Page:South Africa (1878 Volume 2).djvu/283

 been so prosperous, the number educated being much less than at the other. The expense is about the same and the advantages given quite as great. At both establishments day scholars are taken as well as boarders. The result is that Bloemfontein in respect to climate and education offers peculiar advantages to its residents. It is not necessary to send a child away either for English air or for English teaching.

In church matters Bloemfontein has a footing which is peculiarly its own. The Dutch Reformed Church is the Church of the people. There are 18,—only 18,—congregations in the State, of which 16 receive Government support. The worshippers of the Free State must, it is feared, be called upon to travel long distances to their churches. As a rule those living in remote places, have themselves taken by their ox-wagons into the nearest town once in three months for the Nichtmaal,—that is for the celebration of the Lord's Supper; and on these occasions the journey there and back, together with a little holyday-making in the town, takes a week or ten days. In this there is nothing singular, as it is the custom of the Dutch in South Africa,—but the Anglican Church in Bloemfontein is peculiar. There is a Bishop of Bloemfontein, an English Bishop, consecrated I think with the assistance of an English Archbishop, appointed at any rate with the general sanction and approval of the English Church. The arrangement has no doubt been beneficial and is regarded without disfavour by the ruling powers of the State in which it has been made;—but there is something singular in the position which we as a people have assumed.