A BLACK MAN'S COUNTRY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 67, 18 March 1908, Page 9

A BLACK MAN'S COUNTRY.

SOUTH AFRICAN PROBLEMS. 1 OF WORK AND UNEMPLOYED. Mr. X. T. TMiller, a resident of Jag- ' i gersiontein. in the Transvaal, is a visitor !to New Zealand, who is delighted with 'all he has seen here so far ai his brief I observation has allowed. Any country must be a welcome change alter tiouuh . | Africa as it is. That unhappy country i! of inexulieaible problems is in a state of .dreadful depression ai. present — a depression that no one can see tbe end ot. !|Mr. Miller, in conversation with a Wellington reporter, said that when he left a few weeks ago there . ] were between 3000 and 4000 men out ot . j work, living Heaven only knew- how. I ''But are they not replacing the Chinai men in the mines?" asked the re-porter. "No. they arc not, and it is almost a ! pity the Chinamen are going, for they . kept the mines going full time. - ' [ ; "But it seems incredible for these men .: to be out of work when there is ample i j work at the mines." i ''That is because it is a black man's : country. White men will not-work along[l side the "boys.' The mine managers would {gladly accept white labour, but in a ,' country where all labouring work is done • by the black man it is beneath the white .'man's dignity to do rough work —it is I not a matter of pride or -side,' but one jof blood, and you want to be there to I realise how impossible it is for the races ■to assimilate in the field of unskilled labour." "Lord ililner imported a number ot British navvies for various works in the Transvaal when he was administering the country, but within three months they had realised the. position, and had quitted navvving, either to return Home !or do something else, where they would be called 'Baas by the boys.' " "Then the Cliinese are heing replaced Iby blacks in the mines';" j "Yes, as far as is possible; but that '. j involves another problem. The black man j will only work three months out of the " I year, then he retires to his kraal tc ' j smoke and sleep while his women-folk ' | cultivate the mealies that keep him igoing. He is really quite independent oi ' I the mines, anel knows it. So that, as far ' as the mines are concerned, they arc 5 getting rid of the Chinese in favour ot an uncertain supply of black labour, and ' the white man prefers to be one of the unemployed rather than do T>lack man's ' work.'" "But. how do the unemployed live?" ' "I don't know. The Government aids 5 them, I suppose. It started relief work? 1 j on »n aiiuvial mine at 5/ a clay not lonp " ' ago, but they were not a success. Five 5 ahiflings a day in Konth Africa is nol 1 a iivinf- wage; the working man requires s about 12./ ft day to live decently '!her " Mr. T. B. Robinson gave a sum of mine.; " to tho nnr.mployed fund tho other day.' '' Mr. Mi'ior intends to visib the OrionJ Tr>tm_in„ to StraXh. _*„rJe_.