508 FACTORS IN NATIVE liCCJNO.MIC DEVELOPMENT. 



ethnological, and historical, whatever there is of economic interest 

 and value has crept in mainly, if not altogether, as a side issue. 

 There is therefore a vast field of research awaiting investigation 

 and exploitation, and the importance of these investigations 

 cannot be sufficiently urged. It is not by any means sufficient to 

 acknowledge that the Natives are an asset to the State, nor am 

 I to be regarded as urging the mere commercial exploitation of 

 the Native population. Nevertheless one cannot but see the 

 enormous advantages accruing to the Natives themselves as 

 the standard of thought, and life, and work, is raised, issuing 

 in the growth of wealth per head of ])Opulation from, say, two 

 pounds per annum spending-power. uj) to not less than twenty 

 pounds per annum spending-power. Whh a Native population of 

 (roughly) one million, it would make the very substantial differ- 

 ence of £18,000,000 per annum for purposes of taxation and 

 commerce. Applied to the Union of South Africa, wi,th a 

 population of (roughly) seven millions, the aggregate gain in 

 wealth available for all puq^oses would be raised to £138,000,000. 

 annually. This looks like juggling with figures, but it represents 

 sober fact. It is, indeed, obvious that even so moderate an 

 advancement as that suggested would be beneficial not only to 

 the Natives themselves, but also to the white merchants, and 

 to the State. So far, however, our eyes have been closed to the 

 possibility, or else we have feared the competition of the black- 

 man would oust the white man, but meanwhile the progress of 

 the Native peoples continues, and must inevitably do so, in spite 

 of all obstacles most folk are content to leave in their way. 

 We may as well try to stop w^ater from running down hill — it 

 may be dammed back for a time onlv until its own weight breaks 

 down all barriers with a rush and flood. The wise man, there- 

 fore, will attempt to understand the conditions and the factors 

 at work. In its ultimate analysis the problem may be sunmied 

 up thus : — Are the natives happier, and better off, and living to 

 best purpose, under their own tribal organisation, and laws, and 

 customs, than they would be under British law and administration, 

 subjected to the powerful transforming factors of education and 

 economic pressure? 



That they are still mainly a pastoral people to-day is 

 admitted ; that they are rapidly becoming more and more an 

 agricultural people is a fact. Then, again, their tribal organisa- 

 tion is to all intents and purposes disrupted already in some 

 parts of the Union, and in process in other areas. Witchcraft, 

 the dominant and binding factor of heathenism, is largely dis- 

 credited, and lingers mainly as a powerful, deep-rooted, secret 

 superstition, and in consequence the ancient laws and customs, 

 practised from time immemorial, are either fallen into disuse, or 

 corrupted with many modern ideas drawn from various sources. 



The position, then, is that we have burned the bridges and 

 the Native peoples are definitely and actually cut off from the 

 terrible past, so that it is too late to even put the question 

 v/hether the old regime should continue. The hour for indecision 



