24 president's address. 



by far the majority, since they were the first settlers, and have 

 the longest been subject to the deteriorating influences of the 

 remote country, the back veld. It is their adventurous and 

 freedom-loving nature which has been their undoing. "Our poor 

 rustics to-day are the depositaries of the traditions of the Great 

 Trek, and the children of the pioneers of civilisation in this wide 

 land." But South Africa owes much to them for their pioneer- 

 ing efforts in the opening-up of the country. 



As regards the proportion of the population now involved, 

 rural and urban, we cannot do better than quote the estimate of 

 Prof. W. M. Macmillan in his lectures on the "Agrarian 

 Problem," who writes: "We might state the case thus, that nearly 

 one-twentieth of the white population of the Union are in per- 

 manent absolute poverty, many of them perhaps demoralised 

 beyond redemption; in addition, we have to reconstruct society 

 so as to prevent perhaps considerably more than another twentieth 

 from being dragged by adverse, but remediable conditions, down 

 to the level of those submerged." The second Interim Report of 

 the Unemployed Commission, just published, estimates there are 

 100,000 to 120,000 poor whites in the country, representing some 

 25,000 families. How seriously the matter is viewed by the legis- 

 lature is reflected in the following Resolution passed by the Senate 

 on the 8th April of the present year: "The House viewed with 

 alarm the dimensions of the poor white question, and requests 

 Government to continue to make every effort by means of irriga- 

 tion schemes and other works to induce these people to leave their 

 urban environment and go on the land." 



The production of a large indigent class of land-owning 

 farmers, descended from virile stock, is probably unique in social 

 evolution, and has an intense interest for the eugenist. It is to 

 be ascribed to the depressing effect of isolation consequent upon 

 the sparsely populated character of South Africa, the harsh 

 pastoral and agricultural condition of the country occupied, and 

 the presence of the inferior Bantu race. In other countries the 

 indigent population is constituted largely of the inefficients and 

 incapables by nature; but the originals of South Africa's sub- 

 merged were efficients. The class is specific in its origin; it is 

 for the most part a result of historical and geographical factors 

 acting on an otherwise desirable strain. 



In the meantime, and more especially during the past twenty 

 years, a new agricultural and industrial era has dawned upon 

 South Africa. The extension of railways, the manifold activities 

 of a vigorous and well-directed Department of Agriculture, the 

 development of schemes of water storage and irrigation, successes 

 against animal diseases, the introduction of high-grade stock of 

 all kinds, the advent of the ostrich and lucerne and fencing, the 

 encouragement of fruit and grain production, and better methods 

 of disposal and export of products have placed pastoral and agri- 

 cultural effort on an assured basis, and one at the same time both 

 progressive and intensive. Mining, metallurgical, and manufac- 

 turing industries have made their advances and wielded an 

 influence in the country's advancement. 



