BANTU INDUSTRIES. 189 



grow freely in this country. It should not be difficult to trans- 

 plant the industry as well as the willows. Our beautiful grasses, 

 bayonet reeds, and the like lend themselves to basket-making, mat- 

 making, etc., and the leaves of a palm growing near the coast make 

 excellent hats. Why not try to found a South African "Panama" 

 hat industry ? Rope and string can also be made from our raw 

 products. 



An intelligent commissioner visiting India, Ceylon, Burmah, 

 the Malay States, the Philippines, China and Japan would be able 

 to select many more village industries which would bear trans- 

 planting to this land. He might also be able to arrange for 

 instructors of those industries selected to come to South Africa 

 for a limited period, and teach picked Natives who could in turn 

 become the instructors of their own people. This should be much 

 less expensive than employing European instructors, and would 

 be less likely to give to the learners an inflated idea of the mone- 

 tary value of their work. 



It would probably be necessary to establish one or two schools 

 of village industries, and native teachers might be required to 

 spend a year, or less, learning one or other of these village indus- 

 tries. After a reasonable time it should be imperative that every 

 native school teach one or more handicrafts suitable to the raw 

 material of the district in which the school is situated. In this 

 way, within a single generation, a tremendous advance in village 

 handicrafts might be achieved. 



Beyond village industries in the ordinary sense of the term 

 there is a further industrial development for which some of the 

 more advanced native communities appear to be ripe. Many 

 natives are now capable of doing skilled labour. Were they allowed 

 to do it, their earnings would be considerably increased. If the 

 white man denies to them the right to do skilled labour in the 

 towns and on the mines, he cannot deny that they shall do it in 

 their own homes to supply the needs of their own people. To give 

 to the Natives in their own parts of the country suitable and 

 remunerative employment should, as we have already indicated, 

 result increasingly in a voluntary segregation such as is calculated 

 to obviate or reduce the clash between white and coloured labour, 

 and at the same time greatly to benefit the native by keeping him 

 away from the degrading influences of town life, while also making 

 it unnecessary to break into his family life by long absences from 

 home. 



The tendency of the age is for profit sharing — that the man 

 who by his hand-toil wins the wealth should receive a fair share 

 of that wealth. This has been in large measure conceded to the 

 white man. Is it right to deny it to the Native? 



I venture to suggest that a limited liability company (let 

 us call it Bantu Industries, Ltd.) be floated by men of goodwill. 

 who wish to see South African industries go ahead on the basis 

 of fair dealing with the Bantu, and that this company start 

 approved industries for Natives in selected areas, which the popu- 

 lation and other conditions indicate as suitable. One essential 



