The Dominion. TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 1912. LABOUR IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1457, 4 June 1912, Page 4

The Dominion. TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 1912. LABOUR IN SOUTH AFRICA.

The labour question in South Africa is a perpetual source of worry. It is extremely complicated, a circumstance which affords ample opportunity for diversity of opinion, and for the giving of advice. What is wanted, is precise knowledge concerning the real working power which the native population can provide; and that is exactly the knowledge which has never yet been gained, and which, at the present time, seems hopelessly out of reach alike of employers of labour and of Government officials. Excluding portions of Rhodesia the native population of South Africa is estimated— only estimated—at something between six and seven millions, while the white population of the same area, as shown by recent census returns, stands in the neighbourhood of one million and a half. Many efforts have been made, and continue to bo made, to induce the adult male natives within the area referred to, to work regularly as farm labourers, rough tradesmen, and in the gold and diamond mines. Judged from the simple numerical point of view there would seem to be no absence of native labour in South Africa. Unfortunately, numbers alone here only help to bewilder— if the habits and customs of the great body of natives are overlooked. The majority work for but a few •months every year, idling in their kraals for the remainder of the period : ■ large numbers remain in employment until they have saved money sufficient to purchase cattle, wherewith in the mam to buy wives, and then settle down permanently to their own mode of life: tho natives who remain, more or less constantly at work, especially in the large towns and in the mines, are, unfortunately, not always of the best- type. These facts' alone fully explain shortages in the amount of native labour actually available. Critics at a distance are sometimes apt to confound the number of native labourers in. the country with the quantity of labour per annum said natives will provide. Moreover, it would seem that the Kaffir is neither the most industrious nor agreeable class of workman.

Another difficulty exists in the relations between black workmen and white. Tho latter will on no consideration woi'k on terms of equality with natives. A gang of native workmen has its white overseer, and whits tradesmen, such as carpenters and bricklayors, may consent to have a native to do the rougher portions of tho work. But in instances of this kind alone do black and white approach each other. Large contracts must therefore be carried through exclusively by whites, or exclusively by blacks, with the exceptions indicated. It is not, therefore, difficult to imagine an employer unable to obtain a sufficiency of tho one class nf labour, while hundreds of workers in .his vicinity of the other class are in need of employment. Labour, in the form of trades councils and trades unions, has but a slender and precarious footing in South Africa; still, it is instructive to observe the real attitude of unionism towards black labour. The South African Labour party, some months ago, issued a manifesto declaring tlie party to be non-racial, and seeking only the interest of men and women living in the country." A section of this generous and benign party, however—tho Rand Trades and Labour Council—waxed extremely indignant when the fact was discovered that black tradesmen had arrived on the scene. This Council (illicitly revealed how much its members : cared for tho "down-trod-den masses." It bravely appealed to all workers, "to refrain from patronising or supporting businesses on which or in which coloured labour is employed." The presence of trade unionism, of this type, it will be spon, helps in no way to minimise tin' (lillicullics of lit? situation. Thiriug :i drbal.o in tin , I'nimi I'iirlialni.'ut, i\li:. Brrrmx, .Native Minister, in alluding to Labour's pretensions, reminded members (hat the recent Commission was opposed to all action designed to protect the white mail against reasonable comprt.ilion frorn tho. coloured Yvwa. I "Labour," concluded tho Minister,

"may havrj : \k p] rte( ; j n t i. w Kllu >. I)ut it must mH titko nil Hn? sun."' L'lnjirsijj j.,t!)Qiu' has hcon hin\ :is a irtoans s.iiii-i>lyin(r vm&kjlkd woi'knion i l v-li.H;li aru BBCL'ssftj'j:, ii.|)p,ii'cni;l_y throiigliu-iii. ttm wljoJc«"f Bt*th Africa. Olt'mssi.: labour fa not hi &\ soiisi! desired ap'fiikuHy for tin J mines. The .nouns, inwevev, oiler Hie! best; facilities l"w tin-; ovarsiget of i unknown rwVvKtimfli's ; Iwjjcp. last ■' importations of Ciiim*o \\vVe. kept,' rigorously log.ii.thei- a-t tfe one employment,. tljßi'eljx fi'eaiai;;. H.itivc workora fin , agricii.lt-v.vi>, railway t>osl, struction, and otlier osinpaliDus. Ati the general e.ri'ctioH in 1HO(! Ike Li \h : erals exploited thu Chiiiesn Oft tlm J Kind to a cfuwe cxii-avn.gnnt Placards iipporiTect to ereif coiisfci- ■ hicncy dcpietiliw this Cftinajnen"kbournig in dviiiifi, tiie wih-tp of thewhite oversMr ptej?ing jijmn t,h(?ji-' shoulders. Ivafivc.s. as wjvfenien liiive always been uirfeliabfo i n South Africa! and the Dutch w e W the first to secure litbour npm v/liioh they could deijend from ovei'seas—fniin Madagascar, fh« Mijfay > c «in:siiiii, and from -QJiiiiji, The trftithle ma\f disappear as the avlAg population increases, but in the meantime it seems hkiily te ]yt:ov6 & source of ansiciy botlj to *trOKo engaged hi tegij imdertakites ' rnqninng labour and fo t\\« country's TirlchS: