lent settlement for British population in process of redistribution. The obvious sequence to Vereeniging lay, it was supposed, in the introduction of a genuine stiffening of loyal Britons, a population that in me next generation might be so settled in the new home as to have become a part of the essential life of the country, and a protection against any possible recrudescence of Boer discontent. This dream does not, up to the present, show any signs of realization; and even if it be admitted that much blundering occurred over the attempts at colonization actually made, it should be frankly admitted that the failure was largely inevitable from causes inherent in the situation.
The Transvaal includes a very varied assortment of soils, climates, and agricultural possibilities. Now, whatever may be said of the old Boers, they certainly and admittedly were excellent judges of land; accordingly, when first the Voertrekkers scattered over the untilled Transvaal, they marked out at once the best districts, both agricultural and pastoral, and settled on them, so that to-day there is hardly an acre of really first-class value left for new colonists. If the high veldt and the industrial area be placed out of court, there remains the far less healthy middle and low veldt, where animal diseases play havoc with the stock during many months of the year. Yet this land is better adapted for the pastoralist than for the agriculturist. Cereal farming is quite possible, and may even yield from time to time a good harvest, though the violent storms, locusts, rust, and early frosts militate against the occurrence being frequent. But the cost of bringing the produce to market is so great, that to compete with the imported article means selling at a price which leaves little margin of profit even on a good harvest. Moreover, in the cereal districts the price of land is too high.
The Zoutpansberg district is practically Government land, and considerable opening does here offer for the English settler, especially if a railway be built from
