The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-04-16 00:00:00

The BOERS and THEIR APPRENTICES.

M. de Laveleye writes to the Pall Mall Gazette :
"As you are aware, a great many natives (Kaffirs,
and other tribes) live among the Boers. The Katlirs
are polygamists, very lazy by nature, and they prefer
making their wives and children work to working
themselves. As soon as a Kaffir has a son ten or
twelve years of age he takes him to a Boer and
requests employment for him. If answered in
the affirmative, the father and the Boer go with
the young Kaffir to the Landdrost (mayor and
judge), and make a contract for a certain number
of years, in a general way, until the boy be-
comes a youth. By this contract the lioer binds
himself t;) dress his apprentice (the child is from this
time considered as such), to treat him well, and in
addition to this to furnish the father at stated times
with provisions, Indian corn or grain, occasionally a
sheep, or anything else he might require. The name
of the apprentice is entered into a register, and the
Boer takes him with him to his farm. There he is
invariably given easy work—to look after the large
flocks of sheep, or to cultivate the earth ; in fact, a
similar labour to that of our young peasants. As he
advances in years more important and harder work is
entrusted to him, but never beyond his strength ; for
all the Boers turn their attention either to cultivation
or to the raising of stock. As a rule, the apprentices
are well trea,teti, and especially well fed. It is true
that the Boer is occasionally hasty, but his wife treats
the young men kindly and well; arin it frequently
happens that the apprentice, his term of service com-
pleted, instead of taking advantage of his liberty, under-
takes fresh work with his old master for several years
more, until he cah marry—i.e. until he has gained suffi-
cient money to buy a wife from his father, and build him-
self a house. The law, which consists of thirty-three
articles, is exceedingly severe, with regard tothe manner
in which apprentices are to be treated. Several ill-
treatments are punished by tines, and if very flagrant,
the contract may be broken, and at the wish of the
father, the apprentice placed with another Boer. Nothing
in this state of things bears the smallest resemblance to
slavery. Workmen in a factory, or miners, are far
more slaves than the Boer's apprentices. They are
brought up to be obedient, and to regular work ; they
are in constant contact with the Boer's own children,
who are also strictly educated—their manner of life
demands it. Is not this a surer step in the path
of progress than the wandering forest life led by the
children of the sayage Kaffir tribes? The imme-
diate result of this custom is that the more children
a Kaffir has the richer he becomes, for the girls, as
soon as they .attain a marriageable age, are also
treated as merchandise. In consequence of this, as
soon as a Kaffir has the means he buys himself a
second wife, then a third, a fourth, and so on, until
the tenth, if possible. A Kaffir family thus resembles
a small school or educational establishment, and the
more children there are the richer the father becomes.
At the age of forty he is quite a rich man, and can
go and live on his revenue, his children representing
the capital." In Kaffir Land, at least then, " stock
is as good as money."