AFFAIRS IN SOUTH AFRICA

Otago Witness, Issue 2815, 26 February 1908, Page 38

AFF AIRS IN SOUTH AFRICA

A NEW ZEALANDERS VIEWS. INTERVIEW WITH MR A. D. WILKINSON. Mr A. D. Wilkinson, M.A. (*on of the late Mr Francis Wilkinson, of Dimedin), who is connected with the Traiis\aal Education Department, on the teaching -staff of one of the Johannesburg- schools. 1^ at present -in Dunedin on furlough. Mr Wilkinson, who was educated at the Otaso Boys' High School and graduated ar the Otago Uni\ersit\. was for some jears on the teaching staff of Wellington College. fcut at the olose of the Boer « a.r- he went to South Africa, And was almost immediately appointed to a Johannesburg school. EDUCATION ON THE RAND. In the course of an interview w ith a Daily Times reporter on Saturday, Mr Wilkinson said that when first he went to ' the Transvaal extreme difficulty was ex- \ perienced by the authorities in finding I quarters for the schools. Buildings, in the I localities where a school was to be estab- j lished, would be commandeered, and very Often they were quite unsuitable, and made school life arduous for pupil and te.acher alike. Now, however, fine school buildings were being built. Six ■were being erected, in Johannesburg, three of them being of a type costing £18.000 each. The other three wore to be of a ■less expensive character, and more schools .would be built as money was available. The standard of education was. said Mr ,Wilkin6on. very high considering the diffi- | culties that had to be encountered. There , ■was a large floating white population, which made itself manifest by the frequent changes in the schools. Last year in one , school with 650 on the roll there were as | many as 1114 changes. There are three main en-uses for this unsatisfactory feature of the educational work. In the first place, miners were continually leaving their employment on one part of the reef for ■work in a mine further afield ; secondly, the Dutch people left the town on the commencement of the wet season, and went away with their wives and. families to their farms : and in the third place, owing to the great expense of living on the Rand many families left for England or the ocast. In 1902 the census showed a population of 80,000 whites and 70.000 coloured people in Johannesburg, but since that I time there had been a considerable «do- I crease in the white population, and it was estimated there were not mere than 60,000 resident there now. In the schools a strirt colour line was drawn, and, although the children were of all nationalities, they were all white. The coloured population was specially provided for in separuN? schools, and had white teachers. The new Education Act has u'st come into force, and under it the education is free (this inchidles the supply of school boolvs by the State) and compulsory. The schools are undenominational, but education Ts not secular as we understand it. No clergyman has the right of entry to the schools, but Bible history forms one if the compulsory subjects taught in all schools and in | all classes, and is taught bj the regular teachers in the same manner &s any t ther subject. Under the new act the educatiou system is administered by sohool board* and committees,, with a director of education, who is advisory to the Colonial Secretary (Sir J. C. Smuts), who is the Minister in charge of educati jn. Tre boys and giris in the «chcote of Johannesburg took quite naturally to outdoor athletics. In the summer -the boys play cricket, and the girls play tennis; whilst ia the winter Association football Mid hockey for the boys and girls respectively are "the chief forms of exercise. A feature of school life in Johannesburg is the annual sports gathering of the schools on the Rand. Thirty-three schools take part, and the competitors usually run into 4000. Some idea of the work of the handicapper of the various events may be gathered from the statement that he would have to handicap 200 girls for a hundred yards race, and the only information ro i>uid<? him was the age and height of each competitor. This tournament has been ccnducted now for four .years, and it is significant that the shield for most point* gained has been held continuously by schools run by New Zealand teachers. The Roodeporfc School, under Mr E. Carter (formerly of Auckland) and the May fair School {Mr Wilkinson'<*l ha\e etch wnn it tv iVp. IN THE THROES OF DEPRESSION. Dealing with general matters. Mr Wilkinson said that the Transiaal in general j and Johannesburg in particular were in a . itate of complete depression, although, at j the same time, tne output of gold had I never been greater. The annual output at present i* about £36,000.000 in value. oc a. thiid of tho world's gold production. The cause of the depression i<= principally to be attributed to (he withdrawal of capital frrun investment m South Africa ' and the diverting of it into otbei channels , outside^ of the Tansvaal altogether The j panic in America. ir> Mr Wilkinson's j opinion, i« a recent example of such | causes, whilst for quite a considerable time | the Bourse has practicallj ceased to deal hi South African stocks' Tho political *Uicerta.intv too was a ofreat factor in I !^eepiner capital out of the country, but | fiow that this has* been removed by the establishment of =elf-go\ eminent, the probability is that capital will again be nttraoted to the place. The effect of the non-investment of capital has been to make money exceedingly tight in Johannesburg, j where overdrafts are practically stopped. ' and tradesmen who liave been accustomed ; to give credit in a large wov find them- j selves in very serious financial difficulties. THE LABOUR PROBLEM. The lack of investing capital for the <levaloDment of the mines has thrown hundreds of men out of employment, and as the cost of living is yerv high, their savings have been very quickly eaten up, and they have been left ouite stranded. Added to this, there was the ill-advised miners' "strike, which has left a great deai of | novertv in its train, so great, in fact, had been the number of unemployed that the municipality of Johannesburg had tried the experiment of white labour on the streets, this class o f labour in Soiith Africa always being done by coloured people. The "experiment had proved fairly successful. Tho Go\ eminent, too. had started relief works on a pmall sca'e by throwing open certain fin hpariii? area 5 for develop- j r. cnt on cooperati\e l.no- Fndoubtodlv | ToTiazinesburor at t'lo pip>pii( time I bo be what the I.oi'don Dai'v Mail teime<l *' a shrinking titv": but „]>no-f orrt.imlv I Ik would begin to expand again. The

banks, had their fingers on the business pulse of the community. and thoio nni^i bo something m store for tho eit\ when the Standard, the strongest bank m South Africa, was not afiaid at the present juncture to to have in process of election one of the fine ? t buildings in Johannesburg. Thorp would be development, too. on the West Rarul on a large scale within 18 , months, h\ which time it v, as piobable I i hat batteries working 2000 heads of ! i-tamp* would bo set m motion This 1 iiiu~t hnve a beneficial result, as it would j s>ne employment to a large amount of j labour and be the means of circulating a I proportionate amount of money throughout the community. The West Rand is the name given to the portion of fhe reef known as Witwatersrand, of which the centre is at Johannesburg. The Chinese, said Mr Wilkinson, are being repatriated slowly, and the problem of the labour supply looks as if it were to be solved by the new Jordon drill, which can be successfully worked by one man. It is claimed for this drill, as a result of lecent trials, that it will set free 80 per cent of the unskilled labour in the mines co that there should be 50,000 natives available for other purposes. If these I results are obtained there will, of course, I be a great decrease in the cost of production, which will mean the opening up of many of the low-grade propositions which to-day are not payable. ARTISANS PRESENT PROSPECTS. For the present. Mr Wilkinson thinks there is not much prospect fo>- the artisan or the clerk. Just after the war it was impossible to get a house for love or money ; \ to-day there are hundreds vacant, whilst j the building trade is practically at a stand- ' still. For the man without capital Johannesburg will be a good place to keep away from until things have righted themselves again. That they will right themselves i again every Johannesburg' man is strongly of opinion : but, of course, it must be remembered that Johanesburgers are noted for their optimism. If St. Paul, added Mr Wilkinson, had hailed from Johannesburg he would have said: "Now abide these three, faith, hope, and charity, but the greatest of these k hope." AN UP-TO-DATE CITY. Johannesburg is up to date in its electric car service, water supply, and sewerage, whilst its climaro is quite temperate, owing to the altitude of 6000 ft. and is very nearly perfect. OVERSEA MAIL ARRANGEMENTS. I Mr Wilkinson, touching on this matter. I said that all New Zealanders in South Africa had a grievance in regard to their oversea mail. There was no mail 6ubsidv. and consequently proper facilities for the mails were not provided on the steamers. The mail bags were \erv often put down in the hold amongst the general cargo, or placed anywhere out of the way. Again ! and again valuable parcels sent from Africa | to New Zealand had sjone astray and no trace been found of them. Frequently a letter took 4-3 to 50 days to reach Johannesburn from New Zealand, and there was 1 always the risk that it would never reach its ' destination at all. The captains of the steamers admitted that the arrangements were bad, but without a subsidy they declined to do anything more. NO PLACE LIKE*HOME. In concluding the interview Mr Wilkinson said that his experience on returning to Dunedin was the same as that of the majority of its sons and daughters who had left it — viz., that it was the prettiest town he had seen in all his travels. It stood an easy first, but why, he asked, do you disfigure it with all those white telephone .posts and other monstrosities offensive to tho eye? He was giad to learn that the underground system for telephone wires was being introduced, and trusted the time would not be far distant when Dunedin'fi charming beauty was nor detracted from, as it was at present, by matters over which man had full control