CHAPTER XXV. IMMIGRATION-GENERALLY. (6 CONVEYS A DISTANT COUNTRY INTO MINE." "Look up! a loftier destiny behold, For to the coast the fair-haired Saxon steers, Rich with the spoils of time, the lore of bards and seers, Live living things on the broad river's breast What were thy secret thoughts, oh, red-browed brother, -L. H. Sigourney. "That the splendid empires which England has founded in every quarter of the globe, have had their origin largely in football contests, at Eton, the boat races on the Thames, and the cricket matches on her downs and heather who can doubt. The race so widely dominant, is dominant because its institutions cultivate selfreliance, and its breeding develops endurance, courage, and pluck."-Dr. Wm. Mathews of Chicago. AFRICA resounds with the cry, "Men with capital fail for the want of experience, and men of experience cannot get on for the want of capital". It is a pity a compromise cannot be effected somehow, but I am afraid the difficulty so far as it is adjusted at all, adjusts itself on the time-honoured principle, which in the form of a quotation from one of Miss Braddon's novels, was found at WaggaWagga, with somewhat compromising results, inscribed on a page of a derelict pocket-book, which had once been the property of the notorious "Claimant ". However this may be, I feel that I am now rushing, rashly may be, into a controversy, which is perhaps fraught with more important issues than any of the questions, to the solution of which I have already addressed myself. Anyone attempting to write or to speak upon this subject incurs a great responsibility. What I have already said, will, I think, go far to prove that I am deeply sensible of the serious gravity of the matter. It is all very well for men to vapour upon English platforms, about the grand capabilities of South Africa, the enormous resources of the country, and the home which it would and could provide for the superfluous population of these islands. One grand requirement of South Africa is undoubtedly small farmers. Agricultural labourers would also under other conditions be the making of the colonies. But what is the use of attracting the first class of persons, if upon their arrival, they are unable to purchase moderate farms, upon reasonable conditions, and wherein lies the sense of alluring the latter class, if it be a foregone conclusion, that they will be driven out of the market by native labour. Enterprise and zeal in a cause, however good in itself, become absolutely harmful, if the modest virtue discretion is divorced from the efforts such qualities should inspire. If an hotel keeper expect to receive patronage, he must hold out certain inducements to the public to become his guests, of which none can be so important as the guarantee of a comfortable resting place. It is rather ruffling to one's equanimity to reflect upon the probable fate of the immigrants, should the tide of emigration suddenly turn and an exodus from Europe overflow South Africa. True enough, there is not sufficient vital power, nor numerical strength in the present communities, to make much headway, unaided against the dead weight of an inert mass of natives, and other natural obstacles to progress. Thus any amount of energy and work from within will be of little use, unless it take the form of an endeavour to draw assistance from without. Immigration agents and authorities must continue to use their suasive powers to entrap flies, i.e., immigrants into their colonial nets. The mischief lies in their being no settled grooves in which to locate the imported labour. Before attracting settlers, pray do something to prepare the way for them, or the effect will only be to tie a mill stone around the colonial neck, by creating a very dangerous element, namely an element composed of malcontented, dissatisfied, indolent men. Many circumstances favourable to the success of giant and ambitious HONESTY, THE BEST POLICY. 187 schemes of colonisation exist. Land there is, if not in abundance, and while estimating at their full value, the drawbacks under which those who occupy it labour, it can be successfully maintained, that the lands in themselves might be made suitable enough. True, lack of water and the consequent necessary fall back upon artificial irrigation, with all its difficulties, have to be reckoned with. But this is not so important a factor in the case, as is the fact that these lands, where they are available for settlement, are too far away from the centres of life and of the markets of consumption, to be suitable. There are plenty of such farms, but they are in the hands of prosperous farmers, who are by no means anxious to sell them to anybody. The government of either colony, Natal or Cape Colony, has little land at its disposal, and it will therefore be seen that there is a grave danger of incurring serious consequences, should immigration be conducted carelessly or recklessly. False statements have too often been the stock in trade of immigration agents. Railway contractors, the commissioners of public works, no less than immigration amateurs of all kinds, have been guilty of these fallacious misrepresentations, and a very bad feeling has been produced in the breast of new settlers thereby. There has often been a difficulty in finding room for ever so small a consignment of men, a cataclysm of new comers might starve to death. The prospects held out to Englishmen to become settlers are not so much false in themselves, as they are over-coloured and magnified. They are generally true enough in theory, but in practice there are too many "ifs and buts" to be surmounted, which "ifs and buts" have been unfairly suppressed by those interested in procuring settlers. In the words of the Cape Argus, "A new immigrant has very much to put up with. The new condition of affairs puzzles and often disappoints him," and if he be made of ordinary clay he is prone to take to drink as a palliative for his mental suffering and chagrin. However, there can be no doubt that artisans in constant work are able to earn far higher wages than such men can command at home. This increased remuneration for their services is a clear gain, even when we have made due allowance for the rebatement caused by the higher price of various provisions, of house rent, and of some other items in the general cost of living; but I must not omit to mention the more important consideration, that thrifty, industrious men have a good chance of becoming their own masters. Unhappily the strong tendency to intemperance, which a certain home sickness seems to foster, does much to mitigate these blessings. Very many of the artisan class in South Africa are natives of London, and this leads me, in this connection, to remark a very curious idiosyncracy which has escaped my memory till now. I refer to the wonderful feeling of nationality, if I may so call it, which the Londoner abroad always develops. Void of any strong feeling of citizenship or local pride at home, he becomes possessed of these attributes to an abnormal extent, as soon as he finds thousands of miles of sea intervening between him and his ancient home. This peculiarity induces the most respectable man to hob-nob with the most utter outcast, to whom in London he would no more think of speaking, than of attempting to fly. He can talk to him of old scenes, old haunts, and reminiscences, and the delighted cockney forgets all else in the joy he experiences in recounting his old battles and his old pleasures "Though lost to sight, to memory dear "— This weakness is a fruitful source of mischief, and often leads to the respectable mechanic's downfall, in short, to his being depraved to the level of his adopted companion. From what has already fallen from me, it may be gathered that I consider that the class of men most wanted in South Africa are men of the rough and ready type. The class least wanted are gentleman immigrants of which class the colonies get supplies ad nauseam. In saying this I do not allude, in particular, to the fictitious gentleman, the swaggering cad, whom I have before now described, nor have I in mind those men of birth, but lost position, whose antecedents will not bear the light of day. I should be making the safest of statements were I to content myself with the assertion, that every steamer which arrives in Table Bay, brings at least one sample of both the foregoing types. I allude, however, just now, to men belonging to either the upper MISERABLE PRESUMPTION. 189 middle class of society, or the upper class itself, who come to South Africa in search of such work as the laws of social tyranny will alone allow a gentleman to perform. There is a large class in England willing enough to work, as long as that work shall not jeopardise the idol to which they cling, social prestige. Their education, family antecedents, and general entourage, make them suppose that manual work must of a necessity be derogatory. Leaving this consideration outside of the question for a moment, it should not be forgotten that such men are often unfitted physically, and nearly always, moreover, from the lack of the qualifying knowledge, to engage in any pursuit which would require them to use their hands. Such men crowd into all our colonies, and especially into those which form the subject-matter of this book. Upon their arrival they appear to entertain the steadfast opinion that all native born Africanders should willingly give way in order to make room for them. The Africanders very properly object, at which the intruders hold up their hands in amazed horror and disgust. If men of education and of blood came to the colonies, determined to accommodate themselves to circumstances, to voluntarily divest themselves of the insignia of their birth and training, and to turn their hands literally, as well as metaphorically, to anything which might present itself, their presence would be an incalculable benefit to their adopted country. In the first place, the refinement of feeling, and of bearing, inherent in such men would tend to rub down the angularities and somewhat coarse characteristics inseparable from the rough lives and rougher natures of the mass of the people. Moreover, although they could never compete in the labour market with the British workman on his own ground, yet, taking into consideration the extreme dislike, not to say incompetency, of the average member of that class to undertake any work which may happen to lie somewhat outside the beaten boundary or ken of the routine of his actual trade, we arrive at the conclusion that the superior education and intelligence of the gentleman would give him a great advantage in a country where skilled labour is by no means in so great request, as is intelligent labour of an elastic though nondescript and indefinite character. The grand mischief, however, lies in the |