CHINESE ON THE RAND.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 1419, 3 December 1904, Page 6

CHINESE ON THE RAND.

THE OTHER SIDE or IRE PICTURE The Johannesburg correspondent of a London paper, to hand by the last mail, gives some interesting parlicu lars concerning the effect of the mtro ductioi, of Chinese into South Alnea He writes :—* On the day that I visited the New Comet mine theic were 65 Chinesi in hospital, and 197 "unaccounted for ", in other words, who had not gone to * work that day This was nearly one fifth of the whole Their sharp Oriental wits had soon found that thc> were to be made much of, and gentlemen'from Hongkong and Canton, who --pmUaMy never had more than three -fatltpenco a day to spend in their fives, began to develop a taste for -«nt-of-t»s-way luxuries They for, and got, a supply of a special fbtfand 6f dried mushrooms, which ait a special delicacy in the Flower} Land A*jday or two-before I was there they -demanded a boried egg each for break fast before they would go to work, fu a country where eggs are ,!s Gd a dozen >4kiß was a serious item, out the new miners got their eggs. What" an outcry there would have been if Eng lish laborers.hud done, this! Then as to their work 1 got the uguics as to the average number of inches drilled per day by each Chinaman dur * ing-the five, weeks they had been at work at the New Comet. They were 23 2. Now, the average for the rvaf fir throughoue the Rand is 36 Tin .it Drienfontcin they aie drilling 36 bin and at AngWo 3b lm —nnnes on cither I «ide, of the New Comet In otlur words, it was costing over oO pet cent, more to drill a hole with . a Chinaman than with a Kafhr But, < jnore than this. The 197 "absent' Mid the 65 sick were all entitled to '«e' Is'a day .which Mr Lyttelton has agreed as a minimum. But the Chinamen at the New Com ct have given trouble in other wavs One morning a dynamite explosion 1 IdPtd. !two of 'them and*"tjie rest with one consent refused to go to work led to something like a riot, with -the result that '2O Chmanlen found in th«* Police Court One got three months foi assaulting Mr -Grant Smith, the chief ov cnseci a oui others were sentenced to two months (or feeiting a not, and two *o one " month for tho same'offence Even af ter this peace did not reign at tihc '•New Comet. A Chinese laundryman from Johannesburg, named Ah Bu paid a visit -to; his fellow-countrymen (to «ec how they were getting on Ah Bu was evidently not snUsbcd with the way in which his compatriots woe treated, and he told them ?o in the end he, too, found himself; in the * h&olicc Court, charged on five counts—witt (1) •lnoiuig Chinese iaboreis uot tot work ; |2) holding a meeting of Chinesa Jabrorvrs contrary to public x order, (3) trespassing after being *re •vWK&ted to Jeavc, (1) inciting the Chinese to kill Ah Chin, the inteipie ter; (5) resisting Sergeant Morns bv -refusing to .move when requested 'lhc fiist and fourth charges were with drawn, the prisoner was found guiltv of "holding a meeting of Chinese lab orers contrary to public order, ' and Tfacespassug' after being requested to leave, and for these offences he was 'sentenced to six months' imprisonment. They have a "shortest way' :with labor agitators on,the Rand. As illustrating one of the charges brought against Ah Bu, I may mention t! at "Mr Grant Smith showed me a piece of red paper covered with Chinese characters, which had been found on ih& morning of the day I was there in one of flic banks. *'T|hat,"' said Mr Smith, "is an offer of a reward of fiftiol. t'o anyone who will assassinate the interpreter." On the whole, it may be. safely said that the Chinese miners have,Qot been a success so far at the New Comet