Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884, Volume 1 (1919).djvu/29

1873] On the 8th of December 1873 the chief justice, Sir Sydney Smith Bell, retired from office, owing to ill health, when his place was taken by the attorney-general, the honourable John Henry de Villiers, later Sir Henry, later still Lord de Villiers, who in after years proved himself one of the most eminent judges in the British empire. His place as attorney-general in the ministry of Mr. Molteno was taken by Mr. Simeon Jacobs, who held it until August 1877, when ill health obliged him to retire, and Advocate Stockenstrom succeeded.

No other change in the ministry occurred until the 20th of July 1875, when the auditor-general, Mr. Eldred Mowbray Cole, retired on pension, and the honourable Charles Abercrombie Smith (later Sir Charles), commissioner of crown lands and public works, was appointed to succeed him. Mr. Smith made an excellent auditor, but there was much dissatisfaction expressed on his appointment, as it was not considered proper that a minister should be transferred to an important position in the civil service. The matter came before parliament in the next session, and in May 1876 the house of assembly by a large majority affirmed the inexpediency of a ministry appointing one of its members to a permanent office. No such transfer of employment, consequently, has since been made. To succeed Mr. Smith as commissioner of crown lands and public works, Mr. (later the right honourable) John Xavier Merriman was appointed.

An experiment that had been made by the Dutch East India Company without success was now repeated and carried on for several years in different parts of the Cape Colony with the same result. This was the production of silk, and it was owing to the energy of Dr. Hiddingh, a gentleman of means, that it was made. He was desirous of turning the time and muscles of the numerous idle coloured women and children of Stellenbosch to some account, and bethought him of the silkworm as a useful agent for that purpose. He procured eggs, and set about