PKKSIDEXTIAL ADDRESS SECTION F. 91 



maiutaiii tliemselves by work of a higher kind than the native 

 can accomplish. 



I say " may be able," for the prospects are far from clear 

 in any case, and how far the Government is from graspino- the 

 needs of the situation may be judged from this : It has recently 

 been felt that no progress could be made unless powers were 

 obtained to segregate the hopelessly unemployable and send 

 them to labour colonies under police supervision. A Bill w^as 

 drafted, and one of its provisions empowered the" Government 

 to send such persons to labour colonies with their wives and 

 children ! Is it possible to imagine a more utterly -misdirected 

 policy than to send children to a penal colony because their 

 fathers are wastrels y 



Policy must be held to include all classes of education, 

 and the attempts that are being* made to promote general 

 education in South Africa are creditable, especially in the 

 Transvaal, but much more might be done, especially with 

 regard to agricultural and industrial teaching. It is especially 

 desirable to dispel the notion which the South African 

 countrj'man holds — that he knows all that there is to be 

 known about agriculture. 



But whilst there is some improvement in this respect, the 

 natives are not standing still. Their education, except in Cape 

 Colony, has been shamefully neglected by the Government ; 

 but they are quick to learn, and so appreciative of education 

 that they spend money on it themselves. And if they have 

 not acquired iuuch literary education yet, they get industrial 

 training from the nature of their work, for they are called 

 upon to do all kinds of work under the supervision of white 

 artisans, and so get the opportunity of acquiring skill as 

 mechanics, builders' workmen, miners, etc. Of my personal 

 impressions of South Africa, none is more marked than the 

 advance noticeable among tlie Kaffirs during' the fifteen years 

 that I have known the- country. Tliey are coming', moreover, 

 to learn their economic importance, and one feels that it will 

 not be possible for long to maintain the policy of repression 

 which the former Republican Government adopted, and which 

 has not yet been definitely modified. 



We are now prepared to discuss, on broader lines, the 

 future of a country whose population is one-fiftli of European 

 and four-fifths of Kaffir origin. The present conditions can 

 only, as we have seen, be looked upon as transitory and 

 unstable; we may, for the sake of clearer thinking, first make 

 a list of the ultimate possibilities. These are (1) that the 

 white race should continue to grow and colonise, and gradu- 

 ally drive the Kaffir race into other countries ; (2) that the 

 Kaffirs should advance so much as to create a situation 

 economically impossible for the whites, gradually driving 

 away the latter, except for a small governing class such as is 

 found in India now ; (3) that the two races should be effectively 

 segregated in different districts of South Africa, and agree to 

 leave each other alone there ; (4) that they should mix to form 

 a population which, while not actually homogeneous, would be 

 divided by no insuperable colour line, but would permit of 

 free dift'usion between classes. 



