page_title: Orange River Colony
section_title: Self-government
hierarchical_section_title: Orange River Colony / Self-government
caption_attribution_description: English: Identifier: saturdayreviewof9319unse (find matches) Title: Saturday review of politics, literature, science and art Year: 1855 (1850s) Authors: Subjects: Publisher: (London&#160;: John W. Parker and Son) Contributing Library: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Digitizing Sponsor: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: for the twelvemonths to 30th April, 1899, 251,400 tons, and for the five followingmonths up to the commencement of the war, 116,045 ionfi. From the30lh April, 1901, to end of November last, the total output was151.473 tons. MINER ALS. —Dr. Frederick Hatch, in his geological map ofthe Southern Transvaal, published 1st September, 1897, shows theBlack Reef to be on the Companys farm Uilvlugt. OTHER INDUSTRIES.—In 1892 tree planting was com-menced on the estate and nearly two million trees were established by1897, of which upwards of half a million are oak, and the trees arenow of sufficiently large growth to become an immediate source ofrevenue. Other industries have also been profitably carried on upon theestate, such as firebrick making, sand and lime-stone (juarrying, «.Vc. 8 February, 1902 The Saturday Review. Sketch Plan of FARMS AND ASSETS OF THE VEREENIGING ESTATES, LTD —- ^ 0 rf Farms belonging to the Vereeniging EstatesLimited are colored Pmh. BOSCH HOP BADFONTEIN H9 zae Text Appearing After Image: ■AHCADIA SCf/ElDINORAND - Sc* it • — 5 cue mus AREA H A M E ACRUS £ HLIPrONTEIH 562 Z87&amp; - IILlPPLAftrSDfflFT. 336 6318 t L££UWHUIL 181 IZQI2 5 PANFONTEIH 133 I0II7 ^ UirvLUGT 307 4-290 ° VYFFONTEIN 3 b9Z7 1 VI sen GAT 318 3875 z ZOEHFONTEIN 255 26^5 BANHFOf/mV. 9 $134 BORDEAUX 20 3589 a. DAMPLAATS 567 3589 &gt; DRIEFONTEIN 5/0 57 Zl MACAWVLEI 121 9097 OVEPVLOEDFOhTEIIV 132 3287 0 PALMIETFONTEIN . 137 5235 £ RIETFONTEIN 152 6*25 0 ROBESFRUIT 169 3583 SCHAAPPiAATS 181 13361 VAALBANK . ._ 219 S332 ZAUDFOfJrEIN 259 76CJ TOTAL I26.6SI 191 The Saturday Review. 8 February, 1902 Six New 6/= Novels. Tregarthens Wife. Ready.^ By F. M. WHITE. Ylllustrated. The First Men in tlie Moon. Ready. ) By H. O. WELLS. ^Illustrated. Jim tlie Penman. By DICK DONOVAN. A Lover of Music. Fehtiary 12.) By HENRY VAN DYKE. (Ilhistraieil Tlie Hound of the Baskervilles. Ma&gt;rh 25.) By A. CON AN DOYLE. llUustrated. At Sunwich Port. April 22.) By W. W. JACOBS. (Ill Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
context_page_description: The Orange River Colony was the British colony created after Britain first occupied and then annexed the independent Orange Free State in the Second Boer War. The colony ceased to exist in 1910, when it was absorbed into the Union of South Africa as Orange Free State Province.
context_section_description: By 1904 sentiment was growing for some form of self-government. The Orangia Unie (Orange Union Party) was formally constituted in May 1906, after several months of preparation. A similar organisation, called Het Volk, had been formed by the Transvaal Boers in January 1905. Both unions had constitutions almost identical with that of the Afrikaner Bond, a former pan-Afrikaner political movement, and their aims were also similar – to secure the position of the Afrikaners in state and society. The chairman of the Orangia Unie was Abraham Fischer, leading politician of the pre-Boer War period and top diplomat of the Boer republics during the Second Boer War. Among the other prominent members were J. B. M. Hertzog, Christiaan de Wet and Martinus Theunis Steyn.
  A second political party, the Constitutional Party was formed by a group of burghers content with British rule. Chairman of the party was Sir John G. Fraser, before the Second Boer War a prominent (pro-British) member of the Volksraad of the Orange Free State. The Constitutional Party had a strong following in Bloemfontein, but not outside the capital. The political programmes of the two parties were very similar, the real difference between them being the attitude towards British annexation and Afrikaner influence.
  In 1905 Lord Selborne, formerly First Lord of the Admiralty, replaced Viscount Milner as high commissioner for South Africa and governor of the Transvaal and Orange River colonies. Selborne had come to South Africa with a brief to guide the former Boer republics from Crown colony government towards self-government. When Liberal Party came into office in Britain in December 1905 the process was speeded up, with the decision to give both the Transvaal and Orange River colonies self-government without delay. Selborne accepted the changed situation, and the experiment proved successful. He ceased to be governor of the Orange River Colony on its assumption of self-government in June 1907, but retained his other posts until May 1910, retiring on the eve of the establishment of the Union of South Africa.
  On 7 January 1907 Selborne released a despatch, known as the Selborne Memorandum. It reviewed the situation in South Africa in all its economic and political aspects and was a masterly and comprehensive statement of the dangers inherent in the existing political system and of the advantages a political union offered. The document had a marked influence on the course of events and together with Selborne's conciliatory approach assisted in reconciling the Dutch and British communities of South Africa.
  After the elections of 1907, the colony received self-government on 27 November 1907. Abraham Fischer became the first (and only) prime minister of the colony (in office 27 November 1907 – 31 May 1910). The first Legislative Assembly consisted of twenty-nine members of the Orangia Unie, five Constitutionalists and four independents. Fischer's cabinet consisted of:
  J.B.M. Hertzog, attorney-general and director of education;
  A. E. W. Ramsbottom, treasurer;
  Christiaan de Wet, minister of agriculture;
  Cornelius Hermanus Wessels, minister of public works
  Fischer, besides the premiership, held the portfolio of colonial secretary. The first Legislative Council counted five members from the Orangia Unie, five Constitutionalists, and one independent member, in effect holding the balance.
caption: Map of a small part (across the Vaal River from Vereeniging) of the Orange River Colony, 1902
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