484 REPORT—1905. 
Demosthenes recognised the division of every community into ‘lenders’ and 
‘borrowers.’ In these days Lombard Street collects the savings of private 
individuals and lends them again. Thus the loan fund, collected in the hands of 
bankers, is lent out immediately and supports all trades, even ail States. 
Bankers live by lending, and we may be sure borrowers would not borrow 
unless they could use the money profitably. 
‘Lombard Street’ is the most highly developed instrument for lending the 
loan fund wisely and prudently. It lends instantaneously to the trades most 
requiring money, 7.¢., to those who can use it most profitably and can give 
the best security. All the Lombard Street transactions are in paper, not in gold. 
Bills of exchange are the banker’s medium. 
J. S. Mill on ‘credit—We may divide ‘credit’ into three classes : 
(1) Bank-notes, cheques, &c.,, which rest on a solid metallic basis: (2) com- 
mercial credits, on a tangible basis of value, goods or securities which are 
realisable ; and (3) personal and blank credits, which rest on a potential or 
expected basis of value.’ 
Credit is potential capital. 
PRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1. 
The following Vapers were read :— 
1. Some Aspects of the Native Question. By Howarp Pr. 
No single native policy is accepted throughout South Africa as adequate and 
sound. This is the natural consequence of— 
(a) The short time during which organised white communities have been in 
contact with the native races. 
(6) Differences of custom, training, and character among the native tribes 
themselves. 
It is therefore still useful to examine if native custom and methads of 
government afford us any indication of — 
(a) The tendencies which exist among them. 
(b) The lines of least resistance to their education. 
Four large factors in native life were therefore considered :— 
(a) Polygamy. 
(6) Tribal system. 
(c) Relation to the land. 
(d) Education. 
These questions were examined in the first instance as if the Kaffir could 
develop in this country without the interference of the white races, but this is not 
the case; his development must directly affect the white races with whom he is 
in contact, and be directly affected by them. 
The probable results of intercourse between the white and native races is, 
therefore, an integral part of the native question, and by no means the least 
difficult. 
The South African evidence as to this is not only scanty and incomplete, but 
has not yet been systematised. 
It is therefore necessary to look elsewhere; and although the negro question 
in the United States presents obvious differences to our South African case, the 
relations there between whites and negroes, and especially the tendencies 
manifested in the development of these relations since the slaves were freed, are 
of great importance, and probably of great value. 
The author examined these tendencies, and suggested some conclusions there- 
