president's address. 23 



Tf we accept that the ancestors of the poor white class were 

 neither better nor worse than the corresponding classes in Europe 

 we have to account for their present state of degeneracy, in which 

 they have become for the most part incapable of providing for 

 themselves more than a bare subsistence. Opinions may vary as 

 to some of the causes, and the relative value of the different 

 influences, but a close study of all the circumstances is highly 

 convincing that they are inherent in the natural conditions in 

 South Africa to which the trekkers subjected themselves. The 

 general trend was towards isolation, to removal from centres of 

 activity and progress to distant parts where each could lead an 

 untrammelled existence, free from every form of religious, poli- 

 tical, and economic restraint, where land could be had for a mere 

 nothing. The free, simple, hunting, pastoral life, and the lure 

 of the land, made a strong appeal; the country was thinly peopled 

 and ample room was available for increase of family and stock, 

 or for further migration if necessarv. The presence of the native 

 was a disturbing factor, and at tne same time inhibited any 

 healthy stimulus to manual work, while the hard natural con- 

 ditions prevailing in undeveloped South Africa, with the accom- 

 paniment of drought and flood, discouraged agriculture and all 

 forms of enterprise. The conditions to which the early settlers 

 were subject are well expressed by the South African poet, 

 Mr. F. C. Sclater: 



"Many evils come to try 



Their fortitude : their cattle die, 



Sometimes, -all their sti-eams run dry 



When, 'neath the sun's unflinching sting, 



Earth is as a tortured thing, 



That quivers in its parched pain 



And begs, with blistered lips, for rain! 



Sometimes, when their fields are green, 



Russet clouds on high are seen — 



Hissing clouds that fall like rain 



Over valley, field and plain — 



Hissing clouds that pass in haste 



And leave behind a desert waste." 



With the gradual filling-up of the country and the absence 

 of new areas to which to migrate, the farmer had to restrain his 

 wanderings, his family growing larger, the farm sub-divided, and 

 the resources of the land less. Except in the most favoured spots 

 he gradually found himself becoming poorer and less capable of 

 providing a decent existence. Absence of education and of stimu- 

 lating contact with his fellow-man and with the outer world engen- 

 dered narrowness of outlook, and lack of sympathy and plasticity 

 for progressive measures. It was manifest that the trekker had 

 struck out on wrong lines and could not retrace his steps ; he stag- 

 nated, and his virile nature succumbed. 



The results were such as would be expected, and have little 

 relationship to national characteristics; they would in all likeli- 

 hood have been the same with the people of any nation, subjected 

 to the same environment. The descendants of the Dutch comprise 



