"SAMMY."

Manawatu Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 7630, 23 January 1903, Page 4

"SAMMY."

Lai Rammy Sammy is his full title, and he is a type of the Hindoos to 1 c found all over South Africa. " Durban," says Mr F. W. Spencer in the Daily Express, "is overrun with him, for he can live on sixpence a week, and save enough money in a year to pay his family's passage over from Bombay. Onca united under a tin roof, the family grows apace, and before the eldest son has reached the dignity of a waist-cloth, Sammy here has much money in the bank, and probably calls regularly for the rent of his many white tenants." The coolie was first infroduced by the sugar planter and coffee-grower, who found him cheap, hardy and decile. He came across the ocean on a contract binding him to three years' labour in the plantations, and even on his scanty wage he managed to save mosey. At the end of his term he went into business on his own account, chiefly hawking fruit. In a little while ho bought a small property, and then, by shrewd speculation and economical living, he acquired more wealth than the average while citizen. According to Mr Spencer, the Transvaal is not minded to take in the Hindoo or any other Asiatic in large numbers. The mineowners, of course, want cheap labour, and would import Chinese if they could. But there is a very considerable element of Ihe population strongly hostile to alien immigration. On the Rand they have established a White League, the members of which bind themselves not to sell or lease any building or ground to any Asiatic. They demand, also, that any Asiatics imported should be made to live in a separate " location," like the Kaffirs, and not allowed to mingle with the white 3. It is certain that, whether Mr Chamberlain declares for or declares against the importation of Asiatic labour into the Transvaal, he will earn the hearty hatred of at least one section of the community.