CITY TRADERS.

Mataura Ensign, 25 January 1911, Page 7

CITY TRADERS.

AFFAIRS IN SOUTH AFRICA. A LESSON FOR LABOR. Almost every town of note in South Africa supports the burden of an immense public debt (writes the special correspondent of the 'Melbourne Age'). Here are a few instances:— Debt White per Town. Population. Debt. Head. £ £ Port Elizabeth 21,277 766 OP2 38 Pretoria 21,000 1,000,000 47 Durban 30,000 2,540,000 84 Capetown 60,000 2,926,950 48 Bloemfontein 12,00 972,977 81 Pietermartzo'g 16,000 1,000,000 62 East London 2 13,000 380,000 29 When one learns that in nearly every instance there are no ratepayers among the colored population, and that the whites have to carry the entire burden unassisted, the worder arises that these towns have steered clear of the insolvency court. Yet although the average rate is fairly high—it amounts to about 2kl in the pound of capital valuationno complaints are heard, the towns are all paying their way, and many of them possess large sinking funds and have begun to redeem their debts. How do they do it? The answer is simple—they are more fortunately situated than appears, and manage their affairs on up-to-date lines. Almost every municipality in the tJnion is a great trading corporation, owning and controlling most of the public utilities in its domain. In no other British-speaking country has municipal socialism been carried to such lengths. With few exceptions the South African municipalities own and manage their tramways, lighting, water supply, drainage and sewerage, food, produce and live stock markets, baths, abattoirs, libraries, museums and amusements of the towns; and some have their own bakeries and telephones. In each of these trades the municipal authorities enjoy monopolistic privileges, and permit no competition. The enterprises in their control are, generally speaking, conducted by highly qualified and highly paid experts, and managed according- to the soundest economic principles. Most of them return handsome yearly profits. Municipal Enterprise. To cite Durban as an illustration, the trading concerns of the town have yielded during several years yast a net trade profit exceeding £9o,ooo—a sum which, if capitalised at 4 per cent., would almost liquidate the entire public debt. Pretoria's total annual revenue is £190,000. Of that amount only £48,000 is raised by rates—the bulk of the balance comes from the municipal trading enterprises of the city. Capetown has an annual revenue from all sources of some £536,000; the rates merely account for £151,000. Johannesburg's annual income is approximately £709,000. and no more than half that comes from the rates—the balance represents trading profits and the proceeds of municipal land rents. The financial position of the South African municipalities is further fortified by the fact that nearly all own extensive areas of town land. These areas—commonages they are called usually lie immdiately beyond and surrounding the range of habitation. Some municipalities measure their commonages by hundreds, others by thousands, of acres. The methods of dealing with such lands vary in instances, but are generally similar. Part is fenced and leased to individual citizens; the balance is held open and unfenced as a common pasture for the use of the ratepayers, each ratepayer having the right to graze thereon a certain number of live stock. Such rights, however, are in no sense permanent, for the municipality is empowered whenever it chooses to sell the freehold of any portion of the commonage lands. As the towns increase in population commonage sales continually take place and the towns increase in size at the expense of a corresponding shrinkage in the municipal commonage area. Wisely governed towns apply the proceeds of" their land sales to the reduction of their public debts, but there are a few which treat the* money as ordinary revenue, and their charters are so loosely formed that there is no stopping the stupid practice of thus eating up their capital. Advanced Ideas. Perhaps the most noteworthy feature qi South African municipal enterprise consists in the predilection everywhere exhibited for the exploitation of advanced ideas. All the municipalities are keenly progressive, and they vie with each other in improving and beautifying the towns. They have no use for antique services. They are constantly striving not merely to keep abreast witli but to get ahead of the times. Thus gas is almost unknown in South Africa. iNearly every large town is lighted exclusively with electricity, and the tramways have electricity for their motive, power. The municipal trams are exceedingly comfortable and convenient, and they are all run in sections. The sectional fares are usually 3d. The fares seem dear to the casual visitor, but one has to remember that they reflect the condition of high priced living, which obtains largely in a country which has whole provinces wherein copper currency is almost non-existent, .and wherein the "tickie," or threepenny bit, is the lowest coin in circulation. The rates charged by the municipalities for lighting range from 6<l to Is per unit, and for power from Id to 5d per unit. What little manufacturing is done in South Africa is effected with the aid of electric power. The charges for lighting and power are high but so are the charges for everything else in the sub-continent, and that the rates in existence are not generally regarded as excessive is shown by the fact that there is an entire absence of any agitation for their reduction. On the whole the South African municipalities may truthfully claim to manage their affairs in a fashion that compares favorably with any other land, and which demonstrates a high capacity for municipal government. Most of the big towns are well built, splendidly lighted, well drained and sewered, and handsomely equipped with public parks, gardens, libraries, baths, museums and transit facilities. The experiment of collective ownership and control of civic utilities, wherever it has been tried, has proved such a convincing economic success that municipal So-

cialism is now a fixed national establishment, and the whole bearing of public opinion is towards its indefinite expansion. The municipal bakery is one of the latest expressions of the economic trend of thought of this essentially aristocratic community. One town not long ago made the essay, and with such encouraging results tnat others are now preparing to follow suit. Already a municipal dairy has been mooted as the next step to be taken and authoritative advocates of the municipalization of all the agencies of food production and distribution are to be found in every centre of population. For Labor to Ponder. The average Laborite deludes himself of custom with the flatterin" notion that to Labor exclusively beioni's all the credit of the various niovemeiMts towards economy in government and social uettrment through collective effort which have taken place duriii" the last half century. South Africa "is a standing proof to the contrary. That country has never yet had any room lor a Labor party. It is governed by Health. Its ideals are pertinaciously aristocratic, and the masses of the people are bigoted 'lories. The people, however, although Conservative in most directions almost beyond belief, are as sensitive to the demands of their pockets as the keenest Radicals alive. When their public utilities were managed by individual enterprise they found themselves so ruthlessly exploited that in despair they sanctioned the experiment of muicipal control. It turned out so well that the whole community was speedily converted to the new idea, and thus the world has been afforded the anomalous and amusiii" spectacle of a purely capitalistic State outdistancing m Socialism the Socialists themselves.