Transvaal

Cotton growing is making satisfactory progress. The number of morgen under this crop in 1919-20 was 3,275: in 1925-26 it had increased to nearly 28,00o. Cotton grows well in the western part of the Transvaal, north of the Magaliesberg Range, and in the low veld of the north and east, where frost is absent for six or seven months. Tobacco is grown in the Magaliesberg area, and about Potchefstroom, the cultivation of over 7,000 morgen in 1926 yielding nearly eight million pounds of tobacco.

There are few manufacturing undertakings other than those connected with mining, agriculture and the development of Johan nesburg. There is a large factory for the supply of dynamite to the gold mines. The building and construction trade is an im portant industry on the Rand, where there are also brickworks, iron and brass foundries, breweries and distilleries. There are a number of flour mills and jam factories in various centres. A promising home industry, started under English auspices after the war of 1899-1902, is the weaving by women of rugs, carpets, blankets, etc., from native wool. Iron and steel works have been established at Vereeniging and Pretoria.

Provincial Government.

At the head of the executive is a provincial administrator, appointed by the Governor-General-in Council. He holds office for years, and is assisted by an executive committee of four members elected by the provincial council. The provincial council consists of 5o members, elected for the same constituencies and by the same electorate as are the members of the House of Assembly. The provincial council, which has strictly local powers, sits for a statutory period of three years.

Education.

Since 1910 education, other than elementary, is under the control of the Provincial Council. At the head of the permanent staff is the Director of Education. The province is divided into 31 school districts, in each of which is a school board, consisting partly of elected and partly of nominated members: its functions are advisory. Both primary and secondary education are free. Attendance is compulsory for European children be tween the ages of 7 and 15. The age limit has been raised to 16 in 27 of the school districts. Religious teaching is confined to the undenominational instruction in Bible history. In 1926 there were over 1,200 State and State-aided schools for Europeans, and 435 for non-Europeans. Many of the latter are directed by missionary bodies. (For higher education, religion, and defence see SOUTH AFRICA, UNION OF.) (F. R. C.; R. U. S.) At the beginning of the 19th century the country now known as the Transvaal was inhabited, apparently somewhat sparsely, by Bavenda and other Bantu negroes, and in the south-west by wandering Bushmen and Hottentots. About 1817 the country was invaded by the chieftain Mosilikatze and his impis, who were fleeing from the vengeance of Chaka, king of the Zulus. The in habitants were unable to withstand the attacks of the disciplined Zulu warriors—or Matabele, as they were henceforth called—by whom large areas of central and western Transvaal were swept bare. The remnants of the Bavenda retreated north to the

Waterberg and Zoutpansberg, while Mosilikatze made his chief kraal at Mosega, not far from the site of the town of Zeerust, and near the Bechuana border. At that time the region between the Vaal and Limpopo was scarcely known to Europeans. In 1829, however, Mosilikatze was visited at Mosega by the celebrated missionary to the Bechuana, Robert Moffat, and between that date and 1836 a few British traders and explorers visited the country and made known its principal features. Such was the situ ation when Boer emigrants first crossed the Vaal.

As shown elsewhere (see SOUTH AFRICA, UNION OF and CAPE COLONY) the Voortrekkers had an intense desire to be rid of Brit ish control, and to be allowed to set up independent communities and govern the natives in such fashion as they saw fit. The first party to cross the Vaal consisted of 98 persons under the leader ship of Louis Trichard and Jan van Rensburg. They left Cape Colony in 1835 and trekked to the Zoutpansberg. Here Rens burg's party separated from the others, but were soon afterwards murdered by natives. Trichard's party determined to examine the country between the Zoutpansberg and Delagoa bay. Fever carried off several of their number, and it was not until 1838 that the survivors reached the coast. Eventually they proceeded by boat to Natal. Meantime, in 1836, another party of farmers under Andries Hendrik Potgieter had established their head quarters on the banks of the Vet river. Potgieter and some corn panions followed the trail of Trichard's party as far as the Zoutpansberg, where they were shown gold workings by the na tives and saw rings of gold made by native workmen. They also ascertained that a trade between the natives and the Portuguese at Delagoa bay already existed. On returning to the Vet, Potgieter learned that a hunting party of Boers which had crossed the Vaal had been attacked by the Matabele, who had also killed Boer women and children. This act led to reprisals, and on Jan. 17, 1837, a Boer commando surprised Mosilikatze's encampment at 1VIosega, inflicting heavy loss on the Matabele without themselves losing a man—f or the Boers had, and the Matabele had not, fire arms. In November of the same year Mosilikatze suffered fur ther heavy losses at the hands of the Boers, and early in 1838 he fled north beyond the Limpopo, never to return. Potgieter, after the flight of the Matabele, issued a proclamation in which he de clared the country which Mosilikatze had abandoned forfeited to the emigrant farmers. After the Matabele peril had been re moved, many farmers trekked across the Vaal and occupied parts of the district left derelict. Into these depopulated areas there was also a considerable immigration of Basuto, Bechuana and other Bantu tribes.