THE BOER FARMER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 103, 21 October 1911, Page 9

THE BOER FARMER.

A SLOWLY CHANGING TYPE. SUME STOIUES. A few- weeks ago Captain Spellerini, the famous aeronaut, made the. iirst balloon ascent ever witnessed in the Transvaal, rising to a height of 7000 ft above .J-o'liannrcsburg. Am he was descending near the Free State border two Boer farmers noticed the strange apparition in thi' sky. They were much perturbed. They seized their Mausers and deliberated whether it would not be advisable to shoot the mysterious aerial intruder, which seemed to them to be unknown ■monster of the air. Happily they hesitated long enough to see that there were human beings in the curious globe. But the incident should serve to remind those, who expect exceedingly rapid development in rural South Africa that many of the quaint ideas of the simple Voortrekke.rs still cling to the veldt. The old type of Boer farmer is disappearing before the advance of education. But lie is going slowly. Tf you read the Dutch papers you will still find very earnest and very indignant correspondents protesting that the destruction of locusts is a blasphemous attempt to oppose the will of the Almighty, who had sent the scourge as a punishment for the sinfulness of the people. You will still find farmers declaring that the natural diseases of stock should not be interfered with, and suggesting that all the Government veterinary surgeons should be turned out of the country.

The traders and prospectors in ' the Transvaal tell many a delightful story of the simplicity of these old Voortrek-ke-rs, whose hospitality unfortunately was often but ill repaid.

One of the best known of these stories relates how a well-known mining magnate purchased a rich gold-bearing farm. It was at the time that the Book first began to realise that some of the intruding strangers into their country were unaccountably willing to pay large sums for land. Prices rose, not because the farmer had the faintest idea of the value of the sums they demanded, but simply because the large amounts sounded well in their oars. So when this magnate wished to buy a particular farm he was met with a demand for one hundred thousand pounds in gold. The owner would not hear of anything less. He did not know what one hundred thousand pounds meant, but the sound, of the globular sum pleased him. At last tho mining man consented. The transfer deeds were drawn up and were to be signed on a given night.

When the evening came the magnate drove up to the farm with a bag of gold. The financial man placed along one side of the table one thousand sovereigns and at right angles to that one hundred sovereigns. "There." he said, "you have one hundred thousand pounds. The farmer put the money in a bag, happy in the thought that he had sold his farm for a record price. It is not difficult to believe such a story when one remembers that the chosen legislators of these old Boers advanced publicly in the ilaadzaal th<»e quaint ideas reprinted in an appendix to Sir Percy Fitzpatriek's book, "The Transvaal from Within."

One of these old Parliamentarians denounced a proposal to erect pillar boxes in Pretoria as extravagant and effeminate.

"He could not sec," he said, "why people always' wanted to be writing letters. He wrote none himself. In the days of his youth he had written a letter and had not been afraid to travel 50 milts and more on horseback and by waggon to post it, and now people complained if they had to go a mile." These old fanners were horrified to hear that godless people in Johannesburg had insulted the Almighty by firing bombs at the sky in time of drought to endeavor to bring rain. The Rand railway was only built through the subterfuge of calling it a "tram." Fierce discussions arose on a proposal to destroy locusts, and some members were so offended at the ties affected by their more up-to-date colleagues that they proposed that the size and shape of the neckties worn by legislators should b<? defined by law.

At one time in Johannesburg oranges were at famine prices, and an Oriental brader went out with a cart to a farm on which there were many'trees. He offered live shillings a hundred for the fruit, and in order to keep count arranged that for every hundred oranges placed on the cart ho should put a "tickey" (a three-penny piece) in the farmer's hat. When the hat had become about half full of "tickeys" the trader purposely looked away, for a. few moments. The Boer did just what the trader expected. He hurriedly plunged a hand into the hat and thrust a handful of "tickeys" into his pocket. And when the. trader paid for the oranges according to the number of "tickeys' in the hat the Hoer did not realise that he had robbed himself of 4s !M for every "ticker" he put info his pocket. But the Boer was never a match for (he Bast End dealer. A farmer who had had some transactions with a trader took the precaution of arming himself with a ready-reckoner. The trader worked out the account by a form of mental arithmetic peculiarly his own.

"But," objected the Boer, puzzled at the result, "that is wrong. I have done the sum with a ready-reckoner, and it is different."

The trader paused for a moment. "Let me see it," he said, taking the book. "Ah!" he exclaimed, "I thought so. This ready-reckoner is last year's. It is out of date!"

And the Boer accepted the explanation without a suspicion of doubt. Some of the old Dutch farmers used to be given to petty pilfering in stores when ma king purchases. But the traders saw nothing. They kept a sharp eye on the things taken and put them down in the bill. A storekeeper told me once that an-old Boer came in one day and ordered a bag of coffee among other things. While looking round the store he noticed several heavy lead pipes, and when he thought the trader was not looking he slipped them into the bag of coffee. The .storekeeper made no remark. When the trading was over be simply placed the bag on the scales 'and weighed it, and charged the Boer for it at the full price of coffee per pound. And the coffee in those days were many times dearer than lead. And these incidents, with their parallel to-day, show that a change is working but slowly in South Africa."