THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, JULY 13, 1907. THE RAND STRIKE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8486, 13 July 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, JULY 13, 1907. THE RAND STRIKE.

A late Government Inspector of Mines in the Transvaal supplies some interesting information to the London Daily Mail about the strike of white miners on the Rand, of which we have heard so much lately by cable. These miners, as a rule, are simply petty contractors of Chinese and Kaffir labour, men who ere sufficiently skilled to be allowed to set up and take charge of drills. Much of their time these white overseers can spend sitting down and smoking their pipes, and watching the Kaffirs or coolies work. One of the causes of the strike was the wish of the companies that the men should superintend three drills at a time irstead of two, the men declining on the ground that .their health would be endangered by the greater amount of dust. The writer, however, thinks it an absurd objection, as it is the i native or coolie miner who stands up to the machine. The ordinary skilled labourer is paid £1 a day, and if l he is unmarried he can live simply for about £lO or £l2 a month. If he is married and has a small family. the amount is nearly doubled, so that there is not much of a margin. But if he is working on contract in charge of drills, he may earn from £4O to £IOO a month. Asa matter of fact, the Kaffirs and the coolies are in a better position with their £3 to £4 a month and keep, than the white miners not on contract. The Kaffir's clothing bill is naturally low. This ex-official has no sympathy with the grievances of the white miners working on contract. He / says that while nearly the whole white population of Johannesburg has suffered by the depression, the white man in the mine has actually

profited, for his wages have remained constant, and the price of living has gone down. He declares that if many of the Rand mines are to pay dividends either the cost of living will have to be reduced, so as to allow of a reduction in wages to white miners, or more work will have to be got out of them. The latest figures show that while some 15,000 skilled labourers absorbed £6,500,000 in one year, the labour of nearly nine times as many unskilled workmen, Kaffirs and coolies, costs only £4,000,000.