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- Queenstown Free Press – 1893 – January - March
http://www.eggsa.org/newspapers/index.php/queenstown-free-press/880-queenstown-free-press-1893-1-january-march
Written by Sunelia Heath
Friday, February 10, 1893
Tennyson Settlement.
The following letter in reply to the one of Mr TURNER that appeared in our columns some time back, we take from the "Cape Times":-
Sir,- When at Tennyson Settlement on Thursday last, my attention was drawn to the leading article in your issue of the 10th instant, which had previously escaped my notice. The "facts" upon which your remarks are founded appear to have been taken from a letter to the "Frontier Guardian" by Mr HG TURNER but it would have been well to have practiced what you advise the Church Army to do – viz, to ascertain the facts of the case – before writing down the colonization scheme as a failure, and endeavouring to arrest its progress by such sweeping condemnation as the article contains. Mr TURNER's letter was allowed to pass without notice, being merely the malicious utterances of a disappointed man, Mr TURNER having been discharged from the superintendentship of Tennyson at the end of 1891, and more recently from the managership of Fair Hope Farm, belonging to the English County Colonisation Association, owing to incompetence and other failings; but as the article in question is calculated to do serious injury to colonization in South Africa if the statements it contains remain uncontradicted, I must ask you to afford me an opportunity of stating the true facts in regard to the Tennyson Settlement. It may be necessary, in the first place to explain that the object in view when the settlement or colony was established was to introduce agriculturists and their families, who were in a starving condition in England, into this colony, where their condition would be greatly superior to what it is in England. The funds at the disposal of the promoters did not admit of acquiring any large extend of land, so provision could only be made for twenty-five families at a time, but the intention was, as the immigrants bettered themselves, or found employment outside of the settlement to introduce others, and so provide for large numbers. From this point of view the Tennyson Settlement has proved an unqualified success. Thirty-five families have been brought into the Colony. On arrival they were comfortably housed and fed for a time; the first season's crops put each family in possession of a sum of money averaging upwards of £100, no rent being payable for the first year; and so great was the demand for labour of the kind that a large proportion of them were very soon induced to leave the settlement and accept employment, often in lucrative and responsible positions. It can be confidently asserted that in every instance the position of every one of these immigrants is now very much better than it was when in England. Those who elected to remain on the settlement are at the present moment comfortably off and quite contented, if the individual statement of each of them can be accepted as correct. Their position is, shortly as follows: Each family has a cottage, piece of enclosed garden ground, fifty acres of arable land under water, pasturage for a limited number of cattle, horses, and sheep, the use of a scotch cart or wagon, oxen, plough, and other agricultural implements – reaping and thrashing by the most improved by the most improved machines, and milling being also done at low rates as required – the minisiration of a clergyman of the Church of England, schooling for the children by a capable master under Government supervision, and last, but not least, the experienced advice and assistance of the proprietors of the settlement with regard to Colonial farming. For all this the following payments had to be made by each family of the first batch of twenty-five. Three per cent on the outlay of passage money and on £104 cost of house, implements, etc., and £2 per month for schooling, amounting on an average to £4 5s for each family during the first two years. £24 inclusive of everything during next year, and now since having the advantage of railway connection with the whole colony and Transvaal, £37 10s per annum. Last season the settlers suffered, as did the whole of the Eastern Frontier, from the plague of locusts, but harvested sufficient to pay their way. This season the average return of each holder at an allotment is: Between 80 and 90 bags sf wheat, 30 of oats, 25 of barley, 200 of potatoes, 80 of mealies, and 5 of peas, or 175 bags of grain and 200 of potatoes, worth at present rate about £200. While in few cased have the whole of the fifty acres been cultivated, such an extent being more than one man can manage without assistance. So far from the land at Tennyson being "unsuitable for agricultural work" it would be difficult to find finer crops in any part of the Colony than are now standing, or have just been harvested at Tennyson, and that without manure, or more than very average cultivation. On what was at first supposed to be the poorest land on the settlement, the wheat stands from 3 to 4 feet in height, ears large, and grain well filled out, the return being from twenty-...Perfectly healthy; and the mealies have the dark green colour indicative of a strong healthy crop, other crops being good in proportion. An inspection of the settlement is all that is needed to utterly refute Mr TURNER's calumnious letter, and show how completely the settlement fulfils its object; and if you, Mr Editor, could spare the time to pay it a visit, I predict that you would retract almost every word of the article now under reply. I cannot conclude without adding a few words in defence of the promoter of the scheme and the proprietors of the land. The expense dwelt upon is the cost of enclosing the land, dividing it into suitable paddocks for stock, the erection of a school-house, residence of the superintendent, out-buildings and shed, and twenty-five substantial cottages, and the purchase of oxen and agricultural implements, all having been done in the most economical manner, and confined to what was absolutely necessary. It is true that the land is only held on lease, but the right is perpetual, and while immigration continues, or the settlers choose to remain in occupation, Messrs. HALSE Bros. do not benefit in any way by this necessary outlay. For the rent now paid (two years' use having been given free) Messrs. HALSE gave 1,250 acres of cultivated land, and a supply of water sufficient to irrigate the whole of it. This, in a part of the country where crops can only be grown during average years by means of irrigation, is an enormous advantage, and when it is considered that the water comes from reservoirs erected at the cost of many thousands of pounds and that the settlers have a prior right to the water before the proprietors, the question of the amount of rent payable assumes a very different aspect. And on behalf of the English emigrant, I beg emphatically to repudiate the assumption that poverty and hardship, should such unhappily be encountered, will bring him to the condition of the "certain class of white people in the Colony" to which you refer. English energy and perseverance is what this colony most wants among the farming community, and in the Eastern districts, if not in the whole colony, where thousands of acres of fine land remain uncultivated and steady labour always commands a good return, no Englishman will ever starve. All true friends of the Colony should encourage immigratiou (sic) in every way.
I am &c.,
John Wm. BELL,
Managing Director E.C. Colonisation Association,
Queenstown, January 21st.
Friday, February 17, 1893
Letters to the Editor.
(Free to all on their own responsibility.)
Tennyson Settlement.
Onverwacht, Indwe,
Feb. 11th, 1893.
Sir – Having noticed letters from HALSE Bros. and Mr J.W. BELL, in the issue of the "Cape Times" of the 1st inst., I would wish to answer some of their statements.
In the first place HALSE Bros. state that "they took steps which led to my summary dismissal from the post of Superintendent of Tennyson." This statement is absolutely untrue: the fact of underhand dealing, interference, and the impossibility of making Tennyson a financial success for the E.C.C. Association, under the original agreement entered into between Mr. A. WHITE and HALSE Bros. I sent in my resignation on Aug. 28th, 1891. By terms of my agreement I was bound to give twelve months notice in writing. My resignation was accepted by the Board in London, but caused considerable surprise to Mr WHITE and all others concerned. I hold letters from Mr. J.W. BELL and others expressing their very great regret at the step I took and urging me to reconsider my action. Owing to my receiving these letters I expressed a desire to be retained as Manager of Fair Hope, but declining to have anything whatever to do further with the working of Tennyson Settlement. When Mr BELL arrived from England in January of 1892, I requested him to relieve me at once from the position of Superintendent of Tennyson Settlement, this he agreed to do on my assuring him that Mr CORNISH-BOWDEN (who was then my assistant) was capable of carrying out his orders. At the same time Mr BELL expressed it as his opinion, that if I gave up the management of Tennyson Settlement, it was not likely that the Board in London would retain my services as Manager of Fair Hope. It was therefore somewhat of a surprise when a few weeks later, I received through Mr. BELL an offer to remain at "Fair Hope as Manager for one year certain after the expiration of the notice I had given, this offer I accepted, and in a few weeks more came a letter from London telling me that the Board would not retain my services after the 28th August, 1892, the date on which the notice I had given them expired. Clearly their offer to me to remain at Fair Hope was a mere trap, and while granting that I was then discharged from Fair Hope, I thing I have proved that I was not in any way a dismissed servant from Tennyson and the means which were adopted to bring about my dismissal from Fair Hope do not redound to the credit of those concerned.
My original appointment of "Bailiff of Tennyson" was given to me by the Viscountess OSSINGTON in person, and I was sent out to South Africa wholely and solely by her, much against Mr WHITE's wishes, as he desired that he alone should have the choosing and appointing of all officers in connection with the Settlement.
My character is well known in Wodehouse district, and I have the honour to belong to its various public bodies and Associations, in none of which are the HALSE Bros. names to be found as members, their characters are thoroughly known, understood, and appreciated accordingly.
The statements made by me and corroborated by Mr CORNISH-BOWDEN, have not been in any way refuted by the letters under reply, in fact those letters go far to prove that this year is one of the occasional booms mentioned by me in the letter Messrs HALSE and BELL refer to, and I maintain that Tennyson Settlement lands are utterly unsuited for the carrying on of agricultural pursuits to a profit, taking one year with another, this season has been the finest experienced for very many years by farmers in these districts.
Mr BELL states that the funds at the disposal of the promoters did not admit of acquiring any large extend of land. The statement is absurd, as the sums which have been expended on Tennyson Settlement alone, irrespective of the cost of bringing families, would have been more than enough to have purchased a thoroughly good and large estate.
There is one statement made by Mr BELL which, to say the least of it is misleading, ??: "The large reservoirs built by the Messrs HALSE, to the water which the settlers have a prior right." These reservoirs were not built so much to benefit Tennyson Settlement as to hold a supply of water for the working of HALSE Bros large new flour mills, the settlers merely having the overflow water from the mill.
According to Mr BELL's statement the settlers are asked to pay 3p.c. per annum for the benefits conferred by Lady OSSINTON's money, which are: -
1. Erection of houses.
2. Fences.
3. Making water furrows.
4. Purchase of working oxen.
5. Plows, gear.
6. Scotch carts, wagon.
7. Reaping and binding machine.
8. Six months rations and chaplain, while they are bound to pay HALSE Bros. 50 p.c. per annum on the purchase value of their allotment for the privilege of occupying same and leading water to irrigate them, and if the improved thrashing machine and mill belonging to HALSE Bros are made use of, the Settlers have to pay 1s per bag thrashing and 1s 3d per 100lbs for milling.
With regard to the first two years in which no rent was charged, the reasons can be best given by HALSE Bros. and the Settlers of those years.
I have no desire to make personal attacks but when attacked in so vicious and impertinent a manner as I have now been, I claim the right to defend myself and I should be glad to meet HALSE Bros. and Mr BELL at Tennyson in the presence of a commission of independent and practical farmers and the various statements made by me could be thoroughly sifted and the public made aware whether these statements are false and absurd or whether what I have said is correct.
Had the HALSE Bros. co-operated with Lady OSSINGTON, charging only the normal rent of the district and providing suitable land throughout, all men in South Africa and England would look up to them as "patriotic philanthropists, as men who were most active well wishers for colonization and Tennyson would have more sides to its unqualified success than one.
I am, yours, etc.,
H. Gordon TURNER.
P.S. – There are other statements made by HALSE Bros. and Mr BELL which are altogether too garbled, vulgar and petty to take the least notice of.
H.G.T.
Daily Representative
https://www.eggsa.org/newspapers/index.php/daily-representative/240-the-daily-representative-1928-2-april-june
Written by Sunelia Heath
Saturday 2 June 1928
Local & General
Obituary.
The death occurred at Capetown on Sunday of Colonel J.W. BELL, who was the first Master of the Supreme Court of the Transvaal after the Anglo-Boer War. Colonel BELL was born at Aberdeen, Scotland, about 78 years ago, and came out to South Africa as a young man. He practised as an attorney at Queenstown and commanded the Queenstown Rifle Volunteers prior to going to the Transvaal. On his retirement from the public service he took up his residence at Nairobi and left there about a year ago on a visit to England. He returned to Capetown a few months back for health reasons. He leaves a widow and two sons and two daughters. His eldest son, Harry, who is now a successful coffee planter near Nairobi, was formerly an attorney in practice with Mr. J.A. NESER at Klerksdorp. The younger son, Charles, is in Capetown. His elder daughter Vere, is married to Dr. ROSS, of New Zealand, and was in Capetown with her father during his illness, and his younger daughter, Amy, is with her mother in Cape Town.
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