" 1 0 0
Mealies, 60 bags " 12s. = 36 0 0
Forage, 5,000 bundles " 3d. = 62 10 0
Kaffir corn, 30 bags " 15s. = 22 10 0
-----------
Total average yearly income L537 0 0
-----------

It must not be supposed for one moment that here we have a rich man. I
am merely citing the case of a farmer who said to me: 'I'd rather be a
book-keeper at twenty-pounds a month.' He had no idea that his annual
income figured up to anything like L537. And yet that same man would
endeavour to make a good bargain in purchasing sixpennyworth of
hairpins because he considered himself a 'poor man.'

There are hundreds of farmers, more particularly in the Free State,
who are unable to realize the extent of their wealth in stock or the
acreage of their own farms. They brand every ox, sheep, and horse that
belongs to them, and it is only by such marks that they are enabled to
recognise their own property when they see it. I have known instances
where hundreds of horses belonging to one man have succumbed in a
single season on account of horse-sickness, and their owner regarded
the loss as a mere trifle, because he knew that such a catastrophe did
not materially affect his position.

Klondyke had its 'millionaires in huts,' Boerland has its millionaires
in hovels. You will find farmers who are worth many thousands of
pounds living in places under whose roofs a Kaffir would certainly
disdain to pass the night. They possess wives and families, too, but
they exhibit no desire to better their domestic surroundings. If the
houses happen to include another room other than the living room, that
extra room is invariably used for storing grain. The women are untidy
and unprepossessing, and the children have not yet learned to
appreciate stockings and shoes. It is almost paradoxical to think of
human beings in a civilized country living such lives, people who have
great possibilities within their reach. The children readily
assimilate the habits and ways of their parents, and grow up into men
and women of a like type, and so on from generation to generation. No
wonder, then, that the Boers are a retrograde race.

[Illustration: A BOER FAMILY.]

It has been made sufficiently plain that when once the Boers have
acquired a country, they allow that country to rest