TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9606, 22 December 1896, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

After an absence of The Progress thirteen months from of Christchurch, the greater Johannesburg, portion of which wan spent in Johannesburg, Messrs R. L. .-ml D. Adams, jun., of the North Belt, Christchuroh, havo returned homo, and they give some information concerning the Transvaal aud its remarkable city -which will no doubt be interesting to our readers. They arrived in Johannesburg on the day of the funeral of the victims of the great dynamite explosion. They were "ot long in obtaining work in the building A trade, and were fully employed to the time of their leaving. There is no difficulty foi good hands to get work in the building trade at Johannesburg at the present time, for within a stone's throw of one streob corner alone, a million pDunds worth of work is going on, including the new 'post office, which is an £80,000 job. Good carpontors, brick, layers and plasterers have no difficulty in obtaining regular work at 20s to 22s 6d per day. At one time engineers for tho mines were in request, but this profession is now overdone. The now buildings are all erected in brick, with plastor fronts. Timber is very expensivo, toak, which is üßod for Outside work, being 17s 6d per cubio foot, and Baltic deal, for inside work, is 9d per running toot, 9in by 3in. In tho mines West Australian karri is largely used. A little New Zealand kauri is sometimes seen, and i it costs about 9d por square foot. The population of Johannesburg, within a three miles radius, is 102,000, including 50,000 blacks. There are about 20,000 English people, and some 15,000 white women.There are large numbers of Jews, Germans and Dutch, engaged in business in the town, and people are flocking in from Europe at the rate of about 1000 per week. There are a great many unemployed, and ic is useless for anyone to go to Johannesburg without money or a .trade. The war scare , interrupted business for about a month, but it has been going on Bteadily since. The Rand mines are iu full work, but they are heavily handicapped through taxation in various farms, and ateo recently through want of coal. There was some difficulty throe months ago through the wages of the " boys" (the Kaffirs who work in the mines) being reduced from £4 to £3 a month, and many of them left, so that tho mines could not bo worked; but thoir places wero soon filled up. The principal mine, the Simmer and Jack, said to bo the largest in the world, employs about 500 mechanics and 600C «- boys." It is lighted by electricity, nnd there is quite a township round it. All the > mines work through the whole week, Sundays included, as the owners sa_ T it would not pay to oloso down, and they prefer to pay the nominal fines that, are inflicted for . working on tho seventh day. The present _ reefs arc expected to last from fourteen to twenty years longer, and efforts are now being made to find deep levels. y TH-RE is very little social life Cost of in Johannesburg, as it is known Living, elsewhere. People mostly live in hired rooms, and get their ' meals at restaurants or "skoff" houses, aa they are called. Meals cost .from ls up-' wards, but at the lowest figure' they .are anything but inviting. Board can be -ob--tained at a decent hotel for £4 10s per week, up to 25s pet day at the best houses. The , beef is poor and without taste, and the "mutton" is mostly goat's flesh.-.*; i Vegetables and fruit are -scarce, apples; costing aa muoh as 2d, 3d and 4d : - ] each, and potatoes -.d per lb. , Good . ;;; Australian butter may be purchased at 2s £ 6d per lb, and locally-made at 3s 6d per' lb.' .-£ The vegetables and meat come from tMe -% Orange Free State, and fruit is chiefly , ■_}; brought from Natal. There shotild bo a y£ good market for New' Zealand. produce, .',_|; especially butter and meat in Johannesburg, and large freezing .works, to hold 30,000- ...r carcases,..re being erected at Capetown for \\J the purpose of supplying the interior with . ■ meat. '.---" T_nc Transvaal is a land df .;, Monopolies monopolies and taxation ,' it and The man who owns the .£ Taxation.' dynamite' monopoly, drifts.. '-• about half-a-million a-ysM>: '■*- as he is able to charge-about three. what the material is worth. Two mpijjry. Messrs Lewis and Marks—own the liquot*. . manufacturing monopoly, and as an**. . v - tariff conies into forceat tho beginning .;•*' year imported liquor will not be able to coal*; pete with the locally-manufactured stttfEpA: "] f account of the high duty and the people will .';,-, practically have to drink whatever.',tie, ..; manufacturers choose to supply r them with'; ;:-', Large English firms hold monopolies, .not only in the Transvaal, but throughout South - "| Africa, in such goods'as drapery, boots and. ironmongery, having shops in all the towns..."_ £\ Clothing and boots are as cheap in Johanaes-" burg as in the Australian colonies, f owing to the dearness of labour it does not.-.,**f pay to get one's boots repaired. To open a _, l shop in Johannesburg a license of £26pef X| annum has to be paid. Chinamen pay a poll-tax of £100, and are not to keep shops. .There are only two in the city, and they have had to change their names. English people have to pay! aj-,|| poll-tax of 18s 6d per annum and it is lected generally at the beginning of *?;?|f year. If a person out prospecting cbme> across a reef he cannot claim it until he 'hM first paid the poll-tax. . - y$M TH_~__affir "boys" in tf»*ljj Treatment Transvaal are now regifit<»re4{;|l of '" much in the same way &£M Kaffirs. dogs are registered here, -H^|| instead of a collar round neck they wear a* brass badge with a nu ty*;J|l ber upon the arm. They pay a fee of 2s registration, and ls per month They obtain a pass upon registration, without it they are not allowed to traveUr J| otherwise they would bo subject to a * for night or three weeks' imprisonment sometimes twenty-five lashes. The u to-s.*!|l| are not allowed to walk upon the io the towns in the Transvaal, but keep to the roads, tho penalty being twentjM|-W five lashes. At the mines the in compounds, and in the. town their dence is limited to certain places, Kaffir "locations." At 9 p.m. hell rings and no Kaffir must be _ the streets after that hour. ■An

just been passed to compel the Indian coolies, who are mostly waiters in restaurants and hotelff, and hawkers, to live in locations, but they are not registered. The Kaffir boys employed in the mines spend nearly all their earnings upon drink, and will swallow anything from rum and whiskey to methylated spirits. A law has, however, just been passed, aud comes into force at Christmas, closing up the Kaffir " kanteens," about 450 in number, at the mines and in Johannesburg. The "boys" will, therefore, be uuablc to get drink, for no one will serve a Kaffir at a white man's " kantcen." Johannesburg is not a An healthy place to live in. Unhealthy Fever and pneumonia are Place. rife, the lungs becoming affected through the fiue dust that is blown about. From July to November the dust storms are very bad, B nd as the ores at tho mines are treated •with the cyanide process the dust from this source is all the more injurious. A new water supply 19 being brought in from a distance of about twenty miles, but it ia not yet sufficient ta serve the town. The rainy season only lasts during November and December, and there may be five or eight months without a drop of rain. The water is very muddy and not fit to drink until it has been boiled, and then, it seems, it requires something added to it to make it palatable. Taking them all round the attractions of Johannesburg hardly compensate for its drawbacks, and many of the New Ze.landers there would doubtless be well pleased to find themselves back in this colony.