THE TWO CAPITALS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3149, 29 March 1909, Page 4

THE TWO CAPITALS.

The compromise over the capital ot United South Africa may be said to add another terror to geography in schools. The schoolboy will have to carry Capetown and Pretoria in his head as the joint capitals of the Union, and we fancy Capetown will be remembered best. The special correspondent of the London "Times" has written a very interesting article on the claims of the two centres to be chosen as the capital. Capetown is pre-eminent among South African towns for beauty of setting and historical traditions. Seen from Table Bay it is in no way inferior to some of the fairest coast cities of Europe. With the ocean at its doors, fine anchorage for a navy in Table Bay, and in closer touch than any of its rivals with the heart of the Empire, it'seems the destined capital of a unit of an Empire built on maritime supremacy. In only two points does it suffer Dy comparison with Pretoria. It lies in a corner of Africa, two days' journey from the busiest centre of industrial activity, and it conveys "none of that great feeling of vast and luminous space so characteristic of the South African veldt." Pretoria has many claims to being made the capital. It is approached through a green valley, which comes as a blessed relief to the weary traveller, and it lies in a "hollow bower of trees surrounded with a girdle of kopjes." It is well supplied with water, has fine public buildings, and above all is a typical South African town, with wide squares and streets. Capetown's claims appeared to the correspondent to be the weightier, but the objections to the city's position couH not be uvercome, hence the compromise.