The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-01-22 00:00:00

SOUTH AFRICA.

On Tuesday evening a meeting of the Royal
Colonial Institute was held at the Pall Mall Res-
taurant, in Regent-street, London, under the presi-
dency of the Duke of Manchester, when an interesting
paper on "South Africa and her Colonies" was read
by Lieutenant-General J. Bisset, C. 8., who resided
at the Cape for many years. After giving a historical
and statistical account of each of the four Colonies.—
viz., the Cape, Natal, the Orange Free State, and the
Transvaal Republie— General Bisset expressed a
decided opinion that, following the example of the
Dominion of Canada, South Africa mot federate
into one great colony. Canada had Tb internal
enemies, whereas South Africa had vast hordes of
savages, so that without unity each separate Colony
was powerless to oppose a rising of the natives or
to enact universal regulations for the good govern-
ment of them, particularly as regards the acquisition
of arms and ammunition. At present one colony pro-
hibited the pDssession of arms by the natives, except
under certain circumstances, while the other colony
admitted free trade in firearms; indeed no fewer than
500,000 had been sold to the coloured natives within
the last five or six years, 500,0001 b. of powder having
been imported in the course of last year. This bore a
most serious aspect for the future of South Africa, as
these arms would certainly circulate throughout the
whole country, while separate legislation was calcu-
lated to bring on local wars. Already the exports of
the four Colonies amounted to many millions of pounds
sterling. The interior of South Africa was bound-
less, its future wealth was enormous, the high table
lands and fertile valleys were capable of pro-
ducing everything in the world, and Nature had
been so lavish in her bounties that in some dis-
tricts man did not live "by the sweat of his brow,"
but subsisted, like the beasts of the field, on what
Nature provided. The very grass yielded seed like corn
and he had seen it sold in the market at Grahamstown
under the name of "manna"—the food from heaven.
With federation, commerce would flow through South
Africa to and from England; but withoub this unity
the great interior would be tapped by arteries, which
would run crossways and cut off the smaller streams
flowing inward, thus carrying the commerce of the
great future eastward, away from England and into
other countries. Indeed, he went beyond this in his
idea of federation, for he maintained that Great Britain
ought herself to federate with all the British Colonies.
Each British Colony ought, in his judgment, to elect
&member of the House of Commons, who might speak,
though not vote, on colonial subj.:tots. Moreover,
he would offer federation to every people or nation
speaking the English language, and in particular he
would offer it to the great American people who parted
with England on this very question. Mr. Campbell
Johnstone having addressed the meeting, Dr. Ather-
ston, of Grahamstown, expressed the profound as-
tonishment he felt, on returning to his country after
a residence of 35 years, at the profound ignorance of
Englishmen on the subject of South Africa, who
seemed to entertain a vague notion that it was a
Caffre War breeding island in the South Seas, and
that, perhaps, the wiliest thing to do would be to leave
it alone. This ignorance was attributable in
.great
measure to the imperfect information imparted m our
elementary schools in regard to physical geography, for,
according to the scale of ordinary maps, South Africa
appeared to occupy only every small portion of the earth's
surface, whereas in reality it was larger than any
European country except Russia. He believed the
wise scheme proposed by the Earl of Carnarvon for
an extensive system of confederation of British Colonies
would produce- moat prosperous resuks, and he had no
doubt that ultimately the Dutch Colonists would
ultimately seek admission in the confederation. Mr.
Watson, Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce at
Capetown, also made some observation, and the discus-
sion was then adjourned till the next ordinary meet?ng
of the Institute on the 15th of February.