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NATIVE QUESTION IN SOUTH AFRICA

situation. The native is the unit of work in South Africa. His increasing wants are beginning to make him realize that he must labour to gratify them. As time goes on, population increases, and the thirst for land to cultivate is no longer so keenly felt, they may be expected to become continuously industrious workmen, looking upon their land as mere gardens to supplement the comforts of living. To compel them by legislation to work would be a fatal error. The aim of all who would like to see the native races industriously inclined, so as to avoid the necessity of imported labour, may be best reached, as pointed out so forcibly in the Report of the Commission, by the encouragement of a higher standard of living amongst natives, with a view to increase their efficiency and wants.

The natives have much to learn in adapting themselves to new and changing conditions, and will be well advised to let the current of their thoughts and their attitude be directed in that course which will win the respect of the European race. No weightier counsel can be tendered to them than that offered by the eminent American negro leader, Booker T. Washington, who, in closing his presidential address to the National Negro Business League recently in New York, used the following words:

'Our progress must be permanent, and not artificial, and it must be by natural and logical steps. We must pay the price for everything we get. The day has passed when the great body of the American people win give serious heed to high-sounding resolutions or loud demands. The most potent demand that we can make for fair and just consideration is actual achievement in the locality in which we live.'

The question of what is termed 'the coloured people' is a problem of itself much too intricate to touch upon in any perfunctory way. They are the descendants of white people, and are fast taking up a position which, if it does not beget sympathy, will command respect. Their friends advocate that they should be treated as Europeans.