494 



The Review of Reviews. 



WHITE AND BLACK IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



In the Colonial Offur youriial lor October there is 

 a paper on the report of the Native Affairs Committee 

 of Enquiry in Soiitlierii Rhodesia in which the 

 natives are defended from a common charge of idle- 

 ness. " That most of the male natives of Southern 

 Rhodesia do no work at all, and if left to their own 

 inclinations, lead a lotus-eating existence at their 

 village, while their womenkind perform the manual 

 drudgery required to keep them supplied with the 

 necessaries of life " is denounced as a fallacy. The 

 native in his natural state is an agriculturist and 

 stockbreeder. If they were compelled to work for 

 Europeans, they would be withdrawn from their 

 agricultural and pastoral industries. Nevertheless, 

 the waning of the tribal system produces serious 

 mischiefs. The tribal control is weakened, and 

 marital and parental authority also. There is a con- 

 siderable amount of surplus labour left unabsorbed 

 by nati%-e agricultural work. The native youth is 

 reared at his kraal in conditions far from healthy, 

 moral, mrtital, or physical. Officials are requested 

 to encourage parents to apprentice their boys at a 

 rate of pay fixed by the State, a portion of the wages 

 to be paid to the parent and the balance to the boy. 

 Improved dwellings with garden plots are suggested, 

 and strict regulation of the sale of beer. 



At present it is painful to read of the result of 

 European rule : — 



The inimor.'ility of women, botli married and single, in 

 the vicinity of mines and other industrial centres, is a growing 

 danger to tlie future welfare, both moral and physical, of the 

 native races. It is alleged that husbands allow their women to 

 take beer for sale to natives employed at these centres, that this 

 leads to prostitution, and that the former share the proceeds of 

 money so earned. It may be mentioned that prior to our rule 

 prostitution was practically unl<nown amongst nalives, as the 

 punishment for the offence was so severe. Tlie sale of beer is 

 contrary to all native traditions, and is largely the cause of 

 moral decline. Earnest representations were submitted on the 

 sub-e t of the irregular sexual relations which it is alleged 

 frequently exist between white men and bhack women. The 

 question is an extremely important one. .\part from the moral 

 aspect of the matter (a grave enough one of itself) the prestige 

 and influence of Europeans are seriously afiected by such 

 incideits. On the other hand, the natives evidently object to 

 relationships of such a nature. Besides European evidence 

 to that effect, native witnesses gave emphatic testimony on the 

 subject : " It is very bad ; whites ought to take whites, and 

 blacks ought to take blacks " ; " It is very evil, and a thing we 

 resent very much in our hearts" ; " It is a very evil thing" ; 

 were expressions of view of different native witnesses ; and an 

 instance was mentioned by a minister of religion in which a 

 native resisted the taking of his sister by a white man. 



The Committee as a whole feel that both concubin- 

 age and marriage between white men and native 

 women should be prohibited : — 



With regard to the question generally, the evil is one which 

 can, to a great extent, he dealt with by the force of public 

 opinion and by active measures of discouragement, official and 

 private. The Committee learn that illicit relationship with 

 native women of persons in public employ is viewed in the 

 gravest light by the Government, who have imposed in the past, 

 and would impose in the future, extreme penalties for an offence 

 of such a nature. If private employers of Europeans would 

 follow the policy observed by the Government the evil would, 

 the Committee think, be considerably abated. 



WHY THE HARE'S NOSE IS SLIT. 



A CH.^RMiNG feature in TV/if .SVir/t- for October is a 

 pair of stories out of South African folklore. The 

 first is a Hottentot legend to explain why the hare's 

 nose is slit. This is how the Hottentot tells it ; — 



Long, long ago, when the world was quite young, the Lady 

 Moon wanted someone to take a message to Men. .She tried 

 first one creature and then another, but no ! they were all too 

 busy, they couldn't go. At last she called the Crocodile. lie 

 is very slow and not much good, 1 ut the Lady Moon thought 

 she would pinch his tail and make him go quickly. So she 

 said to him : " Go down to Men at once and give them this 

 message : ' As I die and, dying, live, so also shall you die and, 

 dying, live.' " 



As the Crocodile went on its way, quickly while 

 ihe Moon watched him, slowly when he was out of 

 her sight, the Little Hare arrived, and asked, "Where 

 are you going in such a , hurry, Oom Crocodile ? " 

 "The Lady Moon has sent me with a message to 

 men, ' As I die, and, dying, live, so also shall you 

 die, and, dying, live.' " The Hare replied, " You are 

 so slow. Give me the message, and I will take it." 

 " Very well," said the lazy Crocodile. So the Hare 

 went off like the wind : — 



At last he came to Men, and he called them together and 

 said, " Listen, Sons of the Baboon, a wise man comes with a 

 message. By the Lady Moon am I sent to tell you : ' .As I 

 die and, dying, perish, so shall you also die and come wholly 

 to an end.' " 



Then Men looked at each other and shivered. All of a 

 sudden the flesh on their arms w.is like goose-flesh. 



.And while the poor human race was in this state 

 of abject terror, the Hare returned to the Moon and 

 told her the message he had given, and laughed with 

 glee to think that men were all stiff with fright. 

 Whereupon the Lady Moon was very angry and took 

 a big stick and struck at him. But he ducked and 

 slipped away, and it caught him only on the nose. 

 Then the Hare " forgot that the Moon was a lady, 

 and scratch, scratch, scratch, he was kicking, and 

 hitting, and clawing the Moon's face till the pieces 

 flew " :— 



.\nd that is why to-day he goes about with a split nose, and 

 golden fane of the Lady Moon has long dark scars. 



The New York Budget Exhibit, as described in 

 the Amcriain Rcvieti' of Rnnetvs by H. T. \\'ade, is 

 an interesting way of instructing the citizens of the 

 Empire City in the way in which their civic revenues 

 are raised and expended and made liable. 



Of Smbmr's Magazine for November it may 

 Iruthfully be said that its articles are mostly of purely 

 American interest. There is a belated, though 

 interesting description of the Coronation and its 

 functions, by Mary King Waddington. The opening 

 paper is an account of fox and drag hunting in the 

 United States, and another paper, well illustrated, as 

 is usual with Scrilnitr's, describes the River 'Thames, 

 not the upper reaches, but the lower, beginning at 

 London Bridge and extending past the great wharves 

 and docks to the open sea. It is a well written, 

 interesting article. 



