Page:Last Will and Testament of Cecil Rhodes.djvu/21

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HIS PROPERTY IN RHODESIA.
7
the investments for the time being representing it I hereinafter refer to as “the Matoppos and Bulawayo fund” And I direct that my Trustees shall for ever apply in such manner as in their uncontrolled discretion they shall think fit the income of the Matoppos and Bulawayo Fund in preserving protecting maintaining adorning and beautifying the said burial-place and hill and their surroundings and shall for ever apply in such manner as in their uncontrolled discretion they shall think fit the balance of the income of the Matoppos and Bulawayo Fund and any rents and profits of my said landed properties near Bulawayo in the cultivation as aforesaid of such property And in particular I direct my Trustees that a portion of my Sauerdale property a part of my said landed property near Bulawayo be planted with every possible tree and be made and preserved and maintained as a Park for the people of Bulawayo and that they complete the dam[1] at my Westacre property if it is notWestacre Park, its trees and its dam.
  1. A Daily Telegraph correspondent, writing from Bulawayo on Oct. 14, 1901, gives the following account of the dam referred to in the will:—“Mr. Rhodes’s Matoppo Dam is to be used in connection with the irrigation of a portion of his farm near Bulawayo. This farm is situated on the northern edge of the Matoppos, eighteen miles from Bulawayo, and through it runs the valley of a tributary from the Malima River. This tributary is dry eight months in the year, and the land around consequently parched. Mr. Rhodes has built a huge earthwork wall to dam the tributary. The work was commenced in May, 1899. It will render possible the cultivation of some 2,000 to 3,000 acres of the most fertile soil. The total cost up to date has been something under £30,000. The total capacity of the reservoir is 900,000,000 gallons. A small body of water was conserved last season, and fifty acres of lucerne planted as a commencement. It is doing extremely well under irrigation. The site of the works, the northern edge of the Matoppos, is very picturesque. The green lucerne makes a delightful contrast against the dull and hazy browns