EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10526, 6 August 1910, Page 1

EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

No question once disappointed the Empire at large so niuch as the quest)on of the iabor in the Hand mines. When tile Empire broke out .ill anger against., the .iSpor- it was in the idea that the mines .wculd he opened without fear or favor to the miners.of European, race. When the war was done with all its humiliations it was hoped that the voting and lighting power of the. white miners would ho tlie salvation of South Africa for the Empire. But the first thing the Tory. Government did for South Africa was to .sanction the importation of Chinese labor., to the, Rand mines. The rage and fury of the late Mr Soddon's protests did great honor to that true Imperialist-Liberal. 'There was a brave mining .manage- in those dreadful days named Crosswell who did not hesitate to make experiment with white labor on his mine, and lie did not hesitate to publish the result, which was in favor of the white worker all round. This was only in accord with the experience of the wo.rkl all over, which is that- white labor invariably beats everything colored, black or' yellow. There are degrees between the whites and at the head of the whites stand the North British and Irish navvies. But the experience of all contractors from the days of Brassey, Morton and Petoc to our time has been that the highly jiaid navvy of Britain was tlie navvy for tlie world. When the result of Mr Cresswell's experiment was made public nothing happened except that he was "fired." An insolent subsidised press and an unscrupulous body of mine-owners, carried their point and the Chinaman was made, the chief laborer of the Rand. In due course, however, the Dutch (owing to the change of Government in Britain where the Conservative so long endured and so grievously"" mismanaged was thrown oiit) were admitted to the Empire, and they set about tlie reform of things, mining and otherwise. The Chinaman was suddenly discovered Lo be useless, and the blade was thought of to take the place of him. But though the Chinaman departed, the black did not come. He had grown independent and he had found enough for his wants without going into the slavery or worse of the compounds. Then the people ol : South Africa began to think that they had had enough of the mining magnate and they began a movement which has at last culminated in the general decision to employ none but whites m the mines tor the future. Tlie rule asserted by the contractors of old and reasserted by Mr Seddon in later times on the results of his own observation was at last acknowledged, -and the whites have come into their own in the country in which hundreds of millions of treasure and thousands of lives were wasted to get tliein the privilege. At last the dreams of the dependencies which elected to go to the help of tlie Motherland during the war have been justified. All the pretences and bad experiments and false 'witnessing have b.'en .-.hovelled aside and the ''fiat'' has 'gone forth that the white man is to have the monopoly of tlie mining work of Africa. Now we may have the full benefit of the admission oi the Transvailer to the Empire. A new policy has been formulated, the white men of our own race are to have votes for use in the development of that portion of our Empire which is situated in South Africa. A white proletariat will before long have command of the polls, and the constitutional position will be safe on its democratic basis lor generations to ccmo. The fruits of _war are, after all, not to be taken from the' Empire and handed over to a mob of speculators and plutocrats. 1. lie news is the best we have had from Africa since the peace of Vereeniging, of which it is the direct outcome.

The Rand and Justice.

Tfie modern Admirable Orichton is Mi . Itoosovelt of the Rsossve't United .States, cxWsndet'ißg. President, litterateur, orator, lecturer', philosopher, democratic publicist, and mighty hunter before the Lord. Ail this the world knew before he started on his famous expedition through the •\frican continent, which lie traversed longitudinally, lint after that expedition he has appeared m a new light. He has taken rank among , t.he first journalists of the age. And the manner in which he has exorcised that callill" lias been not only charming 111 its display of knowledge of original acquisition, 'but al?o in the way m which he has used his opportunities—unrivalled opportunities for talking to the :hi"hest men of every nation which ho. came into contact. He has done the same :sbrt of work , as the celebrated loster Eraser, and he has done it with a thousand times the grip; point and accuracy of that prince of journalists. <Of. course he has enjoyed advantages not open to the great prototype. But that has only accentuated his superiority. Of the things he said to the 'French President', the King of Italy, .'the Queen of Holland, the Kaiser ot Germany, and others, including some of the greatest statesmen of' the day, it would take too long to speak on the present occasion. We are chiefly concerned with the things he, has to say to ' his cousins of England about the 'manlier in. ivhich they are developing their interests'and the. cause of civilI isation in the • outlying countries I through which he *passed. .Nothing can be finer than his summing "up ot the situation in the Transvaal .and illiEast Africa, with reference to the hHi land about Ruwenzon, so adapted 'for white settlement, aiid Uganda, •people for whom aloiie tha.t country is adapted • have been so well cared for. In the''latter he recognised the vigor, tact and essentially governing quafi--ties of the British race In n T examples he .met throughout the, Dark Continent he recognised a likeness to the pioneer settlers of his own country 'who, seventy years ago, made .. the middle and western states as he has 'narrated in liis wonderful history ot * heir exploits. Of the Soudan/too, he said the right things which lie. had | iv-alised by the proper use of tha L observant, eve of his. . . He . revdled positively in tlie contrast he saw in the country which had made the name ot -Kitchener, with the, things he knew to have existed there before the great soldier's conquest. . In, his .descriptions he has done full justice-to. the great blessing, of., tlie Pas, ,'Britannjca,<.;.tfe®, socuritv for life and .property, the advancement-; of agriculture and commerce, the wellbeing of the people, possessing 'security for- the fruits of their labor : a ii<l- the harvests of their enterprise. These things have replaced the earthe.-- tortures, the devastations, tlie insecurities of tlic rule or a be--niglited Mahdism.. Coming: to' Lower E« r vpt he did full justice, to the advan■taees of British rule there in the secu- . ritv the justice, the great works, and I the private prosperity and sound pub-

lie finance .of the cojmtry. Bift thoro lie, found occasion to . speak plainly cf the errors. . We,:,have, ' lie,..said,: endeavored to. trust, the . people . with a degree of , self-government in anticipation of the day when tliey jvould.be fit-for the fuU . article; But the result has been ingratitude and a desire to establish murderous chaos in place of the law and order of our providing, tie at once exhorts us to remember that wo went to the country not. only Ifoiv the good of the country, _ -but- for ■ the -general advance of We -added tile, experiment .of sclf-gov-ernment and .'the experiment has . failed. Wo ..must acknowledge, the failure . aiid deal with the. country-, in its,, own. interest and that of civilisation. If. we, prefer to ennt-iiuio. to fail by- following an impossible idea in , deference to the demands of an ignorant wo alight. to leave as quickly as. possible, to let some other i'ow'Qr ..take up. the task. But. inasmuch as tliere is. «o other Power fit to do.the: work as we can do it, we ought, he thinks,' to niaie up our mind to do it,'without sentimentality and an impossible idea). We liold tlie country in, trust for civilisation and humanity, among a people , who . have, never enjoyed; : s.uchi a Goycrmpent. as we. have estahlisjif'd'for ,2000 years, aud perhaps never in.' the., whole, of. its ancient history. On tins. he. was. most insistent, and indeed it was the chief, point in his discourse at the Guildhall at the Lord Mayor's banquet. It is seldom tlfat a. styanger dares, to speak in that way before an audience at which he is hilt a. guest. But the fact that, with all his, knowledge of the etiquette of things derived by his experience of the sovereign rule of tlie. greatest democracy of, the day, he has thought lit to take this . course must be held a sufficient. excuse, ~lt is for the Empire to take, his ..warning to heart. Our retention of Egypt, is good for Egypt and indispensable'., to the Empire. What bett'er title could we have to stay Y It we wanted, better, we have it 111 the general acquiescence, in our rule and the general.admiration for it.