IsiXhosa Intellectual Traditions (IsiXIT) Digital Archive

NATIVES & LIQUOR. AMONG the questions of moment that will probably engage the serious attention of Parliament during its next session is that of the sale of ardent spirits to the Natives. The animated debate which took place on this subject last session was merely raised on the slender basis whether the proclamation of areas within which no liquor might be sold to Natives in this and in other districts, densely settled by Natives, had worked beneficially or otherwise. It was not denied, even by the most thorough-going opponent of the area proclamation, that these areas had resulted in some good. Indeed, opposition would seem to have been courted, to the minds of some, first, by the horrors of smuggling— the purchasing of liquor by the Natives outside the areas and their retailing it within them, and secondly, by a not unnatural sympathy for the publicans whose living solely depended upon the selling of fire-water to our people. It was generally felt, however, that the system of proclaiming areas had not been sufficiently tried to enable all to make up their minds respecting its usefulness, or, as the case may be, its mischievousness, and for this reason alone the House felt another year's trial might, with very little to lose, be given to the area system. It is satisfactory to observe that almost all the members were sensibly impressed with the one direction towards which further legislation on the Liquor Traffic must proceed—that of prohibiting the sale of liquor to Natives throughout the Colony. The horrid results of this nefarious traffic, to Natives at least, have been delineated before now, and we can perhaps do no better than present our readers with a picture drawn by the Natives themselves, to which we make bold to say no one can fairly take exception. Chief WILLIAM S. KAMA, in a petition addressed by him and 55 others in March last to Sir LEICESTER SMYTHE, then administering the Government,says:— That your Petitioners do not object to the establishment of wayside hotels in these localities for the accommodation of travellers or of shops for the convenience of the native inhabitants living far from towns ; but from long experience and ob¬servation they are solemnly impressed with the conviction that the wayside can¬teens generally associated with these country hotels are an unmitigated evil. They are the greatest enemies the black people have to encounter in this country. They draw off the people from industrial pursuits, and make them idle, by these lounging all day long about the localities where liquor is to be had ; they keep the people habitually poor by swallowing up all their earnings ; they retard their pro¬gress in civilization and Christianity by fostering habits of inebriety; thus in¬capacitating and disinclining them to¬wards everything that is good and noble ; they are destructive of all domestic union and comfort in families, by engendering domestic poverty and squalls, and pro¬voking connubial discord and strife ; men neglecting their families and beating their wives, because the devil has mastered them by strong drink ; they render men utterly indifferent to religion, and foster every description of crime and im¬morality ; they are filling the prisons with criminals, and peopling hell with lost souls ! We have known a thousand bad things come from the canteens, but we have never yet seen one good thing emanate from them. Some people fear that the absolute prohibition of the sale of Cape Smoke to Natives will result in an im¬mediate fall in Treasury returns from this quarter. It may be so, though we think it will be hardly perceptible, for Natives who drink are now so poor from lounging about canteens earning nothing that they cannot possibly add much to the takings of the canteen keeper. Who denies this asseveration must of necessity admit that they must steal from the farmer to enrich the publican, and at once we are face to face with a momentous question as to whether the Government of the country is to protect the publican at the expense of the farmer, or, in other words, whether we are im¬pliedly to acknowledge the dubious principle of robbing PAUL to pay PETER. The fact remains that if absolute restrictions to the sale of liquor to Natives be made we shall at once have a sober people who will have the question of the where¬withal they are to support their families constantly engaging their attention, and will turn their spend¬ing powers in other directions, which must indirectly recoup the precious revenue from this sale. There would, besides, be a good opportunity of building up the Natives and of giving them some sort of sell¬government, thus making them use¬ful citizens—changes which it is impossible to introduce among them at present as they are carried away mad with this traffic.