ed L500 damages. The incident had a distinctly beneficial
effect, and nothing more was heard of the maltreatment of defenceless
men simply because they were Britishers. Moreover, with the
improvement in trade which followed the gold discoveries of 1885
and 1886 at Moodies and Barberton, the relations between the two
races also improved. Frequent intercourse and commercial relations
begot a better knowledge of each other, and the fierce hatred of the
Britisher began to disappear in the neighbourhood of the towns and
the goldfields.

In 1886 the wonderful richness of the Sheba Mine in Barberton
attracted a good deal of attention, and drew a large number of
persons--prospectors, speculators, traders, etc.--to the Transvaal.
Before the end of 1887 ten or twelve thousand must have poured into
the country. The effect was magical. The revenue which had already
increased by 50 per cent. in 1886, doubled itself in 1887, and then
there came unto the Boer Government that which they had least
expected--ample means to pursue their greater ambitions. But unmixed
good comes to few, and with the blessings of plenty came the cares of
Government, the problem of dealing with people whose habits,
thoughts, ambitions, methods, language, and logic differed utterly
from their own. Father Abraham on the London Stock Exchange would not
be much more 'at sea' than the peasant farmers of the Volksraad were
in dealing with the requirements of the new settlers.

Agitations for reforms commenced early in Barberton. At first it was
only roads and bridges that were wanted, or the remission of certain
taxes, or security of title for stands and claims. Later on a
political association named the Transvaal Republican Union was formed
in Barberton, having a constitution and programme much the same as
those of the Transvaal National Union, formed some five years later
in Johannesburg. The work of this body was looked on with much
disfavour by the Government, and it was intimated to some of the
prominent members that if they did not cease to concern themselves
with politics they would suffer in their business relations, and
might even be called upon to leave the country. Many reforms were
specified as desirable, and the franchise question was raised, with
the object of getting the Government to make some reasonable
provision in lieu of the registration clause, which was found in most
cases to be an absolute bar.

The discovery of the Witwatersrand conglom