240 Tlih: NATIVES OF XATAL IN RlXATloN TO THE LAND. 



i'or a limited time in the planting season, after which time the 

 native women cultivate and harvest the crops. In many cases 

 these native tenants are attached to their masters, and live con- 

 tinuously on the farm for years, and are fully acquainted with 

 the methods of cultivation and the breeding of cattle followed by 

 their European masters. But it is remarkable that in very few 

 instances do they follow his example in the cultivation of their 

 own cro])s ; generally speaking, they are little in advance of those 

 which may be seen on the locations and unoccupied farms. In 

 bad seasons there is often not enough grown for the food oif the 

 family, and it is eked out either by gifts froin the farmer or by 

 burrowing money to purchase. When the latter is the case the 

 Ucitive has always to pay top price. The native is notoriously 

 improvident, and will always borrow money without reckoning 

 of the da}- of payment, and this has become so common that on 

 many farms the whole of the kraal heads and many of the other 

 members of the family are in debt to the owner. The kraal head 

 will readilv hypothecate tht? future, labour of the young- members of 

 the kraal at low wages to pay this debt, and hence another if ruitful 

 source of trouble and litigation. The present position has become 

 so unsatisfactory on some farms that the owners forsee that in 

 the not distant future the native tenant will become a farm-hand 

 living in barracks and furnished with rations, as is the case with 

 Indian labourers on the sugar estates. From the purely economic 

 standpoint this may be desirable, but some of us cannot view 

 without scrio'us misgiving this alteration in the status of the 

 native. It seems a lowering of human life and opportunity that 

 a man, free within certain Hmits well understood by him, living 

 his own life on the soil occupied 'by his fathers, with many 

 interests, tribal and personal, should Ijccome a mere wage-earner 

 without any interest in the soil he tills, and divorced from the 

 social life he so much valued, and denied the rights hitherto 

 exercised, and which he regarded as inalienable to mankind. 



There is a tendency among the Euroi^ean Ifarmers to estimate 

 the value obtained from their native farm servants by the price 

 paid If or it: e.g., if they get the services of a native at 15s. per 

 month he is cheap, if they have to pay 30s. he is dear, irrespective 

 of the quality of the services he may render. Low-priced 

 la1x>ur may in truth he very dear ; intelligent, willing work has 

 been proved all the world over to be really cheaper than un- 

 intelligent, ignorant work, even if a much higher wage should be 

 l^aid. The high wage paid to farm workers in Australia. New 

 Zealand and America, and their higher standard of living, does 

 not prevent these countries from sending their produce to Africa, 

 ill the face of our low wages and mealie-pap-fed labourers. This 

 elementarv. but important, fact must be learned by the land- 

 owners of Natal, and when learnt, there will be hope for the 

 native who works as farm servant, for he may then hope to 

 advance his position and earn wages more commensurate with 

 the more difficult and responsible work he is often called upon to 

 nndt-rt'ike. in these days of more advanced agricultural practice. 



