The Boer cannot be charged with any incapacity where the mere treatment of natives is concerned; he can manage that business perfectly.  In the first place, he does not make the too common mistake of allowing the black populace to insert the thin end of the wedge.  This is a mistake too often fraught with serious results, and the Boer knows it.  A native, no matter if he be Swazi, Zulu, Basuto, or any other nationality, will always take advantage where such is offered, and he will follow it up with enough persistence to warrant ultimate success.  In Natal, at the present time, this mistake is very apparent, and, in consequence, one very seldom encounters a native who is content to attire himself in any other manner than that adopted by his master.  He demands decent clothing, and, if possible, it must be new and fashionable.  I have known cases where a ‘boy’ has been presented with a respectable suit of clothes a little too small for him, and it is unnecessary to add that he disposed of that suit.  People who have hitherto allowed their children to put their pennies in the Sunday School Mission box, will perhaps hesitate to continue supporting the ‘poor, down-trodden native’ when they learn that he is so fastidious, and perhaps, after all, their spare coppers might be assigned to a more deserving cause.

The Boer does not treat his black servants in any such fashion—­he knows better.  He puts them on a sound footing to begin with, and he leads them to understand that they must remain there.

This method of treatment where the natives are concerned has, to a great extent, insured the progress of the Boer in South Africa.  He has laid down certain laws at the outset, and he has rigidly adhered to those laws.  He employs a different method of treatment from that which is attributed to the Natal farmer and others who employ native servants.  He has never allowed his original attitude towards natives to become compatible with the British idea; he prefers still to look upon them as slaves, although he is perforce required to regard them as servants.  The difficulty in Natal with regard to the rapidly increasing native populace, and how to deal effectually with the question, might have arisen in the Orange Free State, for instance, were it not for the fact that the native, in comparison with the white population, is small.  By a Law passed in the Volksraad some few years ago, it became compulsory for farmers to allow only a limited number of native families to remain on the farms.  This created considerable dissatisfaction among both farmers and natives, and the result was that native labour approached the inadequate in a very short time.  Hundreds of native families left the State, and although the Law ultimately admitted of a wider interpretation, the native populace has not materially increased.  The present attitude of natives in the towns is not altogether satisfactory since the passing of this Law.  Labour being scarce, they are inclined to take up an independent attitude,