PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION E. 95 



CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE NATIVE QUESTION. 



BY 



Senator The Hon. A. W. Eobbrts, D.Sc, F.R.A.S. 

 Natice Affairs Commission. 



Presidential Address to Section E, delivered July 13, 1922. 



It is a commonplace to say that the most difficult and also 

 tlie most serious problem in South Africa to-day is the Native 

 Question, in all its manifold bearing. It is difficult and serious 

 because it is inextricably bound up with so many national activi- 

 ties and conditions. In mathematical language the Native 

 element in any problem is the variable coefficient which gives to 

 that problem its place and potency. 



It needs no demonstration that the Native problem is bound 

 up with the social life of the land : that it has the most intimate 

 and direct bearing on the economic progress of the people of the 

 land : and that it is evermore and always on the horizon of 

 matters political. We cannot get away from it in this southern 

 land. It meets us everywhere ; in the kitchen, on the farm, at 

 the docks, down the mines, along the railways. And ever and 

 always it is an immediate incentive to hot discussion and biased 

 judgment. 



Yet we aver that there is no questiion under the suii that 

 demands a clearer outlook, a calmer nwod of mind, and a more 

 unbiased attitude of soul and sense, than this vmsleeping, un- 

 resting, and unhasting problem of black and white in the splendid 

 land that is the common home of both races. 



Now it may seem unfair to bring so moving a matter into the 

 serene atmosphere of a Science Congress. But that is just why 

 I do bring the problem here, so that in the calmness and fairness 

 which science claims as its true environment, from the days of 

 Plato and Socrates down to these remarkable times, we may look 

 at a question so complex and so laden \Y\i\i fate for our land 

 and people, in a spirit of honesty and of courage. 



In a matter so complex as the Native problem is, and so 

 interwoven into the fabric and circumstances of our national life, 

 it is not possible to deal with it in an exhaustive manner. To 

 do so, even if one were to make the attempt in a superficial and 

 imperfect way, wovikl require not an hour, or a whole day, but 

 a whole lifetime, for, as has already been urged, every issue and 

 question in this great land is connected, in one form or another, 

 with this outstanding problem. 



So, with tlie forbearance of my readers, I shall consider 

 only four or five of the more immediate and more pressing aspects 



