A GLOOMY PICTURE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LIII, Issue LIII, 22 May 1908, Page 6

A GLOOMY PICTURE.

all farms. It is merely an approximate picture of the relative spoi's from sheep farming in the past two seasons. The slight revival in prices comes like a ray of sunshine into these clouded days.

SOUTH AFRICAN DEPRESSION. VIEWS OF A CAPE COLONIST. Mr W. Black, the Capetown architect and City Councillor, .who is visiting Wellington, has a dismal tale to tell of depression in South Africa, Speaking to & Dominion reporter, he said that many of those who were considered the shrewdest" business men in Cape Colony had fallen victims to the financial crisis. The slump was partly due to the fact that money had in the past flowed into the colony in torrents from British and foreign sources, so that finance became mere child's play. "People gambled in property and shares with an insignificantly small margin of cover," said Mr Black, "and city and suburban values in Capetown have shrunk, so that it is impossible to sell holdings for even one-tenth of their original pre-boom values, and all municipal rates and taxes are so terribly j inflated that property-owners are desirous of realising at any price. To take a case now in my mind, a certain speculator bought a small central property in Capetotwn for £3500. The City Corporation assessed the value for rating purposes at £2500, but the slump set in, and the purchaser could not sell. Eventually the Official Assignee put the land to the hammer, and declared it sold for £850. A FOOL'S PARADISE. ■

"Another instance. A property owner who, like many others, lived in a sort fool's paradise before the depression, was then drawing £2532 a year from a block of city buildings, the .rental of which does not now .amount to more than the rates, taxes and insurance. This property cost £23,500, and was afterwards sold for £5000. This

was only one of many similar transactions. . The Master of the Insolvency Court has had to step in and prevent many sales taking place at figures much below the bonds existing on the properties. It is no uncommon thing for a bondholder to take back bis property, and pay the transfer dues for a quarter of the amount of the original mortgage.

ON THE RAND. "In Johannesburg the distress is too

awful for words. Families have kept themselves from starvation by selling their few sticks of furniture. Property has fallen as much as in Capetown. People at Johannesburg have been very improvident, and have lived more or less a life of continual excitement and speculation. The share market was the constant topio of conversation, and every ruse or subterfuge that could wile the coin .out of the pockets of the unwary was adopted. What was not lost in property went in scrip.

OVER-CAPITALISATION.

"The slump in mining is partly due to the fact that most of the mines were over-capitalised n+. flotation. Further, a great number of the .mines yield only such low-grade ores that they will "not pay for anything more than the wages of Chinamen at a few shillings a day. I hope legislation obtains in this happy country of New Zealand to prevent sheep and cattle ranches being floated as gold mines. In any case, I hope your people will keep an eye on overcapitalisation, lest they experience the same troubles as South Africa."

AN AGRICULTURAL REVIVAL. Asked whether there was no silver lining to these dark clouds, Mr Black said that the present depression in the cities would result eventually in incalculable benefit to the whole country, because it was causing an intense desire for settlement on the land. People were turning their thoughts to the more genuine pursuits of agricultural and pastoral production. The reaction had already had solid results, for £20,000 worth of grain, grown from Algerian seed, had recently been exported from Cape Colony— a small beginning, which yet might .grow. into' something that would do much to right the country. Dairying, also; on the cooperative principle, was spreading., The settlement that was expected to follow the war had not come. That was the fault of the . Government, which had promised farms for the troopers, «but was not ready with any scheme for carrying out such a policy. The agricultural revival, however, load, now begun, and it was the most hopeful feature of the situation. The diamond industry would no doubt revive later on, and become as 1 lucrative as ever. Perhaps, in a few years/ time, South Africa would not , altogether / regret * the. troubles whioh . their country, was now undergoing.