Table of Contents
Ourselves.
The Indian Opinion enters upon the third stage of its career in the short space of the eighteen months of its existence. The proprietor being guided by patriotic motives, embarked upon the enterprise on the slenderest resources. He had to depend for the editing of the paper on purely voluntary and unpaid assistance. This he readily received. It was his intention to make the paper self-supporting, by devoting the profits from the general printing, to meeting the expected deficiency on the paper. But such was not to be the case. Although this journal supplied a real want, what may be termed a commercial demand had to be created. In other words, the paper had not only to find its matter but its readers also. Moreover, the sending of over five hundred complementary copies was a great drag. Pecuniary assistance had therefore to be called in. The Natal Indian Congress and the British Indian Association came to the rescue, and voted certain funds towards the payment of the expense of printing and posting the complimentary copies.
Still the Paper continued, octopus-like, to devour all it received and wanted more. The situation could only be saved by heroic measures. Patch-work was useless. Palliatives were dangerous. There remained then an appeal to the devoted workers and friends in favour of adopting a novel and revolutionary project. They were to look not to the present but to the future; not to their pockets but to the paper first. And why not? The object of the Indian Opinion was to bring the European and the Indian subjects of King Edward closer together. It was to educate public opinion, to remove causes for misunderstanding; to put before the Indians their own blemishes; and to show them the path of duty while they insisted on securing their rights. This was an Imperial and pure ideal, towards the fruition of which anyone could work unselfishly. So it appealed to some of the workers.
The plan was shortly this. If a piece of ground sufficiently large and far away from the hustle of the town could be secured, for housing the plant and machinery, each one of the workers could have his plot of land on which he could live. This would simplify the ques- tion of living under sanitary and healthy conditions, with- out heavy expenses.
The workers could receive per month an advance sufficient to cover necessary expenses, and the whole profits could be divided amongst them at the end of each year. The manage- ment would thus be saved the necessity of having to find a large sum of money from week to week. The workers also could have the option of buying out their plot of land at the actual cost price.
Living under such conditions and amid the beautiful surroundings which have given Natal the name of the Garden Colony, the workers could live a more simple and natural life, and the ideas of Ruskin and Tolstoy combined with strict business principles. Or, on the other hand, the workers could reproduce the artificiality of the town life, if it pleased them to do so. One could hope that the spirit of the scheme and the surroundings would have an educative influence on them. There would be a closer brotherly combination between the European and the Indian workers. There was a possibility that the daily working hours could be reduced. Each could become his own agriculturalist.
The English workers could belie the taunt that the Englishman in South Africa would not cultivate the soil and work with his own hands. He had here all the facilities for such work, without any of the drawbacks. The Indian worker could copy his European brother, and learn the dignity and utility of healthy recreation as distinguished from constant slaving toil for miserable gains.
The incentive would be threefold to all: an ideal to work for in the shape of the Indian Opinion; perfectly healthy surroundings to live in, and an immediate prospect of owning a piece of land on the most advantageous terms; and a direct tangible interest and participation in the scheme.
Such in outline was the argument. It has been translated into action. The printing works have been removed to a large piece of ground near Phoenix Station, on the North Coast line. There are already Englishmen and Indians working here under the scheme. It is yet too early to forecast the result. It is a bold experiment and fraught with momentous consequences. We know of no non-religious organisation that is or has been managed on the principles above laid down. If it succeeds, we cannot but think that it would be worthy of imitation. We write impersonally, and no one on the staff of this journal claims any glory over the matter. We therefore think it but right to take the public into our confidence. Their support would encourage us very greatly, and no doubt contribute largely to the success of the scheme. We can appeal to both the great communities residing in South Africa and trust that they will assist the management to bring the scheme to the successful issue that we believe it deserves.