ispose of,
because all the untilled area not absolutely barren has been
appropriated for stock-farms, still there are districts on the south
coasts of Cape Colony, as well as in Natal and in the healthy uplands of
Mashonaland, which Englishmen or Germans might cultivate with the
assistance (in the hotter parts) of a little native labour, and which
Italians or Portuguese might cultivate by their own labour, without
native help. The Germans who were brought out in 1856 throve in body and
estate on the farms which they tilled with their own hands near
Grahamstown. Nevertheless, few agricultural immigrants enter, partly, no
doubt, because so much of the land is held by a comparatively small
number of persons, and reserved by them (as just observed) for pastoral
purposes only. Neither do men go from Europe to start ranching, for the
pastoral lands are taken up, except in those wilder regions where no one
could thrive without some previous experience of the country. The
settling of the newer parts of the country, such as those between the
Zambesi and the tropic of Capricorn, is chiefly carried on by the Boers
of the Transvaal, and, to a less extent, of the British Colonies; for
the Boers retain their passion for trekking out into the wilderness,
while the English, with few exceptions, like to keep within reach of
one another and of civilisation. Accordingly, the country receives
comparatively few recruits from rural Europe, and its agricultural
population grows only by natural increase. There are probably more
natives of India to-day tilling the soil in Natal alone than the whole
number of agriculturists who have come from Europe in the last thirty
years. Legislation which should attract such agriculturists by the offer
of tillage farms of moderate size would be a great benefit to the
Colonies.

We may now endeavour to sum up the facts of the case, and state the
conclusions to which they point.

South Africa is already, and will be to an increasing extent, a country
of great mineral wealth. It is only in the diamond-fields, especially
those of Kimberley, and in the gold-fields of the Witwatersrand, that
this wealth has yet been proved to exist, so far as regards precious
stones and precious metals, but it may exist also in many other
districts. It is not confined to precious stones and metals, and when
these have been exhausted, copper, iron, and coal may continue to
furnish good returns to mine-owners and plenty of employm