THIi TRADES SCH()(H. IN THE TRANSVAAL. 355 



mission Report. I may, however briefly paraphrase the findings 

 of the Commissioners in the hght of my own fifteen years' expe- 

 rience in this country. Let us keep in mind that there is a very 

 high attainment in skilled handicraft among the coloured people 

 of this sub-continent and that very skilled work indeed is done 

 by coloured people, especially in the Cape Province. The printing 

 trade contains a large number of both sexes in simple composing 

 and in machinery. The bookbinding trade employs a number of 

 coloured females, principally in stitching. I need not remind any^ 

 one of the Malay plasterer, the best of his kind. The coloured 

 carpenter, the coloured painter, the coloured wagonmaker, the 

 coloured saddler are all greatly in evidence in the Western parts 

 of the Cape Province. I was surprised to find in Natal, when 

 visiting a certain sugar estate, in 191 t, that Indian youths were 

 employed as laboratory assistants in the testing departments ; I do 

 not mean cleaners ; I mean actual assistants who could be trusted 

 to read the scales and verniers of half-shadow polarimeters and 

 such-like instruments, to make the actual adjustments, and to 

 record the readings. If we read Indian for coloured in my 

 remarks on Cape Province I think we have the conditions in 

 Natal fairly accurately. 



And in the Transvaal we are slowly but surely approaching 

 Cape conditions ; we already have our native blacksmith and 

 native or coloured saddler. It is true that the native blacksmith is 

 only a hammerman and the saddler what is called a " stitcher." I 

 feel sure that the colour wedge will enter the printing trade here 

 as it has done in Cape Colony as soon as competition becomes suffi- 

 ciently keen to demand a cheaper production ; if, indeed, it has 

 not done so already. In other words we already have a little 

 more than the thin edge of the wedge; (16) these people are 

 learning here the trades controlled by whites in other countries, 

 and, as they increase in numl^ers they will go further afield in 

 search of work. 



The native is rapidly qualifying himself to enter into competition with 

 the white population in the skilled trades. (17) 



It will not do to attempt to stop this natural expansion in 

 ability among the coloured peoples by the adoption of preventive 

 measures designed against them. There are native institutions 

 giving instructions to natives, of course for natives, throughout 

 the country, which it would raise Imperial questions to take action 

 against ; apart from these there is the educative association with 

 the white man which, in the very nature of things, it is impossible 

 to stop. 



It is impossible to prevent the coloured worker by means of legislation 

 from doing any skilled work for which he is qualified. (20) 



It is said to be possible by adjusting wages (21) to provide 

 sufficient scope for the European, the Eurafrican and the Native. 

 Dififerentiation in wages could only take place on the basis of 

 relative ability; thus the salvation of the European artisan can 



