BUILT ON GOLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 4, 6 January 1938, Page 8

BUILT ON GOLD.

CITY OF JO'BURG.

WHAT OF ITS FUTURE? NATIVE UNREST AND POSSIBILITIES. (By WALTER SMYTH.. Johannesburg of a few years ago and j -Tr.ljannesburg of to-day are two entirely different places. From a small Dorp of tin -hanties has arisen a city of skyscrapers and towering flats, all ultranvderu in design. Johannesburg is a (.••Iden City. It thinks gold; dreams gold, and to ju-tifv its dreams there are the huge mine dumps almost within a .-tone's throw of iUi principal places of business. Gold, and gold alone has brought about the city's phenomenal growth. A few years ago the mule team and ox wagon were practically the only means of transport. To-day its wide, well-paved streets are thronged from morn till night with fast-moving modern cars, and its railway traffic reminds one of London. All is bustle and rush. Fortunes are made and lost overnight, and should the price of gold drop, say to £5 an ounce. Johannesburg would probably be evacuated overnight. Living for To-day. "When they are not working, they live in flats. Johannesburg has probably more flat life than any other place in the world, with the exception of, perhaps. American cities. In every part of the city and throughout the suburbs there are towering blocks of flats, both furnished and unfurnished, which range in rent from £12 to £35 a month. This cost, however, generally covers the services of a native boy. But in spite of the hundreds of flats now in existence, others are being built all the time, for Johannesburg does not stand still; it grows overnight, and every main line train brings its quota of new arrivals who come to make their homes. in the Golden City.

There are private houses, streets of them, but in the main they are either occupied by the very rich or the comparatively poor. M:ddle-class Johannesburg flats, for at the termination of the nsual six-monthly lease it is an easy matter to .move to a new flat. A prominent estate agent put it rather aptly when he said: "The whole of Johannesburg is $>n the move every six months!" And this k literally true. Universal Gamble. Money as a rule is quickly made, and is generally as quickly spent, but it must be mentioned here that nearly everyone, including shop girls, typists, office boys, have a flutter in gold shares. But apart from speculation, money is spent freely in pleasure, with a new car every 12 months, bought in most cases before the .old one is paid for. This means that the municipality is always faced with an acute parking problem. During the day every street is lined with stationary cars, and an army of traffie inspectors is kept busy seeing that motorists observe the time limits. But in spite of this watchfulness, an average of £100 a day is paid in fines, bo it is not hard to realise the congestion of the streets.

. Horse and dog racing are very popular in Johannesburg, and a good fight will always draw a -bumper house, while picture shows, cabarets and night clubs have no cause to grumble at their revenues. At night the Golden City is a blaze of lights. ' Most buildings have at least .one gaily coloured electric sign, and often more than one. In the ftubjnrbs one'finds cultivated- beauty; the homes of the wealthy, set in charming tree and ~<chrub filled gardens. Beyond the suburbgvtthere is only veldt, dry, dusty red *oii and stunted vegetation extending for hundreds of miles in all directions. Here it is. that one realises how amazing Johannesburg really is—a marvellous modern city built at an elevation of just on 6000 ft. A few years ago the site on which the city now stands would probably have depressed the most confirmed optimist. The primitive, however, has not yet wholly disappeared from Johannesburg, for one often sees bullock wagons and mule teams in the busy streets. Native Problem "Pressing. Population is cosmopolitan, and one hears a variety of languages spoken, English and Afrikaans being the fiiost common, that is, if one does not count the native population which invades every city and suburban street.

One day, and perhaps in the near future, the native question will have to be tackled seriously, for South Africa has somewhere about 8,000,000 to 10,000,000 of these folk, and the native mind is being stirred by undesirable propaganda. I

The city native has learned the white man's ways, and sooner or later he will demand a higher social standing than he has to-day. He has been taught to drive a car, and to act efficiently as- waiter and houseboy in the large hotels and boarding houses, so it is natural that he should ape the white man in a hundred and one ways. He knows the value of money and what money will buy. Eventually this must lead to a demand for a higher standard of living. When it is considered that there are about 90,000 unemployed natives in and around Johannesburg, and that most of them have at one time or another been employed by Europeans, it requires no great 'stretch of imagination to realise that a day must come when the situation must be faced squarely. These people, who often have difficulty in adequately feeding themselves, are tinder for incendiary propaganda. A native messenger in an office willj receive about £1 a week. Out of this sum he has to feed and clothe himself and his wife and family, surely a difficult task measured by European standards? But it must be explained that in most cases the native wife will work as well, probably as a house or nurse girl, and that the native standard of living is far below our own. Nevertheless the native covets many things the white man is able -to enjoy, and which he would have bad he the wherewithal to buy them.

Bailding Never Ceases. When the phenomenal growth of Johannesburg is considered, one realises i that the only thingß which have been i able to keep pace with this rapid' development are the buildings. Building never ceases in the Golden City. Throughout every area building is continually going on. Structures which were new and modern five years ego are now hopelessly out of date, Mid they are demolished to make room for fresh skyscrapers. And so it goes on, fever- , ish activity all the time.

One is often led to wonder whether I Johannesburg will one day be numbered among the world's largest cities, or whether, through nome new medium of i exchange, other than gold, it will fade • out as quickly as it arose.