194 BANTU INDUSTRIES. 



(3) They .are far more deeply in debt than they were then. 

 Now what does this all end in ? Just this : — 



(1) Rapidly increasing poverty and debt. 



(2) A hopeless outlook to the future. 



(3) Growing discontent with the present. 



(4) Restlessness and a blind desire for change. 



(5) An evergrowing liability to be misled by rash and evil- 

 minded agitators. 



To these agitators — some ignorant, half-educated young 

 bloods, others adventurers of experience bent on raising money 

 for deputations and petitions- —it is very easy to make out that 

 "All these evils come on us because white men treat us ill and 

 flourish by seeking our blood." Because it is true that in 

 very many quarters there is a mind obsessed or diseased, half- 

 scared, half- angry, ready to strike out blindly at the first thing 

 that seems to injure. 



"Hence come these recurring Nntive troubles. Sitting on- 

 the boiler by increasing the police will not help for long. 



"The pressing question is. How is life to be made less 

 dreary, aimless and futile for the rapidly growing mass of 

 Natives who have got past the stage when plenty of mealies, a 

 good deal of beer, an occasional faction fight, with endless 

 loafing jmd gossip around the kraals, spell content and happi- 

 ness? How, in ta. word, are these people to get something to 

 occupy their minds and energy, and give them an ambition and 

 a prospect in life?" 



Happily, a new factor has come into South African life with 

 the calling into being of the Native Affairs Commission, and with 

 it the hope, so often deferred during the last twenty-five years, 

 of progressing with native industries, shines bright again. 



The Prime Minister, who is also Minister of Native Affairs, 

 has frankly admitted that a new stage has been reached in the 

 development of the native races, which demands new methods. 

 The members of the Native Affairs Commission are, I believe, 

 thoroughly convinced that along some such lines as those sketched 

 in this paper new opportunities must be offered to the Bantu 

 people of the Union. Further, the members of this Association, 

 with their powerful and far-reaching influence, can, if they will, 

 help native industrial development out of the mire in which it has 

 so long stuck fast, and speed it on a successful journey. 



