OUR "PEOPLE. s 
By J. SypNey McArtuur, BarrisTER-At-LAw. 
A Rejoinder to the paper of Mr. J. E. Hewicx, Late Senior Puisne Judge. 
Mr. Hewick will long be remembered by all colonials with whom he came into 
contact for his sympathetic attitude towards the various races residing in the 
colony, and for his exceptional knowledge of their inherent characteristics 
and even of their idiosyneracies. His sojourn in the East, no doubt, greatly 
contributed to this predilection, and, being a keen observer gifted with a very 
versatile mind, his opinions must necessarily carry great weight and should he 
of considerable value. The reader, therefore, took up his paper on “ Our 
People” with great expectations, but the perusal of it was disappointing in the 
extreme. The subject is not only cursorily treated but there is an air of levity 
that ill consorts with his serious mind; and the historical portions of the 
article lack that fulness which is required by the reader desirous of examining 
his conclusions. No attempt is made to account for any of the social and 
economic conditions which appeared so him to exist ; nor is Mr. Hewick any 
happier in his suggestions for remedying a state of things which he, in his 
well-meant desire for improvement, would like to see ameliorated or even 
revolutionised. 
With respect to the black race, Mr. Hewick has much to say. a great deal of 
which is based upon an assumption which, unfortunately, is fictitious. In 
the initial paragraph, it is asserted that “statistics show the reverse of pro- 
gress either in the way of natural increase or in the upward march in con- 
dition.’ It will be interesting to know to what statistics reference is here 
made. ‘To discover natural increases of population in any country, the statis- 
tics usually avaiable are the census returns. These do not show “the reverse 
of progress”’ ; on the contrary, the recent census discloses an increase of about 
3,400 within the past two decades. Small though this increase may be, it 
negatives the statement fathered by Mr. Hewick, and so frequently repeated 
by many residents impatient of consulting authority. But, even in this con- 
nection Mr. Hewick overlooks an important factor. He must be aware of 
the process of miscegenation that is steadily going on in the colony. No 
person who passes along the streets of city, town or village, can fail to observe 
the varied hues apparent in the countenances of the heterogeneous population. 
All the intermediate shades of colour are familiar here, from ebony to white 
marble. And Mr. Hewick ought to be further aware of the great tendency 
evinced by these products of miscegenation, and even by some pure-blooded 
blacks themselves, to “get out of Africa *’ as the phrase goes, and to enter 
themselves on the census returns as white or ‘coloured people.”” Thus the 
unwary concludes that the blacks are “turning their faces to the wall.” 
Nothing of the kind. They are only turning their attention towards an arti- 
ficial change of pigment, and are perceptibly variegating the countenances of 
the present generation. 
