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CAPE

[statistics

COLONY

revenue in 1900 was £942,317, and expenditure £922,992. The total debt of the Divisional Councils, 31st December 1900, was £36,440, and of the Municipalities £2,396,105. Defence.—The whole of the Cape peninsula is fortified against foreign attack by a series of forts and batteries ; here is situated the important naval station of Simon’s Bay, which is to be greatly improved, new docks to cost three millions sterling having been already authorized. A contingent of the Imperial army is specially reserved for the defence of the peninsula, and the Imperial military expenditure in 1898 was £306,308 ; the naval expenditure amounted to about £200,000. Further, on the Cape and West African station generally, a squadron of 13 ships is maintained. In 1878 a law was passed whereby every able-bodied man between the age of 18 and 50 years is liable to be called upon for military service, but the only purely colonial force regularly maintained (other than some bodies of volunteers, numbering 6953 in 1898) is that known as the C.M.R.—Cape Mounted Rifles. This corps numbers about 1000 officers and men, whose ordinary duties are to preserve order in Transkei. The Cape Police may be called upon for defence purposes in case of emergency. The colonial expenditure on defence in 1899-1900 was £223,429. Minerals and Mining.—A. geological survey of the colony was commenced in 1896. Meanwhile great strides have been already made in developing the mineral resources of the colony. Diamonds have become by far the most valuable of all the products of the industry. The importance of the mines around Kimberley rose by leaps and bounds after their discovery about 1870, and how the output has increased and continues to be maintained will be seen from the figures given below under exports. Coal-mining is another industry that has greatly developed, chiefly owing to the encouragement that has been given to it by the extensive use of Cape coal on the Government railways. The total yield of the mines, which are mostly situated in the Stormbergen, was 198,451 tons in 1900» The demand for copper has given a big impetus to the mines in Namaqualand, the output from which was returned at 42,678 tons in 1900. Agriculture.—There are no recent statistics as to the area under cultivation, but of the 177,376,660 acres comprising the total area of the colony as at present constituted, 129,065,925 acres had been allotted by the end of 1900, while 48,695,897 acres were still undisposed of. The area under forests throughout the colony is over 537 square miles (343,680 acres); they yield large quantities of valuable timber, and are under the control of the Department of Agriculture, which was instituted in 1887, and for which a special ministry has been created. This department has done much good work since its institution, especially by introducing French-American resistant stocks into the vineyards, which had suffered very severely from the ravages of the phylloxera, by improving the breed of horses, by establishing an animal bacteriological laboratory, and by practically stamping out the rinderpest. In the old colony and native territories there were produced in the year ending 31st May 1899—of wheat, 2,220,747 bushels ; oats, 1,810,611 bushels; barley, 830,730 bushels; mealies, 2,857,809 bushels ; Kaffir corn, 2,000,000 bushels ; rye, 304,491 bushels ; and oat-hay, 14,547,044 bundles of about 5| lb. There were 83,000,000 vine-stocks, yielding 4,824,432 gallons of wine, and 1,107,344 gallons of brandy. There were also fruit trees (peach, apricot, apple, pear, plum, fig, orange, lemon, and naartje) to the number, in 1898, of 4,195,624. The chief pastoral products Were —wool, 35,179,900 lb; mohair, 6,707,379 lb; ostrich feathers, 278,167 lb; and butter, 2,879,000 lb. There were 1,077,044 head of cattle, 387,824 horses, 90,379 mules and asses, 12,639,992 sheep, 5,572,793 Angora and other goats, 245,947 pigs, and 260,672 ostriches. Except in the case of ostriches, these figures are all much lower than those returned in 1891 for the colony as then constituted, and in particular the number of cattle, owing to the ravages of rinderpest in 1896, is less than one-half that returned in the former year. Farms in tillage are comparatively small, but those devoted to the rearing of sheep are very large, ranging from 3000 acres to 15,000 acres and more. For the most’part the graziers own the farms they occupy. Perhaps here may be best introduced a reference to the gradual extermination of the big game. The larger *4 wild animals, with the exception of the elephant and the Cape tiger (leopard), are practically extinct in the old colony. Bucks (antelopes), however, of all sorts, and smaller game, including many varieties of birds, are now protected by laws establishing close seasons. Fisheries. —These are under the Department of Agriculture, which has done much to develop them. For several years a Government expert has been employed in exploring the fishinggrounds and examining the habits of the fish, their probable quantity, &c., all round the coast. The result seems to show that the fishing-grounds could furnish an abundant supply to trawlers. Salmon and trout have been introduced into the rivers with very satisfactory results. * _ Manufactures.—Excluding mines, industrial establishments producing goods to the value of £100 and upwards employed altogether,

in 1891, 17,062 persons, producing manufactures, &c., valued at £3,560,004. Food, drinks, and stimulants provided the largest item, with 3931 persons, and goods to the value of over two millions sterling; after this came, in value, animal matter, vehicles and harness, dress, buildings, printing books and stationery, and vegetable matter, on each of which, except the last, over 1000 persons were employed. No other industry produced goods to the value of over £100,000, or employed over 1000 persons. Commerce.—After making every allowance for the natural growth of the colony, it will be seen from the following table, giving the total values (including specie) of the imports and exports in various years since 1885, that, up to the breaking out of the Boer war, the trade of Cape Colony underwent a great development during the later years of the 19th century. 1900. 1898. 1895. £ £ £ & 19,207,549 17,161,811 Imports, 4,991,688 10,106,466 19,094,880 16,682,438 Exports. 6,224,261 9,910,370 16,904,756 25,318,701 23,662,538 7,646,682 In 1900 the specie imported was valued at £2,516,525, and the gross duty received on all imports amounted to £2,309,769. Apart from specie, the principal items in the list of imports in 1900 were textile fabrics, dress,&c.,£4,301,331, andfood, drinks,&c.,£5,584,600. The principal items in the exports were raw gold, £336,795 (this, though not included in the imports, is first imported from the Transvaal, hence, largely, the big fall in the value of the exports in 1900); diamonds, £3,433,832; wool, £837,809; ostrich feathers, £876,801; hair (Angora), £489,905; copper ore, £498,552; and hides and skins, £346,800. During the preceding years of the decade, the lowest export of diamonds was £3,013,578 (1894), and the highest £4,775,016 (1895). The total value (partly estimated) of the diamond export from 1867 to 1900 was £95,44/,399. The following table (specie excluded) shows the distribution of trade in 1885 and 1900. It will be seen that, in the imports, but not in the exports, the foreign trade has grown more proportionately than the British:— Imports from

Exports to

Country. 1900. £ £ £ £ United Kingdom. 3,759,387 11,052,428 5,451,255 6,854,175 81,664 238,047 578,810 2,477,692 British Possessions Foreign Countries. 434,707 3,631,691 278,525 554,460 ™»>{esrSng} 4,772,904 17,161,811 5,811,444! 7,646,682 Of the imports in 1900, £1,772,580 were from the United States, and £551,101 from Germany. Shipping and Navigation—Harbours.—Since 1860 work has been constantly going on at the Cape Town breakwater and docks. When the works, at present being proceeded with, are completed, there will be an area of about 94 acres so entirely enclosed as to be safe from every wind. Up to 1901 about £3,000,000 had been spent. At Port Elizabeth, on the west shore of Algoa Bay, only jetties have as yet been provided, at which cargoes are landed by lighters from vessels lying at anchor in the roadstead, though by Foreign Trade. 1900. No. Tonnage. No. Tonnage. No. Tonnage. Entrances Clearances

715 696

818,666 792,999

851 1,974,576 1555 4,803,456 810 1,905,500 1506 4,701,536

Coasting Trade. 1885.

1900.

No. Tonnage. No. Tonnage. No. Tonnage. Entrances Clearances

4,608,893 1293 1,896,392 1167 3,141,932 1266 1300 1,904,799 1170 3,153,895 1266 4,558,851

far the largest amount of landing of goods is done here. At East London, at the mouth of the Buffalo river, works have been m