The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-26 00:00:00

ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY, Jan. 24.

J. Lubbock, Esq., F.R.S., president, in the chair.
A paper " On Civilisation in North Celebes," by
Mr. Wallace, was read. The author described
briefly the physical aspects of North Celebes and
the general character and appearance of its inhabi-
tants. The main topic was the Dutch system of
employing the chiefs as cultivators of coffee, and
the improvement in civilisation, which, under this
system, had been made by the natives. They go
out (he said) cheerfully to their labour along with
their relations and neighbours ; they have no task-
master over them, and they work pretty much as
they like, under the general direction of their chief
and the European " controlleurs." Thirty years
ago the country was a wilderness, the people naked
savages, garnishing their rude houses with human
heads. Now it is a garden worthy of its sweet
native name of " Minahosa," good roads and paths
traverse it in every direction, some of the finest
coffee plantations in the world surround the
villages, interspersed with extensive rice fields, more
than sufficient for the support of the population.
The people are now the most industrious, peaceable,
and civilised in the whole archipelago. They are
the best clothed, the best housed, the best fed, and
the best educated ; and these results are attribut-
able in a great measure to the system of govern-
ment now adopted by the Dutch in their Eastern
possessions. Now, there is not merely an
analogy) there is in many respects an identity
of relation, between master and pupil, or
parent and child, on the one hand, and an uncivilised
race and its civilised rulers on the other. We know,
or think we know, that the education and industry
and the common usages of the civilised man are
superior to those of savage life, and as he becomes
acquainted with them the savage himself admits this.
Competition and free trade are excellent things of
themselves, and produce excellent results, but we do

not think of turning out boys and girls at 12 years
old to get their own living and education by free
competition. It appears to the author, however,
that it was doing an equally unwise and unjust
thing when, having obtained power over a country
inhabited by a savage people, we exposed them at
once to the full tide of competition with our highly
elaborated civilisation, and expect them to thrive
under it. Who can doubt but that the New Zea-
landers were capable of improvement and civilisation
under some system, which, treating them for a while
as children shouldhave educated and protected them ?
Instead of that, we have brought them into direct
contact with English wealth and energy, vigorously
developing itself for its own ends, and the result
must inevitably be sooner or later the extermination
of the native race. In Ceylon and in India we have
English capital largely invested in coffee and indigo
culture ; but can we point to any corresponding im-
provement in the moral or social condition of the
natives ? In Java and in North Celebes, on the
other hand, the population is steadily increasing,
and has greatly improved in material and moral con-
dition. The people get wealthy, and the Govern-
ment obtains a large revenue without direct taxes,
and at the same time is carrying on the education of
the whole race towards a higher state of society.
The system which produces such results the author
believed to be a good one, and he thinks that we
should hesitate in applying the principles of free
competition to the relations between ourselves and
savage races, if we ever expect them to advance in
civilisation, or even to maintain their existence upon
the earth. _ _

A long and animated discussion followed, in which
Mr. Craufurd vigorously opposed the Dutch system.
Mr. LAING, also, while admitting its success in
Java and Celebes, did not consider it of general
applicability, nor so good in the main as our own
system of free intercourse.
Professor Huxley, Mr. F. Galton, and the Presi-
dent more or less supported the views of Mr. Wal-
lace.