TiiK Gkowth ok tiik Nativk Races ov Capk Colony. 257 



were temporarily absent in tlie I'ransvaal and other .South African 

 colonies; on 30th June, 1904, the total number of Cape colonial 

 natives employed in the Transvaal was 15,862. The rate of increase 

 in Pondoland, in respect of which we have no numerical data, is cer- 

 tainlv equal to the general average ; tlie probabilities ai-e, indeed, that 

 it is appieciablv higher. Tn British Bechuanaland, on the other hand, 

 it is probably considerably lower, chietly as a result of the ravages of 

 syphilis. 



Thk Ka(;e Position in 1904. 



In general terms and as accurately as can be ascertained, there- 

 fore, the race position of the colony in 1904 was that there were 

 579,741 Europeans, increasing by "natural" increase at the rate of 19*4 

 per 1000 per annum; 1,424,787 Bantus, "naturally" and "actually" 

 increasing at the rate of 25 24 per 1000 per annum; and a "mixed 

 and other coloured " population of 405,276, increasing at the rate of 

 18'2 per 1000 — part of this latter increase being, however, due to 

 immigration. 



In view of the undoubtedly liigh infantile mortality among the 

 Bantu races, a rate of increase of over 25 per 1000 per annum is 

 phenomenal. Were European immigration to be discontinued and the 

 foregoing rates to continue, the European population of 1904 would 

 double itself in about thirty-six years, the coloured in about thirty-nine 

 years, and the Bantu in slightly under twenty-eight years. 



Causes of very Hkjh Rate of Increase in Bantus. 



This calculation suggests the question— What are the causes of 

 this extremely rapid growth of the Bantu races'? The chief cause is, 

 no doubt, the extraordinary fecundity of the native female living under 

 what may be termed " natural " conditions. Native women having 

 twelve or more children are quite common, and ditiiculcies during 

 child-bii'th rarely arise. The "red" Kafir mother usually suckles her 

 child for about fifteen months, and during that time does not cohabit 

 with her husband, so that the a'verage interval between successive 

 births is about two years; the "dressed" Kafir mother, on the other 

 hand, seldom suckles her child for more than nine months, and cohabits 

 with her husband within a month or two of being confined, thus re- 

 ducing the interval between births to about eighteen months. The 

 average age of girls at marriage is considerably^ lower than in the case 

 of Europeans, being about eighteen years for "red" and twenty years 

 for "dressed" Kafiis ; it is, however, probable that on an average the 

 period of fertilit}- of native women terminates eai-lier than in Euro- 

 peans. Again, at the 1904 census, only 44 per cent, of European 

 males of marriageable age were married, and in the case of nearly 10 

 per cent, of these their wives were not in the colony. On the other 

 hand, 48 per cent, of the " other than European " males of marriage- 

 able age were returned as " married," and amongst the Bantu races, 



