SOUTH AFRICA

Grey River Argus, 21 April 1925, Page 8

SOUTH AFRICA

ADDRESS BY

E. J. HOWARD,

ALP.

Speaking at the Labour Party’s Conference last Wednesday, Mr E. J. Howard, A1.1’., (;i New Zealand delegato to the recent Empire Parliamentary Conference) gave some interesting details about South Africa, the mines, and Ihe Labour movement there. He stated,’ that it; was the 'first time in history that Labour was represented on such a mission. They had travelled 10,000 miles in South Africa, practically living in the train. They always slept in the train, and visited towns and place.-; of interest in the day lime. He slated Hint it was only i.miter of time till the whites would practically disappear from South Africa. There were ten million men of the coloured race there new. most of them ready to work for Is per day. They worked to get money to buy cattle. Cattle cost from £2 10s to .£3 10s. A wife could be purchased for ten head of cattle. Consequently, many nah iv-c.s had several wives! Around the kraals one could see hundreds of black children; while around the 'white workers’ homes, very few could be seen. Those facts showed plainly that it was only a matter of time when the whites would be pushed out. The. Union political situation, he said was a three-party one: ’The South African Parly, or the Smuts Party, as it was called, was a 'Conservative Party; the Nationalists represented (he old Boer farmers; and the third was Hie Labour Party. The Nationalists retained much of the hatred of England that was dm' to the Boer "War. Tho Labour Party was for years independent of all other parties, but lately had coalesced with the Nationalists 1 to got rid of the Smuts Government. Some, people might blame the Labour ■ Party for this but the indiscriminate shooting down of strikers and civilians during the Rand miners’ strike had made it necessary for them to got rid of Smuts at all costs. Tie could not see much hope for the advancement of the Labour Party in South Africa. The whites were mostly employ ed as overseers, the navvying and rough work being entirely done by black,s. The two-to-one standard in the mines (tAvo blacks to one white) was broken down: ami now it was one ■ while, out' black. Natives were previously debarred from handling machin ery (“tin* colour bar”) but since the war, they often were given charge of 1 machines. There, were no white “bot- i tom doggers”; the whites principally acted atf <\bilcctors /of coloured l>abour. At the Mines. Thirteen thousand whites worked underground on (he Rand. The number had been much larger previous to the Avar: but when tho white miners enlisted, their places were taken by blacks. Of course, tho mine owners promised to keep their jobs for them ‘when they returned, but when blacks could bgi procured for a Ishilling a day. the owners broke, their word. ami refused Hie employ incut. This eventually brought, filijout the strike of 1922. The mine owners const ant ly sought cheap labour. That was why the Chinese wore gid rid 01. Ihe owners had Io pay the Chinamen £3 10s a month, and as the Kaffir at Is per dav was much cheaper, tin' Chinese had to go. Miners phthisis was prevalent. A Miners’ Phthisis Pension Act was passed in 1912. Sime then 26,000 whites hud received pensions. There were 20,000 men mi the Rami in roc.qi,pt “Aof pensions. These men hud but a short time to live. They were doomed to death; and they knew it? In strikes and labour disputes these men were very active. They were .fearless, since they had but a short

time Io live, and were a problem that the owners did not know how to handle./ When the miners returtned from the Avar and wore refused employ meat. and when even more whites were sacked, they struck. Smuts introduced Avar measures and all the devilish niach iiirry of the war was let loose on them. They 'were shot, down with machine guns, and bombed from aeroplanes. The authorities told how, at the blowing up of the Trades Hall, 72 miners were killed, but they hid the fact that, at the same time, 75 civilians were killed. Dealing with miners’ phthisis, Air Howard said that there was a system in vogue whereby a man’s lungs 'were photographed ‘ when he started work in Hie mines. Periodically, they were photographed again. If he showed signs of the disease, he was brought out. The medical authorities classified the disease in three stages —primary, post-primary and final. A man might stay on in the mines if he had developed the primary stage, but if he had “post primary,” he was forced out. Correct details of the ravages of the disease were hard to obtain, because so many left the place to die elsewhere after becoming affected. Mr Howard produced a number of photographic slides shoeing th‘.o lungs healthv. primarily affected and completely clogged with quartz dust. By these slides, it was easy to trace the effect of dust on the lungs. While sonic attempt had been made to compute the number of while mon suffering from the disease, it was impossible to trace the number of blacks affected. They worked their* contract time at tho mines. got their lungs coated with dust, and returned to their kraals to die

of they knew mt what. Black labour Avas cheap (1./- a day), and as there seemed an inexhaustible supply of black man, careless of their health, it was only a matter of time until the whites would be forced out of the mines altogether.