IsiXhosa Intellectual Traditions (IsiXIT) Digital Archive

SAYS the Border News (Aliwal North) ' The Government are about to effect change in the organization of the Cape Police, by substituting Europeans for natives. Some twenty natives in this dis¬trict have already received notice to quit,' and, of course, these twenty Natives will be deprived of the means of earning their livelihood. Why? We pause for a reply. THE action of Government seems to us to be on a par with feeding a hungry dog on its tail. We fear it will be more diffi¬cult to detect crime among the Natives with European policemen only. Our own belief is that Native policemen have done, and are doing much good in this country, and they deserve a better recognition of their services. WHILE Government has been deliber¬ating on getting rid of all Native police¬men, we have been turning over in our minds the wisdom of suggesting a scheme whereby Government might form a Native regiment of policemen with Native officers under an efficient white Colonel, to patrol the frontier districts. Such a force would vie with the Cape Police and other forces made up of Europeans in the detection of crime, and would be a healthy stimulus to the other force, while in fitness for the work in hand, it would be difficult to surpass it, and would be maintained cheaply. WITH reference to the same subject the Port Elizabeth Telegraph says:—''The Kafir newspaper, Tmvo, has an article.on the subject of the Government weeding natives out of the rural police force. As might be reasonably expected, the Imvo argues that a policy of this kind is calcu¬lated to frustrate the very object the Government has in view—the suppression of stock thefts. The editor maintains that white men cannot become well posted in the ruses and wiles of native thieves. Our contemporary pays a very left-handed compliment to his countrymen in the phrase, ' to put down crime in any class you must utilise members of the same class.' If this is not a paraphrase of the English proverb ' set a thief to catch a thief,' there is no meaning in language. At all events the Imvo is to be commended for candour, and we fear there is too much truth in its observation.' Henry Kings¬ley has said ' A keeper is a poacher turned outside in, while a poacher is but a keeper turned inside out.' So that our contemporary's ' set a thief to catch a thief' has its counterpart even in the conservative occupation of game preserv¬ing in old England. WE are very pleased to see that our able friend the East London Dispatch thinks with us on the utility of Natives as Policemen. It says :—' Native Opinion holds that a serious mistake is being made in the weeding of Natives out of the Cape Police. It fears that ' white men cannot be well posted in the ups and downs of the thieving class of Natives.' We should certainly like to hear if there is any good ground of complaint against the Native Police. On the face of things they ought to be the best detectives. If they are not loyal to the law, that is another matter.' As concerns loyalty to the law, we may assure our contemporary that it would be difficult to prove their want of it. THE Cape Argus is rather unfair, we think, to the Aborigines Protection Society, a body for the existence of which we cannot thank Providence too much. And we may acknowledge here that for their existence in these sublunary regions the gratitude of the Natives is, to a great extent, due to Mr. Saul Solomon, the Cape Argus, and the Aborigines Protec¬tion Society. Says our respected con¬temporary: 'It is not a little significant that the period during which there has been a greater feeling of fairness towards Natives than there ever was before, has been just since the cessation of any active interference by the Aborigines Protection Society in the affairs of the colony. We confess that this may seem an odd admis¬sion when certain traditions of this journal are taken into account; but there, is the fact, and we cannot ignore it.' For our part we have been hugging the impres¬sion that what led to the cessation ol the so-called interference of the A.P.S. has been the disappearance of the causes that made it impossible to avoid that interference. WE observe from the English papers that our Indian friend, Mr. Lalmohun Ghose, is to stand for Deptford at the forthcoming election instead of Greenwich, as was previously arranged. Grand open air mass meetings were held at Deptford in the end of June, which were addressed, among others, by Mr. Ghose and Air. George Osborne Morgan, M.P., a member of Mr. Gladstone's last administration. About the same time lie opened a Liberal Club and made an interesting speech in reply to the toast of the 'House of Commons, coupling the name of Mr. Gladstone and that of Mr. Ghose,' proposed by Mr. Morgan. In politics Mr. Ghose is a Radical of the most pronounced type. THE energetic Principal of St. Mat¬thew's Institution, the Rev. C. Taberer, has gone to England with the object of collecting funds for the work of that use¬ful Institution. The Rev. A. W. Brereton is acting in his absence. At Port Eliza¬beth he delivered an interesting lecture based upon his 23 years' experience of mission work in South Africa, and made a powerful appeal on behalf oft missions. He showed that, notwithstanding diffi¬culties, he had managed, since he took over the mission from Canon Greenstock in 1870, to build a parsonrge, a church, schools and workshops. In the Institution there are 72 boarders, 36 apprentices, 20 girls, 6 teachers, 4 of whom are Europeans and 2 Natives. The Industrial Depart¬ment was succeeding well. It had since 1875 realised £4,000. The buildings had cost £8,000; £1,680 had been collected; £2,000 had been got from sale of articles in the Industrial Department and £2,000 remained as debt. We are sure many will wish Mr. Taberer God speed in his trip. At the lecture the chair was occupied by Mr. L. L. Mitchell. Standard Bank Man¬ager at the South African Liverpool, and his remarks in introducing Mr. Taberer show that colonists are beginning to see that missionaries are not the only people interested in the civilisation of the Natives, but that the prosperity of the country is bound up in their work. AT another stage the Parliament threw out the Land Bill which contained the proviso that Traders should have titles to ten acres in Native Locations. Of course we rejoice at this, and hope the matter may never be mooted again, j There can, nevertheless, be no objection to give titles to this class of the com¬munity when inhabitants in Locations are being granted individual titles to their holdings; but we object to the shadowy principle of robbing Paul to pay Peter that underlies this movement.