The Late Cecil Rhodes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 15, 10 April 1902, Page 1

The Late Cecil Rhodes.

The death of the Right Hon. Cecil Rhodes, recorded in recent cables, has removed a well-known figure and one which, for good or ill, has bulked very largely in the history of British South Africa. The main facts in his career are sufficiently well known and need only be very briefly referred to here. Mr. Rhodes, who was the son of an English clergyman, originally went to South Africa for the benefit of his health, and his business capacity, perseverance, and audacity soon brought him to the front. His first great success was the amalgamation of all the Kimberley diamond interests into the now famous De Beers Consolidated Mines, and the system he adopted for the distribution of his Company's treasures — a system of colossal bargains — made him complete master of the market and enabled him to amass a huge fortune. Having decided to enter politics he easily secured a seat in the Cape Parliament, and on the fafl of the Sprigg Ministry in 1890, he became Prime Minister of^ape Colony. During his regime he succeeded, partly by bripery, partly by conquest, and partly by unscrupulous diplomacy, in securing for Britain the control and possession of Bechuanaland, Matabeleland, and Mashonaland, and thus realised his great dream of pushing the dominions of Great Britain to the banks of the Zambesi. He also projected a great and deservedly famous scheme for the connection of Capetown and Cairo by a railway and telegraph, and there are indications that the day is not very distant when this gigantic project will be actually carried out.

During the week the papers have been pouring out panegyrics on Mr. Rhodes and those which have come under our notice have certainly been sufficiently fulsome. Their general tenor is that a great Empire-builder has gone, that he cannot be replaced, that his death is, as Lord Milner put it, 'an irreparable loss.' All of which goes to show how almost impossible it is, at a time so closely following on his death, and at such a critical stage in the history of South Afiica, to take a calm and dispassionate view of his worth and work. Undoubtedly he was a man of large ideas and a strong will and he was certainly anxious to secure a great future for the British race in South Africa. It is equally certain that he was not infallible and that it was not from purely philanthropic motives that he planned his great expansion schemes. His patriotism always had a disagreeably commercial smack about it. He was a man of large ideas, large projects, and— large notions of dividends and profits. He was Premier of Cape Colony it is true but he was also head of the Chartered Company of South Africa, and in all his great proposals there was always room for doubt as to how far he was fighting for England, and how far he was fighting for his own hand. Altogether, although he may, as his admirers dccl ire, have done yeoman's service for England, he was, as the London Spectator sanely remarks, a Chve who needed a great deal of watching.