184 BANTU INDUSTRIES. 



Now it concerns us to discover if present conditions are con- 

 ducive to the contentment of the Natives. To-day there are some 

 250,000 Native and coloured boys and girls in the schools of the 

 Union. This means that the wants of these young people in 

 clothes, food, houses, books, and in numerous other things will, 

 as they grow up, be increased. Is anything adequate being done, 

 either in school or out of it, to fit these young people to earn 

 honestly such a living as will enable them to meet these increasing 

 wants both for themselves and their children ? 



I am well aware that a great many whites are totally opposed 

 to educating the Natives. These wise people overlook the fact that 

 every, white person who employs a Native — be he or she farmer, 

 miner, storekeeper, manufacturer, contractor, or housewife — is 

 already educating that Native, and arousing in him the wish to 

 obtain many things in the way of food, clothes, houses, imple- 

 ments, and others too numerous to mention, of which he sees the 

 white man in possession, and which become desirable in his eyes. 



There are only two ways in which Native education can be 

 effectively stopped.. The one is absolute segregation which would 

 end both native trade and. native labour; the other that white 

 people leave the country altogether. 



South Africa is not prepared for either of these alternatives, 

 so native education, on a scale far beyond the capacity of the 

 schools, will go on inevitably and increasingly. One thing the 

 of ten-times disparaged missionaries try to do, is to impart, together 

 with the inevitable education, moral and religious sanctions which 

 may serve as ballast where the tremendous impact of modern civi- 

 lisation threatens to prove a fiercer squall than the Native can 

 withstand. 



It will be at once said that there is plenty of work to be had 

 on the mines and on the farms. While this statement seems at 

 first sight true, on examination it will be seen that it requires 

 much modification before it can be accepted as even a partial 

 answer to the problem. The mines afford temporary work to a 

 considerable number of men ; but the conditions at the mines are 

 such as to preclude a Native making the work of a miner his life 

 calling. All the time he spends at the mines he is an exile from 

 his family and his home. Hence he only takes up mining as a 

 temporary job, and returns home as soon as his pressing wants 

 are supplied. 



This means that many thousands of native men are being 

 trained to work only spasmodically instead of learning to do 

 regular work all the year round. It" also results in perhaps two 

 or three being at home while one is at the mines. They may not 

 be absolutely idle, for there is something to be done on the land 

 or among the stock; but they acquire the habit of working inter- 

 mittently, with many idle intervals, and far below their potential 

 capacity. 



A far more serious charge against the present system of work 

 on the mines has been brought recently by Dr. R. A. Reith 



