PRESIDENTIAL ADDEES,S SECTION E. 87 



are ostracised by sentiment. Indeed, in part of iSouth Africa, 

 natives hardly aspire to skilled mannal labour; the conse- 

 quence is a discontent, wliicli grows stronger as the natives 

 grow more conscious of the situation. I may remind you 

 of those featiu'es in the history of South Africa which are 

 most essential in understanding its present circumstances. 

 The greater part of the Union has been settled by Dutch 

 farmers, whose ideal was the patriarchal style of living. The 

 family, practically isolated by distance from its neighbours, 

 occupied an estate usually some ten square miles in extent, 

 where they farmed for subsistence — that is, they grew a small 

 quantity of corn and vegetables for their own use, and allowed 

 their cattle to graze on the wild pasture around them, yielding 

 meat and milk. On the rare occasions on which they needed 

 money, they sold an ox or a cow at some far-off village. 



The ideal of life, however, included the bringing up of a 

 large family, and the land was divided equally between the 

 children. Thus the kind of farming adopted could at most 

 only last a few generations. It is being destroyed, not so 

 much by any external circumstancea — though immigration, 

 growth of cities and modern improvements in agriculture and 

 transport all help — as by the mere growth of population. There 

 are districts where for several generations subdivision of farms 

 has actually taken place, until the descendants, weakened by 

 intermarriage, drag out a miserable life on plots of ground 

 too small to yield them nourislunent ; in those districts there 

 is much physical and mental degeneracy. 



Mostly, however, the usual results of unequal ability show 

 themselves. The more energetic or lucky son buys out his 

 brother's shares in the family estate; marriage between land- 

 owners consolidates property, and in the course of half a 

 century, perhaps, there comes to be the usual gradation of 

 Avealth and poverty. A class of small squires becomes estab- 

 lished, and a large section of the country population becomes 

 landless and dependent. It is not necessary to haA^e the rule 

 of primogeniture for this condition to arise; on the contrary, 

 no legal or social arrangements have yet been invented that 

 will stop it from arising out of the natural inequality of men. 



I shall attempt a classification of the country population 

 who are more or less poor. It will, of course, be rather vague, 

 and I can offer no figures to show the extent of any class. 

 Nothing at all satisfactory in the nature of a census exists. 

 Statements have been made by Ministers as to the extent of 

 the poor white problem ; they appear to have been based on 

 an inquiry through tlie magistrates, but the results of the 

 inquiry have not been made public, and it seems doubtful 

 whether it v\-as conducted in a way to secure results of 

 scientific value. 



I should like, however, to refer to the researches of my 

 colleague. Prof. W. M. Macmillan, who has made a first- 

 hand investig^ation of conditions in many country districts, 

 especially in Central Cape Colony. Though a single-handed 

 inquiry is, of course, quite inadequate to a nation-wide social 

 problem, and he has had no Governmental assistance, he has 



