when common interests and the common peace justify it.
The Report is authenticated by documents and maps of an instructive nature, and is supported by official statistics. The public opinion of South Africa is reflected in the evidence of over 800 witnesses, representative of every shade of thought The Report of the Commission furnishes, therefore, a most useful basis for discussing a subject pregnant with issues upon which public opinion is much divided. It has been criticised, on the whole, with breadth of view by the public and the press, and the magnitude of the question has been fully realized. But there are known to be many serious and experienced thinkers who, in no contentious spirit, dissent from the views of the Commission, some upon the grounds that certain prominent recommendations are illiberal and unworthy, whilst others deem them from the South African aspect to be impolitic and inexpedient.
It is not proposed to traverse this Report in detail, but to deal with salient points which have focussed attention, and are of abiding concern to South Africa, as well as to recognise different views entertained by the public. To discuss the whole group of questions constituting the native problem requires a book instead of a chapter, so that little of a searching nature can be attempted within the space here allotted. To many, the most interesting and attractive side is that which relates to tribal life, the communal system, and the changes in condition which the natives have undergone within the past century.
What is understood as the native problem existing to-day may be divided under a few heads—those which affect aboriginal contact with whites in a country which, formerly inhabited only by aboriginal races, has now been reclaimed by Europeans of higher intellect, with the fixed and determined purpose of permanent occupation and development. When the seashore is reclaimed by civilized enterprise and skilled capacity, it is
