WHERE LABOR IS CHEAP

Hokitika Guardian, 7 February 1928, Page 1

WHERE LABOR IS CHEAP

CONDITIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA

Among the passengers who arrived in Wellington by the Alaunganui was the Rev. F. W. King, of the Baptist I'nion of South Africa. who has retired owing to ill-health, and who is on a month's recuperative tour of New Zealand. When interviewed by a “Dominion" representative. Mr King said that lotmore than three years his district. Victoria, in the Eastern Province, had been devoid of any rain sufficient to rais ccrops. and that the positi' n had become very serious for tie farmers and also lor some 1 I.ObO natiies on the 1 sinters ot Kaffir band. Their had been no crops for three years, and the Government last year had given assistance to the natives in the iorin of thousands of hags of maize, their staple food. Those who were able to pass the strict medical examination demanded by the mine-owners went to work in the mines, but the young and the delicate, who had to rely on the crops for a living, were in a very serious plight. Water was at a distinct premium in the town of Alice, from where Mr King came, as the river had dried up. and the only sources of supply were two bore holes, one at the police gaol and another, formerly used to water the cemetery gardens. Mr King stated that since leaving he had received letters saying that it was probable that the Eastern and Midland Railway system, about 90 miles of track, would he discontinued, owing to this water shortage. He did not know what would be done in the way of providing transport facilities in the

event ol this happening, but said that there were fleets of buses, “feeders” to the railway, run by the State, which connected more outlying parts with the rail. Commenting on the recent controversy over the national flag, he said that the compromise reached had undoubtedly saved a civil war. Feeling had run high, and mass meetings and demonstrations had been held all over the country, but now the people were accepting ilve compromise, an no further trouble was likely to occur. In Australia he had been struck by the manner in which the small farmer made a comfortable living from some 30 or 40 acres, growing fruit and vegetables. He stated that with the cheap labour obtainable in South Africa such a project would make a fortune for landholders. A man in Australia who he said, had had to relinquish a crop

of peas because he could not afford to pay a man 14,s a day to collect them, might have employed a Kaffir “boy” in Africa for the equivalent of a few pence. But such cheapness of labour, had its ill-effects upon the farmers and the white population generally, for it was not an incentive to hard labour.

Mr King lias been in the ministry lor 10 years. 33 of which he has spent in charge of one church. AVhen he paid a six months' visit to New Zealand.”l years ago he was president of the Baptist Union of South Africa. Since iis inception he has been a member of the ISdO Memorial Settlers’ Association. of which Sir Charles Crewe is now president. This association, he stated, has been responsible for »’ great part of the more recent colonisation of South Africa,