The Daily News. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2. SOUTH AFRICA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81855, 2 October 1906, Page 2

The Daily News. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2. SOUTH AFRICA.

Mr A. F. Ellis is a journalist just fresh from South Africa, and contributes to the Wellington "Times' some interesting impressions of the condition of things obtaining in tnai unhappy and seemingly accursed country. lie says that 10 day the mines 011 the Rand produce more go'd than ever they did ; more stamps are working; yet in spite of this Want stalks through the land. Daily along the reef white men beg bread and work, while in Johannesburg hundreds of men are eating their hearts out and gnawing their nails with hunger. The exodus from there, Mr E'lis states, is quite equal to that from the other colonies. "V e t if we hark back to the time when the Randlurds were urging their case for the importation of tiio Chinese, we remember that one of their greates; arguments was thai when the mines were fully manned with alien labour no white men would be idle—there would be work for all. To day the yellow men are there in their thousands." It would indeed be curious to know what the magnates think of their so-called experiment to-day. It has been a cost'v business. Tho recruiting of the coolies alone I cost a much larger sum than was anticipated ; then the transhipment + o the scene of operations, the building 01 special compounds or prisons and the guarding of them while there, were all costly matters. No matter now one approaches the question, it is yellow slavery from first to last, and the mines and compounds look yciy much iikc a penal settlement. The broad arrow is a'l that is misstng. 1 rue, the yellow men are well ied and well housed —yet thev arc captives—slaves.

Co.NbTANTLV breaking from eaptivitv tiiese yellow m<-n—many of them incarnate bends— lone been respunsio*e I"! nortibic ciinies. Vuihm a radius of thirty miles women and clu dien now go io bod quaking witn fear, where i-iK'i' t.icy dwelt in perfect w-i-uritv. uiuic rasidims in these districts have armed t lionise, ys. and ale caused the Rt.n.dords a good deai ot trouble and expense. Th"n again llitnioide troub es of the compounds have r)een legion. Strikes, disagreements, I.let on tights, sctm society uoubies, opium smoking are amongst many to contend with. It is stated aiso tha. many coolies who escape aie not (nought back. Whether this is true di noi. the writer cannot say, tin,ugh U IS ea-iiy possible. On the othe r hand the Kailiis never gave a quarter ) the trouble that these big North ot China men have. Knowing and experiencing all this the magnates themselves, in the opinion -of I lie writer quoted, are quite as anxious as t.ie opponents of Chinese labour to aboiish it altogether, but they dare not say so. it is quite within tn< bounds of icason to_beljcve that at the I'resent moment they are working quietly 111 tins direction, at the same tune showing a strong public opposition. What strengthens this supposition to some extent is that quite tee t ntly a number ol mines at preseiu empH;\ing coolies engaged a numbci of iicsa agents to rrciuil Ratio's. Air LI lis believes that the magnate* are secretly hoping that the iiri.isli Government \yn| expatriate the Chinese. It may not be so, but it certaiipv locks very J ike it.

The writer goes on to say thai there is certainly enough Kaffir labour 'o be got and to spare, and always has been. "\\e used to hc;tr about 'he scarcity, but never the cause l of it. Tiie alleged unwillingness of the Kaffirs io work was mainly the result

"t unscrupulous agents of the nun-c----ow ners, nibbing the Kaffirs right ana left when tneir term was up. One method of doing this was to give tli;; Kaffir a valueless draft, the result being that when lie arrived at his kra.t and tried t., rash it at tiie nearest office, lie found In; had been duped. Hundreds of these casus occnred and many unscrupulous whites waxed tat, while the Katfir had no redress. Had tiie Government of tin; day started a Kafijr bank for saving and transmission purposes; and also appointed one «r two magistrate's whom the natives (rusted to hear complaints, there would have been ho phoj-jage ol labour. but rather sufficient to man the mines twice over. Further, the Kaffir, is a clean-lived, handsome gentleman compared to the . Cninese. Who knows the fearsome things thai arc practised amongst this ygst body of "'-iiicse slaves.

* 4 * * "Britain again makes l!? ftt!al take of giving 11101 c to other pcop. uian her own, and she is now about to present the Transvall to the very people she wrested it from. Of what use tho sacrifice of 22,000 British lives and over .£220,000,000 of British treasureMr Lyttiet.in's constitution ai least preserved a semblance ol British supremacy. The £IOO qualification would have kept the Dutchman 11 oni ruling the roost, and yet leave hi 111 fairly 1 (.'presented. The one-vote-ouc-va'uc must do just the opposite, and put the British in a hopeless minority. From the start the British parti- is- split into two sections. while tho Het Volk (Dutch) is solid as a rock. The present exodus will help the Dutchman mightily. Many Englishmen to-day think 'What a muddle it has all been. We have made a few mine-owners rich beyond the dreams of avarice; we allow ihe country to be flooded with Peruvian jews, and the scum of Europe, import myriads of Chinese, and alter generally er.'ating chaos in tin- country, uc calmly hand it back to till' pi-opic \ V e stole it from'—certainly no better.''

i-M) the mines bcni manned by worker* in thj" thousands. their wives ;uul children, w lift a different future would Soulh Allien have had Ifi look forward to today. It is all rubbish to sav (hat this was impossible, and thai 'ihe mines would never have paid. If there was a £ene?al desire on 'he pari of ihe Kandlords to make the mines pay with white labour, ii could have been dune. Kxp'riments were wonlt no 1 hinjr unless the concerned were thoroughly in earne-t. The Uobin-on are trying whin- men. and if the opposition does not handicap them too (jTejitlv, I firmly believe thai they will succeed in proving In lie.' world that all :ho--'' years we have been, j;toss|y mislead. Meanwhile die white man in the Transvaal is starving, and daily things are grow-1 ing worse. bankruptcy succeeds bankruptcy, and business firms find h is a ca-e of the survival of the fitt-e-t. In the lace of all this, how fool-i-h it is for a country to depynd entirely on any one industry! If the agricultural interests had been developed wi'h enthusiasm side be side with the mines -ince the war. irrigation undertaken, and feillcmont encouraged. there would have been perhaps a far different prospect before the country to-day. Though the jnaiti issues would scarcely have been effected, ile'rc would certainly have been less starvation and misery.