South African Affairs.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 219, 20 September 1904, Page 4

South African Affairs.

Leonard Northcroft, who Is a well- I known in an on the West Caa'St, where (at - Hokitika) lie formerly owned a paper, is now in .) olvannesbung, and writes an interesting letter to a ] friend in Auckland. Part of it lias reference to the Chinese lnbour question. Northcroft says: "You ask me about Chinese in Ihiis country, jlt is a question that can he approached from many points. It h«s social, moral, religious, financial and industrial -aspects. The people of this country .have only approached it from the financial and industrial aspects. The minting people want more rough, cheap labour, an.,l they bring fairly strong evidence tio show that a sufficiency of such labour is not obtainable in South Africa, So they must look further afield, to Asia or to the lower class of some European Countries. To do the last named might involve complications of a far-reaching character, and they would be costly relatively. The Indian Government will not permit the exportation of coolies, excepting under conditions which will result in making this country similar to the State of Natal, which is being overrun by coolies 1 . The next race presented for notice was the Chinese, and hence the experiment is tain® made with .them. The financial aspect is pi-osontcd by the thousands who look to mining development as the stimulating source 0 f all prosperity. The mineral potentialities of this country are incalculable. A sufficiency of labour would increase the gold output to £30,000,000, possibly £60,000,000 a year. Then there are coal, iron, and numerous other minerals, to say nothing of gems, such as diamonds. With a sufficiency of labour, money can float in many channels which at present are closed, and the Chinaman is required to dig these channels. Of course, the conditions obtaining have been rendered more acute by the adroit engineering of big mining houses, in order to influence public opinion on their side, and trey have succeeded. New Zealanders, following Mr Sedd o n's lead, are very much taken up with this matter, but it is really no concern of theirs. They tlrought they sent troops out to maintain the integrity of the Empire and to establish its prestige. As a matter of fact, they sent troops out to assist mining magnates i n getting more pliable Government, which they could influence from Park Lane. Downing-street is not far from Purk Lane, and is amenable to its influences. Pretoria was only susceptible to the influonco of Johannesburg, a nd was largely controlled by the simple farmers, scattered throughout the Veldt Hence the result of your Premier's action is, infenenitlally, to attack people tor whom he has done so much. Were the Boer regime in power, we would have no Chinese. They wanted this a white man's country. Park Lane would let the country go hang, so long a s the cost 0 f production was reduced 5s per ton."