CONDITION OF JOHANNESBURG

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1514, 7 March 1901, Page 59

CONDITION OF JOHANNESBURG

Mr T. J. Britten, a member of . the Ontiandcr Committee and the manager of a mining Company, who has recently returned irom Johannesburg, has given, an interesting account of the present condition of Johannesburg to the representative of a news agency. He had, he says, come into contact with the-'ad-ministration at various points, and he can justly say that the military men in charge are deserving of especial praise for the manner in which they are dealing with the most difficult problems. The sanitation of the town is being well looked after, and crime is kept down with a heavy hand. No one is all owe-is to enter any unoccupied house without a permit, and so stringent are the regulations that Mr Britten was unable to remove his personal baggage without a permit. These restrictions are intended to prevent robbery, which was at one time rife among the bad characters of the town. An especial difficulty, says Mr Britten, is the safe guarding of the railway and the stations which, even with the present infantry guards, are subject to damage at the hands -of small parties of Boers. It is difficult to estimate the number of people now in Johannesburg and neighbourhood. Many of the inhabitants are Dutch who have taken the oath of neutrality and delivered up their .arms, and so long as they obey th© laws they must be allowed to remain. At the same time, no one is allowed to remain once he is justly complained of. With regard to the complaints about the delay in allowing civilians to return, Mr Britten is of opinion that military exigencies would not allow of a general return of the civilian population, nor would the mines or other business be in a position to start or to employ labour, \ because of the depletion of stock for some time to come. While such conditions prevail it would be absurd for refugees to go back. Th©' mines, he concludes, are in remarkably good order, though no development is at present permitted, and repairs are impossible owing to the absence of mining requisites. The majority of the mines could, however, start work immediately. As to the economic question, he did not believe that the wages of white labour would be reduced when work was recommenced.