A Century of Wrong

by Jan Christiaan Smuts

Liquor, Pass, and Gold Thefts Laws.

3. As regards the administration of the Liquor Law, the Pass Law, and the Law dealing with Gold thefts, neither the Government nor the Volksraad felt at liberty to adopt the recommendation as to constituting an Advisory Board on the Witwatersrand. They decided to go deeper to the roots of the evil, and so altered the administration of the Laws that the evidences of dissatisfaction have disappeared. Indeed, no one ever hears of gold thefts now, and the representative bodies of the mining industry have repeatedly expressed their satisfaction with the administration of the Pass Law, and especially with that of the Liquor Law.

The Liquor Law.

In this very Liquor Law we have a test of a good administration. From the very nature of the drink question it is one of the most difficult laws that a Government can be called upon to administer, and the measure of success which has attended the efforts of the Government and its officials proves conclusively that the charges of incompetency so frequently brought against the Government of the South African Republic were devoid of truth, and were only intended to slander and to injure the Republic. A combined meeting of the Chamber of Mines, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Association of Mine Managers—the three strongest and most representative bodies on the Witwatersrand Gold Fields—passed the following resolutions,[40] which speak for themselves:—

1. This combined Meeting, representing the Chamber of Mines, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Mine Managers' Association, desires to express once more its decided approval of the present Liquor Law, and is of opinion that prohibition is not only beneficial to the Natives in their own interest, but is absolutely necessary for the Mining Industry, with a view of maintaining the efficiency of labour.

2. This Meeting wishes to express its appreciation of the efforts made to suppress the Illicit Liquor Trade by the Detective Department of this Republic since it has been placed under the administration of the State Attorney, and is of opinion that the success which has crowned these efforts fully disproves the contention that the Liquor Law is impracticable.

The first resolution was carried by an overwhelming majority, and the second unanimously.

Compare this declaration of the representatives of the Mining and Commercial interests of the Witwatersrand with the allegation repeated by Mr. Chamberlain in his great "grievance" dispatch of the 10th May, 1899[41]—that the Liquor Law had never been strictly enforced, but that this law was simply evaded, and that the Natives at the mines were supplied with drink in large quantities.

When Mr. Chamberlain wrote these words they were absolutely untrue, and, like all his grievances, are of an imaginary character.

The results have clearly shown that the Government was quite correct in its conclusion that it was better to alter the administration of the laws complained of, than to adopt a principle (the advisory board), the consequences and eventual outcome of which no one was able to foresee.