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Hokitika Guardian, 10 February 1926, Page 2

Ihe cable news last week oonveved the information that the South Afriean Assemble read a third time the Colour Bar Bill by 64 votes to 47. after a final warning from General Smuts, who declared that if the Bill were passed they would he opening the floodgates of resentment and beginning a chapter in the bitten- of the countrv which all might bitterly renr.-'j in the vears to come. The Bill debars natives from following skilled nwfn<|j;- 5

*n tlm minos nmi certain »•»'*■? Tt is al«n intended to orov’ido rosorvntions for the - "ronllv resent this poliev of <?prr |*Por'»_ tion. Tho i) re rvon do ration of t^ rt hhu-V population, with its h*notol** rapid increase, over the, nnmhev of wit if a? in <south Afrie.n h.a- *■» prohlem of the first Po. lonicntion efforts the lacf t«o and a half oootnriec fnilrri the eonntry anvthine hot a m’-n. trv of Mark moil. The coloured arp increasing in number far more

rapidly than the whites. Of late, more Europeans have been leaving the Union than have been entering it. Fifty years ago there were in South Africa, roughly, 800,000 whites and 2,500,000 blacks. To-day the European population is approximately 1.500,000, while there are 5.500.000 blacks, who arc increasing more rapidly than the whites. South African industries reveal a disposition to employ an everincreasing percentage of coloured labour. There is no inducement to large scale white immigration. The unskilled and semi-skilled European who contemplates emigration does not turn to South Africa. What work he could do is already being done by the coloured man. The natives of the Cape Province have the right, along with Europeans, to elect members to Parliament, and the demand to send members to Parliament is growing in that province. In five years, according to experts, the natives of the Cane will outvote the Europeans.