JOHANNESBURG.

Northland Age, Volume VI, Issue 3, 6 September 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

JOHANNESBURG.

AS IT LOOKS TO-DAY. The Johannesburg of to-day is made of steel, stone, and wood. It has many five and six storey structures. The population amounts to about 150,000 souls, and 60,000 of these are blacks, made up of Kaffirs from all parts of South Africa. The Johannesburg!! streets generally cross each other at right angles, and they run far out into the country. There are something like 300 miles of roadways, and the town altogether has a municipal area of more than 80 square miles. There are town lots far out in the country, and enough streets have been planned to accommodate the growth of the next 100 years. Johannesburg has about the best car system of South Africa, and the lines belong to the municipality. They pay well, and leave a big profit every year in the city treasury. The street cars are all double-deck-ers. There is a covered compartment on the roof, and for a “ticket" —that is, threepence—you can go to any part of the city or its suburbs. Johannesburg has athletic grounds which cover 30 acres, including fields for cricketing, bicycling, and golfing. There is a lady’s bicycle track, and outside the city limits there is a racecourse, where races are periodically held throughout the year. At the summer and winter handicaps the prizes amount to 12,000d015. or more, and there is a meeting each season, when the races last for three days. The town has a turf club and social clubs of various kinds. It has a recreation and concert hall which will hold an audience of 2,500. There is no business done after noon on Saturday, and the people then go to the races and club grounds. The city has fairly good theatres. It has a public library, a university, and excellent schools. In going along the streets tb°. tiegro must keep off the pavements, and walk only on the edge of the roadway or in the middle of the streets. He has his own churches and schools, and the whites expect him to keep to them. Of the 90,000 whites in Johannesburg about 60,000 are males and the remainder females. In other words, there are about 20,000 more men than women, and a large part of the former are bachelors who h a ve come here to seek their fortunes. Many of these drifted in at the time of the war, and were soldiers in the Boer and English armies. When peace was declared the country was booming, and for a while they found plenty to do. At that time Johannesburg was growing like a green bay tree. Many new buildings were going up, real estate values rose out of sight. The money paid in indemnities and for the repairs necessitated by the war brought thousands of pounds into circulation, and the demand for labour far exceeded the supply. Mechanics were imported by the ship-load, a nd wages rose. Carpenters got one pound per day, and other mechanics proportionately high wages. Then the bottom fell out. It was found that the country was over-peopled, and that the towns were overbuilt. The new business blocks could not be rented, and the values of property fell. When the boom burst thousands of men were thrown out of work, and there are thousands of mechanics in South Africa who are now a burden on the community. Some of the whites have said, I understand, that thy will not labour for less than a living wage, and that amount is considered to be at least 10s. per day. So you have a lot of reduced gentleman mechanics down on their uppers and half starving out here in this land, which is producing more gold and diamonds then any other part of the world.—Frank G. Carpenter, in the “New York Times."