ABSTRACT
Little demonstration is required of the direƸt: relation of Native Administration to a study of the problems of contaƸt, such as the present. The public servant, no less than the farmer, the trader and the missionary, is a constant, and sometimes a conscious, influence for change in the life of the Bantu. As one surveys the history of the Union of South Africa and of its adjacent territories for the past half-century, one is struck with the extent, and on the whole with the value, of that influence. The records of Native Administration in the sub-continent contain more than one name which might find a place in an Administrative Kalendar, if the Civil Service permitted itself the luxury of canonization. Over and over again, the spirit of community service at its best has revealed itself in the careers of Magistrates and Native Commissioners living unnoticed lives in inaccessible places. Sir William Beveridge has spoken of the triple vow of the Civil Service, which he regards as a modern monastic order vowed to poverty, anonymity, and obedience. In the field of Native Administration, the two first vows are accentuated; but for real success a discriminating and occasional disobedience is very necessary. For successful Native Administration in the DistriƸts can only be achieved where some scope is left for local initiative : it is far too personal a matter to be relegated to Head Office instruƸtions, or carried through in the spirit that nothing else matters, so but the Regulations be not broken.
