The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1894-06-16
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA.
The T~ransvaal and It's Wonderful
Development in the Past Five
Years.

The Transvaal and Its Wonderful
Development i'm the Past Five
Years.
The territory comprising the Trans
vaal or South African Republic covers
an ar "a larger than that Of France. 1t
Is peopled by the Beers, who fed from
the tyrannical form of government
which the English sought to impose
upon them further south. The beers
are the descendants of the sturdy Meth
erlanders, who constituted Holland a
republic and a formidable power in the
sixteenth century, and of the Hugenots,
who were driven from France by the
edict Of Nantes in 1855 by Louis XIV.
Thus in the Beers of South Africa there
Is a combination Of the characteristics
OF two people who are conspicuous in
European history for tn. struggles
they waged for political and religious
liberty. Since the days when the first
band of hardy immigrant Beers crossed
the Vaal river, where England's tyran-
ny stopped at following them, and
planted their cabil~ on the broad and
sunny slopes of &c Transvaal, the
country has gon' through the changes
and throes which mark the life of in
dividual and nation alike. Within the
past v years a marvellous develop
ment Of population, resources and in
dustries has followed on the success
which gold mining has achieved. Rail-
way communication now connects
Johannesburg via the diamond mines
OF Kimberly with the Cape OF Good
Hope, a distance Of 945 miles. Other
connections are rapidly progressing
from Natal and Delagoa bay, centraliz-
ing at Pretoria, the capital and seat of
government in the Transvaal.
The constitution of the South African
republic, says Goldthwaite's Magazine.
is based on the Roman Dutch. The leg
islative power is vested in the volks-
Rad, and the members of which are
elected by their constituents for four
years. The elective constituents of the
president, elected for five years by a
general election throughout the state,
the state secretary elected by the volks-
raad for four years, and four unofficial
members chosen for three years by the
volksraad. The chief officer in each dis
trict is the laDddJrst, who acts as mag
istrate and civil commissioner, with the
assistance Of a clerk, who is at the
same time public prosecutor and dis
tributor of stamps. Each district is
further provided with a baljuw or sher-
III, gaoler and a staff of constables.
With the exception of a corps of
mounted artillery and police, command
ed by three officers with about sixty
men, the republic has no armed force.
The president, with the concurrence of
the executive, has the right to declare
war and call up a commando, in which
the burghers are placed under the field
comets and commandments of each dis
trict. The whole force is commanded
by the c~ommandant general, who is
elected by the country for the term of
ten years. All inhabitants Of the state
between sixteen and and sixty years Of
age, Lot exempt according 20 law, are
liable to service on commando. Presi-
dent Kruger ts now occupying his office
Tor the third term. He is a patriot, a
man whose heroic life posterity will
honor. Among the Beers he is known
exclusively AS "Oom Paul" Uncle
raul" Though a man of rugged cxter-
lo'. CntntoreG even as regards the most
elementary branches Of education, he
a showa a practical capacity for gov
eminent tina has been a match for
the most finished diplomacy and states
craft. For the conservation Of the in
terests of the mining classes, almost
English, he Influenced the
volksraad to establish a second cham
Der, to which they could send their rep-
r~esentativcs. This chamber legislates
IN the interest Of the English class and
Tor the local interests of the country.
the volksiaad holding the right of veto
over it's proceedings.