Page 59 - Bulletin 8 2004

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Mr. Merriman rose in response to loud calls, and said that he had not expected to
make a speech, and so could not provide any impromptus for the occasion. (Laughter.)
There were many stages in a Ministerial career. They began with the most extreme
enthusiasm. They sometimes thought that a Minister was a man who ran an
uncommonly difficult thing more or less cleverly; but he went on a torpedo-boat that
morning, and he came to the conclusion that a Minister was not in it with the captain of
a torpedo-boat. (Laughter.) It was another illusion gone. (Laughter.) It was once said of
his hon. friend – who had just spoken – by a constituent, that the constituency had two
members, one given to making empires and the other to making cheese. (Laughter.)
Well, he thought they had in their Premier a man who was devoting himself to making
empires, and in that capacity he had managed to attract the approbation of the whole
English–speaking people of the world. (Cheers.) They were very proud of that. There
was a more humble function of a Minister, and that was looking after the town pump,
and as he was a humble member of the Ministry he looked after the town pump.
(Laughter.) He looked after the public pence, and as far as he could looked also to the
interior development of the Colony, feeling perfectly sure that its exterior development
was safe in the hands of his hon. friend. He was glad the railway was finished, but a
great deal remained to be done by the people. When they came to Kalk Bay, one of the
loveliest places in the world, they found it full of tin shanties and jam tins. (Loud
laughter.) He happened to be travelling in the Riviera last year, and Nature, he found,
had done quite as much here as there. What had they done themselves? They had
provided shanties and the jam tins, but that was not enough. (Laughter.) Considering all
the wealth that was made in the Colony, very little of it went to beautify the Colony
itself. In the Cape Peninsula they had got one of the most beautiful places in the world,
and the people ought to make it a credit to the Colony. Instead of developing the
immense resources of the country itself, they concentrated their attention on the
purchase of gold-mining scrip, in which they had no doubt all done well. (Laughter.)
Why they should import their fruits he could not for the life of him see, considering that
a mine of wealth was in the Colony already in that connection. Regarding the actual
state of the country, it was, on the whole, more satisfactory than could be expected.
They had, of course, shared the depression, but the stocks of the Colony, which were
always an index of what people thought of the Colony, were absolutely higher than
those of the Colony of Victoria, because Victoria had gone in for a railway policy which
the Cape was lucky enough to slip out of. In the future the watchword of the
Government would be caution in dealing with finance, and as they intended to be
prudent he thought he might say that the present Government combined the Empire with
the town pump. (Cheers and laughter.)
Dr. Clarke proposed “The Army, Navy, and Reserve Forces” in a graceful
speech, and Admiral Nicholson, who on rising to reply was warmly received, said that it
was only a few weeks since he began to consider the country to which he was coming,
and his first impression was that it was a most distinguished honour to be near to those
great events now going on in South Africa. The fiat had gone forth that the Dark
Continent was to be dark no longer, but should be lighted up by civilisation, under the
kindly fostering influences of English, Scotch, Irish, and the descendant of those people
who were concerned with the Edict of Nantes. (Cheers.) He had felt it a great honour to
be sent to South Africa, and to meet one whose name would go down with that of others
famous in the history of the Empire. Of course he referred to the Premier. (Cheers.)