e colonist to get plenty of labour and to get it cheap, they are
obviously open to abuse and require great care in their administration.
The whole subject of native labour and native land tenure is an
intricate and difficult one, which I have not space to discuss here,
though I obtained a good deal of information regarding it. It is also an
urgent one, for the population which occupies the native reserves is in
some districts growing so fast that the agricultural land will soon
cease to feed them, while the pasture is suffering from being
overstocked. Most of my informants agreed in thinking that the control
of the British magistrate over the management of lands in reservations
was better than that of the native headman, and ought to be extended,
and that the tenure of farms by individual natives outside the
reservations ought to be actively encouraged. They deemed this a step
forward in civilization; and they also held that it is necessary to
prevent native allotments, even when held by individuals, from being
sold to white men, conceiving that without such a prohibition the whites
will in course of time oust the natives from the ownership of all the
best land.

One law specially applicable to natives has been found most valuable in
Natal, as well as in the territories of the Chartered Company, and ought
to be enacted in Cape Colony also, viz., an absolute prohibition of the
sale to them of intoxicating spirits. The spirits made for their
consumption are rough and fiery, much more deleterious than European
whisky or brandy or hollands. Unfortunately, the interests of the
winegrowers and distillers in the Colony have hitherto proved strong
enough to defeat the bills introduced for this purpose by the friends of
the natives. Though some people maintain that the Dutch and anti-native
party resist this much-needed measure because they desire through strong
drink to weaken and keep down the natives, I do not believe in the
existence of any such diabolical motive. Commercial self-interest, or
rather a foolish and short-sighted view of self-interest,--for in the
long run the welfare of the natives is also the welfare of the
whites,--sufficiently accounts for their conduct; but it is a slur on
the generally judicious policy of the Colonial Legislature.

In the two Dutch Republics the English principle of equal civil rights
for white and black finds no place. One of the motives which induced the
Boers of 1836 to trek out of th