90 PEESIDKXTIAL ADDRESS SECTIOX E. 



few settlers make good, aud in the end become substantial 

 farmers, while the majority linger on for varying periods, 

 lose all their new capital, and drift back into destitution. 

 These colonies may be regarded as an experiment which has 

 yielded some information, but the method is entirely wrong 

 and the scale of the operations hopelessly inadequate. The 

 latter point is clear, since the settlers are to be niimbered by 

 hundreds, while the poor whites of the country have been 

 estimated officially at something like 100,000. As to the 

 former point, the root-cause of the destitution to be met is 

 that the traditional agriculture of the country folk is not 

 suited to present-day conditions ; to base remedial measures on 

 it is sure to lead to failure — the poor whites do not know how 

 to make a living except with a large piece of land. The first 

 thing needed is to teach them new ways, and to train them 

 to work harder than they have done. I am glad to say that 

 the Department of Lands appears to have come round to this 

 view as a result of this experience. 



One settlement deserves special mention^ — that at 

 Kakamas, on the Orange Eiver. It was instituted by the 

 Dutch Reformed Church, on the traditional lines, so far as its 

 economic aspect is concerned, but the authorities of the 

 Church, owing to the influence they exercise on the Dutch 

 Africander population, have been able to exert a fatherly 

 control over the settlers. The result has been favourable — the 

 settlers have been trained in habits of industry, and the 

 proportion of successes has been considerably greater than in 

 the Government colonies. But the history of the settlement, 

 which is an old one, carries a most important lesson — a new 

 generation has grown up there, and many of the younger men 

 are finding themselves in the very situation from which the 

 colony rescued their parents — that is, there are too many of 

 them to live on the area available. 



It seems plain that the great majority of the destitutes 

 cannot become successful independent farmers. They must 

 go through the stage of working for wages, and then better 

 their status if they are able to. Hence legislative efforts 

 should aim at training them to be good agricultural labourers 

 in the first place. 



This, however, leads at once to the problem of the rela- 

 tions between whites and blacks. Wages of white farm 

 labourers are, as we have seen, miserably low, but in the 

 opinion of most progressive farmers they are as high as the 

 labour is worth. IN^atives can be obtained in large numbers 

 at about the same wage, and it is doubtful which makes the 

 better workman. The natives are usually more industrious 

 and, perhaps, more honest; the white man has more latent 

 ability, and his hope lies in the development of that. Only 

 quite slow improvement can be looked for, and policy must 

 be based uuon the liope of Dlacing the children in a better 

 position. Very little can be done at the best for the majority 

 of the destitute whites of the present generation, but if their 

 children can be well trained in favourable circumstances their 

 racial superiority will show itself, and they may be able to 



