the Free State
railway was still farther extended to Viljoen's Drift on the Vaal river,
and in 1892 it reached Pretoria and Johannesburg.

_Rhodes as Prime Minister: Native Policy_.--In 1889 Sir Henry Loch was
appointed high commissioner and governor of Cape Colony in succession to
Sir Hercules Robinson. In 1890 Sir Gordon Sprigg, the premier of the
colony, resigned, and a Rhodes government was formed. Prior to the
formation of this ministry (see table at end of article), and while Sir
Gordon Sprigg was still in office, Mr Hofmeyr approached Rhodes and
offered to put him in office as a Bond nominee. This offer was declined.
When, however, Rhodes was invited to take office after the downfall of
the Sprigg ministry, he asked the Bond leaders to meet him and discuss
the situation. His policy of customs and railway unions between the
various states, added to the personal esteem in which he was at this
time held by many of the Dutchmen, enabled him to undertake and to carry
on successfully the business of government.

The colonies of British Bechuanaland and Basutoland were now taken into
the customs union existing between the Orange Free State and Cape
Colony. Pondoland, another native territory, was added to the colony in
1894, and the year was marked by the Glen Grey Act, a departure in
native policy for which Rhodes was chiefly responsible. It dealt with
the natives residing in certain native reserves, and in addition to
providing for their interests and holdings, and in other ways protecting
the privileges accorded to them, the principle of the duty of some
degree of labour devolving upon every able-bodied native enjoying these
privileges was asserted, and a small labour tax was levied.[6] This is
in many respects the most statesmanlike act dealing with natives on the
statute-book; and in the session of 1895 Rhodes was able to report to
the Cape parliament that the act then applied to 160,000 natives. In
1905 the labour clauses of this act, which had fallen into desuetude,
were repealed. The clauses had, however, achieved success, in that they
had caused many thousands of natives to fulfil the conditions requisite
to claim exemption.

In other respects Rhodes's native policy was marked by combined
consideration and firmness. Ever since the granting of self-government
the natives had enjoyed the franchise. An act passed in 1892, at the
instance of Rhodes, imposed an educational test on applicants for
registration, an