120 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION D. 



reduced the deatli-rate. It was an idyllic time for the Bantu : 

 they had got such advantages of civilisation as suited their condi- 

 tion, and as yet the drawbacks had not api)eared. It was a 

 common saying among the whites that the natives were the 

 happiest ])eople upon earth, and when one saw the neat brown 

 kraals in stich beautiful surrounding-^, the contented old men sit- 

 ting in the sun, the splendidly- framed Noung men and maidens 

 going to dance and festivitw the hapi>v round children, one felt 

 inclined to endorse it. 



I should say, though, that even then there was one dark s]jot 

 in race relations. Nearly every small store in the country sold rtim 

 to the natives, and this illicit traffic was the c;vuse of local dnuik- 

 enness and crime. 



I need not say nuich of the white man of those days. There 

 was plenty of land and plent}- of food for all. Overberg tb.e vast 

 herds of game still provided a living for the class of white man 

 who had never been trained to work, and when the game was 

 thinned, trans])ort riding was still ptjssible. Although these 

 callings did not demand stremious contimtous work, they did 

 call for periods of exertion and for si)ecial aptitudes, and there 

 was no reason why those following them shotild degenerate. 

 \Mule himting and kurveying remained ])ossible the poor white 

 was not a problem. He came later. 



And so things remained on the whole till i8S6. 



It is true that diu^ng this time the Zulu power was broken, 

 but the life conditions of the people under the separate chiefs 

 remained much the same as before in tiiat cotmtr)'. In the dis- 

 tricts settled by whites, better cattle, sheej), and horses were 

 gradttally introduced, fencing and cultivation were extended, Ijut 

 there was still plenty of room for the natives to live their old life 

 on the farms. 'I^he loca.tions were gradually filling u]), and the 

 Crown lands were surveyed and taken up by whites, but still on 

 the whole the ])osition was not materially altered. 



In i<S86 came the great discovery which was to alter the 

 whole social and econoiuic position in .South .Africa for both white 

 and black. This is now 30 years ago. and to-day we arc in a posi- 

 tion to judge of the difference. The life of the ordinar\- native 

 has been changed, both directly and indirectly by this e\ent. The 

 farms on which, up till this time, he could live his ancestral life, 

 are no longer natural s])aces undefined and unaltered by man's 

 action. l'\^nces extend all over the country, ojjen grass land has 

 been covered with plantations, the white man's cro])s run con- 

 tinuously for miles, the livestock, wliit'h used to graze with that 

 of the native, must be kepi ai)art and careftilly guarded from 

 contamination, and the cattle of the native, if he has any, mirst 

 be fenced off in the most sterile portion of the farm. The rent 

 demanded by the landowner has increased enormously ; and 

 instead of simply asking frojn his tenant a few weeks' work in 

 the year, the native is now bound b\ contract to work continu- 

 ouslv for months or years, and if he wants to earn higher wages 



