just managed, with varying success, to reap a reasonable return for
their outlays and energies, or only to live more or less comfortably.
The fashion of luxurious and unthrifty living, so prevalent among the
"_nouveaux riches_" and the section who vied with them, impressed the
Boers with the notion that all were getting rich, and that soon there
would be nothing left for them in the race. In their Hollander Press
they were reminded that the gold, in reality belonging to them, was
rapidly being exhausted, and the wealth appropriated by aliens, whose
hewers of wood and drawers of water they would finally become. All this
galled them to the heart, and the Government readily lent itself to
proceedings intended to balance conditions in favour of their burghers,
as the process was described. I will adduce a few instances. As is well
known, it is only burghers and some privileged Hollanders who are
employed in Government service, from President down to policeman. There
are very few exceptions to this rule, which also applies to the
nominations of jurymen, who are well paid too. The salaries of all,
especially in the higher grades, had been largely augmented; the
President receiving £8,000 per year, and so on downwards.

For Government supplies and public works the tenders of burghers only,
and perhaps of some privileged persons, are accepted. In many instances
the tenderers are without any pretence of ability for the performance of
the contract, but are nevertheless accepted, performing only a _sub rosa
rôle_. One such instance occurred some years ago when a burgher who did
not possess £100--a simple farmer and a kind of "slim"
speculator--received by Volksraad vote the contract for building a
certain railway.[3] The price included a very large margin to be
distributed in places of interest--as douceurs of £1,000 to £5,000 each,
and £10,000 for the _pro forma_ contractor and his Volksraad
confederates; all those sums were paid out by the firm for whom the