SOUTH AFRICAN RAILWAYS AND OURS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2721, 16 March 1916, Page 7

SOUTH AFRICAN RAILWAYS AND OURS

• EX-WELLINGTON MAN'S COMPARISON. Among the visitors to Wellington from South Afriw, is Mr. Harry' Carter, formerly of the staff of the defunct New Zealand. Electrical Syndicate, and now in. the employ of a big electtrical firm in Johannesburg, which does a very large business with tlie mining companies. Mr. Carter 'has been fifteen years in Johannesburg, and has seen great changes tako place in the big Transvaal centre since the conclusion of the Boer War. It is now a big up-to-date city, and enjoying highly-prosper-ous times. There was a temporary setback a couple of years ago, when the big strike took place, but things quickly became normal, and business has been very good ever since. The war had not affected tho place in the slightest. Mr. Carter, as with most people who travel abroad, finds some of our-in-stitutions. dwarfed and inadequate _ in comparison with those of South Africa. In nothing was New Zealand more behind than her railways. The narrow gnage, to begin with, discounted our service at onco .from the point of view of comfort in travelling, whilst there was no attempt io oater for those who wore prepared to pay for comfort or even a little luxury. There were no drawingroom cars in which one could stretch one's legs, and the .observation car — which would bo in great demand on the trip from Auckland to Wellington—was non-existent. Here in New Zealand travellers were charged 10s. for a bed. In South Africa ono paid 2s. 6d. for the use of a far more comfortable bed from Cape Town to Johannesburg (a two-night trip), U' Is. 3d. a night, and that m a country of high prices. Further than fhat. after every trip the bed clothes were washed and disinfected, and before one's bod was made up at night 'one coiild demand to see the seal broken of the cover in which the bed-olothes had been wrapped since they came from the laundry. When one was paying for travelling accommodation uheady on a train why should one be sc. heavily penalised'for the use of a few bed clothes?

Mr. Carter ntates that the mines in and around Johannesburg were never more active than they are at present, and the output of gold continues to increase. Black lahout iG employed, and there must be hundreds of thousands of them there, confined to compounds, of course. The ex-Wellingtouian, who is accompanied by Lis wife (a daughter of Mr. Simon Scott, of Wellington), is at present enjoying six months' leave of absence. Mr. Cartor says that among tho Now Zealanders now in Johannesburg are Mr. Stanley Banks (who prospers as a'chemist), Mr. Thomas Orr (formerly of Berry and Orr. of Cuba Street), Mr. Cash Freeth (who has gone to German East Africa with the forces), and Sir. Albert Lcckie: (son of Mr. James Lockie, of Wellington), who is Mayor of Roodiport, a small town about fifteen miles out of Johannesburg.