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and we must start to get the garden in order at once.
We have got a very pretty little orchard, with plums, aprictos,
peaches, cherries, pears and some odd tropical fruit. We have also
got a field of green maize, (the "mealy", in Transvaal parlance)
We have all got different jobs about the house. Craig-Sellar
& Wyndham are joint-Minister of the Interior. I am Groom of
the Stables & Minister of Agriculture. Basil Blackwood is
Master of the Buckhounds. Living, if you [go] about it the proper way,
is not so very dear. Luxuries are fairly cheap, & some
necessaries. Milk, eggs & vegetables are very dear to buy,
so we shall provide them ourseves. Milk, when it can be got,
costs 9d per ping. Eggs cost 6d each, but we think this
rather good, as some months ago they cost 30/ a dozen.
I think £600 will well cover all my expenditure.

I am getting rapidly into my work. At present I
am doing all kinds of things, in order, as H.E. says, that
I may get a general view of the whole business, before
tackling particular questions. On the whole I am much
more hopeful about the country. We will make the Transvaal
overwhelmingly British, and in a Federated S. Africa, we
will be able then to control any disloyal Dutch elements