THE SHIFTLESS NEGRO.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9632, 26 October 1909, Page 7

THE SHIFTLESS NEGRO.

We hear a good deal of the laziness and thriftlessness of the Maori, but if an article by a Southern Judge in "Hamnton'a Magazine" is to be beiicvtd, the Maori is hard working and thrifty compared wiih the American negro. The most Hopeless thing about the negro seems to be nia laziness. The averaze black man -Judge Dickson fully recognises that there ar« many admirable people among the negroes—does the least possible amount of work in the most indifferent manner. The interests of his employer are nothing to him. He leaves his job at a moment's notice, it is quite common in the Soti'.h for black servants lo take sumnary leave of their employers, and cooks delight in doing this when their mis trCssss are ill or have their houses full. Many negroes, if they find they can li«e on a dollar ajveek, with the ntlp <f their wives' earnings, will work one djy in the week for a dollar, and loaf the other six. A large planter who gives work to thousands of negroes says that the greatest time spent in work by any

negro in Lis estates last year was 138 days, and the average was 112 days. The proporton of cotton raised by negro labour is steadily dwindling; that raised by white labour is increasing. In the Yazoo-Miasissippi delta, one of the most fertile regions in the world, it is rare to see a negro cabin with a flower or vegetable garden. The negro will not take the

trouble to ruise pigs or chickens. His pork corses from Chicago, and his hominy from the West; living on "the richest loam of the globs, the negro eats his dinner from a sardine can, and takes condensed milk from another can." The Llack labourer gets good wages, but he has t no idea of saving. His money too I often goes in inordinate railway travelling, riding in merr.v-go-round?, banjos, confectionery, and cheap jewellery. The Northern busi • ness man who invests his money in Southern enterprises begins with the idea common in the North, that the negroes have been badly treated, and should be trusted and encouraged. He finds instead that his negroes take no intelligent interest in their wurk, that they have no capacity to plan, and that they are shirkers. Not possessing the Southern charity for the black man, he becomes more rabid than the Southerner. But when he tells his Northern friends of his experiences they shrug their shoulders, and say he is tainted by Southern prejudice.