122 PRRSIDENTTAL ADDRESS SECTION D. 



animal passions in bestial fashion ; he has 1)een used as a pawn 

 in thieving and breaking the law in an.y wa}- in which gain 

 could be got. The balance, on the whole, seems on the side of 

 evil. And while he is learning good and evil, he is leaving 

 ])ehind him all the salutar}' influences that controlled his fathers 

 and kept them from acting contrary to the laws which the wis- 

 dom of their ancestors placed upon them. 



Since the great Witwatersrand discovery and all that fol- 

 lowed it came to break up the old native life, two disasters swept 

 the country which had a more immediate influence upon the 

 Bantu. These were the two waves of cattle disease — first the 

 rinderpest, and then the East Coast fever. The economics of 

 this last-named visitation have been investigated and recorded 

 in our transactions by the Rev. J. R. L. Kingon. and I would 

 refer my hearers to his account of the changes this disaster 

 effected in the life of the ])eople.* Remember that before the 

 time the cattle were swept away, the land on vihich the natives 

 could graze was becoming more and more restricted, particu- 

 larly on the farms, and the native had been finding greater and 

 greater difficulty in obtaining sufficient land for them and their 

 increase. When the visitation came, the farmer, who had been 

 feeling the cattle of the native a restraint on his ()pi)ortunities, 

 took advantage of the ])osition to further curtail grazing rights. 

 The native regarded his cattle as his bank, and with his bank 

 broken and no opportunity of getting another bank site, it is no 

 wonder that he feels he might as well spend his earnings as he 

 has nothing in which to invest them. I am told l)y those living 

 on farms and among the natives in the country that this is the 

 position to-day, and that the mone}' earned by work is often spent 

 in worthless trash. Unfortunately this is a tendency that is likely 

 to grow with indulgence. It may be seen in actual operation ; the 

 man who heretofore would have saved and gradually gathered 

 together a herd of cattle, now first s])ends wiiat he earns, and 

 then borrows for further spending, until the occasional practice 

 becomes a habit. 1 do not think it is an exaggeration to say that 

 the events of the last two or three decades have transformed an 

 economically free people, with (|uite c()nsideral)le assets, into a 

 community of debtors. 



This (|uestion of the indebtedness of the natives is a very 

 serious one. ( io where one will, coast or ui)lands. .\atal pro])er 

 or Zululand, and it will be found that the natives working on farni 

 and plantation are no longer free men. The employer will tell 

 you that what was an occasional practice has now become an 

 universal custom, and that it impossible to get labour unless a cash 

 advance is. made. Sometimes this advance is to buv something 

 required by the native, but often sim])ly to transfer his indebted- 

 ness. This will vary in amount, but often it is ver\ large in pro- 

 Dortion to tlu' waives he will receive, and tlie l)()rr()wer mav niort- 



* Rept. S.A. Agscc. for Advancement of Science, Pretoria, 1915, 213-226. 



