SOUTH AFRICA

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 141, 11 December 1935, Page 12

SOUTH AFRICA

COUNTRY_BOOM.NG

JOURNALIST'S VIEWS

MONEY PLENTIFUL

In spite of the difficulties presented to the stranger by the use of two languages, South Africa is pictured by Mr. A. M. Williams, of Johannesburg, as a land of splendid opportunities, especially to those connected with the building trade. "Today in South Africa there is a very happy combination of money, good markets; and racial peace that make it perhaps the soundest of all the British Dominions," was his comment when interviewed by the

"Evening Post." As a New Zealand journalist who went to South Africa nine years ago and rose to his present position of news editor of the "Rand Daily Mail," Johannesburg's morning newspaper, he can speak with some authority on the subject.

"South Africa is booming as a result of the country having gone off the gold standard at a time, at the end of 1932, when it was on the brink of economic disaster," he said. "Its recovery primarily is due to its going off the gold standard, and today money is so plentiful that it is difficult to invest it profitably except in building and property. This has brought about a boom unprecedented in the history of the country. The prosperity is the most pronounced in the Witwatersrand, of which Johannesburg is the centre. The.increased gold premium as the result of going off the gold standard has made it possible for gold-mining companies to bring into operation many properties which hitherto have been lying dormant and it has also brought about the exploitation of new fields. Today the value of gold produced annually on the Rand exceeds £80,000,000.

HIGH WAGES: GOOD CONDITIONS.

"The scope of employment for many Europeans and for vast numbers of natives has increased," continued Mr. Williams. "South Africa remains a country for semi-skilled or skilled white men, and offers very little scope for a man without some sort of trade. The building boom brought large numbers of Australian and New Zealand artisans to different parts of South Africa, and all these men fell into jobs almost immediately at wages and conditions much in advance of the standards in their home countries. Costs of living are higher in South Africa, but not so high as to counterbalance the higher wages. Tn the last few months many Wellington men have arrived in Johannesburg; in fact, a large number of the New Zealanders seem to come from either Auckland or Wellington. Most of them are connected with the building trade.

"There is and always will be an unemployment problem in South Africa," said Mr. Williams, "but it is confined largely to the 'poor whites,' who are more unemployable than unemployed.

"Government circles see an increasing span of life for the gold mines and where pessimism was present in this connection five years ago only optimism rules today. Agriculturally South Africa never was and never will be a self-supporting country. It is doing well in wool but it will be a long time before it can become a competitor to New Zealand or Australia in point of production of any great quantity of first-class wool.

EXHIBITION NEXT YEAR.

"An influx of two "million visitors is expected for the Empire Exhibition to be held in Johannesburg from Sep-I tember 15, 1936, to January 15, 1937," continued Mr. Williams. "It is to be held on a scale comparable with the exhibitions of Wembley and Brussels and is receiving the support of all nations of " the British Commonwealth. It is a little disappointing that the New Zealand Government is not taking a pavilion, but undoubtedly private enterprise will be represented.

"For the first time in many years the country is enjoying a let-up from the racial issue between the English-speak-ing and Dutch-speaking sections of the population, because of -he political party fusion between General Hertzog, the Prime Minister, and General Smuts. The coming together of the two big political parties has resulted in the sorting out of the extremist elements, both English and Dutch. Fusion is unquestionably very popular, although the extremists are certainly thorns in the side of the fusion party. If fusion breaks and the country goes back to the old party war,- conditions must become unhappier again.

"New Zealanders generally and the country of New Zealand are held in very high esteem in South Africa," said Mr. Williams, "and but for- the long distance, between the countries and the somewhat irregular steamship service there would be a much greater patronage of New Zealand tourist resorts by South Africans.

"South Africa is becoming a twolanguage country," said Mr. Williams. "Positions in the Government service can .be held only by those qualified in both Afrikaans and English. Commercial concerns have found it necessary to have bilingual employees because of Afrikaans-speaking people refusing to patronise them unless they had Afrikaans-speaking staffs.

THE ABYSSINIAN WAX.

"The native population, of South Africa is following the Abyssinian crisis very closely indeed, although there is no public demonstration, of course," said Mr. Williams. "The sympathy in South Africa, both native and white, is entirely with Abyssinia."

Enjoying the six months' holiday to which heads of departments -in the "Rand Daily Mail" are entitled to every five years, Mr. Williams has travelled from Cape Town in October up to the East Coast of Africa and then from Beira in Portuguese East Africa to Brisbane. He arrived in Wellington from Sydney this week and after a tour of both islands will return to Australia and sail from there for South Africa late in February.