the length and breadth of the new Colonies. The best quality of land must invite the best quality of settler, though regulations must be sufficiently elastic to meet the wants of the settler with capital, and also those of the settler with little more than practical experience. They must vary, too, with the varying character of the farms. The reason for this necessity has concisely been explained by Lord Milner: “Take only the broad distinction between dry and irrigated farms, familiar to every South African. Evidently a much larger area is required in the former than in the latter, while the experience needed by the farmer would vary greatly in the two cases. In the former he would be mainly employed in stock-raising, while in the latter in the cultivation of cereals; and in favourable neighbourhoods market gardening would be the most profitable industry. Australian ranchers seem peculiarly suited to the high veldt, while the corn lands of the ‘Conquered Territory’ could have no better occupants than young progressive farmers from the Scottish lowlands. And there are intermediate types of farms suited to settlers of the most varied experience and resources.”
A rough draft of the terms on which the Orange River Colony Government proposed to offer Government land to British settlers affords an insight into the big projects that are afoot. The draft was submitted to the British Government about the middle of 1902 in order that sanction might be given to the principle of the conditions set forth. Here—abbreviated—are the conditions of lease:—
“The settler shall pay the annual rent due by him to the Government in half-yearly instalments, the first of which shall be due six months after his taking possession. The settler holding under a lease shall have the right, with the approval of the Government, at any time after the completion of his first year’s tenancy, to enter upon the system of purchase by instalments, by giving three months’ notice to the Government of his intention to do so before the date when his next half-yearly instalment falls due. In that case his leasehold tenure shall be held to cease from the date of the payment of such instalment, and he shall be entitled to acquire the land on the same terms as a settler taking it on the purchase system, save and except that he shall not have a year’s grace before beginning to purchase by instalments, but that the first of his sixty half-yearly instalments shall become due six months after the date of his last payment under the lease. Every lease shall be for five years, but shall be renewable at the option of the settler for a further period of five or ten years.”
The grounds on which the Government may cancel the lease shall be the following:—
“Failure to pay in full any half-yearly instalment of rent, or any sum due in respect of advances within three months of its becoming due.
“Neglect to cultivate the land in a proper and husbandlike manner to the satisfaction of the Government, or to apply any money advanced by the Government for the purpose specified.
“Conviction for any criminal offence punishable by death or by imprisonment without option of a fine.”
The Government will be prepared to make advances to the settler for such permanent improvements as the Government may approve, such as drainage, fencing, farm buildings, tree-planting, the sinking of wells, making of roads, reclamation of waste land, or any other work calculated to permanently enhance the value of the land, provided—
“That the sum of such advances shall not at any time exceed the capital which the settler has himself expended, or can satisfy the Government that he is prepared to expend, in connection with the cultivation of the land.
“That the total outstanding amount at any one time shall not exceed five times the rent of the land.”