CO885-(18-19) — Page 403

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C.O.885

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ossible be the Greatest Common Measure of the laws and rules already existing in he Colonies, that it should embody the best points of all, so that we could always support our model law by an illustration from what is actually in existence in one Colony or another.

(iii), assuming that model laws and eheh to be impossible or unnecessary, rate annual summaries or handbooks the results of experience or experiment. carious colonies or dependencies on the bjects which affect the native races would l. Here we might possibly employ our nts' Information Office, strengthening its or the purpose.

Their work is to be ally collecting and publishing informa- They might have a branch or a sub- tee dealing with subjects relating to

races.

The mere fact of taking enough

: in these subjects to give to the world late information as to how we are dealing e natives in all parts of the world, under

d heads, would not only give confidence

but would enable, by the process of ally tabulating and comparing, useful tions and recommendations to be made.

value of Industrial and Agricultural "The tion for natives is beyond dispute. rement of agriculture" write the Natal issioners (page 34) will be generally ed as a most important element in the ion and advancement of the natives," end ecommend centres for teaching agriculture erinental plots and small industrial s, evidently implying that there is much There is plenty of guidance to he 1in South Africa; but it may be worth also to go further afield, and we have the guides in Sir D. Morris and the Imperial timent of Agriculture for the West Indies. ive various West Indian and Office prints e subject. We could, if desired, ask Sir

ag.

orris to draw up papers of suggestions of

al application, and he could be asked to

if he cannot already provide, text books

as the "Tropical Reader," to be translated

he various native tongues, Or again we

t second Sir D. Morris, who is now of age tirement, for the express purpose of going gh the colonies, many of which he knows, tting the information and giving us the Is after personal enquiry and examination. bour is a difficult subject on which to alise, but I presume even in regard to ir certain general principles might be laid for the protection of the natives and mbodied in laws or rules, restricting or ibiting the truck system, safeguarding enticeship, restricting labour in lieu of rent, lating compulsory labour en roads or public s, &c., &c.; and, if such model rules could be laid down, we could at least have our

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summaries of what is being done in these respects

in different lands and among different races.

There are certain principles which hold all the world over. I should like as far as possible to keep them in our shop window, to add to then from time to time, and to keep ourselves and the public, including the colonial public, informed where and how and when this or that principle is being put into practice.

Special position of South Africa as regards the Native Races.

(i) South Africa of course has infinitely more natives than the other groups of self-governing colonies and, as far as I am aware, the natives In this show no signs of declining in numbers. respect it is unique in the British Empire. It is the one group of colonies where the black men out-number the white, but which is at the same time, to some extent at any rate, a natural home for white men, and therefore inevitably a sphere for self-government.

(ii) It has, like Australia, and like the Southern States of the American Union, parts where the climate favours the native more than the white; and it is not the white men's home to the same extent as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand in that, owing to the presence of the coloured races, the field of unskilled labour in South Africa is practically not open to white

men.

(iii) The proportions of whites to natives vary very much in the different districts, and it is noteworthy, as a cominent on the liability to panic and harsh measures where the natives are very many and the whites very few, that in Natal where, among the self-governing Colonies, the

have most preponderate, natives apparently at the present time the greatest

unrest.

we

(iv) We have some rather curious political anomalies in South Africa. Of the self-gov- erning colonies, the cldest colony, which had representative institutions given to it over 50 years ago, has always been the most liberal to the natives. The colonies which have most recently been given constitutions are, as the result of antecedent conditions, least liberal. In Basutoland, Crown Colony government of natives in South Africa is, side by side, con- trasting most favourably with the administration of natives in the self-governing colony of Natal. This is in accordance with the principle that natives are better off under the Crown than under a Colonial Government; but it will be- noted not only that Basutoland was disannexed from a self-governing colony, and that self- governing colony the most liberal of the South Basutoland African colonies, but also that

flourishes, if I understand rightly, by being kept as a native reserve, ie., by maintaining under