Arizona republican., 1900-07-04
IMMIGRANTS WARNED.

London. July 3.-Julian Ralph con- tributes to the Daily Mail some warn ings to those who intend to emigrate to South Africa. He says:
 I fear that most of these men will re- gret having ever asked even the barest living of South Africa. Although the most popular saying about that unat- tractive region are such as to deter inn migration. the idea that fortunes are to be made there by men without capital remains firmly rooted in many minds.
 Where the land yields best it is main ly used for the breeding of sheep, horses and goats, and ostriches. It is only where water is abundant that We see crops being raised, and they are grown in small plots, for water in South Africa has been termed "a curio."
 To be strictly just, there is a reasoa- ably rich region in that part of Cape Colony which is called the Hex River country. Wheat and fruit and the vine flourish in that section, and pasturaSe is good, genuine farming carried on there, and the people are prosperous But the region offers no chance for inn migrants. The land is all taken up and held at a very high price, and those who own it, especially the dominant Dutch, will not sell. Instead, they want n1ore acres. even though they cannot till what they have; for the Boer is a land-loving, land-proud mortal. who estimates his social position and his degree of content by the number of his acres.
 There is q good grain producing soil n hs st or ri nf lrD r. colony, and the ravages of the war may send d few-a very few-Of those farms into the market, but the price will be beyond the purses of the average for tune seekers. There is not and will not be, any of this land to be picked up on what is called settlers claim i. C.. free to whosoever will build on it and work.
 In the Transvaal, likewise, there are good belts and desert belts, and there is plenty of unworked land, I believe, in the dry and hilly upper half of that country. But the soil, which is produc- tive, even in the way of pasturaSe, is not in the market.
 If any man thinks to find new gold fields or diamond mines he may as well be told that the chances of that are precisely equal to his chances of having at his disposal the time, money and expert knowledge which the great mining corporations have utilized in studying the entire country and in talk ing liens or paying yearly premiums for the first right to work such soils when they need or desire to do so.
 The nearest thing to gold mine that remains open to newcomers in the greater part of these colonies is the ostrich: at least, so I was informed by a great many shrewd and successful men who live in Natal. the Orange river colony and the Transvaal But breeding Ostrichcs requires money-for the land and the birds-to start with. And one must know or learn the meth- ods by which a profit is to be had in that industry. You cannot rise ostriches as you take d snapshot photograph-by pressing button and letting nature do the rest.
 In the army l found so many young men, especially among the Australians and Canadians, who talked of remain ing in South Africa, that I made it my business while 1 was in Cape Town, Kimberley and Bloemfontein to ask the leading men for their knowledge and opinions as to the inducements the country offers to immigrants. It may have merely happened so, but I did not meet man who favored the coming of a large number of new settlers. All who were of British blood wished for more men of their own race therein numbers sufficient to outvote the Dutch but they could not promise the new conner a living.
 It is as true as when MT. Bryce wrote it that South Africa is "a vast solitude with a few cases of population" and that this is due to it's scanty means of sustaining life and its few openings for industry unaided by capital.