BOOMING CITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 233, 1 October 1936, Page 10

BOOMING CITY.

GREAT PROSPERITY,

LIFE IN JOHANNESBURG.

CHRIST CHURCH MAN'S VIEW,

Interesting sidelights into the life at Johannesburg, that city of South Africa where there does not ever seem to have been a depression, are given in a letter published in the "Star-Sun," from Mr. J. Prosper, of Christcliurcli. Mr. Prosper was for many years club captain of the Lancaster Park Cricket Club. "I am now on the staff of an oldestablished land agency," the letter says, "and at first I found it 'tough' trying to sell without knowing the town, as it spreads out for four or six miles in all directions. However, I am making plenty of headway now. I have plenty of buyers, dozens of them in fact. The place is booming. The trouble is- to get the properties to sell them. You take a client to see a house and find the owner lias put' the price up by £1000 at a jump (it's no trouble to him). In Christcliurch .we had plenty of properties but few buyers, so if it's not one thing it is another. "Rents are very high in Johannesburg, and £12 a calendar month is the usual price for a five-roomed house unfurnished. Property is about i) 0 to 70 per cent higher than in Christcliurch. Tradesmen get big money, £8 to £10 a week. "Driving a car here is a nightmare. There speed limit in the town. You have to keep moving or someone will crash into you. Traffic 'oops' are everywhere, and parking-is difficult until you know the run of the ropes. To cap all, you have the native drivers, a lot of whom have no brains. Th6y cut corners at 40 miles an hour, and heaven help anyone in their way. , Petrol is 2/2 a gallon, and registration is £8 10/ for the first year and £7 10/ afterwards, so it is expensive owning a car here. I

note by the papers -that petrol is going to-be reduced by sixpence a gallon. Itcannot come too soon for me. . "An enormous amount of cricket and tennis is played here, though'so far-I have been eo busy at work that I have not had time to give either much attention. Most of the mines have their own crickct teams, and leading players are well looked after."