LOUIS BOTHA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10060, 3 June 1910, Page 4

LOUIS BOTHA.

The first Prime Minister of the South African Union is still on the sunny side of fifty. Mr Louis Botha was horn in Natal in 1862, but at a tender age his parents took him to the Free State. His father was a sheep farmer, and from an early age it was his duty to trek annually with sheep into Zulnland for the winter. As a boy he saw a good deal of fighting in the conflicts between his people and the Zulus. At the age of twentyfour he married a direct descendant of jbe famous Irish patriot, Robert Emmet. He took up land on J;he bare veldt near Vryheid, and [before long was recognised aa one of the foremost farmers in the district.. School and church matters interested him greatly, and he took an active part in politics, being one of those who supported Joubert against Kruger for the Presidency. When the Jameson Raid roused the Boers, ha organised his commando, but took no part in the fighting. His work against us in the great war, is a matter of recent history. Mr Donald Macflonald describes him as the ablest strategist on th

Boer side; the only man, besides De~ larey, who could handle large bodies of men skilfully. Leading men consider he may be trusted to prove himself as Prime Minister of the Union a man of "moderate methods, sober judgments, prudence, and pertinacity."