LIQUOR AND THE NATIVE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2529, 3 September 1902, Page 66

LIQUOR AND THE NATIVE.

(African Review.) For n.any a Jong day we have uiged the 1-iopnety of making the liquor laws of the whole of South Africa absolutely prolubitive as against the native, unless, indeed, some modification of this rule in favour of native biews be advisable. On the Rand especially the evils of permitting the natives ea«y access to alcohol have been demonstrated conclusively over and over again. We do not piopose to retread the we.Utiodden ground. The central fact remains that under the old rsgime evasions of the Lquor 1-iw were io general that a very h'gli percentage of the native labouiers veie always incapacitated for work by reason of their excessive indulgence in stiong drink-, At Kimbeiley, as all the world knows, the native is- treated as a. child, and the restrictions on his personal liberty which the compound system has enforced Lave be-T* all for his personal, moial, physi cal. nnd material go-jd. It is, of course, ••■lgu.iblc — in fact, it could be clcnily demonsi nited -th.it the Kimberley system is not aj plicable m iU entirety " to" the Rand. But the telegram Reuter'b agent h.is sent to this country shows elearlv mough that something must be done, and done quickly. t.» cope with the evils of intempeiance among tlio Kaffirs in thac city. "Since." runs this message, ''permits to obtain liquor al bottle stores have been no longer necesst rvj. di uu^eaaejj^ Jj^ jjge^ v£rv_ £reval£fi&

h-sre. State control of the liquor traffic isf advocated. Housebreaking and robbery with violence" are also prevalent. The streets of the suburbs are not safe at' night owing to the inadequacy of their policing. " H-ere, indeed, an exceedingly grave condition of affairs ia revealed. - The Daily, News, under the heading ''The Great Disillusionment," seizes on this telegram to preach a sermon on the wickedness of the capitalists and on the failure of British; administration, and does not scruple to draw comparisons, unfa-vourable to Lord Milner and liis Administration, between the r.ew and the old regime.

We are not concerned to defend the capi" talists, who are very well able Jo. look after themselves. Nobody regards the ordinary man of business as a philanthropist pur© and simple. His concern is to make money, &nd although it may be true that restrictions on the sale of 'iqiior to the natives may have sume immediate effect on the flow of labour to the Rand, the mineowners are very wjll aware that this labour problem will never be satisfactorily solved until something in the nature of total prohibition is instituted t&ere. Doubtless the existing state of affairs does indicate that there ia a screw loose somewhere. It is, we will not deny, disappointing. But Rome was" • not built in a day. and it has ,to be remembered that the Rand, is now full ofnatives who luve plenty of money to spend* — natives until receutly in the employ of the military. Again, the native does not fear the Britisher as he does the Boer. We - strongly suspect that it will be found, oru examination, that th; evils complained oi proceed in the main from this class of native — domestic servants — rather than from. , labourers in the mines. Of course, after, such a complete upset as the last three years have seen, the native is veij 7 much out of hand. He has been pampered and spoiled, and it may be that there are casea w here, in* order to induce natives to rer main on the Rand — it is their time for departing now — som3 extra indulgence has I een permitted them by the mine managers. That at the moment the dearth of labour a I the Rand is a very real difficulty we all know. The captnins of industry are bringing their wits to bear on the matter, and no doubt it will be solved. But it is an outrage on decency for the Daily News to affect to believe that the Portuguese expedition north of Lourenco Marques is really a slave-raiding expedition financed by the Chartered Company "to satisfy the labourhunger of the Rand !" What we hope to see is that the Government of the Transvaal, warned by these awkward experiences, determines to put its foot down resolutely in the matter o ( the sale of liquor to natives. We hope that the Daily -Mail's con-; fidenb assertion that either direct control or some adaptation of Earl Grey's admirable trust scheme is to be adopted will

prove to be correct. The recent recommendations of the Special Committee of the Johannesburg Town Council were certainly stringent enough, and oDviously the rights of private imlividuals and of property must be respected.