DARKEST AFRICA.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1847, 31 July 1907, Page 13

DARKEST AFRICA.

THE RACIAL QUESTION. A NEW ZEALANDER’S OPINIONS. Mr James Peebles, a native of Haivke’s Bay, who has for the last nine years resided in British South Africa, returned to New'Zealand a few days ago. Mr Peebles served through the Boer war with various contingents sent from this country, and subsequently entered the employ" of the Transvaal Public Works Department where, having much opportunity of studying both white and black "natives, he has come to the conclusion that racial amity is as distant as ever. The returned New Zealander, in conversation with a “Times” representative, informed him that ho volunteered as a Transvaaler for service against the Natal Zulus during the late troubles brought about by “Ethiopianism” and the hut tax. For meritorious work he and another New Zealander (Mr J. Gatland, of Auckland) have been recommended for the D.C.M. The intense racial dislike always shown by the Dutch Afrikander to the -Britisher is, according to Mr Peebles, even more manifest since the advent of a Boer Government than before, and the political power weilded by.-the Dutch element is a menace to the advance of Britons. Many heads of Government Departments in the Transvaal are, says Mr Peebles, Englishmen specially imported to fill the jiositions, and it seems to be the accepted rule of these high officials never to give to a Briton a position which can be filled by a Boer. The animosity of the Dutch Afrikander is not openly shown except under exciting conditions. During the first Transvaal elections Mr Peebles was at Potchesftroom, which is almost wholly a Dutch electoral district. One Canadian unwisely called for “Three cheers for liberty” in a polling booth, and was immediately roughly handled by the Boers. The New Zealander, who went to the Canadian’s assistance, was treated by a demonstration of forcible dislike. Socially Boers and Britons do not mix, and chance meetings cause great restraint. British or oversea colonials regard the Boer as a less honest worker than the average Anglo-Saxon,, less punctilious in regard to moral, social, and commercial obligations, and totally unapproachable fraternally. Mr Peebles does not think there is likely to again be any serious and combined revolt against Imperial rule, because the element of suspicion in the Boer character is shown by Boer against Boer, as well as by Boer against Briton. Asked by our representative to give his views on the question of labour for the Rand mines, -Mr Peebles spoke strongly of the moral good the withdrawal of Chinese coolies had already effected. But he is emphatic in declaring that the mines will be worked with the greatest difficulty without Chinese labour. He points out that Kaffir “boys” who are physically so superior to the Chinese, are to put it mildly, “tired,” and that they dislike organised and constant work. The boys’ sole ambition is to earn enough money to buy bullocks with which to purchase wives from the chiefs. _ The Kaffir who possesses the most wives is the least inclined to work, seeing that his wives, by the custom of the country, are taught" that their highest honour is to keep their husband in idleness. Mr Peebles believes the Zulu trouble in Natal is quite over, but Natalians have an uneasy feeling that a colony which contains a Hindoo population equal to the number of whites has many interesting' complications to meet in the near future. The small New Zealand colony in Pretoria is gradually breaking up, and its colonists are turning their steps towards this dominion. Of twenty-five members of the New Zealand Club in Pretoria who resided in that city at the beginning of the year only three or four who occupy high official positions remain. The oversea colonial is a discredited person in British South Africa, and Mr Peebles remarks that the first handshake that was not of the “fishtail” order he has received in nine years happened to him on his arrival in Wellington.