Up To Date Business Part 10

"South Africa" is practically "British South Africa." The German portion is either largely barren or else inaccessible. The Portuguese portion is only a narrow strip along the east coast, much of which is too unhealthy for habitation other than by natives. The two Boer republics are rapidly filling up with British people, are being developed by British capital, and must in time become confederated with the states that environ them. One of them, too, is already under British suzerainty. British South Africa, however, is as yet only a name. It has no real existence except in hope. The aspiration of statesmen in southern Africa is that all the territories of southern Africa under British control shall form one confederation, and that in this confederation the Orange Free State and the South African Republic shall join. The territories entering into this confederation would therefore be as follows: The self-governing colonies of Cape Colony and Natal, the crown colony of Basutoland, the protectorates of Bechua.n.a.land and Zululand, the territory now administered by the British South Africa Company, popularly known as "Rhodesia," and the British Central Africa protectorate, with in addition the two Boer republics previously mentioned. The length of this proposed South African dominion would be 1800 miles. Its width would be from 600 to 800 miles. And, as said above, its area would be about 1,000,000 square miles. Mr. Stanley predicts that in a hundred years the "Dominion of South Africa" will have a white population of 8,000,000, and a coloured population of 16,000,000.

SOUTH AFRICA'S AGRICULTURAL POSSIBILITIES

Of South Africa as above defined Cape Colony and Natal are at present the most important portions. Their climate is in some respects the finest in the world. Their soil is of remarkable richness. The number of distinct species of indigenous plants found upon it is greater than for any other equal area on the globe. The same remark was once true of the animals found in South Africa, which again is testimony to the great fertility of the soil. But a serious drawback is the insufficiency and uncertainty of the rain supply. Irrigation, however, is practised, and wherever irrigation is possible the land may be made to blossom like the rose. Agriculture, however, is only indifferently pursued. The VINE in Cape Colony produces more abundantly, very much more abundantly than anywhere else in the world, and yet neither grape-raising nor wine-making can be said to be successful. PASTURING is the princ.i.p.al occupation of the people in rural districts. There are 17,000,000 sheep in Cape Colony, and 6,000,000 goats. Natal, which is warmer, has 500,000 sheep. Another princ.i.p.al occupation is OSTRICH-FARMING. The ostrich, once wild in South Africa, is now bred domestically. Cape Colony has 230,000 ostriches. Ostrich feathers fetch from $150 to $300 a pound. The RAISING OF CATTLE is another princ.i.p.al occupation, and draught cattle are much used for transport purposes. Cape Colony has 2,000,000 cattle; Natal, 1,000,000. The princ.i.p.al food crops are wheat and maize, but little is raised for export. In Natal, sugar is an important product, and also tea. Many magnificent timber woods are found, but the trees are stunted and little timber is exported. Much has been wasted by fires. The great agricultural possibilities of South Africa are WOOL, MOHAIR (the hair of the Angora goat), fruit, wine, and skins. The breadstuffs of South Africa will probably all be needed for home consumption.

SOUTH AFRICA'S GREAT MINERAL WEALTH

All the world over South Africa is famous for its DIAMOND-MINES and its GOLD-MINES. The diamonds are found princ.i.p.ally in Griqualand, north of the Orange River, now a part of Cape Colony, but they are also found in the Orange Free State. The diamond areas are very circ.u.mscribed, the diamond-bearing "pipes" being supposed to be craters of extinct volcanoes. The princ.i.p.al "pipes" are at KIMBERLEY (28,718), in Griqualand. These const.i.tute the richest diamond-fields in the world. It is estimated that over $350,000,000 worth of diamonds have been taken out of Kimberley since their first discovery there in 1867. The largest South African diamond yet found was worth $300,000, but many other large ones have been found. The annual diamond export now is about $20,000,000. For 1896 the export was $23,200,000; for 1897 a little less. The production and export are strictly limited, so that prices may not depreciate. Next in interest to the diamond-fields are the gold-mines. These so far have been found princ.i.p.ally in the South African Republic, or "Transvaal" as it is popularly called, in the "rand," or "reef," near the far-famed town of JOHANNESBURG (102,078). Since gold was first discovered in the rand (1871) $250,000,000 worth has been taken out. The annual output now is nearly $50,000,000, but it is estimated that before the rand can be exhausted $2,250,000,000 worth of gold must be taken out--an amount much greater than the total public debt of the United States, national, state, and munic.i.p.al. But north of the Transvaal, in Rhodesia, especially in Mashonaland, is a territory popularly called the "Land of Ophir,"

where mining operations are only just begun, but where gold is supposed to be even more richly stored than in the Transvaal. Of this district the newly built town of SALISBURY is the centre. Other mineral products of South Africa are coal in Natal, mined at NEWCASTLE, and copper in the northwest of Cape Colony, s.h.i.+pped at PORT NOLLOTH.

SOUTH AFRICA'S FOREIGN TRADE

The import trade of South Africa so far consists of almost everything needed by the inhabitants except meat, flour, vegetables, and fruit, for there are as yet almost no manufactures. The princ.i.p.al exports are: (1) gold, $60,000,000 per annum, including that from the Transvaal; (2) diamonds, $22,500,000; (3) wool, $12,500,000; (4) mohair, the hair of the Angora goat, $3,000,000; (5) ostrich feathers, over $2,500,000; (6) hides and skins, $2,200,000; and (7) copper ore, $1,250,000. The export of wine and fruit, for the production of which the country is so well suited, and also of grain, is inconsiderable.

s.h.i.+PPING PORTS AND RAILWAYS OF SOUTH AFRICA

British South Africa, like all of Africa, is wanting in seaports. In fact, it has but few. However, it has one, WALFISH BAY, which territorially does not belong to it, inasmuch as it is in the middle of the coast of German Southwest Africa--the only port in that coast.

The princ.i.p.al port in British South Africa is CAPE TOWN (83,718), which is also the capital and princ.i.p.al place. The next princ.i.p.al ports are, for Cape Colony, PORT ELIZABETH (23,266) and EAST LONDON, and for Natal, DURBAN. LORENZO MARQUEZ, on Delagoa Bay, and BEIRA, at the mouth of the Pungwe, both in Portuguese East Africa, are natural ports for northern British South Africa, and are used as such, railways being constructed from them into the interior.

Railroad-making, indeed, is now the all-important matter in South Africa. Lines are already built from Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London, Durban, and Lorenzo Marquez to the diamond-fields of Kimberley and the gold-mines of Johannesburg. These also give to the pastoral and agricultural parts of the interior facilities of access to the sea. But the line from Cape Town to Kimberley is being rapidly extended northward to Salisbury, the central point of the gold-fields of Rhodesia, and already has reached BULAWAYO, 1600 miles from Cape Town. The line from Beira is also to end at Salisbury. Already a telegraph line extending from Salisbury northward has reached the west sh.o.r.e of Lake Nya.s.sa, and by the close of this year (1898) it will reach the south end of Lake Tanganyika. It is proposed that the railroad from Bulawayo shall follow this same route, and it is the dream (or shall we say the hope?) of the empire-builders of South Africa that this railway shall before many years be so far advanced northward that it will meet the railway that is now being built from Cairo southward through the continent along the Nile. Mr. Stanley predicts that the "Cape to Cairo" railway will be an accomplished fact before 1925. The white population of South Africa, even including the Boer republics, is still less than 750,000.

X. THE TRADE FEATURES OF AUSTRALIA

AUSTRALIA AND AUSTRALASIA

The term AUSTRALASIA, as now generally used, comprises Australia (including Tasmania) and New Zealand, and a number of small neighbouring islands. So used it practically denotes a British possession; for such islands as are comprised by the term and yet do not belong to Great Britain are comparatively unimportant. But when we speak of Australasia, we are generally thinking of AUSTRALIA, for Australia is so large and important that it seems to overshadow the other parts of Australasia. But in respect to politics or commerce Australia is not one country; it is divided into several self-governing colonies. These are, in order of importance, Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland, and West Australia. But a movement is now being made to unite all these colonies, and Tasmania as well, into one "Australian Confederation," just as the several provinces of Canada, which were once independent colonies, have been united into one "Dominion of Canada." This confederation scheme, however, has not yet been accomplished.[3] New Zealand, because of its distance (1200 miles) from Australia, has so far shown no desire to enter into this confederation.

FOOTNOTE:

[3] Since the above was written the scheme has been developed a very considerable way toward completion. The name of the confederation is to be "The Commonwealth of Australia."

THE AREA AND CLIMATE OF AUSTRALIA

Australia is a continent not only in name but in fact. Its area, including Tasmania, is almost 3,000,000 square miles, which is about the area of the United States exclusive of Alaska, and only about one fourth less than the area of the continent of Europe. Fully two fifths of this area lie within the torrid zone, and of the rest, even in Victoria, the part farthest from the equator, the climate is so warm that it corresponds with that of Spain, southern France, and Italy.

But over so vast a territory great differences of climate must occur, and consequently of products also. A general description of the climate and products of Australia is therefore impossible. Yet there are several characteristics which appertain to the whole continent.

The chief of these are (1) the great DRYNESS of the ATMOSPHERE--not merely its lack of rain, but its absolute freedom from moisture; (2) the remarkable INEQUALITY, or want of regularity, in the RAINFALL.

Occasionally the rainfall is excessive, but a more frequent and serious cause of trouble is excessive drought. The continent on every side has a low coast region, where the rainfall is heavier and the temperature generally hotter than in the corresponding table-land interior to it. But the vast table-land of the interior has comparatively little rain, and indeed in some parts of it, especially in the centre and west, the rainfall is so slight that the country is practically a desert.

But even when all the desert areas of Australia are excluded from calculation there still remains in the interior plateau, toward the east and south, an immense area of country of great fertility and productiveness. The Murray River alone drains an area of 500,000 square miles, one sixth of the whole continent, a great part of which is of exceeding richness. In these fertile parts irrigation by artesian wells has been tried, and always with great success. And it is thought that almost the whole continent can be regained for agriculture, or at least for sheep-pasturing, by similar means; for even in the arid and so-called desert parts of the interior, there is very little soil that is not really fertile, for all of it is covered with thick brushwood. Moisture alone is needed to make it bear crops abundantly. And this dryness of the atmosphere which prevails throughout the whole continent is not without its compensations. It renders the climate exceedingly healthful.

AUSTRALIA A CONTINENT OF PECULIARITIES

Australia has MANY PECULIARITIES. It has only one large river, and even that in summer becomes a series of isolated pools. It has no high mountain range, its princ.i.p.al mountains being only a series of ramparts marking off the lower coast lands from the interior plateau.

Again, its native quadrupeds are entirely different from those of other continents, being almost all, whether little or big, "marsupials," or "pouch-bearers," like the kangaroo. Its birds are mostly songless. Its flowers, for the most part, have no scent. Its trees are leaved vertically and cast no shade. Its indigenous inhabitants have made no progress toward civilisation. When Europeans first came to the country they found no native animal that could be put to any use, nor any native fruit, vegetable, or grain that could be utilised for food. Still, all European domestic animals thrive abundantly in the country, and so do all European fruits, gra.s.ses, grains, and vegetables. The English rabbits, indeed, have become a terrible pest. As many as 25,000,000 of them have been killed in a year without any apparent diminution in their numbers. Over $1,000,000 a year has at times been spent to exterminate them, all to no effect.

VICTORIA

Victoria, the smallest of the Australian colonies, had until recently the largest population (June, 1897, 1,177,304) and also the largest trade. In both respects, however, it is at present surpa.s.sed by New South Wales. Victoria has owed its past pre-eminence to its GOLD PRODUCTION. Gold was discovered in the colony in 1851, and for years the output of the precious mineral was not less than $50,000,000 per annum. The present output of gold in Victoria, however, is only $10,000,000 per annum. Richer, however, than the gold-mines of Victoria is the fertility of its soil. A large part of the soil is exceedingly fertile--with irrigation one of the finest fruit-bearing soils in the world. The arboreal vegetation of the country is magnificent. Trees thirty feet in diameter rise to the height of 200 feet without a single lateral branch, and then 100 feet to 200 feet higher still. Pear-trees grow to the height of eighty feet, with trunks three feet in diameter. But as yet wool-growing, wheat-raising, and vine-growing are the princ.i.p.al agricultural occupations of the people. The princ.i.p.al agricultural export is WOOL--$25,000,000 worth per annum. But a considerable portion of this comes from New South Wales. The SHEEP kept number 15,000,000, the cattle 2,000,000. But the colony still remains princ.i.p.ally a mining community. Five ninths of the population live in towns. Yet there are few towns, and two fifths of the whole population live in Melbourne--a city almost exactly as large as Boston.

MELBOURNE

MELBOURNE (451,110; with suburbs, 500,000), the capital city of Victoria and the chief city in Australia, is also one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Its parliament buildings, town hall, post-office, treasury, mint, law courts, public libraries, picture galleries, theatres, churches, and clubs are all edifices of architectural magnificence and beauty, while its boulevards, parks and gardens are equally splendid. At one time money flowed freely and great commercial recklessness prevailed. But though Melbourne has sustained several severe depressions its present condition is prosperous and its future is a.s.sured. It is, however, a pleasure-loving city, and it is as much on this account as on account of its great beauty that it is called "the Paris of the southern hemisphere." Nowhere else in the world, perhaps, are indoor amus.e.m.e.nts--the theatre, concerts, etc.--or outdoor amus.e.m.e.nts--cricket, football, horse-racing, etc.--more devotedly patronised than in Melbourne. Other important places in Victoria are BALLARAT (40,000) and SANDHURST (37,000), both mining towns, and GEELONG (25,000) locally noted for its manufacture of "tweeds."

NEW SOUTH WALES

[Ill.u.s.tration: Australia. Shaded portions show where the rainfall is sufficiently abundant.]

New South Wales (population 1,311,440) is the oldest colony of Australia and the parent of both Victoria and Queensland. Of all the colonies, it has, perhaps, the greatest range of productions. On the low coast lands its soil is of extraordinary fertility, and even in the dry interior, when irrigation is employed, the fertility is still extraordinary. As yet, however, but one acre out of every two hundred is under cultivation, the chief agricultural occupation being pasturing. Over 50,000,000 SHEEP are kept, princ.i.p.ally the MERINO.

Gra.s.s grows everywhere, and even the summits of the mountains are covered. Drought, however, is a terrible drawback, and sometimes tremendous losses occur. In 1877 over 8,000,000 sheep perished, and in 1884 over 12,000,000. The total WOOL PRODUCTION is very large, averaging $50,000,000 a year. The export of hides, skins, leather, and chilled meat, princ.i.p.ally mutton, amounts to $10,000,000 annually.

Chilled mutton and beef are sent direct to London, though the pa.s.sage takes five or six weeks by steamer and twelve to sixteen weeks by sailing-vessel. Scarcely less important than its agricultural products are the mineral products of New South Wales. Its COAL-MINES are the finest on the continent, and $4,500,000 worth of coal is exported annually, besides what is consumed locally. Its gold production, though not very large, is general throughout the whole colony. Its SILVER-MINES in SILVERTON and BROKEN HILL are among the most famous in the world, and its tin-bearing lands comprise over 5,500,000 acres.

The foregoing comprise the staple products--the production of industries already well established. But fruit-growing, including all fruits, from apples, pears, and peaches, to olives and oranges, is a rapidly developing industry, no country in the world being better suited to it. Wine-making, too, is quickly coming forward, the New South Wales wines equalling in flavour those of France and Spain.

Wheat-growing, cotton-growing, and even rice-growing are also in their several districts rapidly extending and prosperous pursuits. The development of New South Wales has only just begun. SYDNEY (including suburbs 410,000) is the capital and by far the largest city. Sydney, like Melbourne, is a beautiful city, but its beauty is natural rather than artificial, and it is well ent.i.tled to its name, "Queen of the South." It is situated on Port Jackson, one of the finest and most beautiful harbours on the globe. Sydney is the headquarters of all the various lines of steams.h.i.+ps--British, American, French, Italian, etc.--that trade with Australia, and is indeed one of the great seaports of the world.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

South Australia (358,224 in 1897) occupies the whole central part of the continent from north to south. But as only a very small portion of this vast area is settled--the southeast corner--it may be described as in characteristics resembling Victoria. Its princ.i.p.al industry is WHEAT-GROWING. South Australia is indeed the great granary of the continent, and is destined to be one of the great granaries of the world. Like the other divisions of Australia, South Australia, when once drought has been overcome by irrigation, is destined to become a great fruit country, its warm, moistureless climate being peculiarly well suited to the ripening of fruits of exquisite flavours. Already its olives are p.r.o.nounced the finest in the world.

The princ.i.p.al city and chief port is ADELAIDE (with suburbs 144,352).

Like other Australian ports, Adelaide possesses excellent steamboat s.h.i.+pping facilities. In the north, on the Timor Sea, is PORT DARWIN, likely to be an important trade centre.

QUEENSLAND

The most interesting of all the Australian colonies is Queensland (population 472,179), for it is a tropical country with a climate so salubrious that white people can live in it and be comfortable and healthy. The heat, instead of being enervating, is stimulating and bracing. A great portion of its soil is of unsurpa.s.sed fertility. The only drawback is the unequal distribution throughout the year of the rainfall. But wherever irrigation wells are sunk the climate becomes highly suitable for SHEEP-RAISING, and also for the growing of many kinds of FRUIT. There are already 15,000,000 sheep and 5,000,000 cattle in the colony, and wool is exported to the amount of $15,000,000 annually. Other agricultural exports are frozen beef and mutton, and hides and skins. WOOL is the chief export. The second export in importance is GOLD, which reaches $10,000,000 per annum. Tin is also exported, and coal, though little worked, is abundant.

Developing exports are sugar ($2,500,000 per annum), arrowroot, cotton, tobacco, rice, and coffee. A difficulty, however, in the development of these products is the labour question. White men cannot work in the plantations. Chinese prefer to work in the mines. The natives won't work anywhere. No negroes are obtainable. As a consequence Polynesians have to be imported. BRISBANE (100,913) is the capital and chief city and port.

WEST AUSTRALIA

West Australia (population 162,394), the largest of all the Australian colonies, has only been recently settled, and its const.i.tution as a self-governing colony dates only from 1890. A large part of its area has never been explored, and a large part is known to be scrub desert.

But there is scarcely any part of it, even of its "scrub" areas, but that will support sheep when once artesian wells have been sunk, and large portions of the colony, especially along the coasts, are as fertile as need be. And the climate, though very dry, is exceedingly healthful. PERTH (43,000) is the capital. ALBANY is the princ.i.p.al port.

THE IMMENSE RESOURCES OF AUSTRALIA. ITS PROBABLE FUTURE

Australia is undoubtedly on the eve of a period of great development.

Its resources are known to be immense. Its climate has been found most favourable to human health, and the objectionable feature of the climate, the smallness and irregularity of the rainfall, has been studied and become understood and found remediable. Once the confederation that is now in process of formation takes place, there is no doubt that Australia will enter upon a new and prosperous commercial era. Owing to the fact that its chief opportunities for wealth lie in the development of its natural resources, it is probable that for some time to come almost all the manufactured goods Australia needs will have to be imported. Already its importation amounts to $275,000,000, of which, of course, Great Britain supplies the princ.i.p.al share. This importation is princ.i.p.ally clothing and materials for clothing, but it also comprises hardware and machinery, and in fact everything required by a highly civilised and money-spending people, except breadstuffs and provisions. The magnitude of this importation may be comprehended from the fact that it is more than one third of the total exportation of the United States for any year save one up to 1896, including our immense export of breadstuffs, provisions, and cotton. And besides the articles of export already mentioned--WOOL, MEATS, HIDES, SKINS, MINERALS, FRUITS, etc.--there is one other Australian resource that is capable of almost indefinite development. This is its TIMBER. The eucalyptus or gum-tree prevails almost universally in Australia, and some of its commonest varieties, being both strong and indestructible by insects, are of almost unequalled value for s.h.i.+p-building, railway ties, and dock and harbour construction. That the Australians are fully alive to the importance of developing their foreign trade is seen in the efforts they have made to provide facilities for bringing their products to ocean ports. There are 11,980 miles of railway, almost every mile of which has been built by the governments. This is one mile of railway for every 300 inhabitants, as against one mile for every 400 inhabitants in the United States. These railways run wholly to and from the seaboard. There are no manufacturing towns to be catered to.

Australian trade consists wholly in exchanging home-raised natural products for imported manufactures. Equally remarkable with the railroad enterprise of the Australians is their enterprise in telegraphic construction and the establishment of cable communications. For example, a telegraph line 2000 miles long, running across the continent from Adelaide to Port Darwin, has been built by the province of South Australia so as to connect with a cable from Port Darwin to Java, Singapore, etc., and thus with Europe and America. For at least 1500 miles this telegraph line runs through one of the most desolate and inaccessible regions in the world.

XI. THE TRADE FEATURES OF SOUTH AMERICA

SOUTH AMERICA, A FERTILE CONTINENT WITH DRAWBACKS

South America is an immense but very fertile continent, whose natural resources are as yet scarcely begun to be utilised. Though not so large as North America, it has a far greater area of productive soil--and, indeed, much of its soil is quite unsurpa.s.sed in fertility.

It suffers, however, from two great drawbacks. 1. A great portion of its area (four fifths) lies within the torrid zone. In the low coast regions of this torrid area, and also in the low forest regions watered by the great flat rivers of the interior, the climate is for the most part unendurable to white men. 2. South America has been unfortunate in its settlement and colonisation. Until in recent years colonisation as understood in Anglo-Saxon communities has scarcely been attempted in South America at all. All the earlier immigrations from the Old World were prompted by the thought of getting gold and silver and precious stones--if need were by the spoliation and enslavery of the natives. Only a small proportion of the population--not more than a quarter of the whole--consists of whites, and these are princ.i.p.ally from Spain and Portugal. These conquerors of the continent have not in the main succeeded in establis.h.i.+ng either stable forms of government or high types of civilisation. Furthermore, the mixed races--the MESTIZOS or METIS, as they are called, the descendants of the earlier Europeans and the natives--instead of advancing in civilisation have for some time past been retrograding.

Then, again, there is a large negro element, the descendants of Africans once imported as slaves, to still further complicate the race question; and there is a considerable element partly negro and partly Indian. In only one state, Argentina, can affairs be said to be really prosperous, and even in Argentina the civilisation developed by its prosperity is gross and material rather than refined and intellectual.

The next most prosperous and important states are Brazil and Chile.

Perhaps Uruguay, though the smallest of all the states, should be placed after Argentina. The remaining independent states of the continent--Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Paraguay--are all states of the prevailing South American type. Their governments are more or less unstable. They are terribly burdened with debt, and their credit is such that they must pay high rates of interest. The civilisation once introduced among their native races by the zeal of Spanish missionaries is deteriorating if not vanis.h.i.+ng.

And even among their leading cla.s.ses there is much to be desired in the observance of the ordinary principles of right and wrong.

EUROPEAN IMMIGRATION IN SOUTH AMERICA