LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE NEED FOR WOMEN SETTLERS IN SOUTH AFRICA.
[To vax ED1T31; OF vax "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—Schemes for helping Englishmen to settle in Boutl. Africa as soon as the war is over are already being discussed,.• and it is even proposed by some to make grants of money as well as land for this purpose. I sincerely hope that wisely organised efforts will be made to plant large English 'settle- ments both in the Transvaal, the Orange River Colony, and Cape Colony ; but unless we send out our young women as well as our young men I greatly fear our new settlers will do as they have done before,—i.e., marry Dutchwomen. Many of the men at this moment fighting against us have come of ' English or Scotch fathers married to Dutchwomen, and these Dutch mothers have brought up their sons to hate English rule. I have travelled all over our South African Colonies, and I have lived on a ranch in British Columbia, and what has struck me everywhere was the absence of women of the same class as the young men of our upper-class families, who have left England with small capitals to make a living in our Colonies. In earlier days, when ocean and land travelling were far more difficult than now, it was found possible for refined and gently nurtured women to accompany their husbands and brothers, for I have stayed with such old settled families in Cape Colony and in Natal; and every one knows-vi-hat good old families have helped to build up Eastern Canada. But it seems as if inthepresent day love of race and luxury and pleasure had to some extent deprived our athletic, healthy English girls of the spirit of adventure and endurance which characterised our earlier Colonists. However, in some cases, I have known girls in large families who have longed to go forth with a favourite brother and share with him the unknown future in a new country. As a general rule, the parents have objected to their daughters " running risks and dangers in wild coun- tries," forgetting the dreariness and temptations of a lonely existence, far from all home influences, for their sons. Many a man I have known whose ruined life might have been saved if only a sister had been by his side. I advocate sisters going out rather than young wives, because the latter, before becoming acclimatised and accustomed to the necessary " roughing" of a settler's life, have to face the discomforts and attendant risks of motherhood; they are then a drag rather than a help to their husbands, struggling with the difficulties of a new life. Therefore I would urge English girls who care for their brothers and the future of the Empire to take their courage in both hands and join in the noble task of pioneers, to build up great English populations in our magnificent dominions beyond the seas. Whatever hardships there may be at first in a Colony, I am sure many of our girls would be far happier than enduring a listless, aimless life at home with no chance of a happy marriage, while in our Colonies their brothers are forced to seek their wives among half-breeds, foreigners, or Englishwomen of a class they would not like to bring home to their own family circle.—I am, Sir, &c.,
EMILY CONYBEARE-CRAVEN.
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