74 



JV.4 TURE 



[Mav 23, 1901 



to the Europeans. With the abolition of slavery a more 

 humane policy on the part of the Government was 

 inaugurated. But neither the Home Government nor the 

 Colonial Governments have been invariably wise or con- 

 sistent. Though on the whole their efforts ha\e been 

 honestly directed to the benefit of the natives, the con- 

 flicting interests of natives and colonists have often 

 caused, and still cause, grave difficulties. The experiment 

 has been made in Cape Colony and, to a more limited 

 extent, in Natal, where the native question is more acute, 

 of admitting natives who fulfil certain stringent conditions 

 to the franchise. The numbers admitted are not yet large, 

 but it is obvious that the principle thus introduced may 

 involve consequences which cannot at present be foreseen. 

 Accordingly, the editors are abundantly justified in 

 their belief that the time is opportune to consider our 

 policy towards the native races throughout British South 

 Africa. The information elicited by their inquiries is not 

 exhaustive ; it is only preliminary. One of the chief 

 results has been the discovery how little we know about 

 the natives and their needs. This is a point which the 

 editors press again and again. In August last they pre- 

 sented a memorial to H. M. Secretary of State for the 

 Colonies, urging the expediency of inquiries on the laws, 

 customs, land tenure and tribal system of the natives, and 

 on the other points dealt with in these pages. At that 

 very time, as the readers of N.^ture know, the Anthro- 

 pological Institute and the Folklore Society were inde- 

 pendently presenting a joint memorial makmg a similar 

 request. The history of Christian missions, the history 

 of every attempt by Europeans to rule a savage or bar- 

 barous people, is full of failures and bloodshed attribut- 

 able to imperfect comprehension of native customs and 

 ways of thought. So long as the missionary societies and 

 the Colonial Office agree in ignoring the necessity of 

 anthropological studies these failures will be repeated. 

 In 1881, however, the Cape Government awoke to the 

 desirability of ascertaining and recordmg some facts con- 

 cerning native customs. A Commission was appointed, 

 and its Report is, so far as it goes, an extremely valuable 

 document. " There is urgent need," say the editors of 

 the present volume, ''of a similar inquiry covering the 

 other territories of South Africa under British rule." 

 When this protracted war has ended we shall have to 

 make new laws in the Transvaal and the Orange River 

 Colony to control the relations of the black men to the 

 white, and of the black amongst themselves. We cannot 

 legislate without first knowing the existing facts. A Com- 

 mission of Inquiry would therefore seem inevitable. If 

 it be determined on, it is to be hoped that scientific assist- 

 ance will be called in, with a view to rendering the results 

 complete and trustworthy, and, further, that it will be found 

 possible to extend the area of its inquisition to Bechuana- 

 land and to Rhodesia. That such an inquiry, if adequate 

 in scope and properly directed, will incidentally be of high 

 value to various departments of science (notably, but not 

 exclusively, to anthropology) is an additional reason for the 

 appointment of the Commission. In die pages of "The 

 Natives of South Africa" scientific considerations are not 

 adduced ; but even without them the book is a powerful 

 plea for inquiry, and one which may be heartily com- 

 mended to all who are interested in the serious questions 

 it presents for solution. 



NO. 1647, VOL. 64] 



The Committee have given an interesting and useful 

 appendix of selections from their correspondents' replies,' 

 and three maps showing the distribution of population in 

 Cape Colony and Natal. Quite as necessary as either of 

 these maps is one or more showing the locations of the 

 different tribes in all the territories. These should have 

 been given. Many of the tribes can certainly be located. 

 If all cannot be, the defects would have been a striking 

 illustration of the state of our ignorance. 



E. Sidney H.^^rtland. 



PROGRESS IN THE COMING CENTURY. 

 Twciitieih Century Inventions : a Forecast. By George 

 Sutherland, M.. A.. Pp. xvi-f286. (London: Longmans 

 and Co., 1901.) Price 4.r. i>d. net. 



THE role of prophet of the industrial development 01 

 the discoveries of science is one not lightly to be 

 assumed, especially if it is the aim of the prophecy to 

 cover so long a period as a hundred years. Mr. Suther- 

 land has, nevertheless, had the temerity to attempt this 

 task, and to approach it in the spirit of the man of 

 science deducing logical conclusions from definite data 

 rather than in that of the writer of fiction giving free 

 rein to his imagination. We are not sure whether, 

 when a century is concerned, the imaginative method, if 

 kept within proper bounds, is not almost as satisfactory 

 as the other. The predictions of the novelist are often 

 fantastic and wild ; but if he is likely to overshoot the 

 bounds of probability his more cautious brother prophet 

 is almost certain to fall short of them. The system of the 

 logical prophet has, indeed, an inherent defect — it can 

 only foretell the development and further application of 

 knowledge that has already been acquired, and cannot 

 take into consideration the possibility of the discovery of 

 new facts. Yet it is by discovery as much as by inven- 

 tion, if we may draw a distinction between the two, that 

 progress has taken place in the past, and it is to be 

 hoped, for the sake of science, that the same will be true 

 in the future. No prophet writing in 1801 on the same 

 lines as Mr. Sutherland could have foretold the present 

 development of electric traction, for he could not have 

 foreseen the discovery of electro-magnetic induction 

 made by Faraday thirty years later. He might, how- 

 ever, have predicted the modern railway systems, because 

 the essential principles of these systems were already 

 known. It would be easy to multiply instances, but we 

 think it is evident from what we have said that Mr. 

 Sutherland's prophecy must in some respects fall short of 

 the truth, unless, indeed, the coming century is to be 

 devoid of discoveries. 



But if Mr. Sutherland's system is open to objection on 

 the grounds that have been stated above, it has also much 

 to recommend it. It would be idle to devote time to 

 the serious consideration of extravagant predictions of 

 the purely imaginative writer whose prophecies must be 

 judged by their consistency and their power to interest. 

 With the forecast in the book before us it is different ; it 

 is well considered and carefully thought out, and affords 

 material for thoughtful, and very possibly useful, reflection. 

 It is of interest to all those who are engaged in helping 

 onward modern industrial development to pause occa- 

 sionally and look somewhat far ahead to see in what 

 direction that development is tending. Those who wish 



