THE REAL SOUTH AFRICA

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 82, 1 September 1914, Page 6

THE REAL SOUTH AFRICA

A GLOOMY PICTURE,

Mr Ambrose IPi'att, the well-known author, has just given to the world, through the American Press, an informative iook in which a very gloomy picture is drawn of the "Seal South Africa." That the shadows are not due wholly to the personal equation. '3 shown by the citation of a Government report on land settlement which informs the world that the Union does not at pi eaent produce nearly enough foodstuirs for its own needs, that the development of the country will only be possible by the presence of a virile white race in sufficient numbers to counteract the numbers acting in the direction oi barbarism and reversion, and that the trend of existing' conditions indicates that there is a substantial risk of the gravest consequence to the white population unless it can be greatly strengthened and consequently recruited. The author telle us that whatever the port through which a stranger may enter South Africa he is instantly struck with astonishment at the numbers of natives everywhere in evidence. For each white man, he meets seven or eight blacks: The natives are all decently attired, wearing more or less a wbite man's clothes, but modified to suit their savage tastes. The "women (wonderfully comely creatures they are) have a Roman fancy for toga-like drapiugs; the men affect the smock and knee breeches —legs and feet bare and shiny. Botli men and women adore crude blazing colors—scarlet for choice, a flaunting blaring scarlet. So many blacks; so few whites; one begins to be curious. "Ah,'' one says, "but the blacks are an open-ait race—they don't mind this burning sun: the whites are indoors. That is the explanation." Of course, the notion is illusory, but one is always reluctant to accept unpleasant facts. Yet one must at last. One glance at the papulation statistics and the cold douche is over. .Durban, population 67,000, of whom 37,000 are blacks; Cape Town, population, 77,000, of whom »f>,ooo are blacks; Jopopulation (approximately) 200,<M)0, of whom 103,000 are blacks; and similar proportions obtain in nearly all the other cities and larger towns. Of the country there is a still more interesting tale* to tell. The census returns of 1004 show that there are 4,'G32,<i<i2 blacks as against 1,135,000 whites within the Union; and it has been estimated that fully another 2,000,000. natives live south o'f the Zambesi.

The blacks are not only intelligent, but they have a passion fov education. The author tells us of a conversation that lie had with a representative native who told him that his people would certainly demand their rights as soon as they were sufficiently educated and organised. They were willing to discuss the question at all times, "but the whites held disdainfully aloof and co'ntiimcUously ignored them.*' Tlicris wa9 a white conspiracy to treat the negro educational movement as a shadow and educated negroes as monstrosities. These natives are only intelligent, but they often have the martial spirit, and therefore, a Sense of independence and pride. Wc are told a good deal about the Dasutos and their great leader lloshesh, who broke Chaka. and slew Gen-

eial 'Wepencr, and defeated Sir George Carthcart—Moshosh. '-'the chief who was never conquered and died unbeaten." The negro lias no literature, but lie lias a history of traditions. K.very native living in South Africa to-day has learned thi' story of Moshosh; knew it by-

heart before lib' teens, and he sings his heroes' exploits every holiday:

The Basutos are well mounted and fairly well armed. Tliev have plenty of carbines and lmiuser rifles, and a few machine guns. It is a crime—under the white man's law—punishable with ■ a ,t.">lt:> fine and penal servitude to carry arms into Basutoland. Hut the Basutos are rich and their money tempts. An illicit trade in arms nourishes beneath the rose, and the Basutos are steadily increasing their stock of modern weapons. They are born fighters, men of . dauntless " courage and classical physique; toiigli in fibre, virile, strong, anil incredibly enduring. They drill well. Their discipline is superb. They ride like centaurs. They shoot straight. All their stories are of lighting; all their songs are of battle. Their country is a stronghold. It was found impregnate to white assault when the Basutos knew no better weapon than the assegai and were less than SO.IXH) strong. The Basutos are seven times more numerous today and they are armed with the white man's guns." Their eerie lookouts and mountain passes command throe passes of the I'nion. In a few hours they can mobilise an army of tens of thousands of cavalrv. 'i'hev "have shown that they can do it. What will happen if such a horrible horde irrupts? f put that question to a leading politician at Capetown, lie frowned and hall' closed his eyes.

"The. Basutos i'.nd some other nations seem to be far superior in almost every respect to the "Unci's, whoso standard of civilisation belongs to the sixteenth century. They are natural slave-owners and slave-owning has produce.! its invariable results of ignorance and slotn. The Boer has bis virtues, but they are of the negative kind. He has been ruined by slave-owning, and although slavery has been nominally abolished, it remains very much alive among the Boers, who will never work so long as they get the natives to work for tliem, and their persuasions are always of the most forcible kind:

Take iinv Boer farmer, however poor, end examine his 'hands. They are as soft as any woman's: and, if washed, quite as white. Examine his mind. If literate, lie will confess having read one book—the Bible, or rather, a part of it—the Old Testament. But one in every live Boers can neiLher read nor write. Education is now compulsory in the Transvaal: it has never been compulsory elsewhere ill Africa, and is not yet. Tn consequence "ignorance, illiteracy, and dullness pervade tlie land. The penultimate census (taken in 11)04) showed 434.0(H) literate whites of all ages in the Cape, and 134.1)1)0 who could not tell one letter of th« alphabet from the other—this is the most populous, cultured and progressive proviiue of tlie Union. In the light of this discreditable fact, one's wonder at the dearth of an indigenous South African literature diminishes, and one gains a cleaver

understanding why the British and the better educated Dutch attach so tremendous an importance to the language and -.'duration problem which is at this moment still unsettled and is still engrossing the attention of all classes of the body politic.

Ambrose Pratt is emphatic in the be lief that South Africa's only chance of salvation is that it shall become a white man's country. Nothing can save Soiitn Africa, he insists, except a large immigration of whites, who are prepared not to oversee the work of others, hut to work- themselves. Nothing is more certain, in bis tpinion, than that the people who do the work of a country will eventually inhoit it. And the negroes are doing neany 311 the work of South Africa to-day!

The same writer declares in the article we have quoted from that life in the mines is frankly horrible. The mines are a disgrace to civilisation, and certainly nothing more abominable could have been found in Siberia. The Hand, says the author, id an engine of wholesale destruction. The mines "polish off" tropical natives with remorseless expedition, practically decimating them every year, and they do not treat the whites much better.' The fatal accidentrate alone is over eight per thousand. A Chamber of Mines report shows that 2!),!M2 workers perished in the Transvaal mines during the five years ending 1900, and this does not include those who die after leaving, and we are told that "at least one-third, and probably more of the disabled Hand miners leave the country and die:— "The facts that T have set clown above, are odious to relate, yet thev ought to be related. They indicate" that the Kami gold is rather a curse than a blessing to South Africa. South Africa, to a very large extent, lives upon it. but how many victims die! The system is one of thinly disguised, blood-smeared ulavcry. The foundations of it are the blacks, who toil for a pittance and perish like locusts. A little higher up are the white workers. They earn ou an average ,C 1 per day, but they live only from seven to nine years. On top arc the magnates, who bold their feasts and levees nnd dwell in imperial luxury. The money they lavish keeps the whole of South African commerce moving steadily. Ancient Nineveh and Babylon have' been revived. Johannesburg is their : twentietli century prototype. It is a \ city of unbridled squander and unfathomable squalor. L'l'.'inc is move costly than one's wildest 'dreams. All j the necessities of life are impudently ! dear. Miners of England and Australia, i however poor may be your lot. however j dark 1 our present prospects, lei. no man j tempt you to South Africa with the ! tales of the wages that are paid on j the Hand. The wages are high indeed, j lint the price the workers pay for them I is paid in suffering and blood. Better j ft thousand limes perish as paupers in i your own country, if such a chiincc : should happen, than nice to an early : tomb in a hot, deep South African j cavern." i