142 rrxiRE of native races of s. rhodesia. 



Another point to whic4i I wish to direct attention is this. 

 The late Maurice Evans, in his study of the South American 

 negro, found, as a racial characteristic, this defect. They seemed 

 quite incapable of saving. It appeared, to be the principal cause' 

 operating against their uplift. Now tliis is not a characteristic 

 defect of the native of South Central Africa. Some of them are 

 spendthrift, the bulk are parsimonious. I should put an ambition 

 for solid wealth as one of their leading characteristics. This will 

 act as a jxiwerful incentive to them to develop as artisans, as 

 members of the working and business communit3\ Do net be 

 misled because at present they mostlj^ show a reluctance to work 

 for white employers. Eemember we have only been here one 

 generation. As a nation they have still to size up the situation 

 and realise the power of money. But I have known many indi- 

 vidual natives who have grasped the idea firmly, and have settled 

 down to a steady life of accumulation. Generally speaking, the 

 native of this country is intellectually the superior of the American 

 negro in most ways. His brain is more alert, more alive, and it 

 will be a great mistake to draw too many analogies to the detriment 

 of our natives from American negroes. Our natives here have not 

 had generations of the shattering experience of slavery to restrict 

 their intellectual environment. 



Another factor which is vitalising the intellect of the 

 Ehodesian native is the intermingling of races. I am not refer- 

 ring to any possible variation of racial heredity by intermarriage 

 between races, but to the effect uj^on social heredity of many 

 races coming in contact. Here in Bulawayo there are probabl.f 

 more languages sjioken, more tribes represented, than m any 

 other town of South Africa. When I first came to Bulawayo 

 my household consisted of eight persons. We habitually, and in 

 every day intercourse, used eight languages, two Em-opean, five 

 native languages, and kitchen Kaffir. A few weeks ago I had 

 in my ofiace a native who spoke sixteen different and distinct 

 languages. Such things as these lead to a considerable sharpening 

 of ideas. 



Xo, I cannot but feel that one or two generations will see, 

 perhaps I should say may see, a great changei in the intellectual 

 development of the native. And I look forward with a great dc al 

 of misgiving to a time when this shall have occurred. I see a 

 large body of natives, running into several thousands, skilled in 

 the professions and crafts, skilled in farming and business, skilled 

 in rhetoric and logic, intellectually as acute, perhaps as the Greeks, 

 and with even less stability. Add to this, that they will be able 

 to command considerable resources of money, owing to the national 

 characteristic of being able to save money, and we have the stage 

 set for tragedy. 



Unless we can somehow develop their moral life, and their 

 standard of liying, we shall go under before them, as bad coinage 

 drives out good. We must be anim.ated by ideals, and we must 

 be prepared to force our ideas to become realities, or we shall 

 perish. 



Some will say: " Yes, but why let things come to such a 

 pass ? Why let the native be educated ? Why not leave him 

 in his raw state ? Whv not introduce a stringent colour bar to 



