The sense of insecurity which obtains during the Sessions of the Raad is due scarcely less to the threats which are not fulfilled and attempts which do not succeed, than to what is actually compassed.  A direct tax on gold has more than once been threatened; concessions for cyanide, jam, bread, biscuits, and woollen fabrics were all attempted.  The revival of an obsolete provision by which the Government can claim a royalty on the gold from ‘mynpachts,’ or mining leases, has been promised, and it is almost as much expected as it is dreaded.

With a monotony which is wearying, but which does not diminish the unfortunate Uitlanders’ interest in the subject, the burden of every measure falls on the alien.  One more instance will suffice.  It illustrates the Hollander-Boer genius for fulfilling the letter and breaking the spirit of a covenant.  It was notified that Government were about to introduce a war tax, and that this tax was to be one of L20 per farm, to be levied in event of war if in the opinion of the Government it should be necessary.  Much surprise was felt that anything so unfavourable to the Boers as a tax on farms should be proposed.  When the measure came on for discussion it was found to contain provisions exempting the owner who personally resided on his farm, and especially and definitely taxing those farms which are owned by companies, associations, corporations, or partnerships.  The Boer, it is well known, takes no shares in companies, joins no associations, and has partnership with no one.  This law was shelved in 1895, but has since been passed.{18} It is of a piece with the rest.  Having sold his farm to the Uitlander, the Boer now proceeds to plunder him:  and ‘plunder’ is not too strong a word when it is realized that the tax falls, not on the really valuable farms of the high veld, which are nearly all owned by individuals, and are all occupied, but on the undeveloped outlying farms, the rentable value of which would not on the average suffice to pay the tax!  Indeed, one very large land-owner stated to the Government at the time, that if this law were passed and put in force, they might take all his rentals good and bad in lieu of the tax, as it would pay him better!

These were matters which more immediately concerned persons of certain means.  There is another matter, however, which very directly concerned every individual who had any intention of remaining in the country; that is, the matter of education.  A dead set had always been made by the Transvaal Government against any encouragement of liberal education which would involve the use or even recognition of the English language.  Indeed, some of the legislators have been known to express the opinion that education was not by any means desirable, as it taught the rising generation to look with contempt on the hardy Voortrekkers; and an interesting debate is on record, in which members pointedly opposed the granting of facilities for the education of their own women-kind, on the ground that