THE RAND STRIKE

Evening Star, Issue 17928, 25 March 1922, Page 2

THE RAND STRIKE

A NEW ZEALANDER’S OBSBRVA-

TIONS.

The following are extracts from a letter received from a Dunedin resident now visiting the Transvaal;— This is the twenty-third day of tho coal strike, the fourteenth day of the gold strike, and the ninth day _of tho sitting of the conference, which threatens to prove abortive. A young fellow on the mine staff hero says this fight is to be to the finish. Things have reached such a pass that the owners have no say in the conduct of their own mines, and the managers no control. If a loafer is dismissed a whole mine will down tools, so tb® Chamber of Minos is prepared to lose millions in trying to breakthe workers’ power. Directly the strike was declared all bars and bottle stores were closed and sealed by the police. That the loss to liquor-sellers amounts to £60,000 a day on tho Reef alone Is some index as"to the number of thirsty souls wandering about between _ the Springs and Rnndfontein. Private stores are giving out, and the man who is suspected of having a bottle of whisky still in reserve (says the ‘ Sunday Times ’) finds that he is extraordinarily popular, and gets visitors ftt all hours of the day and night, who drop in to tell him,that ho is one of the finest fellows in the world; but as a- rule there is nothing doing. A barkeeper in K’dorp told S. that men offer him 26s for a bottle of whisky, and the mineral water manufacturers say their sales have gone up enormously. Meanwhile tram traffic in Johannesburg has ceased, aud light (electric) and water threaten to be cut off. _ The unions have no funds, and the strikers are not receiving strike pay, so there must he much privation abroad,_ which it is feared may lead to civil war. Every stick of dynamite has been removed from every' mine and stored nt one huge central depot, and all possible precautions against violence taken. Several of tho mines are flooded, and native boys are being sent to their Ironies at tho rate of 4,000 per day, so that should the strike be declared off to-morrow it will bo a long time before the mines can again bo worked. _ Business everywhere is at a standstill and fruit and 'produce at the markets unsaleable, which is disastrous to growers far removed from the strike area. Luscious fruit from the Capo was given away in Johannesburg _on (Saturday, and as it costs one shilling per case to get tho fruit to Johannesburg you have some idea of the loss to growers. Prime potatoes (this season s) birug only 6s per bag, which allows nothing to the grower, so you can ace the state things are in. Iu addition, huge reductions arc being made in tee staffs of tho Post and. Telegraph Departments, many of the head officials having received notice, as well, as numbers of the rank and file.