The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11. MR. FOWLDS ON AFRICA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 220, 11 January 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11. MR. FOWLDS ON AFRICA.

The rnmerks of Mr. Fowlds, who gave sonic impressions of South Africa to a Sydney pressman, are valuable as coming from a careful man who has had some opportunity of examining a eountry which may yet loom very largely as a controversial subject. It was not to he expected that a New Zealand statesman would have seen anything to copy from South African government, because, naturally, a Xew Zealand statesman would be I convinced that his Government was a pattern-one. But the problems of Xew Zealand, in comparison to the problems of South Africa, are as a game of marbles to a game of chess. Mr. Fowlds put his linger on the one overwhelming question when he mentioned that "South Africa would never be a white man's country.' 1 The white Afrikander and the imported white man have never yet shown the slightest disposition to make it a white man's country. The white people of South Africa are not the workers of the country, and merely represent the brains that control colored labor. That the control is not always adequate is shown in the fact that despite the enormous population of the finest races of colored people in the world, the great mining companies—especially on the Rand—still obtain indentured black labor from outside South Africa. In short, the vast, majority of South African natives are still content to carry on in the old way, to live the life they have lived for centuries, and to increase and multiply altogether in disproportion to the increase of the white man, cither internally or from without. The native custom of polygamy and the extraordinary strength and vigor of the greater branches of the African black races emphasises the point that the longer the scattered white remains in Africa, the less chance he will have in making it a "white man's country." The white man in Africa contemptuously refuses to perform any menial tasks, and certainly the black man has the chance to refuse whenever he feels like it. The curious fact that Xatal has been in the habit of importing thousands of Indian coolies, who are much inferior as workers to Zulus, Matabeles, Basutos, etc., is rather a commentary on the hold white Xalalians have over their own "nigger." Xow that the Indian Government will not longer allow the indenturing of Hindoos, it follows that Xatal must use its own people, black or white, and labor for sugar plantations will not be white. An interesting point touched on by Mr. Fowlds was the brotherhood alleged to be now existing between the Dutch and British elements in South Africa. We do not believe that the two races are brotherly in an Imperial sense, but that they are shaking down into community of interest in order to be at on* on the great question: defence against tho black man. The black man is apparently as safe as a child as long as he is allowed to remain the kind of "heathen" he is. The white folk who butt into the customs of the millions of black men could set South Africa in a blaze from the Zambesi to Table Bay. The reason why India is comparatively peaceful with a handful of whites to govern it is that the authorities have always treated native traditions and customs with immense deference. Illustrating the ease with which otherwise harmless black folk can be spurred to demoniacal fury, one has only to mention the last native rising, due entirely to the harsh collection of the hut tax, which no native has ever been able to understand and never will be able to. At any rate, the relatives of the thousands then slain do not forget the white man for his hut tax and his machine guns. The danger from all native races lies in possible organisation. The influence of a great chief is more to be feared than detached rows or tribal battles. How fully the authorities understand this is shown by their action in the case of the famous Cetewayo and the influential Dinizulu and his uncle. If it were possible for a great leader to make the millions of South African blacks "think nationally" and all together, they would be irresistible. What South Africa need not fear is undisturbed kraals of black men. What she need fear is the uprising of a black Rhodes, outside influence, American "Ethiopianism," the ''Anglicising" of native boys, education of natives, and any attimpt at equality between black and white. Mr. Fowlds has said that he believes that in a few years there will be a distinct national feeling in South Africa and that this will be shared by both the white races. It is much more likely that there may be a "national" feeling than an Imperial one. Politicians depend largely on measures and not the people's good sense for promise of complete change in a country's ideals. Xo act that can be put on the South African Statutes can eliminate race prejudice. After all, Nature's way is the best. One remarkable and wholly excellent phase of development in South Africa since the war is the increasing number of marriages between Dutch and British people, and although it has been often proved that British women married to Dutch men become Dutch in ideals, their families becoming Dutch also, there is the reverse side of the picture. The political idea as shown by Mr. Fowlds' remarks is that "new lines of cleavage in politics and which would range both English and Dutch on each side" would effect some unnamed benefit. This political cleavage would not shatter the ideals of a Dutchman, because there were also Britishers thinking politically the same as himself. Indeed, one need not look so much to politics for the solution of the enormous questions in South Africa as to a greater share in the real work of the country by white men. However mentally vigorous

the Afrikander may be, he shows no disposition to be physically so, although a greater part of South Africa is eminently suitable for white workers. The indisposition of the white Afrikander to work has created a large class of poor whites who have neither the ability nor the inclination to work. Indeed, the poor white'is already a problem, and his occasional disposition to consort with the black races is as bad for the black race 'as for his own. Whether, as Mr. Fowlds suggests, a Federal Labor Party is evolved is not an essentially great question, at least to anybody but a politician, for white labor is the most unpopular thing in South Africa. .Mr. Fowlds prophesies that English will be the future language of the South African States, but although officially it certainly is at present the prevailing language, the wholesale dismissal of British officials in place of Dutch officials minimises its influence extensively. The average man in South Africa speaks either language as occasion demands, and there are still a very large nuniDor of influential old ''nevtr-enders" who strenuously refuse to do anything but sweur in the language of the "rooinek."