IsiXhosa Intellectual Traditions (IsiXIT) Digital Archive

NATIVE INTERPRETERS. UNDER the above title the Free JJ Press newspaper, printed at Queen's Town, strongly animadverts upon the decision of Government to dispense with the services of the European interpreter of Katir languages at the Civil Commissioner's office, and to employ a native-a decision which has been dictated, we understand, by retrenchment considerations. Our contemporary records his conviction that ' peculiarly situated as Queen's Town is upon the borders of Kafirland it is neither desirable nor expedient that so important a post as interpreter should fall into the hands of the natives' For our part we confess we fail to see the force of the argument that because ' Queen s down is peculiarly situated' then it is ' neither desirable nor expedient that the important post of interpretership should 'fall into the hands of natives.' We avail ourselves of the opportunity that this paragraph gives us to make a few remarks on the important question : hat is to be the position of educated natives respecting the Government service . To make clear the attitude which we are striving to assume in approaching this subject, it is necessary to say we have a wholesome abhorence of the vanity of some of our native young men who, for having eaten several dinners at Native Institutions such as Lovedale, Heald Town, and St. Matthew's, regard themselves as being above every kind of manual work, but that their call is in workin with the brains. In whatever observations we may have made in regard to the all-important matter of the occupation of native young men who have received some training, it has not been our wish to convey the impression that because a mail has been to school he is therefore removed from the necessity of earning his living with his hands, and has either to use his brains or succumb to the inevitable. On the other hand we are of opinion that the aim of education is to enable a man to do well, and take pride in whatever he has to do. | But our sense of fairness and justice is rudely shocked by advocacy such as that in which the Eve Press engages, which would bai certain offices to black men for no fault of their own, if it be a fault at all, but that of their Creator who made them black. This journal is careful not to state the reasons which make it ' undesirable and inexpedient' that natives should not be given such posts as those of being interpreters, and as we are not conscious of the existence of any we are doing it no injustice in inferring that it is ministering to the well-known prejudice against colour. We shall probably be told that Europeans are more fit to do the work than natives. It may be 53 ; the Queen's Town office or some other places may have been so unfortunate as to get inefficient natives to do its interpreting, but it has itself to blame, for a little care in selecting men would have secured for it a good man from the very many found would office. - . - m found European interpreters as emcient as we could wish. We shall possibly touch a responsive chord in every just Englishman s heart when we say that it is essential that the administration of justice should be pure. Justice, however is liable to be polluted by lax translation; and it is a notorious fact that white men who have mastered the conjugation of a good man from the very educated natives now to be in this country. While we not point at any particular we may say we have not the Kafir verb, to say nothing of the parsing of the other parts of speech, may be counted upon the digits of the writer's right hand, and this moiety is not in the service. The educated native, Kafir being his mother tongue, may be taken for granted to have these changes of the verb, and the various figures of speech which greatly abound in Kafir, at his finger ends, and English being a written language with fixed rules can be, as it before now has been, tolerably got up by the native. There is, besides, another phase of this question which must strike any fair-minded man. We all know that the money which is paid in to Government by the citizens of a civilized state is paid back to them in various ways, and if there were no prospect of its being somehow paid back to them, civilized communities would, ere now, have absolutely refused to contribute for advancing purposes of Government. The money thus paid in as taxes returns to the taxpayers in two channels; (1) in the construction of public works; and (2) into the pockets of Government servants who spend it among us. In purely native districts, there being no demand for them, public works are not carried on, and expenditure on this score is nil. In regard to the second channel, th are are not many natives in the Civil Service, or, to put in the words of Sir. BARTLE [ FREKE : 'There is nothing like a ' native branch of the Civil Ser' vice, such as is so useful in India ' There is a great want of clerks ' and interpreters in the English ' offices, but I know of no native employed as a Government serv' ant in any office of trust or ' responsibility, except as inter' prefer . . find a single instance of an educated native being employed to do any ' Government work which required a ' good education, such as magisterial ' or revenue duty, simply because he was fit for it, and because Govern' ment ordered and empowered him ' to do it on European and not on ''Kafir principles ' [Vide Imperial Blue Book on South African A ffairs (C.—2,100J July, 1878.] As to the positions held by the very few in Government employ Sir BARTLE FRERE observes, respecting the remuneration attached to them, that they are ' ill-paid offices of great responsibility.' Thus then from the great spending channel of the Government of the country to which natives contribute, the natives get little or no 'pickings.' Is this fair? And now they are to be deprived of Interpreterships as well for which they may be considered naturally fitted! It were of advantage to the country to encourage these people by offering them every chance of creating vested interests under the Government, for this alone can make them settled, contented, and useful citizens.