IsiXhosa Intellectual Traditions (IsiXIT) Digital Archive

a very bitter letter directed at Mr. R. J. Dick, the Special Magistrate here, signed by ' One of the Public.' The conduct of the inquiry into Chief Mbovane Mabandla's case is selected as a stick wherewith to strike the Magistrate, It is alleged that the inquiry was one¬sided, and that had Mr. Dick been Mbovane's attorney he could not have defended his cause so well. That this extraordinary production comes from a Partisan and a deeply interested indivi- ual, is evident from the absurd attempt to convert a mole-hill into a prodigious mountain. And no doubt his statements are grossly exaggerated. We are only astonished at the Cape Times seriously urging Mr. De Wet to re-open the inquiry at the instance of a hot-headed individual who is serving ' self and pelf.' To adopt such a course would be to cast a slur on Mr. Dick, of whose integrity and judge¬ment there has never been a whisper of scandal before, and it wouldindeed be pass¬ing strange that he should, on so trivial a matter, have turned upon the whole of his unbroken record. We know Mr. De Wet will prove that he is not to be blown about by every gust of wind, but will act up to the report of a long-tried and trusted official, whom he had himself called upon to arbitrate. Otherwise there will be no finality in Government de¬cisions. ' A CORRESPONDENT has obligingly fur¬nished us (P. E. Telegraph) with a report of the ordination of the Rev. Dr. Soga, M.B., Missionary to Kaffraria. Dr. Soga is a son of the late Rev. Tiyo Soga, a Kafir minister, whose exemplary life and use¬ful work have been the theme of so much commendation. The ordination of Dr. Soga took place on July 10th, at St. Ninian's Church, Stirling. A public dinner was afterwards given to the Rev. Dr. Soga at the principal hotel in Stirling, the Rev. Dr. Frew being chairman, and Rev. Dr. Blair vice.' We announced some time back that the Rev. Dr. Soga would leave Scotland for his labours in this country during the current month. IT is a hopeful and promising sign to find Natal Colonists interesting them¬selves in Native education. Hitherto the whole burden of improving the thousands of Natives in that Colony has been rest¬ing on the unaided shoulders of Mission¬ary bodies—and a heavy burden it has been. The Government is now beginning to recognise its duty. Under the present law industrial training is made compul¬sory in all schools receiving Government aid. The aid being small, Missionaries find themselves in the predicament of being unable to get together and main¬tain the materials that such a condition requires. The work of educating has thus been almost impossible, and could only be conducted to a very limited extent. A Bill is now passing through the Legislative Council to give the Edu¬cation Council option to dispense with this condition if it sees fit, and there is every hope that it will pass. It is very discreditable to the otherwise intelligent community of Natal that no attempts have before now been made by them to educate the Native, and we congratulate the Council of Education for its efforts to wipe out this scandalous disgrace. The idea that it is possible for a civilized—not to say Christian—Government to profit by the ignorance of its subjects is ex¬ploded. SOLOMON C. DUNGA has, by the per¬mission of the Colonial Medical Com- mittee, of which our friend Dr. H. A. Ebden is President, been apprenticed as an Apothecary for three years to the District Surgeon of Engcobo. Mr. Dunga is a Fingo vouth, and was educated at Lovedale. This is a step in the right direction, and it is to be hoped many more Native young men will be put through the same course of apprentice¬ship, as we believe they might be of immense good as dispensers among their countrymen in districts were the services of qualified doctors cannot be had. The adoption of such a course may, moreover, be regarded as the death-knell of the charlatans, who are such a pest to Native society—the witch-doctors. THE Hon. John Laing's retirement from the representation of Fort Beaufort in the Assembly is announced. The honourable gentleman has not disclosed his reasons for arriving at this decision. While we doubt not but that his consti¬tuents will regret Mr. Laing's resignation, we are of opinion that the country will gain by his retirement into private life, of which he is an ornament. It has been more than once in the power of Mr. Laing, during the course of his public career, to save the country of his adoption by a stroke of real statesmanship, but, to his lasting discredit, he has allowed these opportunities to pass him by. A very tolerable speaker and debater, he soon caught the ear of the House, and carved 1 for himself a place in Mr. Sprigg's Cabinet. It is now a notorious fact that had his counsels on the Disarmament question been accepted by that Cabinet the country would have been spared a fruitless ex¬penditure of £4,000,000 on an equally fruitless war, a cruel humiliation, and the wreckage of half-a-dozen reputations —from all these circumstances combined we don't think it has yet recovered. In¬stead of boldly standing by his opinions, he allowed himself to be talked over by the late Sir Bartie Frere, and sent to Port Elizabeth to make a confession. Again by a little decision Mr. Laing, who still had influence in the House, might, with gentlemen like Mr. Pearson, Mr. Tudhope, and his colleague, Mr. Ayliff, have combined with Sir T. Scanlen s party to compel the Bondsmen, led by Mr. Hofmeyer, who are admittedly the ruling party just now, to take office and carrv out their programme themselves. That this is the key of the situation has been patent to all reasonable politicians for some time past. This opportunity Mr. Laing has again allowed to slip. It would therefore be mere affectation tor us to say we regret his retirement. On the whole he was. a moderate man. In his unique position he could not, however, do much to advance his views to the stage of the prac¬tical. Having profitted by experi¬ence, let us hope the constituency will now return a vertebrate representative. Seeing that Parliament is sorely in need of one who would assist in leading it to the old paths, which have, to all intents and purposes, been forsaken Fort Beau- fort might do much good to the whole colony by inspanning Mr. Saul Solomon. WE are very pleased Chief Umhla- ngaso's letter is attracting attention in the Colony. As, no doubt, he Will be glad to hear what the people think of his views, we extract the following from the Graham's Town Journal'.—'Umhlanga- so, ' Prime Minister of Pondoland has written a letter to the native paper, Imvo Zabantsundu. setting forth the grievances which the Pondos have against the Colonial Government. He complains that our Government has robbed the Pondos of territory which is now occupied bv the Xesibes; and he states that the Pondos will never recognise this alien¬ation, but will continue to molest and slaughter the Xesibes, although they are under Colonial protection. That is pretty plain, and coming from such a source, it is important. And il we could make Umhlangaso and the Pondos hear, we would tell them in reply what we think is the opinion of honest colonists who wish the Pondos no harm. It is too late to go back upon that dispute, and re-open the question of the title of Xesibeland. Umhlangaso is reported to be an able naan, and he ought to remember that the tree tliat was too stiff to bend to the wind was blown down. The best possible advice that can be given to Pondoland is (1) not to proke the Colonial Government, nor give it a handle, by attacks on Xesibes and annoyances about St. John s River. The Pondos will never get those districts back ; but they might lose more in trying to recover them. (2.) If the Pondos are wise they will implore the Imperial Government to take them over promptly, and govern them as a Crown Colony. They should study carefully what has happened in Zululand, Bechuanaland, and Xalanga, and else¬where, and take shelter before the storm comes. This is the advice which it seems to us Imvo ought to give to the Pondos, and we wish, for their sakes, they may have wisdom to take it,' OUR people will no doubt be interested by the contents of the article appearing elsewhere on the South African Exhibi¬tion, to be held in Port Elizabeth at the end of the year. We hope they will dwell carefully on Mr. Brister's remarks, which relate to matters that are for their good. It would be advisable for each location to have a meeting to take into consideration the facts Mr. Brister has addressed to a meeting of our countrymen at Port Elizabeth, and we would be only too glad to explain anything that may need ex¬planation. There is, of course, no time to lose, as the Exhibition opens in De¬cember, and steps to prepare exhibits should be taken without delay. IT would appear from the course of the discussion at the great meeting of farmers which took place at Queen' Town last week, that we are not at all singular in our opinion respecting the value of Natives as Policemen, as the subjoined will show. This was on the resolution to enrol more police : Mr. Webb : Why not add to the resolution or the amendment that a body of Native Detectives be enrolled ? Mr. McDonald was in favour of this being done, as lie considered the natives did more work than the white men. Dr. Berry: I thought of the Native Detective* when drawing up my amendment, but I thought the majority of the farmers were against any natives being employed as detectives. (Cries Of no, no.) It seems to us that the value of Native Policemen would be clearly seen, and their efficiency improved by making them a separate regiment with a white Commissioner, to act side by side with the other European forces. We thoroughly concur in Mr. McDonald's observation. THE Cape Argus pays the following touching tribute to the unostentatious labours of Colonel Clarke in Basutoland, which will find a responsive chord in the heart of every friend of the Basuto nation. Dealing with the Basutoland finances from which our contemporary finds reason to be hopeful the Cape Argus says: ' We cannot conclude any refer¬ence to Basutoland without a word for the British officer who, in isolation almost amounting to obscurity, is engaged in the work of reconstructing British authority in this unhappy but promising territory. Colonel Clarke has no claque in Cape Town and Graham's Town, still less in London, to sing his praises from day to day; perhaps if he had it would spoil him, as it has spoiled others. There are no Bestuur resolutions to glorify him; he has to do his duty as a British officer should do it for its own sake, and for the approval of his official superiors, whom he at least does not seem to find it diffi¬cult to get on with. The day will come when a just judgment will be formed of his upright persistence in duty ; and when it does, he will find, we trust, that colo¬nists know how to appreciate devotion to duty, even though it should lack the aids to notoriety to which we have referred.'