THE NATIVES IN TJlJi LARGER TOWNS. 6oi 



undesirable diversity of ideas being- applied to the treatment of 

 the Natives. 



A course better calculated to improve relations between the 

 races w^ould be for the Government to take power to make regula- 

 tions, and after consultation of the municipal associations and such 

 representative Natives as could ofifer helpful opinions, to frame a 

 set of Native regulations for all municipalities in the Union. 



Native Beer. 



The extension of the monopoly system for the sale of Native 

 beer to all urban areas of the Union is part of the policy of the 

 Bill. 



The monopoly system in Natal was not primarily designed to 

 provide funds for municipal Native administration. Nor can 

 it quite fairly be said to be an instan-ce of the " lesser evil " policy, 

 that bugbear of the truly militant. To view the matter in proper 

 perspective, it is necessary to know something of the Native's 

 .traditional idea of his beverage. The late Zulu King, Cetywayo, 

 when giving evidence before the Native Laws and Customs Com- 

 mission at Capetown in 1881, was asked: "Have you any law 

 ipreventing people from drinking or selling beer made in your own 

 country?" and he replied: " No; this is the food of the Zulus; 

 they drink it as the English drink cofYee." He made the frank 

 admission : " Some do get drunk when they drink too much." 



The Natives in Natal have never been prohibited from the 

 use of their beer for precisely the same reasons which appeared 

 good to Cetywayo and fur the further one that the facility with 

 which the ingredients are obtained and the beer brewed at their 

 kraals would make prohibition an impossibility. To regulate the 

 sale in the towns and to prevent excess. Town Councils were 

 e:'itrusted with the monopoly system under which the beer is sold 

 and consumed under supervision, and amid healthy and whole- 

 some surroundings. 



The misgivings of .'^ome, as to whether the monopoly system 

 for the sale of Native beer will or will not tend to an increase 

 of the drink habit among the Natives, are the doubts of honest 

 tnen, and I do not think thev can be resolved without longer ex- 

 perience and more watchfulness over the definite trend of the 

 svstem. 



The last Missionary Conference in Natal passed^ resolution 

 drawing attention to the demoralisiuij and impoverishing effect 

 of the system upon the Natives, and requesting a restriction of 

 the hours for the sale of beer. Thev have been a.'^ked to furnish 

 specific information with a view \o the fullest enquiry being made 

 into the alleged evil effects of the svstem. 



Hitherto the attitude of critics has been to maintain thatthe 

 Town Council, with the best motives, is pursuing a misguided 

 course, that, in other words, it is trying wrongly to do right. 

 Some have gone further, even condemning the use of the funds 

 derived from the sale of beer in the promotion o.f the well-being 

 of the Natives. The culpability of the Town Council is thus in 



