146 Ft'TURE OF NATIVE RACES OF S. RHODESIA. 



is even more against them than that of other classes of natives). 

 By nature they are inclined to beer and women, and beer and 

 women are almost the only recreations offered them. If the beer 

 in the Location Beer Hall is not strong enough for their taste, 

 or they are not allowed to indulge in the riotous jollity commonly 

 dear to the hearts of care-free young men when enjoying them- 

 selves in company, it is the easiest matter in the world to mount 

 a bicycle and find a kraal where the brew is stronger and the licence 

 more free. Almost every native woman they meet is loose, either 

 by profession or as an amateur. Decent home life in a town 

 location is almost an impossibility. Hardly any native who has a 

 wife he does not wish to become common property will risk bring- 

 ing her to town to live. It is small wonder that the more solid 

 qualities have small encouragement to develop, and that the 

 general environment is one of constant desire for excitement, and 

 a giddy whirl of pleasure. With many the principle acted upon 

 is " Eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we shall have syphilis 

 or be in gaol." This is not a healthy condition of affairs, and 

 should be remedied. The remediation is not impossible. The 

 human material is there. In spite of the conditions being so very 

 much against them, there are many natives in town who do lead 

 decent, tln-ifty, hard-working lives. But the atmosphere is against 

 theni, and as long as the present surroundings remain, the present 

 result will continue. The first, the essential, alteration to inake 

 is in the town locations. The trouble with the present locations 

 is that they only fulfil half the requirements. As Kipling says : 

 Single men in barracks don't grow into plaster saints." The 

 present locations are-.admirably adapted to housing bachelors who 

 are away at work all day. They are entirely unadapted to housing 

 families of a race that is not strong in moral restraints. What can 

 we expect of native women and men together in barracks ? 



In addition to the location of existing type, there must be 

 semi-rural locations. The hopelessness of family life in the present 

 locations springs from the fact that the women have nothing to 

 do. Even if they had not generations of agricultural instinct 

 behind them, and women, of course, are the great conservers of 

 tradition and instinct ; even if their traditions in any way at all 

 made them suitable to town life, there is nO' jjossible niche for 

 them to fit into, no outlet for their energies in the present locations. 

 The locations of the future, the semi-rural locations, will be at a 

 greater distance from town. Each hut will have an acre or more 

 land allotted to it. The influence of the missionaries and officials 

 of the locations will be directed to the creation of an atmosphere 

 favourable to women, and men in their spare time, working in 

 their gardens, taking a pride in them, realising the vast difference 

 to tiie productiveness of the soil that is made by close and careful 

 nursing and cultivation. This is not an idle dream, I feel sure. 

 I am certain it can be accomplished. Then it will be possible 

 for a tradition of decent family life in the locations to be created. 

 It will be the' case that men will settle in the locations perma- 

 nently and bring up their families in honest pride. The boys of 

 the family, at the impressionable age, will have the parental 

 influence supporting the mission school influence in favour of 

 decency and sobriety. The girls of the family, who will probably 



