PRliSlDE.NTlAL ADDKKSS — SKC I'lON D. M2I 



at a distance, nuist get i)erniissi()ii to do so. 'Ihe population of 

 the reserves has increased, and aUhotigh to the eye of the l^uro- 

 pean there is still plent}' of room for the people, the native con- 

 siders he is overcrowded. And so he is with his present 

 methods of cultivation, which, on the whole, have not improved 

 in the past 40 years, ile still tills the same garden luitil it 

 refuses to respond, and then looks for a fresh ])iece. and still 

 scratches the stn"face, giving nothing hack to the exhausted earth. 

 Lately 1 went throtigh the IJmlaas Reserve, and in my mind's 

 eye contrasted it with what 1 had seen 40 years hefore. The 

 kraals were now without plan and untidy, the herds of sleek 

 cattle had gone, and in their place were a few rusty goats. The 

 people were clothed, but mainly in dirty rags. The gardens 

 were ftill of weeds, and many abandoned plots could be seen. 1 

 was told that the women no longer worked in the fields and took 

 a pride in their crops ; they expected tlie men to find money to 

 buy the food they used to grow. The men worked in Durban, 

 and came home at intervals, many returning each week-end, and 

 their wages were largely spent on food. With but little to do in 

 the shape of home dtities, this left the women idle, and idleness 

 had begotten the usual crop. This was in a reserve which in the 

 old times grew a considerable stirpkis of food. It is a picture 

 that is more or less typical of many of the reserves, and to my 

 mind the contrast is a sad one. The Crown lands referred 

 to before have now all been taken up by Euro])eans, and if the 

 native reitiains he remains as the tenant of the white man on 

 terms imposed by him. A native headman residing on these 

 lands, on which his fathers had lived before him. generally got 

 his first notice of the change of ownership from the Ettropean 

 who had purchased them. His love for his kraal site often 

 prompted him to remain, and his status was thus transformed 

 from that of an independent herdsman and cultivator, to that of 

 tenant and farm labom-er. 



Contemporaneously, however, with these restrictions on the 

 land came the great ojjportunity of earning afforded by the \\'\{- 

 watersrand discovery. I need not dwell on this. We know that 

 there are abotit 300,000 natives continuously working on this 

 area in mine, store, household, and many miscellaneous callings, 

 and earning on an average, say, 60s. a month. This it is which 

 has saved the economic situation for the native, and this enor- 

 mous amount of money circulating throtigh them, and diverted 

 in large part into the pockets of the Etu'opeans. has been of 

 tremendous economic advantage to the whites also. With the 

 economic benefit to the native there have come other advantages. 

 On the mines he has been taught to work, to be punctual, and 

 also learned to understand certain skilled processes ;' and when 

 he has served in good European homes, he has learned other 

 virtues, and seen \\hat home life at its best may be. But there is 

 another side. He has learned that the white man will descend 

 to the lowest dept.hs for money ; Ik- has seen liim gratify his 



