Leidsch Dagblad
- THE LEIDSCHE HOUT.
- THE INDIES WEEK.
- THE BUSHVELD IN TRANSVAAL.
This Leiden paper of 15 October 1926 mixed municipal business with a busy autumn lecture season. Beneath a mayoral notice adjourning a dairy cooperative's request to extend its plant, a walking-parks foundation whose board included Mayor De Gijselaar printed an appeal headed 'De Leidsche Hout', evoking the old wooded Holland along the dunes. The Indies Week closed with a lantern-slide lecture by the letters student J. F. E. Einaar on Suriname's material and spiritual development since slavery was abolished on 1 July 1863. Separately, the Delft geologist G. A. F. Molengraaff told Leiden students about the Bushveld in Transvaal, opening with a warning that consumption of raw materials was rising at an alarming rate.
Translation
THE LEIDSCHE HOUT.
…Leiden Section H. No. 2843, by the Leiden Cooperative Dairy "De Landbouw", for permission to extend the dairy plant on the property Rijnsburgersingel No. 23, registered in the land register as Municipality of Leiden, Section A. No. 1079, has been adjourned. 2250 N. C. DE GIJSELAAR, Mayor. VAN STRIJEN, Secretary. Leiden, 15 October 1926.
CITY NEWS. THE LEIDSCHE HOUT. An appeal. The Executive Committee of the foundation "Fund for the Construction, Maintenance and Management of Walking Parks", consisting of Messrs. Jhr. Mr. Dr. N. C. de Gijselaar, A. G. Bosman and B. F. Krantz, asks us to publish the following:
The Leidsche Hout! — Does it not sound like an old tale from a time when Holland was still Holtland, Woodland? When along the inner edge of the dunes, from the Westland past Wassenaar and Noordwijk towards Haarlem and further still, high up into
THE INDIES WEEK.
…has been able to report in the Indies.
* * *
The last lecture of the Indies Week took place this afternoon in the lecture hall of the Botanical Laboratory, where Mr. J. F. E. Einaar, a student of letters at the University here, gave a talk illustrated with lantern slides on: "The material and spiritual development of Suriname since 1863." Mr. Einaar, himself a son of the South, began by recalling that on 1 July 1863 slavery was abolished in Suriname and that a struggle could then begin for the social and econo-
THE BUSHVELD IN TRANSVAAL.
…speakers give two consecutive lectures. Furthermore, from October to March, guided tours under scholarly leadership will take place regularly on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons.
THE BUSHVELD IN TRANSVAAL. At the invitation of the Faculty of Leiden Students, Prof. Dr. G. A. F. Molengraaff, professor at the Technical College in Delft, gave a lecture last night in the Inorganic Laboratory on the above subject. The speaker began by pointing out that the consumption of various raw materials that people need is increasing in a very rapid, one may well say alarming, way. This rapid increase, which some 40 years ago for the [?] of those materials [?]
Context
The 1926 park appeal and the Leidse Hout that opened in 1931
The appeal printed under 'City News' came from the executive committee of a foundation for laying out, maintaining and managing walking parks. One of its three named members, Jhr. Mr. Dr. N. C. de Gijselaar, also signed the municipal notice printed just above it as mayor of Leiden. The page therefore shows the city's chief official putting his name to a foundation's appeal about the Leidsche Hout, which it introduced with the romantic image of an old 'Holtland' of forests along the inner edge of the dunes. The excerpt ends before the appeal asks readers for anything, so the page does not show how the foundation meant to raise money. Independent records do establish the outcome. The Leidse Hout, an urban park in Leiden, opened on 30 June 1931 and was the product of a government programme that provided work for the unemployed during the Great Depression. The park was finally built five years after this appeal, and it came about through Depression-era relief work.
What the abolition of 1863 meant in Suriname
According to the paper, Einaar began his lecture with the abolition of slavery in Suriname on 1 July 1863 and said that a social and economic struggle could begin from that point. Freedom of movement did not come with abolition. The Dutch government required former slaves in Suriname aged between 15 and 60 to work for another ten years on the plantations as contract labourers under state supervision. When that obligation lapsed in 1873, many left the plantations, and planters replaced them with contract workers from India, Indonesia and China. The compensation went to the owners: at abolition the government paid them for every enslaved person able to work, at a total cost, for Suriname and the Dutch Caribbean islands together, of almost 12 million guilders, about 10 percent of state expenditure in 1863. The 'development since 1863' that Einaar set out to describe therefore started with a decade of supervised labour, followed by the arrival of indentured workers from Asia.
Leiden University as a training ground for colonial service
The Indies Week was held at a university closely tied to colonial administration. Leiden trained theologians, lawyers, physicians, linguists and civil servants who went on to work in the colonies after graduating. Training for the East Indies civil service in Leiden first remained at a secondary level, and from 1922 to 1950 it was an academic specialisation. In 1925 an Indological faculty for the East Indies civil service was founded in Utrecht. That faculty was funded not by the government but by some 25 companies with business in the East Indies, including oil and sugar firms. The 1926 Indies Week thus came at a time when two universities offered training for colonial officials. Leiden also drew students from the colonies. From the end of the 19th century, the sons and later the daughters of affluent Indonesians and Surinamese studied there, and in the first half of the 20th century they formed critical networks that spread the idea of independence from colonial rule. Einaar, whom the paper introduced as a letters student and 'a son of the South', gave the week's final lecture in this setting, and he spoke about Suriname rather than the East Indies.
Molengraaff, the geologist who discovered the Bushveld
The Leiden students who invited Molengraaff to speak on the Bushveld were hearing from the geologist who had discovered it. In 1897 Molengraaff became state geologist of the Transvaal Republic, with the task of starting the geological survey of the Transvaal, and while mapping the region he discovered the Bushveld complex. In 1906 he became professor at Delft, where he finally had enough resources and students for his work. This is the Delft chair under which the paper introduced him. According to the report, he began his lecture by warning that consumption of the raw materials people need was rising at an alarming rate. He therefore presented the region he had surveyed in South Africa in the context of concern about future supplies of raw materials.
Original
DE LEIDSCHE HOUT.
Leiden Sectie H. No. 2843, d. de Leidsche Coöperatieve Melkinrichting " De Landbouw ", om vergunning tot het uitbreiden van de zuivelinrichting in het perceel Rijnsburgersingel No. 23, kadastraal bekend Gemeente Leiden, Sectie A. No. 1079, is verdaagd. 2250 N. C. DE GIJSELAAR, Burgemeester. VAN STRIJEN, Secretaris. Leiden, 15 October 1926. STADSNIEUWS. DE LEIDSCHE HOUT. Een opwekking. Het Dagelijksch Bestuur van de stichting " Fonds tot Aanleg, Onderhout en Beheer van Wandelparken ", bestaande uit de heeren jhr. mr. dr. N. C. de Gijselaar, A. G. Bosman en B. F. Krantz, verzoekt ons het volgende op te nemen: De Leidsche Hout! - Klinkt het niet als een oud verhaal uit een tijd, toen Holland nog Holtland was, Houtland? Toen langs den binnenrand der duinen van Westland uit langs Wassenaar en Noordwijk naar Haarlem toe en verder nog tot hoog in
DE INDISCHE WEEK.
in Indië heeft kunnen meedeelen. * * * De laatste lezing der Indische Week had hedenmiddag plaats in de collegezaal van het Botanisch Laboratorium, waarin de heer J. F. E. Einaar, litt. student aan de Universiteit alhier een met lichtbeelden verduidelijke voordracht hield over: " De stoffelijke en geestelijke ontwikkeling van Suriname sinds 1863. " De heer Einaar zelf een zoon van het zuiden, ving aan met er aan te herinneren dat op 1 Juli 1863 de slavernij werd afgeschaft in Suriname en dat toen een strijd kon aanvangen voor de sociale en econo -
HET BOSCHVELD IN TRANSVAAL.
sprekers houden twee achtereenvolgende lezingen. Verder zullen van October tot Maart geregeld rondgangen onder wetenschappelijke leiding plaats hebben op Woensdag - en Zaterdagmiddagen. HET BOSCHVELD IN TRANSVAAL. Op uitnoodiging van de Faculteit der Leidsche Studenten hield prof. dr. G. A. F. Molengraaff, hoogleeraar aan de Technische Hoogeschool te Delft gisteravond in het Anorganisch Laboratorium een voordracht over bovenstaand onderwerp. Spr. ving aan met er op te wijzen, dat het verbruik van verschillende grondstoffen, welke de menschen noodig hebben op zeer snelle, men mag wel zeggen onrustbarende wijze toeneemt. Deze snelle toename, die omstreeks 40 jaren geleden voor de [?] dier stoffen [?]
Source: Source: Erfgoed Leiden en Omstreken (leiden.courant.nu)