This appeal was responded to by the passing of a
war tax, under which every owner of a farm was to pay 10 pounds, the
owner of half a farm 5 pounds, and so on. The tax was not a very just
one, since it fell with equal weight on the rich man, who held twenty
farms, and the poor man, who held but one. Its justice or injustice was,
however, to a great extent immaterial, since the free and independent
burghers, including some of the members of the Volksraad who had imposed
it, promptly refused to pay it, or indeed, whilst they were about it,
any other tax. As the Treasury was already empty, and creditors were
pressing, this refusal was most ill-timed, and things began to look very
black indeed. Meanwhile, in addition to the ordinary expenditure,
and the interest payable on debts, money had to be found to pay Von
Schlickmann's volunteers. As there was no cash in the country, this was
done by issuing Government promissory notes, known as "goodfors," or
vulgarly as "good for nothings," and by promising them all booty, and to
each man a farm of two thousand acres, lying east and north-east of the
Loolu mountains; in other words, in Secocoeni's territory, which did not
belong to the Government to give away.
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