i'Ri:sinKXTi.\i, .\i)i)i<i:ss — skition n. 12^^ 



j^aj^c his luturc tor years, and niulrr the contract agree to acce])l 

 a very iiiucli lower waj^^e than he could obtain elsewhere. Natur- 

 ally under such conditions as time goes on the worker loses heart, 

 and by and by spends his thought and energy in devising how he 

 can best evade his obligations, or at best only doing liis work in 

 a lialf-hearted way. I know farmers wlio say that half their 

 time is taken up in negotiating with natives in regard to terms of 

 tenancy and loans. The nati\e will promise anything when he 

 wants money, but when he has to work it out at a rate of wages 

 far lower than he could get if he was free to move, it is not sur- 

 prising that he becomes a contirmed shirker. 



Could any labour conditions be less likely to lead to satis- 

 factory economic results ? The wonder is that relations are not 

 more strained than they are, but they are bad enough, and the 

 tension on this account is probably increasing. 



Dttring this time there has been a great increase in the mnnber 

 of natives who can be called " educated." I have spoken of the 

 education they have been unconsciously receiving by their contact 

 with white men, by learning to work, by the influence upon them 

 of the aspects of civilisation, good and bad, they saw at the 

 centres to which they went. In addition to this there has been 

 a great demand for conventional education ; reading and writing, 

 and what follows them in the school curriculum. Tn church and 

 school, in kraals and in kitchens, they have met together and 

 laboriously pored over the written word. The}- have gone fur- 

 ther, and have been encouraged by the missionaries and indi- 

 rectly b}' Government to soar higher, and many have ])assed the 

 higher examinations which have proved a stinnbling block to 

 some white students. I have spoken of the general education 

 they get by work. Another word must be said here. By actually 

 doing the manual work in mine and workshoj), by watching and 

 helping the white man at the skilled work, they have learned as 

 much about the technique as those employing them, and if 

 allowed to do so, ct)uld with a little training actually su])])lant the 

 skilled man. 



Here the colour bar is drawn, and the skilled white man is 

 ]M-otected b}- law from the competition of the man who would 

 be able and willing to do his work at one (|uarter his wage. T 

 feel certain that if the jjresent legal protection was removed and 

 jniblic opinion could be ignoi-ed or defied, the organisers and 

 executive of the great gold mim'ng industry could find black 

 men who could till the places of the majority of the white men 

 in the mines at vastly lower wages. Whether this will at any 

 time be tried or not I cannot say, but the position as it stands is 

 an artificial and strained one. On the one side a sufficient capa- 

 city to do the work at this lower cost, which naturally appeals to 

 the management, and on the other hand protection to those 

 who may be doing the work in a somewhat better and safer way. 

 but who demand and receive a remuneration so much higher 

 than what the work could be done for in an o])en lalx)ur market. 



