SOUTH AKKRA — AND THE UNDERGRADUATE. 253 



the silent beauty of the veld, the magic stillness of the night, her 

 splendorous stars — here was Arcadia! No wonder that amid 

 such idyllic surroundings young Condon piped his amorous lays 

 to some blue-eyed " Amaryllis in the shade " what time his 

 Xestorian sire meted out a rude justice to his hinds! Xo wonder 

 that the patriarchs of the village were unconscious of the silent 

 growth of evolutionary and revolutionary forces ! A glamour 

 was upon the land and upon its people : and we venture to say 

 that in many parts of South Africa the spell is yet unbroken. 

 Why break the spell? Fifty years ago the spell was the spell of 

 Arcadia; in this year of grace 1912 the spell is the spell of the 

 Fool's Paradise. We must arouse young Corvdon, we must 

 awaken him to the fact that South Africa is no longer a land for 

 the Lotus-eater, but a land bristling with problems whose solu- 

 tion calls for all the virtues that best become a man — undaunted 

 fortitude, a high spirit of faith, hard work, deep-thinking, justice 

 and self-sacrifice. 



The South Africa of To-day. 



What is this South Africa of to-day? Wdiat are these 

 problems? Let us clearly, and without fear, state facts as they 

 are. We have been deluded, or have deluded ourselves, too long; 

 and the immediate present, not the shadowy and distant future, 

 demands that our Undergraduate should understand them, should 

 realise the trend of mischievous forces that he may set his face 

 dead against them. In thus understanding lies his only hope of 

 proving himself equal to his National responsibilities. 



In reflecting upon our present social and industrial condi- 

 tions we are at once struck by the dominating influence of the 

 Mines. The Mines present a sociological problem unique in the 

 history of man. They attract and they repel. Conscious of 

 their tremendous power in dictating terms, and somewhat arro- 

 gant in asserting selfish interests, they have not yet realised what 

 a telling force for good they can become in influencing our 

 National life; nor yet have they realised the full significance and 

 the far-reaching effects of the evils that are being bred in their 

 midst. Xow, we cannot deny that the Mines act and re-act upon 

 every phase of our being. There is no South African town 

 which does not send its representative young men. no Native 

 tribe south of the Zambesi which does not send its thousands, to 

 Johannesburg and to Kimberley. The Native returns to his 

 kraal no longer ingenuous, stirred with a discontent not exactly 

 divine; the young South African remains to imbibe twentieth- 

 century ideas. ' What are these ideas? We may safely say 

 that the spirit of the Mines is the adoration of the Golden Calf; 

 that the Fligh Priests of that cult and our young acolytes in their 

 zealous devotion are in danger of forgetting their duty to their 

 country, their homes and themselves. Are we surprised, then, 

 that money-hunger is gripping young South Africa? Are we 

 surprised that our social conditions are undergoing a rapid 



