CHINESE ON THE RAND

Evening Star, Issue 12366, 2 December 1904, Page 1

CHINESE ON THE RAND

THE CHINAMAN AT WORK. A FIELD FOR WHITE LABOR. An article on- the Transvaal mines, viewed from the particular aspect having reference to labor problems, appears in the latest issue of the London ‘ Economist.’ It is written by the special raining commissioner of that paper, and is of such appcial interest that it is given here in exfcenso. The article opens by saying that so lar as the Transvaal mining industry is concerned there is every reason to expect continues^ 0 ' 1 ° f mcreasin 8 prosperity, and , “ Th o . re q«u-oments of the Transvaal under this head are summed up in the one word ‘ labor,’ and the steady importation of natives from Northern China is rapidly solvmg what has long been a very ™ bl “ e proWem. There are now a,UOO Chinese working in the mines, and r tmnk it safe to say that they are proving a success, and are going to be just as serviceable as the Kaffirs. The cost of ringing m these Chinese is a severe drain on the cash resources of the mines. One way and another, it costs over £2O to deliver a Chinaman on the Rand, and by the time , there are 50,000 here the industry will have paid out over a million m hard cash I think this fact is the ~ to lay before those who argue that there are sufficient Kaffirs in the country to do all the work required, for a million m cash, paid out by hard-headed business men, takes a good deal of explaining away. But this money is well laid out. Under the terms of his indenture the Chinaman stays for at least three years. Already many of the men are shaping excellently as miners, and it is quite certain, that after they are trained they will be very efficient workers. The Kaffir, on . the other hand, stays for one year at the most; just when he has become a trained miner he goes away, and his successor, as like as not, is a raw hand, who has to be trained de novo. People here have been wondering why the supply of Kaffirs is not up to the old standard, and why it has even fallen back as compared last year. All sorts of fantastic theories are put forward, but the true reason, which is known to those who really understand the question, is simole enough. The Kaffir is now not allowed to have strong drink. This he resents. He has been accustomed to it hitherto here, and in his Mozambique home can get as much of it as he likes. He therefore is loth to return to the Rand, except when his finances prohibit an indulgence in strong lic ! uors - Then, again, in the old days, when ho could buy liquor, he spent most of his money on it, and had not so much to take home with him. Today, with prohibition, he has less inducemont to spend his wages; he takes a bigger sum away with him, and he is able to stay longer at home and revel in those pleasures which the goldfields now deny him. The truth is that the KafTn will have liquor. If he gets none on the fields, he indulges inordinately at home. Why not then let him have it in moderation at the mines ? It seems a commonsense solution, and would certainly benefit the mines very much. The point is worth discussion between tho Chamber of Mines and the Government. “To return to the Chinaman. 1 want to give some impressions which I gained when inspecting the Glen Deep Mine. Going through the stopcs I was astonished to seo the style in which most of the men were shaping. They had onlv been a fortnight on the mine, and already 285 out of 500 hammer boys were averaging 17in a day, and were acquiring an easy and effective style. All of these men'will be excellent miners in a few months, and will gradually become, with their long contracts, a most valuable asret to the mine. On the surface I inspected the compound, the kitchen, the big feeding room, and the hospital. In the kitchen an army of busy cooks were preparing a meal for l'4oo men. Dozens of great cauldrons containing a savory stew of meat and vegetables sent up a strongly appetising odor, and these were flanked by large quantities .of rice, bread, and tea. In the sleeping rooms were rows of comfortable beds, with clean blankets; while in the hospital some twenty men were being tended with every care and fed with delicacies. After seeing all this I burst out laughing, for it was all so incongruous. In Ch’na these same men receive a sum equivalent to 5d a day, and have to board and feed themselves and their families. Here their food alone costs ?id a day, not connting housing and wages, and the real comfort of their surroundings must be contrasted with the unutterably squalid conditions under which they live in their own country. That is what I saw. But that same day the Johannesburg pa*pers had accounts of a meeting held in Melbourne, at which it was stated that these men were being treated as slaves; that the years of the : r indenture were being branded on them with red-hot irons; and that their condition was as wretched as it could be. Another worthy man, a cable from London also stated, had written to ‘ The Times ’ that the Chinamen here were going to eat decayed fish, and that leprosy would most certainly break out all over the country. Let me answer this by saying that tie people here are not fools; that tho Chinese will not be given fish ; and that there is no reason for thinking that leprosv will he any more prevalent in South Africa—that is, to a small extent only—than it has ever been. “I may snm up my idea of the question by saying that when the conditions that obtain on the Rand are known, you are. likely to have a big stream of 'laborers arriving at the recruiting staf ons in China, and I believe that many of the men will stay on as miners long after their contracts are completed. “I am not, it may be noticed, dealing with the eth os of Chinese labor; but whatever the views held by any reader of this, it is only fair that he should take note of these facts, and rea’ise that, so far as their treatment is concerned, -the Chinese are very well off. *' R is my belief that for a long time to come the Rand, with its expanding output of gold, can takp. all the labor offering, whether it be skilled or unskilled whites, or Kaffirs, or Chinese. There are to-day over 13,000 whites at work. This is an.'increase of 2,000! over tho figures of a few months ago, and is largely up of unskilled whites. On.the same Glen Deep Mine, unskilled whites, on. contract at shovelling and tramming ore, have earned up to 21s a day, and 15s has been no uncommon figure. On the Langlaagte Deep the manager offers contracts at a price which averages out at 9s lid per man per day. Since the war be has had 1,400 men through his hands. They have earned, on an average, the figure just quoted; but have only stayed at the mine, on an average. seventeen days. There is a fairly big field open to-dav in the mines for the unskilled white, and any man who is not a drunkard or a loafer, and who means to get on, can get the chance at a dozen mines of earning a fair wage, and of qualifying in a few months’ time to become a slalled miner, and ©am the wages of one. “ The worst feature of the outlook, from the economic point of view, is the poor work done by the • skilled white miners. Many of these men, who receive on an average almost £T a day, do relatively about 5s worth of work, and that most grudgingly. I don’t profess tdsmow exactly'the reasons for this, or how it can be remedied. • Many of the best miners have never returned since the war.. A

I mu sorry to say, have died of phthisis. Nearly all those here seem to be demoralised by the proximity of the black, and won’t do muscular work when be can be got to do it. It is simply the caste system. They look on and supervise m a way. but it is often a slovenly, lazv way, and a poor return for £1 a day. I am not arguing, please note, for the reduction of the white man’s wage; on the contrary, J hope that more and more skilled whites can be employed here; but it is incumbent on him to do better work for ms wage. It has been an eyesore to me to go through many of the mines here and ree the white miners palpably loafing, irerhaps managers should spend more time underground until this fungus growth is eradicated, and try, by sympathy and personal intercourse, to bring about a state of afilairs which severity is evidently powerless to improve.”