johannesberg.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 191, 15 February 1896, Page 2

johannesberg.

I _ ,-'s ■ J. M ' " ~^^ V — ■— — — - . ■. . Tl (e follows extracts iroin the lettei O £ a for'P aer e«np l °y e of Mr ?e ter Thom^ %po is now in the Transvaal, £,;ove interesting to our , ! readers :•*_# J'left Feilding fgt Sydney : j. last July \% pay a visit to my; father > and do soa»e business I ha^ there. - While in Sydney I met an; b^ pat of -, mine who had South Africa on the brain. We, after summing up matters, \) decided to come to this country. After a rough passage of thirty-five v days we landed at Capetown all sound. I could have got a job there, but, as , my destination was Johannesberg, I decided not to stop, so after spending a few days knocking around the town, x where we drank some beer with the soldiers, we faced the railway journey of 1,014 miles, a journey occupying three nights and two days. I may mention there is a nice statue of Sir George Grey in the Botanical Gardens in Capetown. There was nothing remarkable about the railway journey, except the hardness of the carriage floor on which we slept and its tedious monotony The country passed tbroujn was dry and treeless, a severe drought ' prevailing. This dispelled an illusion ' I received in youth when attending Sunday School, where I was taught "From Aide's sunny mountains roll down their golden sand, from many an ancient river, from many a palmy plain ." I have not seen the mountains nor the palmy plains. What I have seen struck me as being one of the most treeless places I have ever been in Very wicked of a Sunday school teacher to get at me like that, but, poor fellow — perhaps he knew no better himself ! In connection with this drought I heard a very pious Boer say, when some heavy looking clouds had gathered, and it was suggested to send up some rockets charged with dynamite to try and burst them and make the rain fall. The Boer indignantly exclaimed " It was like trying to stick your finger in God's eye." Anyway, rain has not come yet and water is very scarce. As regards myself, I turned up a job and have been doing fairly well, but I often find my thoughts wandering back to New Zealand, as I don't think this place is worth the journey and risk to health. Although things are humming here all right at present, and wages are high, such as never could be paid in New Zealand, other things are dear. At the cheapest, board and lodging costs 3os a week. The discomfort of living, the heat, the dust often bring back to me the green hills of your " Glorious Canaan," but we can't have all we . want, and as it has long been my wish to travel I have now a chance to gratify it- As regards the Government of this country, which as you aware is a Republic, but only so in name. The Britishers have no votes, while they have to pay a poll tax of 18s 6d a year. This makes a fellowfeel like a Chinaman, especially as a policeman collects it. The Boer has a foolish hatred of everything British. Some little time ago, when a monster petition was presented to the Baad, as Parliament is called here, the President, Paul Kruger, as much as said " Neither us (the British) nor our children's children would get the franchise " . But if you will allow me to be a prophet I predict that inside of two years (from the date of this letter Nov. 7, 1895) if reform does not come peacefully there will be a rebellion here as this place will run a foot deep in British blood before the Boer is victorious. If the Boer thinks he can go on insulting 35,000 Britishers when there are only about 25,000 Boers they will fall in badly. Blood will tell then and once they , rise the British will wipe the Dutchmen off the face of the Transvaal, so if one day you meet yours truly with a leg or an arm missing, wandering through New Zealand with a barrel organ and a monkey you will know he has been in the fun. But, joking aside, if things don't alter there will be trouble. I will give you an instance of what we get from the Dutchmen. In Johannesberg I suppose ninety-five per cent of the white people speak English, and the language spoken in business is English. There are no schools for the children, and only two- Government schools for a population of 45,000 where the language taught is Dutch. The Government won't recognise the English language so the people have formulated an education scheme for themselves and are going to subscribe . £80,000 to build schools and have the children educated in the English language in defiance of the confounded Dutchmen. Nearly all the money is already subscribed. One man alone gave £10,000 towards it. The police officers are all Boers. They are scared of their lives to arrest a Britisher, but they are good at running in niggers who are kept in their places by the Boers. These colored people are not allowed to walk on the footpath which is reserved for white" men alone. There are lots of ways of looking at the colored question here for the time will come when the fight will be white versus black in this country yet. All the menial and housework is done by the niggers, and all the mining by colored labor with a white boss as overseer- It is estimated that there are 42,000 blacks at work in the mines which extend for a distance of 35 miles — all reefing. In fact it is the cheapness of the colored labor which makes the mines profitable. Of course this letter was written before the conflict between Dr Jameson's expedition and the Boers, but the writer has evidently taken' an accurate view of his surroundings.