D1.8.71: [Untitled]

D1.8.71: [Untitled]

Newspaper Clippings

Bleek comments that a parliamentary session has never been convened so late in the year. Its agenda is still unknown, but Wodehouse's speech may clarify the government's direction. The colony faces financial, social, and political issues which need remedying through meaningful legislation. Party politics, pursuing power maximisation, distracts representatives from their purpose and cheapens their outputs. A thorough audit is required to determine the colony's actual condition. The blue books (parliamentary papers) featuring the Report of the Law of Inheritance for the Western Districts and the Census of the Colony for 1865 capture a rich range of data. The census reports that the population has supposedly doubled since 1856. However, the 1856 census figures are unreliable but confirm growth, like the doubling of wool-bearing sheep and goats in both provinces. Climatic factors have possibly decreased the Eastern Province's Cape (Afrikaner) sheep population since 1856, but their horse and cattle numbers have doubled. Domestic conditions are not yet favourable for pig breeding. He enumerates other livestock populations, like beasts of burden in the colony, and which province experienced more growth. The East taunts the West for its inferior livestock, but mules are well-adapted and have even found favour in the East. Given population growth, the ratio of cultivated land to each person is more precarious now than in 1856, worsened by the stunted cultivation of arable land (which threatens food security). He reports a 'falling off' of vine (phylloxera?) and wheat cultivation. The increased population offsets the now increased bushels of produce sown per province. The West boasts superior wool production, but it remains unclear whether this drought-stricken territory can transcend the pastoral stage of civilisation.

Printed newsprint glued on paper

06 September 1866

Two cut-out columns of printed newsprint mounted on foolscap folio (warped).

Blue books (two on Bleek table), Law of Inheritance (western districts), census (of 1865), livestock (ratio of), agriculture (critiquing development of)

Pressed clippings of Victorian current affairs opinion pieces by Wilhelm Bleek.

Van de Sandt de Villiers & Co.