Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-03-15
Beers Report Victory.
ENGLISH AND NATIVES.
A Missionary on the Treatment of
South African Blacks.

Under the title How the English
Treat the Natives" Rev. w. C. Wilcox,
of Oberlin, Ohio, missionary of the
American Board at Umvoti, Natal,
contributes the following article to the
| New York independents:
! In the Independent of November 2
is letter from Mr.. Maxeke with re-
gard to How the Beers Treat the Ma
tives." You say that he is a native
Basuto. But he must have been very
young when he left his native land,
else [ do not know how to account for
some Of his statements. For / have
| just arrived from Natal, where | have
been laboring in connection with the
American Zulu Mission for the past IS
years, and he has stated some things
which are not according to my knowl-
edge of the facts. For instance, he
says 1.-The natives in the Transvaal are
not allowed to learn to read, and fines
are eXacted from anyone who is found
teaching them" Our society has had
a mission in johannesburg since 1898,
and we have had three schools for the
natives most of the time, employing
both European and native teachers,
and no one has ever been fined or
threatened with a fine also know of
several other missionary societies
that have schools and are teaching the
natives all over Transvaal and
Swaziland and I never heard of any
one being fined for teaching the ma
tiyrNr +ha 4oh al, !,
has large missionary society con-
nected with it. in which there are ear
nest missionaries who teach the ma
lives.
However, I do not wish to justify
the beers treatment of the natives
It may be as bad as Mr.. Maxeke rep
resents it, but that should be no rea-
son for his or our sympathy for the
English, unless it appears that the
English got possession of the Naboth's
shown by their pass laws, the regis
tratiOn of servants, the compelling of
the natives to wear badge, which is
like a dog tag, the forbidding of the
men to walk on the pavement and not
allowing them to be out after p. m.
in the towns. But such regulations are
enforced in Natal and fines exacted
for failure just The same as in Trans
vaal Thirty Of my people had to pay
one shilling apiece to go a few miles
across the Tugela river to a wedding
Of their friends, and then they had to
pay another shilling apiece to get back
again. I tried to get the magistrate
to reduce it to one shilling for both
ways, as it was a special occasion but,
he would not do it.
The Natal also there are patrol men
who may stop any native at any time
and make him produce his pass. They
may also enter the home Of any native,
and should they find there a native
without proper pass they may arrest
the owner of the house and bring him
to court, where he may be fined for
harbOring native without pass. I
felt very sorry for Timothy, one Of
our best Christian natives, who was
compelled to tramp % miles over The
mountains to the magistrates court,
where he was fined Is shillings because
he had accommodated a friend-whO,
by the way, was a BasutO-with rest
and food for a day or two. I saw the
magistrate about it, but he thought
he had made the fine very light, al
though Is shillings was more than the
old man could earn IN a month. But
said, Timothy did not know that
the pass had not been properly re-
newed. l saw the pass myself, and
should not have known but that it was
all right" The magistrate replied:
'He ought to know. He will be more
careful next time" But I said: II
very often give lodgings to passing
natives myself, and I never take pains
to inquire whether they have any
passes or not. Would you fine me in
such case?"
He made no reply, evidently be-
cause, though I might be fined accord
ing TO the law just the same as a ma
tive, no magistrate would think of en-
forcing such a law against a white
man. Another time policeman came
into private house where A number
If orr Christian natives were con-
ducting evening worship, and because
he thought they made too much noise
about il he marched nine Of them off
TO Jail where thew Law all night. and
in the morning thew were brought
into court and tried summariIv with
ont counsel and fined two pounds (s10)
aniere One of the parties was