CHINESE ON THE RAND.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7938, 11 January 1906, Page 3

CHINESE ON THE RAND.

Mr E. S. Smythe, "The Muchtravelled," fresh returned from further travel, which included South Africa, interviewed by tha Sydney Telegraph, said of the Chinese on the Rand:—"For their own sake the mine-owners naturally do their best to keep their coolies ia a strong and healthy condition. Tho ccmpounds, which are floored with concrete, are lighted by electricity, and heated by steam. The coolies get meat three times a day, as much as they can eat, and tho oompound includes a hospital, with Chinese attendants and a European doctor. But discontent among tb9 coolies is universal. When they were engaged in China, it was never hinted to them that they would have to work under-ground. Xbey get tired after a week or tws, and do not hesitate to commit some oflence which will land them in prison, as they prefer to-be prisoners above ground rather than slaves under-ground. When I was 8t the Cano about 1500 prisoners bad escaped, and the Dolice were scouring for them in all directions. Amonu the measures takon for preventing outrages by the Chinese coolies was that of serving out arms to the Boers, with permission to them to shoot the Chinese at sight. Travelling allowances at 6s per mile were being paid by the mine-owners to the Boers who brought in escaped Chinamen. That the coolies imported include a lot of whom the authorities in China were very glad to get rid of, there ma> be no doubt, but at the same time the mine overseers are made magistrates, and they can make almost anything an offenoe, such as not do ing enough with a drill a day. They are judges as well as the executioners. It is said that soma of the prisoners are hung up by the heels and mercilessly sjamboked. The Chinese and Kaffir coolies always work in .different compounds. The gigantic men from the noilh of China, who act as policemen to keep their coolie countrymen in order often inflict brutal punishment; while the kafflr policemen are not sparing in the use of the knobkerry on the heads of the miners. There is no doubt in my mind that the special correspondents sent out by the English newspapers will reveal a state of affairs quite as bad as anything depicted in the lives of the slaves in the Southern States of America."