This is a transcription of a column that appeared in South Africa magazine October 31, 1896. The column is titled "Domestic Announcements".

BIRTHS

SONS

JAY, Mrs. C. E., Upington, Gordonia, Sept. 21.

LYTTLE, Mrs. J. H., Johannesburg, September 28.

STEELEY, Mrs. A., Maseru, Basutoland, Sept. 27.

TARR, Mrs. H. M., Grahamstown, September 23.

THOMAS, Mrs. J. T., Pretoria, September 24.

DAUGHTERS

HOFFMAN, Mrs. J. P., Kenilworth, September 18.

LUCAS, Mrs. P., Grahamstown, September 28.

REID, Mrs. C., Bergplaats, District Fauresmith, September 12.

MARRIAGES

CLARK, E. Y.—NEL, M. C., Driefontein, Sept. 21.

BOWICK—BAKER—On October 28, at St. Jude’s Church, Mildmay Park, by the Rev. D. B. Hankin, M. A., assisted by the Rev. J. H. Monti, B.A., and the Rev. Edward Mortimer Baker, M.A., brother of the bride, John Robie Bowick, of Heidelberg, Transvaal, second son of T. Bowick, Esq., of 27, Canfield Gardens, Hampstead, to Isabel Maud, third daughter of the late Rev. William Baker, B.D., F.R.G.S., of Sutton Lodge, Homerton.

DAWSON—THOMSON—On October 23, at Balmoral, Fochabers, N.B., by the Rev. George Birnie, B.D., Speymouth, assisted by the Rev. Robert Coupar, B.D., Macduff, James Dawson, of Bulawayo, to May Manson, daughter of the late Andrew Thomson, Corskie, Garmouth.

VAN DER SCHYFF, M. H.—WYNGAARD, L. M., Johannesburg, September 28.

DEATHS

BAXTER—On October 23, Caroline Elizabeth (nee Cooper), the dearly-loved wife of William Walmisley Baxter, of Bromley, Kent, aged 67.

BENGOUGH—On October 3, at Kimberley, Marion Agnes Bengough, daughter of the late G. H. Bengough, of The Ridge, Wotton-under-Edge.

CURLING, R. J., Kingwilliamstown, September 29, aged 55.

IMPEY, Rev. W., Grahamstown, September 25, aged 78.

MACIVER, J., Willowvale, September 18

RUNCIMAN, Captain W., Simon’s Town, October 3, aged 74.

SEARLE, Mrs. H. S. A., Cape Town, September 29, aged 48.

VILJOEN, H. D. J., Potchefstroom, September 22, aged 42.

WOODLOCK, Mrs. M. J., Kingwilliamstown, September 24, aged 48.

WOULFE—October, at sea, on the voyage home from Durban, Harcourt Dudley Woulfe, fourth son of the late John Penlip Woulfe and of Mrs. Woulfe, of Anson Lodge, Tufnell Park, London, aged 29. Friends will kindly accept this intimation.

Miscellaneous articles on same page:

A very successful concert in the main ward of the Bulawayo Memorial Hospital was recently given and thoroughly enjoyed by the sick and wounded propped up in their beds, the Earl, Countess, and Lady Victoria Grey, Mother Jacobi, and other ladies, Sir Richard Martin, General Carrington’s staff, Civil Service officials, members of the Hospital Board, and principal residents generally constituting the audience and being seated amongst the patients.

A largely attended “smoker” was lately held in the Bulawayo Stock Exchange Hall, to welcome back Captain White’s Mashonaland relief column. Colonel Jack Spreckley presided, and those present included Earl Grey and Sir Frederick Carrington. The noble earl gave the toast of “Grey’s Scouts and Gifford’s Horse,” saying of them that they had always been ready for any emergency, and had taught the Matabele a severe lesson. Later on Sir F. Carrington, in response to the toast of his health, eulogized the services rendered by the irregular troops.

In addressing the discharged Belingwe column recently, Earl Grey thanked Major Laing, Captain Hopper, and all ranks for the gallant conduct they had displayed in the field on all occasions. He remarked that the Belingwe men had assisted materially in subjugating the rebels, and added: “Now that the war is over, I trust you will all adjourn to the Charter Hotel and drink to the prosperity of Rhodesia and to the health and success of its inhabitants in years to come.” Earl Grey then called for three cheers for the Belingwe column, which were heartily given by the numerous onlookers.

Amongst the most interesting relics recently found in the Matoppos were the remains of Mozilikatse, whose bones were found in a cave in the position usually assigned to chiefs—seated against a wall with a bundle of assegais, all rust-eaten, lying to his hand, with a host of beads, supposed to be gold but proved to be brass, and bangles, lying beside. It is to be feared that our Philistine troopers had not that regard for the great dead which should be, as one of them has secured a leg portion as a permanent trophy of an arduous campaign. Other disjecta-membra have been given to more eminent collectors.

Messrs. Schwarz and Rogers, assistants to Dr. Corstorphine, the Colonial geologist, are actively engaged in the district of Ceres and Malmesbury in connection with the preparation of a geological map of the Cape Colony, a work which will probably occupy several years. At present there is no single geological map of a thoroughly complete and reliable character in existence.

A curious case came before Mr. Schuurman in Johannesburg lately, in which Mr. Prynne, the Manager of Messrs. Thorne, Stuttaford, and Co., summoned a member of the Doornfontein Sanitary Board for using threatening language to him. The facts of the case are that Mr. Prynne was about to take his seat in a tramcar going in the direction of Doornfontein, when a stout and irate individual, already seated, ordered the newcomer to sit on the other side of the car. Mr. Prynne declined. Whereupon the other threatened to eject him from the car if he did not do as he was bid. Mr. Prynne allowed the unreasonable and impertinent passenger to resort to undignified abuse until the end of the journey. The abuse being afterwards continued and threats used, Mr. Prynne had a writ issued against the stranger. In Court, Mr. Schuurman gave judgment against him for £3 and costs.

THE “COLONIAL EXPANSION FAD”

On Wednesday evening the Lord Mayor of Belfast gave a banquet in honour of the Marquis and Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava. This was the first public appearance of the Marquis since his retirement from the Paris Embassy, and his brilliant speech was listened to with the greatest interest. Discussing the question of Colonial expansion, Lord Dufferin said:--“Another source of our unpopularity arises out of the recent impulse towards Colonial expansion which has had so sudden and curious a development within the last few years. We, as an island people with a happily teeming population, were driven by the force of nature centuries ago to overflow in every direction and to occupy the desert places of a great portion of the globe. It is true a corresponding excess of population set on foot, though much later, a great Teutonic emigration, for some years as great as that from Ireland itself, but Germany for many a long day was content to see its wandering millions pass to the American Continent, where they have proved such a valuable addition to the intelligence and the resources of the United States. (Hear, hear.) But when the fad for African acquisition became fashionable, Germany very naturally was anxious that the children who left her shores should remain within the jurisdiction of the Fatherland, and there is no doubt that she, as well as France, has been provoked to find that the belated birth of their Colonial policy has restricted the field of their operations. (Hear, hear.) As a result, it occasionally happens that this or that German or French emigrant in pursuit of some fancied territorial tit-bit in Africa or elsewhere suddenly finds himself confronted by an Englishman already standing sentry over the path. The Briton may be gaunt, emaciated, and broken down with fever and unremunerative toil, but he looms in the eyes of the newcomer like an obese dragon warding the garden of the Hesperides, and the barren tracts beyond him appear to blossom with self-grown fruits and flowers that encircle gleaming hills of solid gold. Highly-coloured accounts of these experiences, on being transmitted to Europe by the indignant explorer, are naturally amplified and misrepresented by the Press, and are bitterly commented upon by what is known at Berlin and at Paris as the Colonial party, until the English really come to be regarded by a large body of honest German and French opinion as unjust depredators and intruders within the sacred precincts of what Providence intended to be their own private kitchen gardens, the fact of Germany herself having within the last dozen years or so laid hold of more than a million square miles of territory to which she had no special right being entirely ignored, while France’s acquisitions of various parts of Africa—in Algeria, Tunis, Senegal—her claim to the reversion of the Congo State, and her recent annexation of Madagascar are equally passed over in silence. (Hear, hear.) But it is a vain thing to expect nations to be just or reasonable when their material interests are at stake, and it would be both unwise and useless upon our part to recriminate or to exhibit resentment at the unfair diatribes to which I have referred. (Hear, hear.) Hard words break no bones, and the authors of these very artificial complaints are perfectly conscious that of land-grabbing in Africa they and their countrymen are as guilty both in fact and in intention as the rest of us. Nor must we take too seriously the ill-natured outbursts of the Press in any country. In spite of this prevailing tone of angry and disingenuous deprecation, we may console ourselves with the comfortable assurance that Europe, however little she may like us, cannot help respecting us as a steadfast, truth-loving, humane, and indomitable people—(hear, hear)—and when our detractors affect to descant upon our loss of prestige nobody knows better than themselves that they are talking arrant nonsense.” (Cheers.)

“A charming young damsel hailing from the fighting port had the temerity,” says the Johannesburg correspondent of the Friend of the Free State, “to enter Transvaal territory clothed in a Jameson hat. The young lady, however, finding herself under the focus of myriads of eyes, doffed the Jameson hat and donned a headgear with a picture of an ocean greyhound on its front. With the Aliens Expulsion Law red-hot from the furnace, East London lassies—and girls from anywhere else—had better have a care. The pluck of a girl facing Oom Paul with Jameson in great gold letters written on her forehead is a bit strong; but the Aliens Expulsion Law goes half a dozen better.”

Regards,

Ellen Stanton

Email: harprulz@bellsouth.net