The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-03-14
THE DUTCH OF CAPE COLONY


 The peaches are ripe in the fruit dls- tricts of Cape Colony, the grapes are turning color, and the place ln Which eo meet the Dutch farmer, for those WHO wish to hear his opinions at lelsute' ls in the peach orchard or the FlteSalu' There you may learn, to begin Wlth' that one point of difference between the English and Dutch is that the EngllslI don't know how to eat peaches feach- es I was told the other day, are SoN- ereignly good for the liver pfoVloeu that you eat enough of them SIX or seven before breakfast and just a few after are considered fair allowance to begin the day with; and it is not the fault of the hospitable owners of or chards if you do not carry the pre- secription into practice In the nelsn- borhood of the Paarl and Stellenbosch and Wellington and Worcester, now ! known politically as centers ol Dutcil influence, the homesteads Whleh slaiia in the midst of these orchards ana Nille- wards are in many cases, me old Dutch houses, built nearly all in the same style of architecture, roomy ana COOL havine, the shape of the letter H, lifted | upon step or stoep, which, nKe an uh- ] covered veranda. surrounds the entire house. The farms are approacheo py | avenues of oak or stone pine. Eacn 1 house is entered by large central hall, which forms the crossbar Of the Il, ana the entrance is urmounted by a gable bearing the date of construction; l'S' 1795. 1918 and 1884 are among dates which l remember Quite unpreten- tious in appointments and maintenance and manner of life, these are, neverthe- less. homes which have in many cases valued traditions. and, taken in con- Junction with the tone and bearing Of their owners, recall the descrlptioh oi the home of the Dashwoods given by Miss Austen, "where for many genera tions they had lived in so respectapie d. manner as to engage the general good opinion of their surrounding aequalnt- ance" To have engaged for some gen enations the general good opinion or surrounding acquaintance has an CT feet upon charact cter which is curiousiy similar wherever it is encountered, and the Dutchmen of this type may be talk en as having a very strong resemblance to the conservative and not very well educated small gentry of English coun- trv districts about a hundred years ago The appliances of civilization and the habits of locomotion, which, for good or evil, have modified the character of the English gentry. have been in use at the Cape only during1 the last tive-and- twenty years. and have hardly yet reached some of the outlying country districts.
 The aspect of these very lonely agri- cultural districts of the Cape Colnyo is of such profound peace that it is diff cult at times to believe in the existence of war so near their borders. Yet in | the orchards the talk is all of the war or of martial law, and in every village a new feature which takes the form of a blockhouse and handful of men in khaki, has made it's appearance at all the principal ss-roads. The block house at the limit of your district can not be passed without a military per init, and after dark barbed wire closes the roads On the farms work has ii' some cases come to a standStill TOT want of horses and cattle, which have heen communicated; one man told me that bis loss from this cause amounted for the year to between G1 900 and G1,- 200. In other cases crops are being reaped at a loss, the crops themselves having been communicated for military use. To provide against the possibility of harboring Boers, or of serving, will inply or unwilIingly, as stations of re. freshment for a wandering commando no household is allowed to keep store; for more than a fortnight's provision
 and the old farmers, accustomed to laA in their stocks for six months or year and to buy at wholesale prices the very few imported goods required for the use of their patriarchal households, fine themselves obliged to conduct their af
 fairs like bywoners, and to provide,
 a considerable loss, what is required
 from hand to mouth. The dignity O household, inquisition often presse
 even more painfully than the actua
 hardship. The Dutch complain that dis
 missed servants, local good-for-noth
 ings, jealous small tradesmen, idl blacks--every one who has grudg
 against osperity-seize the opportun
 ity, and, having ingratiated themselve as infcrmers with the military authori , ties, become enrolled as town guards O in other ways possessed of brief power
 which they abuse offensively. Repre- sentative Dutchmen become, it is al legged, by the mere fact of their race am l name, objects of marked suspicion, am } suffer COnspicuously in consequence . Stories of the maladministration o martial law are many, and unfor , tunately, are in some cases well sub
 etantiated. The fact is not denied. Tn r higher authorities at Cape Town am t l elsewhere are aware of 1t and deplor } | it. The only answer to be made is tha r these things are the inevitable conse
 uuence of war Martial law necessaril 1 means a military despotism. Despotisr ? | is on all hands admitted to be bad, an
 one of the principal reasons why it bad is because, with every endeavor t & use it fairly, it Is certain to be abused
 Powers which at home, in the midst c , profound peace, are exercised by tn Q most carefully selected and eminentl - learned of the community, and the 9 only under conditions carefully checked
 are, under martial law, placed practi a cally without control in the hands (
 uutrained military officers. The eX r, | gencies of an active campaign in tn o field render it impossible always e spare for administrative purposes tn
 officers best fitted by their abilities fc
 the position. and in the outlying dis o tricts the result is frequently unsatlS