IsiXhosa Intellectual Traditions (IsiXIT) Digital Archive

MK. W. HAY'S RETIREMENT. MR. WILLIAM HAY'S valedictory, which appeared in the Cape Mercury some weeks ago, has evoked expressions of sincere regret, coupled with best wishes for his future welfare, from the whole of the Press of the Colony. And when the authentic history of the last ten years of this country comes to be written, the Cape Mercury will, we imagine, occupy a by no means unimportant place. It must be acknowledged on all hands that the part that the journalist plays in his day in the political as well as in the social world is, if not more, as important as that of any politician. It is the good, or, in this Colony at least, the ill-fortune of an editor to guide the public mind in matters touching its general welfare. And very often the School-management maxim ' As ' is the teacher, so is the school,', finds its counterpart in ' As is the ' newspaper, so are its readers.' Indeed, so great is the influence of public writers that they cannot be too careful in wielding it. considering its effects on posterity. Yet how often are these men, who, work probably harder than most public men for the good of the State, allowed to retire unwept, unmourned, and even unsung. We are not going to philosophize. These prefatory remarks are called for by the hardened belief that newspaper men are private beings whom it is convenient to pat on the back and conciliate while they work the oracle, and to cast aside like an old glove when they retire. From the time of its first publication the Cape Mercury printed in this town was edited by Mr. WILLIAM HAY. Under his editorship it has secured for itself a reputation for reliability and consistency, and has, by sheer common sense and straightforwardness carved for itself a place among the foremost newspapers in South Africa. As during the last decade the Native Question has been prominently before the country, has made and unmade ministries, and, moreover, has been the election cry of the highest tribunal of appeal—Parliament, Mr.; HAY naturally comes into prominence. It is in this field, more than in any other, that the Cape Mercury has distinguished itself. That the Cape Argus and the Mercury, during these trying times, took up what is popularly called the side of the Natives is well-known. But on a strict inquiry into what constitutes the side of the Natives it will be found that it is the advocacy of moderation—fair and just dealing with the ignorant and subject races. And Mr HAY has discharged his part as editor in a manner that has raised the admiration of his opponents, and won for him the love, respect, and confidence of the Native people. We have said that as is the news- paper so are its readers. This is true of the Cape Mercury. When it was started the white men in Kaffraria were not different from their neighbours in other Eastern district towns, where a black man is merely a black man whatever be his attainments. We make bold to say that whatever their opinion of Natives on account of failings that seem to be inherent in them as a race, there is not another town in South Africa, excepting Cape Town, where the better, because cultivated, class of the community, are more ready to acknowledge— sometimes substantially—what is of real merit in Natives than King William's Town ; and a well-to-do black man would find less to complain of among the better sort of people in this town than in any other. This result may be traced in great part to the indefatigable labours of the man who for the last ten years, like one crying in the wilderness, and in spite of opposition, open and disguised, has championed the cause of justice, of humanity, and of good morals in governments without respect of persons. The last election in this division, looked at from one stand-point, was a contest between the principles of dealing with Natives for years advocated by Mr. HAY, and those of blood and thunder which were popularized by the late Sir BARTLE FRERE. Contrary, however, to the expectations of most people, who thought that the school of brute force for the Natives was the largest, that of conciliation and moderation carried the day by an overwhelming majority. Thus it will be seen that the principles for which Mr. HAY fought through good and evil report, have slowly but surely leavened the whole lump of the Kaffrarian body politic. To him, then, the Natives owe a heavy debt of gratitude, and we are not altogether without hope that the more intelligent among our people, young and old, will yet do something substantial to show their gratitude to the noble Editor, who has, without pandering to the pre-judices of the crowd, trodden those exalted paths of journalistic states-manship which bring credit and undying fame to their frequenters.