WAGES IN SOUTH AF RICA.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 20031, 14 March 1914, Page 3 (Supplement)

WAGES IN SOUTH AFRICA.

South Africa, once again the storm centre of the labour world, is perpetually faced with, the problem of keeping its 170,000 coloured workers in order. The white miners naturally dislike the native labourers, because their presence Lends to keep down the rate of wages. For some time it has been an. understood thing between masters and men in the Transvaal that natives should not compete with whites in occupations that demand skilled labour. No black was therefore allowed 5o become an engineer, carpenter, stonemason, or bricklayer. Gradually the door is being opened, and the Transvaal whites feel that they will shortly be forced 1o work on the same footing as the native, just as fel-low-whites in the Cape province already do.

At present in the Transvaal a white miner receives about £1 per day of eight hours, whilst the native gets less than £1 per week, and is made to work moro hours. No coloured man is allowed to hold a blasting _ certificate although many of them do the work as efficiently as their white masters.

It is generally thought that black workers can be obtained easily, but this is not correct. The native "boy's", "disinclination for hard work is hereditary and impregnable. He would much rather leave all labour to his womenfolk.

If only he will work hard he can retire after a. few years with enough money to become a power in his own district, but he usually succumbs to the temptation of too much liquor. It is a punishable offence to supply natives with strong drink, owing to the atrocious crimes they commit whilst under its influence, yet unscrupulous traders take the risk and sell at high rates a dreadful concoction of whisky and sulphate of copper that immediately inflames the brain of anybody who drinks it. One drop spilt on wood leaves an indelible stain, so you can imagine its effect on the human stomach!

People engaging in this illicit traffic are fined as much as £75 when caught, while some have received two years' imprisonment and no option.

The native agitator is a growing force in South.Africa. Often he is a man educated at Oxford or Cambridge, and holding a degree. Having been received in Britain on equal terras, he returns to his own country to find a colour bar raised against him. Too cultured to consort with his own race, yet looked down upon by the while people, he is an outcast with no political rights, and so he commences agitating.

The idea of equality between white and black rouses the indignation of evory South African, whether British or Ihitch, to boiling point. Two years ago, v Mr. Wolmarans, member of the South African Parliament, was prosecuted for throwing an educated native out of a railway carriage, but nevertheless his action had the support of the entiro TSoer population.