s found to
contain provisions exempting the owner who personally resided on his
farm, and especially and definitely taxing those farms which are
owned by companies, associations, corporations, or partnerships. The
Boer, it is well known, takes no shares in companies, joins no
associations, and has partnership with no one. This law was shelved
in 1895, but has since been passed.{18} It is of a piece with the
rest. Having sold his farm to the Uitlander, the Boer now proceeds
to plunder him: and 'plunder' is not too strong a word when it is
realized that the tax falls, not on the really valuable farms of the
high veld, which are nearly all owned by individuals, and are all
occupied, but on the undeveloped outlying farms, the rentable value
of which would not on the average suffice to pay the tax! Indeed, one
very large land-owner stated to the Government at the time, that if
this law were passed and put in force, they might take all his
rentals good and bad in lieu of the tax, as it would pay him better!

These were matters which more immediately concerned persons of
certain means. There is another matter, however, which very directly
concerned every individual who had any intention of remaining in the
country; that is, the matter of education. A dead set had always been
made by the Transvaal Government against any encouragement of liberal
education which would involve the use or even recognition of the
English language. Indeed, some of the legislators have been known to
express the opinion that education was not by any means desirable, as
it taught the rising generation to look with contempt on the hardy
Voortrekkers; and an interesting debate is on record, in which
members pointedly opposed the granting of facilities for the
education of their own women-kind, on the ground that presently the
women would be found reading books and newspapers instead of doing
their work, and would soon get to know more than their fathers,
husbands, and brothers, and would, as a consequence, quickly get out
of hand. It did not seem to occur to these worthy gentlemen that the
proper course would be to educate the men. But it would not be fair
to take this view as the representative one. On the point of the
English language, however, and the refusal to give any facilities for
the education of Uitlander children, the Boer legislature is
practically unanimous. The appalling consequences of allowing the
young population to grow up in absolute i