The Colour Lire

Horowhenua Chronicle, 11 May 1910, Page 4

The Colour Lire

fr • KAFFIRS AND .iIE CHIJRCIIKh In a recent issue- ol' "East an West" appears :ui article written l> the Rev. R. F. Callaway, who fo the last ten years has been ;i inif siunary in the diocese- of St. JohuV Kaffraria. " Tlio Catholic Chum of Christ," lie writes, "dues not re cognise caste." Yet it is only to , apparent that caste in religion i.s a firmly established in South Afric to-clii.v as it was in tho Southeri States ol the Union in tho days o 'Tncle Tom's Cabin." \Ye 'ma; hope there are comparatively fev who would not shrink troin expres sing the logical ontcoine of their pie jndices with tho vigorous directnes of the lady who remarked, "Well if these art , to lie Kalfirs in heaven I hope 1 don't get there!" Bu tho colour cleavage is und'oubtedli painfully defined, and no amount o education avails in any appreciablt degree to break down the white man's attitude of reserve and aloof urn. A native may have passei his Cape matriculation, and wc;u clothes ordered fivm a London, tailor, and speak English faultlessly or ho may be a. person of considerable wealth, or he may bo a priest yet there are few houses whero lit would run the risk of entering by the front {loot , , or sitting down t'n tea with his hostess. -Mr Callaway very frankly adds, "frequently I feel a great repugnance to shaking hands with some natives whom probably in my reasoned judgment I esteem highly." For the attitude of antagonism he deplores is not the ciiteome of reason, but rather of some deep-seated racial' instincts. Tho natives themselves, as might be expected, are deeply conscious of the slights they receive,, and as one of the clergymen recently remarked at a clerical conference, "Xative Christians find it hard to realise that they belong to the. same church as the English." It is a painful fact, and a. .lingular comment on the limitations of the modern religious and democratic sputi'in'cut.