in a savage state, are isolated in the interior and not available, even if they were desired, as laborers. The existence of this large class of local colored labor as well as cheap Asiatic labor has influenced the development of South Africa in various ways. The imported Indian laborers of Natal made possible the remarkable progress of the sugar industry, supplied the tea-planters with suitable workers, and provided much of the necessary labor for railway construction and coal mining. The gold mining of the Witwatersrand has been and still is dependent upon the supplies of native labor, and practically all the farms in the Union employ native or other colored labor. On this account, the position of the white worker has been limited to the more highly remunerated lines of the skilled trades or to managerial work. Unskilled white men in competition with colored workers drop quickly in the economic scale to a position of serious dependence. Owing to a higher standard of living, they cannot exist on the wages paid to natives. These people, known as "poor whites," form, according to official reports, a surprisingly large element in the population and present problems unknown in other self-governing British Dominions. Adventurous but not very capable Europeans who spent their all to reach the mines could not maintain a decent standard on the wages of colored labor. Such persons would not now be allowed to enter.

POLICY OF COUNTRY TO ATTRACT BRITISH
SETTLERS

The present immigration policy of South Africa is simple to describe. It is to attract suitable British settlers to the soil. It does not invite unfortunates and incompetents from any land. There is not, as in other colonies of the Empire, much opportunity for men without some capital to develop the farms in the South African way. In presenting the advantages of settling in South Africa, the Union is careful to mention the difficulties that may be met, as:

"The rancher has little recreation except such as he

Official Year Book, 1910-20, No. 4, page 301.

can contrive from gun, books or music. His nearest congenial neighbor may be twenty or more miles away; and in a district where horse-sickness is prevalent, and the trail always heavy; this means that transportation is a problem, and that consequently social calls are rare. In cases of illness or accident, there is difficulty and delay in getting medical assistance. Comforts, if not necessaries, have to be brought great distances, with trouble and expense, and therefore are often done without. So that it is not uncommon to find even a prosperous rancher leading a life so simple that it would appall a working man in town, though other ranchers have charming homes, and they and their women-folk, often cultured people acquainted with the best in Europe, have learned to love the free and open life, and the surroundings of the ranch."

It is quite true that South Africa does not offer the same opportunities for land settlement on a large scale that are offered by Canada or Australia. For one thing, there is very little, if any, good land which is not already in private ownership of one sort or other; that is to say, there is no large area of free land open for selection by the new-comer. There is another cause which militates against land settlement on a very large scale in South Africa, and that is the fact that there is no opening there for white agricultural laborers, or small cultivators, because in South Africa, as has been said, all manual labor, agricultural as well as industrial, is performed by colored or black labor. There is nothing in the nature of things why that should be so. There is nothing in the climatic conditions of South Africa to prevent white men from cultivating the land successfully any more than there is in Australia, or in many parts of the United States; but custom and prejudice are much stronger here than even climate or agricultural conditions, and we may take it that in our time, at any rate, the business of agriculture in South Africa will be carried on by white farmers with colored labor doing the actual rough work of the farm.

"That means really that land settlement in South Africa

is confined to men with a certain amount of capital who will employ colored labor. Of course that has a great attraction for many. In some respects life for the settler in South Africa, and certainly for his wife, is a much easier thing than life in Canada or Australia, but, of course, that is not the only or the chief attraction of South Africa. There is something in the climate, the atmosphere, the very feel of South Africa, which, I think, has an irresistible attraction for all who have ever been there, and which certainly draws people again and again to revisit South Africa, and makes those who know it feel more tempted to settle there than, possibly, in many other equally fertile regions of the world.”7

SOUTH AFRICA FRANKLY BIDS FOR SETTLERS

WITH CAPITAL

More and more the different countries are coming to realize that every effort must be put forth to prevent undesirable immigrants from arriving, and the most effective way of doing this is to prevent them from leaving their own country in the first place. This can best be done by a truthful statement of conditions to be met. South Africa candidly says that a person who secures a Government farm can manage, with moderate luck, on a capital of 5000 pounds. For other farms, the following information is illuminating:

66

Very few companies or individuals who are selling land under irrigation insist on the whole amount of the purchase price being paid down; the usual scheme is to demand onefifth or one-third paid down, and the balance is covered by a mortgage, or payments are spread out over a series of years. If a settler gets reasonably favorable terms of this nature, he should, in my opinion, have a capital of about 2000 pounds to see him through. If the intending settler is in South Africa and able to secure what he wants in a Government farm, he enjoys many financial advantages. In the first instance he obtains the property as a lessee under the Land Settlement

'Farming Opportunities in the Union of South Africa, page 141.

Act of 1912 at a very low valuation. The settler starts as a tenant under a five years' lease, which carries the option of purchase at a price fixed when the lease is entered into. No rent is payable during the first year; two per cent per annum is payable on the purchase price during the second and third years, and 3-1/2 per cent during the fourth and fifth years. At the end of the lease it may be renewed with the approval of the Minister of Lands for a further period of five years, during which the rental will be four per cent on the purchase price. The purchase price of a holding may be paid at any time before the expiry of the lease, provided that the conditions of the lease have been complied with; it may also be paid in yearly instalments spread over a period of 20 years, the balance of the purchase price carrying four per cent. It will be seen that under these conditions a man with small capital is able to nurse all his capital and put it into development, and need not spend his money on paying for land until he is strong enough to do so. Provisions also exist for assisting Government settlers with small loans for the purchase of stock, implements, and equipment, or for making permanent improvements, such as the sinking of bore-holes, fencing, etc., the cost of which is added to the purchase price of his farm. Settlers who take up land belonging to companies or private individuals cannot, of course, expect benefits on such a wholesale scale.

"In order to become an applicant for a Government farm it is essential that the intending settler should be in South Africa. The Government also assists settlers to acquire privately-owned agricultural land for their personal occupation, provided the purchase price of such land does not exceed 1500 pounds, and that the settler is prepared to contribute not less than one-fifth of the purchase price. In this case also it is essential that the settler be present in South Africa and conduct the business personally. The Land Boards established under the Land Settlement Act must fully approve the transaction, and they are not likely to recommend any application that may be submitted unless the applicant has personal knowl

edge of the property he wishes to acquire, and is at the time of applying resident in the Union.” 8

Mr. Kanthack says further:

"Labor conditions in South Africa are entirely different from what they are in England and in other Dominions. The white agricultural laborer is a very rare individual. The South African agricultural laborer is black or colored. The white man is the owner, the tenant, or the overseer. He is nearly always a person in authority. I am not citing this as an advantage, but as a fact. It would be a very much better thing, for the economic and moral welfare of the country, if this racial difference between the white man who 'bosses and the colored man who forms the great body of unskilled agricultural labor did not exist. We are, as a matter of fact, badly in need of a white skilled and semi-skilled agricultural laborer class, not only for the sake of efficiency and for supplying a greater working force, which is necessary for the development of the country, but for the general social good of the country. The social problems which arise from these conditions are difficult to appreciate till one has lived in the country for some time, but it must be clearly borne in mind that the conditions of labor on a farm and social conditions generally are radically different from those which exist in England. There are in the Union of South Africa only 1,500,000 white people, as against 4,600,000 Bantus or Kaffirs, and some 800,000 Hottentots, Asiatics, colored persons, or half-breeds. This disproportion of white to other races on totally different or lower planes of civilization is seldom appreciated in England."

"THE 1820 MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION"

If any further evidence of the sincere effort of South Africa to people her land with sturdy Britishers were needed, the story of the undertaking of an organization of importance known as "The 1820 Memorial Association" would be suf

On the authority of F. E. Kanthack, Director of Irrigation for the Union of South Africa.