SOUTH AFRICA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12774, 26 January 1905, Page 6

SOUTH AFRICA.

TRADE REVIVING. THE MINING' INDUSTRY. SOME PERSONAL NOTES. .[BY TELEGRAPH.—OWN CORRESPONDENT.] G'HRisTcnuRCH, Wednesday. .... ■ ...f;'.. The Johannesburg correspondent of the Press, writing on December 22,, says: - " From the coast ports, and most of the larger centres of the South African colonies, the message comes that trade is reviving, a natural sequence, it might be said to the improved outlook for the gold industry. It is very satisfactory to have the assurance that business generally has responded to the mining barometer. In Johannesburg itself trade is much better than it was, though we have still a goodly percentage of the population idle. B The sharemarket has not gone forward at all during the month. It has not, however, gone back, and it is a steady, rather than an irregular, market that _we want, though to be sure.it is desired that it be steady after shares have advanced to half as much again as they stand at at present As regard* labour for the mines, there are several cargoes of Chinese on the water, and when these arrive the number of aliens employed will number about 30,000, bringing the total of on the main reef to just on 100,000. One of the heads of the industry, Mr. Geo. Allen, at a meeting this week, saidl the mining croups aimed at having 200,000 unskilled labourers on the Witwatersrand, and he positively affirmed that the bringing of coloured labour up to such figures would mean the employment of. an additional 15,000 whites." ■. . , The same correspondent in his personal notes writes:-Mr. A. C. Hadtield Wellington) is having a few days holiday in Wolmaranstadt for over a year, and likes the part of the country in which he is located very much. Mr. "Hadfield has been enjoying robust health in the western district. He tells me there are a number of New /lealanders about Wolmaranstadt, all ot whom are doing credit to the colony from which they came. It is somewhat curious to find that New Zealanders, in contradistinction to their Commonwealth neighbours, stand high in the estimation of South Africans. . -.■ v , , Miss Gertie Campion is much touched with the spontaneous burst of sympathy evoked in New Zealand by the knowledge that she was sick and in distress in this country. The generous contributions from the colony make her free from a worry that was in itself aggravating her ailment. ■: Mr. J. 'It. Friedlinder, of Ashburton, who is on a tour round the world, arrived on the Rand a fortnight ago, and remains in Johannesburg over Christmas. Mr. W. B. Scott and his son are up from Bloemfontein to spend Christmas week on the Rand. The contract to build the Government offices, that took Mr. Scott to the Orange River Colony capital, is well advanced towards completion, but he is so inundated with other work that his sojourn in Bloemfontein is likely to be greatly prolonged. Mr. Scott, however, intends to have a little respite. in some six months' time by taking a trip to- New Zealand.