Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/647

 MONEY, WEIGHTS, AND MEASURES. 6 II

Government as the original owner of the soil. Land on rent, from the farmer to a private owner, is almost unknown. The transfer of and from one individual to another is effected with the utmost facility by the laws of the colony, with the consequence that property seldom remains long in one family.

The inhabitants of the colony are employed, besides sheep- farming, in the production of wine, in the breeding of horses and cattle, and in the growth of wheat, barley, oats, and maize. The export of all these articles of agricultural produce is gradually, though slowly, increasing.

Money, Weights, and Measures..

Money.

The coins in circulation within the colony are exclusively British, with the exception of the Sydney sovereign, and half sove- reign. All public accounts are kept in pounds,, shillings, and pence, but many private persons still adhere to the old mode- of reckoning in rixdollars, skillings, and stivers, the British equivalents of which

are

The Rixdo/lar,. of 8 Skillings .... Ls,.6^.

„ Guilder ......... Qd.

„ Sktiling, of 6 Stivers .. 2 x d.

Weights- and Measures.

The standard weights and measures are British, with' the excep- tion of the land measure. To some extent, however; the old weio-hts and measures are still made use of in the colony, in the following proportions : —

91-8 lbs. Dutch

1 Schepel

1 Muid, of 4 Schepels.

1 Load, of 10 Muids.

1 Anker, of 9^- gallons 129?£7/s. . '.

equal to 100 lbs. avoirdupois. „. "743 imperial bushel.

2-972 „ 29-72

„ 7'91& imperial gallons. , r 100 English yards.

The general surface measure is the old Amsterdam Morgen, reckoned equal to 2 English acres > but, more exactly, 211G54 acres. Some difference of opinion existed formerly as to the exact equi- valents of the shortest land measure, the foot, but it was ascertained in 1858, and officially settled, that 1,000 Cape feet were equal to 1,033 British Imperial feet.