1906-1908 at a cost of L125,000. It stands in
grounds of 300 acres, a mile and a half from the town. In the town is
the original Grey College, founded in 1856 by Sir George Grey, when
governor of Cape Colony. The post and telegraph office in Market Square
is one of the finest buildings in the town. The public library is housed
in a handsome building in Warden Street. Opposite it is the new national
museum.

Bloemfontein possesses few manufactures, but is the trading centre of
the province. Having a dry healthy climate, it is a favourite
residential town and a resort for invalids, being recommended especially
for pulmonary disease. The mean maximum temperature is 76.7 deg. Fahr.,
the mean minimum 45.8 deg.; the mean annual rainfall about 24 in. There
is an excellent water-supply, obtained partly from Bloemspruit, but
principally from the Modder river at Sanna's Post, 22 m. to the east,
and from reservoirs at Moches Dam and Magdepoort.

The population in 1904 was 33,883, of whom, including the garrison of
3487, 15,501 were white, compared with a white population of 2077 in
1890. The coloured inhabitants are mostly Bechuana and Basuto. Most of
the whites are of British origin, and English is the common language of
all, including the Dutch.

The _spruit_ or spring which gives its name to the town was called after
one of the emigrant farmers, Jan Bloem. The town dates from 1846, in
which year Major H.D. Warden, then British resident north of the Orange,
selected the site as the seat of his administration. When in 1854
independence was conferred on the country the town was chosen by the
Boers as the seat of government. It became noted for the intelligence of
its citizens, and for the educational advantages it offered at the time
when education among the Boers was thought of very lightly. In 1892 the
railway connecting it with Cape Town and Johannesburg was completed.
During the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 it was occupied by the British
under Lord Roberts without resistance (13th of March 1900), fourteen
days after the surrender of General Cronje at Paardeberg. In Market
Square on the 28th of the following May the annexation of the Orange
Free State to the British dominions was proclaimed. In 1907 the first
session of the first parliament elected under the constitution granting
the colony self-government was held in Bloemfontein. In 1910 when the
colony became a province of the Union of South Africa under its old
designati