JOHANNESBURG IN WAR

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1515, 14 March 1901, Page 6

JOHANNESBURG IN WAR

POPULATION CHIEFLY COMPOSED OF RUSSIAN tTEWS. What will Johannesburg look like when the war is over? Mr John W. Carr, manager of the Johannesburg gasworks for many years past, sends a letter to the “Gas World” which in some measure gives an idea of the condition- of the “gold-reef city” at the present time. Mr Carr is, of course, chiefly interested in depicting de place from his own business point of view. In April last the Boers expelled him, unu placed a German, one Allafeldt, in charge of the gasworks. Mr Carr' came to England, and returned to South Africa in June, after the entry into Pretoria. But he did not get to Johannesburg for three months, during; which time he was detained at Port Elizabeth, with - a throng of refugees, waiting for his- pass. When his pass did get to Port Elizabeth it lay at the military base for three weeks before it was handed to him. “The journey from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg.,” he writes, “was of a highly interesting: character, as most of the fighting had been done near the railway, and at the time of my journey the line was garrisoned along the whole rcute from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg. At every bridge and culvert there was a, little fort, made by the soldiers on guard. “One of the sights was the debris of the three trains that had been captured and burned by the Boers. The ’wood uprights that carried the wore fence along the line had all been used 1 for fuel for cooking the food cf the Boer and British soldiers. Almost every bridge and culvert between, Bloemfontein and the Va al River had been blown up by the Boers, and many of the devices thathad, been employed to effect the temporary 7 repairs were ingenious in their simplicity and in every sense highly creditable to our engineers. DESERTED STREET’S. “Arriving at Johannesburg after a journey of three and a half days I was greatly struck with the deserted appearance of the streets, the former scene of so much activity and life. At the gasworks chaos was complete. All attempts at gas-making; had been suspended ; the yard- was blocked up with ashes, and these on fire in parts, and the smouldering remains of a 500-ton coke heap which had been completely, burnt away presented anything but a cheering spectacle. “The gasholders, which weire both down to the last sheet, contained a, mixture of air and! gas of no illuminating power —in, fact, so near an explosive mixture was it that I was in terror le§t it should by any chance get alight before gas-making was resumed. The self-acting syphons were blocked with debris, and the mains at these points were full of tar and liquor. The retorts were slightly warm, but so full of holes as to be incapable of making gas. The coal store was blocked with a, lowgrade shale, from which it was impossible to produce illuminating gas. Utter ignorance of what they were about on the part of the .people in possession could alone account for the presence of this rubbish, as coal of a kind that would have produced a, little illuminating gas was obtainable.” . The incandescent burners -in the streets had been “doctored” to suit the quality of gas until they passed ten cubic feet of gas am hour at one inch pressure. “The Kaffirs who do the stoking were entirely disorganised. During my absence they had been quite masters of the situation. Some of my best Kaffir boys ran away at the relief of Johannesburg, and since my return one of the difficulties has 1 been to get a new set of boys into working order. As the military authorities monopolise the railway, the difficulty of getting coal and other things can be readily understood. However, the supply of gas for domestic and street lighting *has been resumed, and at the time of writing there is a fair stock of gas of about 10-candle quality in the holders. “The effect of the war on, the gas undertaking from the financial point of view will be disastrous in the extreme. The recuperative power of the country is great, and matters may after a time work;, themselves right if the war will only end. At present, however, affairs seem almost hopeless. Food’ is scarce'

and dear, business is nil, and the population. of the town, apart from, the military, is for the most part composed of Russian Jews. Under such circumstances the gas manager’s let is ‘not a happy one.’ ”