6o8 THE NATIVES IN THE LARGER TOWNS. 



hostels, or in other approved areas, of temperance hotels or board- 

 ing-houses to be conaucted by iNatives under licence of the local 

 authority. 



The establishment of Advisory Boards of Natives in locations, 

 as contemplated by the Bill, will be regarded as a new departure 

 by most of the lown Councils in the Union, 



An Advisory Committee of Natives has been in existence in 

 Durban, but untortunateiy the personnel of the committee has 

 been disappointmg, and its work cannot be said to have been satis- 

 factory or successful. The scope of an Advisory Board consisting- 

 of men able to otter sound opinions and advice would be exten- 

 sible to almost every relation in which the Natives are attected 

 by their residence in towns. 



The Native members of the Advisory Board should assist in 

 such matters as the visiting of hospitals and gaols, the encourage- 

 ment of thrift and the social and recreational work of the Native 

 locations. These activities would give them a steadying sense of 

 responsibility and stewardship, a much-needed antidote to the 

 crazy and demagogic ideas by which some of them are inspired. 



In what has been said, the duties of the Government, the 

 Town Councils and the Natives have been referred to. But the 

 people who determine the tone and standard of 'behaviour towards 

 ■ the Natives in the towns are the large mass of citizens, and it is 

 UDon their attitude that the happiness or misery of the Natives 

 depends. 



We are not all interested in the human problem which is 

 imperceptibly being either complicated or simplified by the sum 

 of our actions as a community. Individual responsibility on the 

 part of every European and Native for a right-minded attitude 

 on this question is the true ideal, but I fear that this is among 

 those things of which a writer in the i6th century said: 



There are many things in the Commonwealth of Nowhere, wliich I 

 rather wish than hope to see adopted in our own. 



What is to he said, for instance, of a European missionary, 

 identified with one of the largest Native schools in Natal, who is 

 carrying on the selfsame propaganda for which certain Inter- 

 national Socialists have been indicted in Johannesburg? 



Missionary Effort. 



Through a long acquaintance with missionary effort. I have 

 been whole-heartedly in favour of this agency for the enlighten- 

 ment of the Natives. I have not even entertained the mental 

 reservations of Miss Colenso, who, before the South African 

 Native Afifairs Commission, said, with that courage of conviction 

 which characterises all her opinions : 



I have been a missionary myself, and am a missionary myself, so I 

 may say what I think about it. I think we have, many of us, meant well 

 and do mean well, but I think we make quite as many mistakes as any 

 other section of the community. I think, we have done as much harm as 

 good. 



The propaganda I am about to refer to is calculated to do 

 more harm than good. 



In the International Socialist Revietv — a journal which has 



