The Daily News FRIDAY, APRIL 6. AFRICA: TROUBLE AHEAD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8078, 6 April 1906, Page 2

The Daily News FRIDAY, APRIL 6. AFRICA: TROUBLE AHEAD.

I" We (the-British) ai'e the heroes of ages, masters of every race; proving the right to the title by the bullet's saving grace." Tlr.it is the license of poetry, of course, but it is pretty near the uiarlf. If you think of what is being done in Natal, at this moment, you will agree that Britain is " proving her right by the bullet's saving grace." A while ago the Natal Government folt that it ought to have something for its unwieldy, overpaid, and gorgeous police force. And so it imposed a hut tax on the natives. Any native who was industrious enough to knock up a hut or kraal for himself was the victim. No • black man ever lived who could understand or see the justice in the imposition of any tax whatever for living on the land his fathers lived on " before him.- » # # #

Iscidentally, the imposition of this hut tax is for purposes of revenue, but really so that the police (who collect all native taxes under arms) might keep an eye on the natives. Evidently the way to keep the Kaffir loyal is to threaten him with a gun. Some Kaffirs, who didn't like the hut tax, got angry. They killed a police inspector, .and immediately a mob of blacks were sentenced to death, apparently by a court-martial having no Imperial sanction, and not being composed of Imperial officers. The Natal Government evidently endorsed the action of the unconstitutional courtmartial, and the Home Government, in the person of Lord Elgin, ordered tho Natal people to desist from killing the batch of natives until it made enquiries. The Natal people are angry, Why not kill a few natives? Also, why should the Imperial Government dare to interfere with Natal? In the meantime, Natal is thirsting for more gore. The Natalians naturally conclude, as all Britishers have everywhere concluded, that the best place for a black man is under the British heel. ' If a few of iiim got concessions the rest would want them, and become dangerous. *** 0 '

The danger in Africa at the moment is greater than it has ever been before, for not only is the British-Afri-kander element doing all in its power to keep the Boer natural spirit alive, but the dark races are every day becoming more and more alive to their own strength. The Ethiopian races in Africa could put into the field a magnificent army of fighting men, outnumbering tho British army and the Afrikanders by ten to one, The black races in Africa are not squamish in regard to the death of the enemy or themselves; and feeling, as they must necessarily do, that the white man is an interloper who makes tiie black man pay for the right to live in his own country, the coming South African war will be the biggest thing in history.

* * * * It is possible that the Dutch-Afri-kanders will see in the grievance of the natives the opportunity to again htiive for n Dutch Republic in British South Africa. The chances for a continuaiico of a British South Africa, when Boer and Ethiopian join hands, are not hopeful. And Britain takes tho chances of being wiped off the map of Africa by insisting on a most unjust regulation, and enforc ing it by armed police. As matters at present stand, tho Natal hut tax is likely to be costly. British papers are full of advice to the Colonial and the Home Government on tho subject, most of them wanting the blood of the blanks who won't pay

the hut tax. it is an easy thing to shriek for blood while sitting in an arm-chair.in London. The man who deais with a question of this sort has first to put himself in the position of the Natal blacks, who have lived a free and untrammelled life, and who, if wronged or attacked, know no other way than to strike back—to kill.

# # » * He has first to find out 'whether the methods employed by the South African constabulary in their tax-gathering raids are pacific or otherwise, before he gives an opinion as to whether it is just to shoot a band of natives who have killed a policeman because he in their minds embodied a power that was inimical to their freedom, their property, and their existence. The natives of South Africa nre led by coloured men who are deeply versed in the history of other coloured wees iii their contact with the white. They know that where the two have met the black is weakened and ultimately wiped out. In the fullness of the present-day views, the Kaffirs feel a boundless confidence in their ability to retain South Africa for the black man, and know the ab solute simplicity with which it can be done.