THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MAY 2, 1907. THE CHINESE QUESTION IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8432, 2 May 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MAY 2, 1907. THE CHINESE QUESTION IN SOUTH AFRICA.

A federated South, Africa is now regarded in that, country as being practically certain at no distant date. In each of the South African States there is a" desire for federation, and it is, no doubt, a desire that will be advisedly fostered by the Imperial authorities until it has matured in a concrete form. The Chinese question will, however, develop from being a Transvaal question into one in which the whole of South Africa will be vitally interested- the result of the enormous and growing value of the Transvaal gold mines to the entire country. A Masterton resident has, handed to us a copy of a Capetown paper, containing a report of a speech recently delivered by! Sir Percy Fitzpatrick. The chairman of the meeting remark ed that tlwj subject of South African Federation was one, whifh was occupying ; the minds of most thinking people in South Africa at the present time, and in Sir Percy Fitzpatrick they

had one of the foremost public men of South Africa, and a man than whom no one was better qualified to speak on the subject, more particularly from the Transvaal point of view. Sir Percy's speech was" mainly a defence of the employment of Chinese in the mines, and upon this point we do not propose to comment. Two facts, however, were made indisputably clear--(1) as we have already mentioned, the enor- j mous and growing importance of the gold mines to the whole of South Africa, and (2) that the Chinese labour question must loom largely in the federation movement. In connection with the first fact it may be stated'that the Transvaal mines produced up to the end of December last 1,383 tons of gold, worth £168,750,000. Taking the figures, which would be included under the head of the federal exports in federated South Africa they were as follow: £20,500,000, of which coal, gold and diamonds sent £15,000.000, and the rest under £5,000,000. In 1906, ten years later, the total was £42,500,000, of which mining produced £35,250,000, or 62 per cent., and the rest £7,250,000, or 17 per cent. Thus in the ten years while mining increased.over 126 per cent., all the other exports of British South Africa only increased under 50 per cent. With reference to the Transvaal mines the current output is 25 millions, nine millions of which is produced by Chinese labour. In the course of his speech Sir Percy said: —"You talk of getting more native labour. The answer is the question: How? You have seven-Governments, and not one Government that can pass laws that no one would tolerate — even if it were tried—-coercion. It is not one„Government. The Transvaal Government would not do it. If they did do'it they would affect their own interest. The Cape Colony--it would not be tolerated. Basutoland—you know what would ne done there. It is-the same with the' tirange River Colony, Natal, the Portuguese'terriory and the others. There, you have eight, nine or ten forms cf Government. What is the use of talking of passing resolutions in one place to apply to another. You don't do it. Supposing you could get them in the Cape Colony, there are two objections. First, they will not go underground, and there is sufficiency of "top" natives on the Witv/atersrand, They have more than enough. Secondly, for the first three or four months the nativesiare not are pensioners. They are not fit to do the work, for you will recognise that there is a certain amount of, skill even in un-_ skilled work. Central Africa has been closed, and the Imperial Government will not allow the recruiting. The Natal Government do not allow recruiting. You cannot have-recruit-ing there for the Transvaal mines. Now, I am aware that Chinese labour is an unpopular subject. I have been accustomed to • find it so. (Laughter). It all comes, down to this, the difference between the imblack man and the {imported' yellowjjman. (Apulause.), There are' 55,000 Chinese labourers on the Kand, and there arfe approximately 100,000 , natives employed. There are a larger number than ever employed before. . If there is a preference for Chinese yoUjWould think the demand for natives would have gone ,down; as a matter of fact it has gone up. You have the choice between j stagnation or expansion. " You have : the choice between • no labour and Chinese labour, and. we prefer to take Chinese labour. (Cheers). The average earnings on the' principal employing mines is: Chinese 52s 4d and natives 51s 8d per month; so that it cannot be that there is an extra inducement to the mines to employ Chinese. The Chamber of Commerce of the Transvaal went into this question, and they reported that the ] native spent 3d put of every shilling J of his wages, but the Chinaman spent 9d. (Cheers).". The speaker went on to say that it was popularly supposed that all the gold went out of the country. As a matter, of fact what the industry did "for South Africa was this—out of every 20s worth of gold produced 16s 5d was spent in the Transvaal. prosperity of former years was due to two "things—(l) The steady output and the expenditure of that 16s 5d out of every 20s; and (2) the investment ofJfresh working capital from oversea ; land if you want fresh working capital. Sir Percy concluded, "you have the 16s sd, that is the present rate; as much as the industry is tended so much greater will be the bulk of the expenditure and so much greater will • be the proportion; the 16s 5d will go up, it will be 17s, perhaps 18s,- and for this the more you expend the cheaper becomes the working, and you increase the life of your mines. And they are your mines, if you are going to talk Federation; they are your mines; they are what you live upon. You curtail the industry, you lose by the expulsion of the. Chinese nine millions a year, or some proportion of it which fate shall decide—not all of it, because people hang on and work even when there is no profit; but you will get no further, expansion; you will have no further investment of capital in South Africa until people know that they have got security for a return on that capital. * It is perfectly idle to say that a few more thousand | natives will be turned out as a

favour, or to say a littlebit longer, time will be leit as a favour. People do not want favours. The whole world is bidding for-capital. The investors want certainty they want security, 1 - and a decent-return, and if they do nut thinlcthey will get decent treatment the money would not come to this country, and that prosperity which we all look forward to' being restored will not come." From the quotations we have made it will be seen that the Chinese question so far from being "dead," promises to be an extremely lively one in connection with the movement to bring about a Federated South Africa.,

THE TRUST LANDS TRUST.

The election, which will be held this month, to fill extraordinary and ordinary vacancies, as well as, to elect additional trustees to administer the Masterton Trust Lands Trust should create h considerable amount of interest. We heed not enlarge upon the importance of the Trust to this town—that is generally recognised—but in-view of the very valuable nature of the Trust—and that value will increase with the growth of the town—and the fact that the trustees to be elected will have power to borrow and expend money, it is highly desirable in the interests of the com--1 munity as a whole that business men of accumen and ability should be returned. The extraordinary vacancies are caused by the voluntary retirement of Messrs E. Feist and J. A. Renall, while Messrs T. Wagg and C/ E. Danii 11 retire in the ordinary course. These vacancies, with the three new seats to be filled, mean that seven candidates for trusteeship will have to be elected. Two of the present trustees, Messrs T. Michelle and J. Hessey, do not retire this year. In view of services rendered Messrs Wagg and iJaniell should Ibe returned, and assuming that the voters take the same view as ourselves ] in this matter there are then five n,ew candidates to be elected. Several prominent business people are mentioned as likely candidates, and jwe understand Messrs D. and E. G. Eton have definitely decided to seek election. We hope that the decision, of the candidates referred to will encourage other wfellknown business men to act similarly, and that thus a capable and representative" body of men will ', be returned. ' i :