Orange Free State

Diamonds and Other Mining Industries.

In the Orange Free State the occurrences of diamonds appear to cluster about Boshof, Koffiefontein, Jagersfontein, Kroonstad and Theunissen.

The production in 1926 was valued at £976,204. The chief mines are at Jagersfontein, which, however, are closed down (1928). The alluvial diamonds, found in the gravels of the Vaal and some of its tributary streams, are of great purity. Coal approaching a million tons was produced in 1926. The chief producers are the Cornelia, colliery on the Vaal river, opposite to Vereeniging, and the Clydes dale, about 15 m. to the south. The coal is not of the best quality. Flour-milling is carried on at a number of local centres. Salt mak ing is also carried on. The source of supply is the heavily saline waters of certain in the western districts, evaporated from shallow basins, in most cases by solar heat.

Education,

other than higher education, is controlled by the provincial education department, subject to the sanction of the provincial administration. At the head of the department is the director. It has powers to establish and maintain primary, second ary and certain special schools, and to make grants in aid of private schools which comply with certain conditions and attain a satisfactory standard. There is a normal training college in Bloemfontein. The province is divided into 57 school districts, in each of which is an advisory board, consisting of elected mem bers, and having certain powers of supervision. In 1926 there were in the province 858 State and State-aided schools, attended by 44,866 scholars. There were also 201 schools for natives, two for other non-Europeans, and one training school. (R. U. S.) The country north of the Orange river was first visited by Euro peans towards the close of the 18th century. At that time it was somewhat thinly peopled, mainly by tribes of the Bechuana divi sion of the Bantus. Early in the 19th century Griquas established themselves north of the Orange. Between 1817 and 1831 the coun try was devastated by the chief Mosilikatze and his Zulus. Up to this time the few white men who had crossed the Orange had been chiefly hunters or missionaries. In 1834 Dutch farmers from Cape Colony seeking pasture for their flocks settled in the country. They were followed in 1836 by the first parties of the Great Trek. These emigrants left Cape Colony from various motives, but all were animated by the desire to escape from British sovereignty. (See SOUTH AFRICA, UNION OF; and CAPE COLONY.) The leader of the first large party of emigrants was A. H. Potgieter, who concluded an agreement with Makwana, the chief of the Bataung tribe of Bechuanas, ceding to the farmers the country between the Vet and Vaal rivers. The emigrants soon came into collision with Mosilikatze, who in Nov. 1837 was decisively defeated by the

Boers and thereupon fled northward. In the meantime another party of emigrants had settled at Thaba'nchu, where the Wesley ans had a mission station for the Barolong. The emigrants were treated with great kindness by Moroko, the chief of that tribe, and with the Barolong the Boers maintained uniformly friendly rela tions. In Dec. 1836 the emigrants beyond the Orange drew up in general assembly an elementary republican form of government. After the defeat of Mosilikatze the town of Winburg (so named by the Boers in commemoration of their victory) was founded, a volksraad elected, and Piet Retief, one of the ablest of the voor trekkers, chosen "governor and commandant-general." The emi grants already numbered some 500 men, besides women and chil dren and many coloured servants. Dissensions speedily arose among the emigrants, whose numbers were constantly added to, and Retief, Potgieter and other leaders crossed the Drakensberg and entered Natal. Those that remained were divided into several parties intensely jealous of one another.

Meanwhile a new power had arisen in the mountainous region of the Upper Orange and in the valley of the Caledon. There a Bechuana chief named Moshesh had welded together a number of scattered and broken clans and had formed of them the Basuto nation. The Basuto were a menace to the white farmers, and the farmers were equally a menace to the Basuto. At that time the British Government was not prepared to exercise effective control over the emigrant farmers, but on the advice of Dr. John Philip, the superintendent of the London Missionary society's stations in South Africa, a treaty was concluded in 1843 with Moshesh, plac ing him under British protection. A similar treaty was made with the Griqua chief, Adam Kok III. (See BASUTOLAND and GRIQUA LAND.) By these treaties, which recognized native sovereignty over large areas on which Boer farmers were settled, it was sought to keep a check on the emigrants and to protect both the natives and Cape 'Colony. Their effect was to precipitate collisions be tween all three parties. Trouble first arose between the Boers and the Griquas in the Philippolis district. British troops were moved up to support the Griquas, and after a skirmish at Zwartkopjes (May 2, 1845), a new arrangement was made between Kok and Sir Peregrine Maitland, then governor of Cape Colony, virtually placing the administration of his territory in the hands of a Brit ish resident, a post filled in 1846 by Capt. (afterwards Major) H. D. Warden. The place chosen by Warden as the seat of his court was known as Bloemfontein, and it subsequently became the capital of the whole country.