THE COLONIST. Published Every Morning. Monday, April 18, 1910. THE RISE OF THE NATIVE.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12771, 18 April 1910, Page 2

THE COLONIST. Published Every Morning. Monday, April 18, 1910. THE RISE OF THE NATIVE.

A. suggestive article on the future of the native race, by Sir H. H. Johnston, the famous traveller, appeared in a recent issue of tie "Quarterly Review," which predicts the gradual assimilation, under various conditions, of negroes by the whites. He assigns to religion the position of prime factor in this process. He aays there are few parts of the world in which white men cannot exist as well as, or better than any other race. What is it that restrains the great, white nationalities from. ousting or slaying the inhabitants of such -tempting regions, to find'an outlet for their own expanding population?. It is Christianity ■ that blocks ~the way. He says the ethics of Christianity, when they are based as nearly as possible on the teaching-- of Christ, and have not been coriupted by cruel crusaders or specious ecclesiastics, haVe formed a gospel of pity, have meant a tendering of the hand to the feeble in mind or body, the' curing of .the sick, the sparing of the deformed, the education of the backward, the (enunciation of equal rights on the part of all races of man whether they were black-hair-ed or j-ellow-haired, pink-cheeked, or bronze-skinned, naked and barbarous, or clothed and civilised. Christianity has been a "flying in the face of Providence." It is rapidly becoming a cosmic force of great importance * and it is difficult for the unbiassed philosopher to say whether it is tending towards tha general improvement of hu- J 'manity or is acting as a drag on progress. What but the -spirit of Chris- j tianity keeps a decent European or; American nation of. : white people from dealing pitilessly with an inferior race whose existence is a bar to the acquisition of wealth or colonisable territory P, Christianity has been there be-fore-the. opposite ideal? of the white race reigning as demi-gods over the rest of ;the -world, Tand using the coloured races ior its own, ends,: and has "aown the dragon's teeth of education." Christianity should' be quite equal to the holding back of God-fear-ing Boers, British' and • Germans in South Africa from any policy of exterminating or enslaving the native. Throughout the British Empire . missionary societies have been founding schools, colleges,, and universities, at--tempting to make black, brown and yellow people think and- act like white Christians, and that once they were Christian and civilised they were the equal 'of any man, no. matter of what colour or race. The Russo-Japanese war again was the first set-back of the Caucasian since'the Neolithic, period; of the Christilih-6ince the EeHef of Vienna. Sir- Harry notes with interest the uprise of the Amerindian, and deolares that in South and Central America, as in the Pacific Archipelagoes, the peoples compacted of Proto-^Caiicasian and" primitive Mongol wil) be "absorbed into the white man's 'community.. He goes on to ask : "WiU the world' of the twenty-first century be divided ijito two camps : a creamcoloured Mediterranean type of white man, and a brown-skinned negroid, with hair in which the kink ie loosening into tbe curl, and a facial outline that is assuming the comely features of the. Ethiopian and the Fula P And will these two types^ perhaps then of equal' political standing— proceed to any further approximation? give iip the pink and white, golden-haired and blue-eyed ideal, care only for physical vigour and brain power? The god-like heads of , our descendants may be shaved aU over or electrically depilated; and,. with hair completely out of fashion we. may have ceased to care about its. colour or. its. undulations. . Eyes may be screened with lenses for the telescopic or microscopic develop-? ment of light; body and limbs be so perpetually protected ; -from' heat : and cold, ".'germs' and briiisesj by some closelyy-fitting, antiseptic garment that; only the beauty: of its shape be visible and nothing of Tiiis'-; .skih-ool-our. In. 2100 A.n. -there. may ha no physical or mental reason- why negroid and Caucasian ehould not' become one flesh. 4 1n ih* rise of tHe native," he says/*! few ■•&*»- "M*\?9- needful- of n^ioe'jif " Out aMreaJeagho jStridesiJjy•wfiicih the negro in &v& Africa, Central aiidWest Af lioi (an& before .long in the Anj^Egyp.tt«%udan), is ad-

vancing to embrace the white man's civilisation, generally along the path cleared for him by the Christian, and even by the Mohammedan, missionary. For the moment the questions of the franchise -and the negro* membeir of Parliament are shelved in South Africa; but if, with the opportunities now open to them, the negroes of that region continue. their intellectual advance, they cannot be for ever excluded, from full civic rights, which are based on tests of literacy and property." In pursuance of th© logical and inevitable results of belief in the ethics df Christianity, he contends that the white races must set about raising ithe. condition of the barbarous peoples in Barbary, Central Africa, Malay Peninsula, and South America, who are little above the. level of the mere animal.