Native Life in South Africa [182]
and farmers gave similar evidence regarding their districts. They included Mr. J. S. Smit, the Klerksdorp Magistrate, who incidentally exploded the stale old falsehood about Natives living on the labour of their wives. The Rev. J. L. Dube said inter alia: "It is a fact that none can deny that the white man has got the best land. In the Free State you can go for miles without seeing anything; but if it had been native land there would have been an outcry, `Look at this beautiful land, and the Kaffirs not cultivating it.' Going to Johannesburg by the mail from here any day one can see waste land belonging to white people."
Mr. E. T. Stubbs, Commissioner of Louis Trichardt, said: "The density of the native population on reserves is 106 to 177 per square mile; on white farms only 28, and on Crown land 3 to the square mile." Yet in the face of these and similar official figures, the Commission reiterates the unsupported allegation of prejudiced witnesses that "Natives are not making economic use of their land." But on turning to the Census figures one sees at once how unfounded is the repeated charge. Take only one of the Provinces -- Cape Colony -- in which it is said the Natives hold (and therefore "waste") the most land.
Province of the Cape of Good Hope
Cape Colony is about 83 3/4 million morgen in extent. It is usually referred to as: --
(a) THE COLONY PROPER: 78,800,000 MORGEN, feeding 560,000 WHITES and 1,090,000 BLACKS, with their 1,603,625 cattle, 240,000 horses and 20 million sheep and goats; and
(b) THE TRANSKEIAN NATIVE TERRITORIES: 5,000,000 MORGEN, feeding 20,000 WHITES and 900,000 BLACKS, with their 1,111,700 cattle, 90,000 horses, 3 1/2 million sheep and goats, and more poultry and pigs than in the Colony Proper.
Surely, no further mathematical demonstration is needed to show on which side of the Kei there is a waste of land, if any. But it is a maxim in South Africa that, except as mechanical contrivances, Natives do not count, and cattle in their possession are not live-stock; thus the districts in which they eke out an existence are so much derelict land. The Commission, therefore, propose the following alterations: --
The 20,000 whites in the Transkei must not be disturbed. A million morgen in the Transkei is set aside for them, and it shall be unlawful for the blacks to live there except as servants. On the other hand the million odd Natives in the Colony Proper must betake themselves to the remainder of the Transkei, with their cattle and other belongings. A million morgen of Kalahari sand-dunes, worthless for farming purposes, and the small tribal communes near Queenstown and King Williamstown, are also set aside as native areas. And then the whole of Cape Colony (supposing the Commission's extraordinary recommendations be enforced) will balance itself as follows: --
(a) EUROPEAN AREAS: 76,392,503 MORGEN, feeding 560,000 WHITES, their 1,030,000 CATTLE, 180,300 HORSES AND 15 MILLION SHEEP AND GOATS.
(b) NATIVE AREAS: 7,356,590 MORGEN, feeding 1,500,000 BLACKS, with their 1,580,000 HEAD OF CATTLE, 154,630 HORSES AND 8 MILLION SHEEP AND GOATS.
At first sight it would appear that these awards allotted say 288 acres per white and 7 acres per black person; but, as the bulk of the English (a quarter of a million) live in towns and are not affected by this trouble, we may deduct the Urban districts and their white and black populations. Then the Commission's allotments really work out at about 589.31 acres per Boer (man, woman or child) and only 10.3 acres per Native. And even then, this would be by no means the limit of the disproportion. Appendix VIII (Annexure I) of the same Report recommends future inroads by whites upon these attenuated native reservations, but, to the blacks, there is to be no territorial compensation from the Colony, which an adoption of all these recommendations would practically depopulate.
As things are at present, the black population of these
Mr. E. T. Stubbs, Commissioner of Louis Trichardt, said: "The density of the native population on reserves is 106 to 177 per square mile; on white farms only 28, and on Crown land 3 to the square mile." Yet in the face of these and similar official figures, the Commission reiterates the unsupported allegation of prejudiced witnesses that "Natives are not making economic use of their land." But on turning to the Census figures one sees at once how unfounded is the repeated charge. Take only one of the Provinces -- Cape Colony -- in which it is said the Natives hold (and therefore "waste") the most land.
Province of the Cape of Good Hope
Cape Colony is about 83 3/4 million morgen in extent. It is usually referred to as: --
(a) THE COLONY PROPER: 78,800,000 MORGEN, feeding 560,000 WHITES and 1,090,000 BLACKS, with their 1,603,625 cattle, 240,000 horses and 20 million sheep and goats; and
(b) THE TRANSKEIAN NATIVE TERRITORIES: 5,000,000 MORGEN, feeding 20,000 WHITES and 900,000 BLACKS, with their 1,111,700 cattle, 90,000 horses, 3 1/2 million sheep and goats, and more poultry and pigs than in the Colony Proper.
Surely, no further mathematical demonstration is needed to show on which side of the Kei there is a waste of land, if any. But it is a maxim in South Africa that, except as mechanical contrivances, Natives do not count, and cattle in their possession are not live-stock; thus the districts in which they eke out an existence are so much derelict land. The Commission, therefore, propose the following alterations: --
The 20,000 whites in the Transkei must not be disturbed. A million morgen in the Transkei is set aside for them, and it shall be unlawful for the blacks to live there except as servants. On the other hand the million odd Natives in the Colony Proper must betake themselves to the remainder of the Transkei, with their cattle and other belongings. A million morgen of Kalahari sand-dunes, worthless for farming purposes, and the small tribal communes near Queenstown and King Williamstown, are also set aside as native areas. And then the whole of Cape Colony (supposing the Commission's extraordinary recommendations be enforced) will balance itself as follows: --
(a) EUROPEAN AREAS: 76,392,503 MORGEN, feeding 560,000 WHITES, their 1,030,000 CATTLE, 180,300 HORSES AND 15 MILLION SHEEP AND GOATS.
(b) NATIVE AREAS: 7,356,590 MORGEN, feeding 1,500,000 BLACKS, with their 1,580,000 HEAD OF CATTLE, 154,630 HORSES AND 8 MILLION SHEEP AND GOATS.
At first sight it would appear that these awards allotted say 288 acres per white and 7 acres per black person; but, as the bulk of the English (a quarter of a million) live in towns and are not affected by this trouble, we may deduct the Urban districts and their white and black populations. Then the Commission's allotments really work out at about 589.31 acres per Boer (man, woman or child) and only 10.3 acres per Native. And even then, this would be by no means the limit of the disproportion. Appendix VIII (Annexure I) of the same Report recommends future inroads by whites upon these attenuated native reservations, but, to the blacks, there is to be no territorial compensation from the Colony, which an adoption of all these recommendations would practically depopulate.
As things are at present, the black population of these