Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 April 1894 — A SERIOUS QUESTION. [ARTICLE]

A SERIOUS QUESTION.

White A rican Settlers Wish to Dispose the The white settlers at Cape Col >n A r a, are greatly exercised to th. s< m. way to dispo e of the native p< ulaii n. There are 1,100,000 of the la: ttr and 400,000 whites. These native it is complained, occupy s -me of th the finest lands in the country, a: th ugh living peaceably to their ■ v, satisfaction, they serve no purpose n. the colonists’ scheme of civilization : nd, besides, the white folks want the lauds they occupy, and are frank e ough to say so. One numerically large and p litica'ly influential party in Cape Co ony t rges that to each native should be granted the title deed of the land o copied by him, which, it is argued, h will speedily, under proper inducements to that end, sell, “and thus, y < egrees. the land now occupied I y natives will be completely occunie.i by whites." Another party, which is desirous that each native should recei > e an inalienable title to a piece of land adjudged sufficient to support him, is denounced by its opponents as a negrophile party, largely composed of philanthropists without practica views. A third suggestion, to grant titles to natives under certain condi tions requiring cultivation to be done, is looked on with some favor. Whatever the solution arrived at. it will undoubtedly bring about just the conditions the natives do not want, as has invariably been the case in such matters. The natives are content to live in the same simple way they have always been accustomed to. Their sim pie needs are bountifully supplied by the fruitful land without much labor on their part. But civilization wants to make them wear clothes, eat meat, run sewing machines, and read newspapers, and they would much prefer not to do those things, because they would make a poor botch of them, would be compelled to work hard, aud the beet fruits of their labor would go to the invading whites. Doubtless the eventual solution will be that the poor African will, by one means or another, lose his land and his ancestral means of livelihood, and be compelled, in order to live at all, to hire out as a day laborer, at hard work and small pay, to his white brother. That has been the usual way where the natives are not effectually removed, as were the heroto Caribe, or do not conveniently dwindle and fade away, as the Maoris are doing.