"POVERTY SIMPLY APPALLING". POSITION IN THE TRANSVAAL.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 09, 11 January 1908, Page 2

"POVERTY SIMPLY APPALLING". POSITION IN THE TRANSVAAL.

[Br TELEGaAPH.-i-SrECUL to The Post.] AUCKLAND. This Day. A New Zealander who has lately ; returned from the Transvaal givo3 a doleful account of the state of affairs I in. that country. "The existing de1 pression in South Africa is infinitely j worse than even the newspapers report it, bad as" 1 that, is," ho said when interviewed .on- this poinij. "At the present time in Durban, Capetown, and Johannesburg there are thousands of qflices and Houses tenantless ; business houses of long standing and tha highest repute are being* liquidated weekly ; but aj)ar£ from tbi3 altogether tha actual poverty is simply appalling, and every one who -can possibly it is getting right out of. th& country. The cause is due to the aiter-effects of the war, which caused an abnormal boom in values. The depreciation of South African stocks sine© then within the last t\vo\ years has been 80 million." As to ihe future of tho country he is decidedly optimistic thus:— "l think that in- teii 'or -fifteen jyears, nothwithstanding" that South Africa, ta smitten with all th.c. plagues of Egypt' and every disease that stock is. heir to, her troubles .-will be at an end, and , there •will ensue an era of prosperity' that will be 'hard to beat in any country. Sho has wonderful resources, and tobacco/cotton, sugar, mealies, and rubber can be produced for export to eveiy part, of th® world. Irrigation is going to be the main factor in assisting the Transvaal and th© Orange River Colony in .taking a foremost position amongst the- agricultural and pastoral countries in the world."