the natives in the larger towns. 599 



Town Councils and Natives. 



The relationship between Town Councils and the Natives in 

 the towns is of a special character. For though Town Councils 

 derive from the Provincial Councils all powers necessary to the 

 discharge of the functions of local administration, such powers 

 do not include the control and administration of Is^ative afifairs, 

 which are by Section 147 of the Act of Union vested in the 

 Govemor-General-in-Council. 



Town Councils in dealing" with Native affairs act, therefore, 

 as agents of the Government, and may do so only within the 

 limitations of the special laws already enacted, and any future 

 Acts of Union Parliament. If all Town Councils would realise 

 that they stand for the Government in a fiduciary position towards 

 the Natives, a different and wider outlook than that hitherto 

 maintained would be brought to bear upon questions of local 

 Native management with benefit to all concerned. 



The Government has formulated a policy, the success of 

 which will largely depend upon the intensity of interest of each 

 Town Council in the local administratioti of Native aft'airs. 



A Bill to provide for the establishment and the better man- 

 agement and control of locations, and other places of residence 

 for Natives, and generally the administration of Native aft'airs in 

 urban areas, has been published, and I am assured that the 

 Government welcomes not only the fullest possible discussion of 

 the Bill, but all intelligent criticism and suggestion, with a view to 

 its amendment before introduction into Parliament. 



The main purposes of the Bill are to define limits within 

 which municipalities may legitimately exert their activities in 

 regard to Native matters, and to furnish guidance as to the lines 

 upon which they should proceed. 



Courses of Discipline. 



Assuming the hypothesis that we stand in loco Parctitis to 

 the Natives, whom we must guide and restrain like children three 

 different courses of discipline come readily to mind for their 

 treatment, and they may be briefly considered here : — 



The first, that principle of instruction recommended by King 

 Solomon, possesses the advantage of antiquity. It was carried to 

 the farthest point of which we have accurate knowledge in South 

 Africa bv Tshaka, but it is graduallv going out of fashion. 



The second course is one which w^as suggested bv Miss 

 Colenso to the South African Native Aft'airs Commission, in 

 terms reminiscent of the imagery of Alice in Wonderland ; she 

 said : 



In the nursery phrase, the fewer of those " nasty don'ts " we have 

 lying about the better. ... 1 say the fewer laws the happier for us all. 



This course may be considered to have been tried in the towns 

 and found wanting, when the powers of the Town Councils were 

 limited by the Municinal Corporations Law. The police were 

 under that law controlled by the Town Council, and the only 



