SOUTH AFRICAN AFFAIRS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1628, 13 May 1903, Page 56

SOUTH AFRICAN AFFAIRS.

PROGRESS OF THE NEW COLONIES.

(By Chas. On yon). DURBAN, March 2.

In view of the number of New Jaaiders who are settling and intend settling in South Africa, some particulars gleaned on the spot may prove of interest. Building operations are proceeding apace in Durban, from Sea View to Malvern, but it is much to be deplored that in a semi-tropical climate so much galvanised iron is being used, when the brickmaking industry of Natal could be utilised to such advantage. Rents are abnormally high at present under the . small landlord regime in Durban. It would pay any enterprising capitalist or syndicate to build rows of semi-detached cottages, with say, quarter of an acre of garden plot for the benefit of the workmen’s families to enable them to leave the heat, dust and mosquitoes of certain parts of Durban to enjoy the suburban air of popular Bellair. Where there are so many rich people there is also am/de room for some poor ones. Bellair is to Durban what Thorndon xS to Wellington.

GREATER DURBAN. Hitherto the part taken by private enterprise in the development and expansion of the port of Durban has been restricted and confined to narrow limits. The Government has made all the channels, built, the wharves, provided the facilities fot loading and unloading and the sheds and areas for stacking the goods. Private enterprise now promises to play no inconsiderable part in the opening up of the port, more particularly in regard to equipping the harbour with the facilities required to deal with the largely increased trade which is confidently anticipated. One direction in which the port looks forward to a considerable expansion is in connection with the timber trade for the Rand. If this is to be the port for the Rand’s timber trade, which there is every prospect' of its proving, large areas for stacking will have to be provided!. It is in this connection that private enterprise has exerted itself. A short time ago a considerable area of . ground at the head of the bay was acquired for the Durban Land Company. This ground is situated immediately opposite the Umbilo Railway Station . As soon as possible operations were commenced and vigorously prosecuted to make fhis land accessible froan the bay by digging a carnal. The work is now well advanced and the result will be a canal leading into the property from the bay, extending for a length of about 600 yards. The area of land will afford stacking ground for other goods besides timber, which is urgently required! in Durban .owing to the English merchants “dumping” so much merchandise into this city to be railed through to the Rand. An important use to which the canal is to be put is the coaling of badges. It is sixty feet wide and there will be plenty of room for this purpose. A couple of pontoon dredges are to be used in deepening the canal. The canal is cut through a forest of mangroves and a grand panorama is unfolded when the canal opens into the bay. For using the canal no charge will be made, but if merchants desire to land goods arrangements will have to be made with Hie company. SALE OF TOWNSHIP PLOTS.

Great interest has been shown in the first sale of lots in the proposed! township of Durban West, which the Bay Lands Company has laid out at head of the hay with the object of Improving the port facilities and particularly of giving storage accommodation for upcountry traders. The lots offered numbered over eighty in all. They are each about half an acre in extent and have average frontages of 100 ft to the main street. The terms were easy, being 10 per cent, cash, 10 per cent, in six months, balance in five equal annual instalments, with interest at 6 per cent, per annum. The sum realised for the lots sold totalled about £48,000, which will doubtless give the company a fair start with its work of development and improvement. The first lot realised £050; the remainder of the lots fetched £475 each, £450 each, ' and so on. The pious abutting on the main road fetched from £625, •£6OO and £SOO • (for corner pieces) to £4OO. The corner site, where the Camp Hospital was situated, fetched £6OO and there were none sold for less than £4OO abutting on the main road. Those on the road along which the proposed electric tramway is to be run fetched from £6OO to £325 and the back plots realised £325 to £375 each, those further from the railway dropping to £275 and £250. MARKET PRICES IN DURBAN.

Prices ruling on the local market are as follows :—•Apples 8s 6d per 100; bananas 2s 6d per bunch, bananas 2s per hundred; beans (red), 16s to 17s per muid; butter (fresh), Is lOd to 2s per lb; cabbages, 3s to 8s per doz.; cauliflowers, 3s 6d to 10s per doz.; ducks, 5s 3d each; eggs, Is 6d to 2s per doz.; fowls, 2s 6d*tc 3s 9d each; geese, 7s 6d each; grenadillas 2s 6d per 100; ground nuts, 3s 6d to 5s per sack;

guinea fowls, 8s -6d per couple; lemons, Is per 100; lettuces, Is per doz.; limes, 2s per 100; loquats, 3s (id per basket ; metlies, 16s to 16s 6d per muid ,* naartjes, 15s per 100; onions, 18s per bag; oranges 12s 6d to 16s per 100; pawpaws, Is to 2s per doz.; peas (green), 3s 6d per basket-; pigeons, Is 9d each; pigs, 12s 6d to 15s each; pigs (sucking), 7s 6d each ; pineapples, 5s to 9s per doz.; potatoes (sweet), 3s 6d to 5s od per muid; potatoes (round), 19s per muid; ■“pumpkins, 15s to 20s per doz.; tomatoes, 4s 6d per basket; turkeys, 20s each; turnips, 3s 6d per bag; hay, 3s per bale ; Kaffir corn, 20s. DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSVAAL AND ORANGE RIVER COLONIES.

A new hotel containing over 300 bedrooms .is being built at the corner of E'loff and Commissioner streets, Johannesburg. It will cost over half a million of money before it is completed. An estimate of' the geld production and life of the main reefs of the Witwatersrand down to a depth of 6,000 feet given by a couple of well known mining experts enumerates that for years preceding the war the. average increased production was £4,000,000 yearly, and by the end of June, 190 G, the output ought to be £30,000,000 yearly. Also that the life of the industry is likely to be prolonged for a considerable number of years.

A well known director of the Standard Bank of South Africa., speaking of the difficulties impeding the more rapid development of the Transvaal and the Orange River Colonies, thinks that all these will shortly disappear, except possibly that of labour supply, which, however, if it does not completely disappear, will at any rate be greatly alleviated. He lias not the slightest doubt that the supply of labour will increase as the country settles down, though it will be a very long time before it outstrips the demand. He thinks it is impossible to foretell the extent to which South Africa will develop during the next quarter of a century, -but the pre-war production of gold of twenty millions yearly will be very largely exceeded and the increased rate of production will continue for a lengthy period. New gold-bearing strata of greater or less value will be discovered; improved and cheaper processes will enable low-grade ores to be profitably worked, and increased mining will be accompanied by increased agriculture and pastoral industries, and extension of trade and commerce. The future of South Africa, so far as its material prosperity is concerned, is quite assured for a period, which though indefinite is certainly great.

OTHER CENTRES. Some 582 gold prospecting licenses and 482 base metal licenses were issued during one week in Pietersburg. There is considerable difficulty in the Low Country from over-pegging, mostly brought about by inattention to the requirement that substantial beacons should be erected. In many cases wooden posts have been substituted, which have been destroyed' by ants, and beacons allowed to exist upon lapsed claims and in cases where there are allotments for other than mining purposes.

The Town Council at Kimberley has considered The offer of De Beers Company to supply electric current, but on the ..recommendation of the borough electrical engineer the offer has been declined, and the Council has decided to spend £17,000 at once and run its own system. Since March of last year the Council has wiped off a loss of £1,300 and made a profit of £2OO. A recent strike of rich deep ground at Windsorton is attracting a large number of diggers, some of whom are from Rhodesia. The diamonds already found are of excellent quality, and the ground is easy to work. Stones of 106 and 126 carats have been found lately, the average price of which is £5 per carat. The gold output declared by the Chamber of Mines for a recent month’s work "was —Matabeleland, 12,7810 z.; Mashonaland. 2,3820 z.

A permanent building society has been formed at Vryheid for the purpose of assisting settlers financially and encouraging building. The scheme has been well received by the leading business men of the town, CAPE COLONY,

The spaces for the British-Colonial Exhibition at Capetown, which is to be opened in November of this year, are rapidly being filled by leading firms from different part-s of the Empire. The machinery and electricity sections, like those exhibited at the Paris Exhibition, are to he a particular attraction, Mr A. P. Baker, F.R.C.1., the promotor abd general manager, in the prospectus of the South African British and Colonial Industrial Exhibition, intimates that the Exhibition will be'held in the Gardens at Capetown from November to February, 1903-4. There will be no fewer than 28 sections, and gold and silver medals will be awarded to exhibitors in each of these.

A party of members of Parliament have visited Saldanha Bay, which is about fifty-five miles from Capetown, with a view of seeing for themselves the possibilities of harbour development there. Saldanha Bay has a natural harbour with deep water frontage and is

looked upon here as a port that will supersede Capetown. Mr Frost, Secretary for Agriculture, says there is strong prejudice against the importation of Asiatic labour, but he favours the importation of Italian peasants, for which purpose a sum of £IO,OOO was placed on the Supplementary Estimates last session. The Government will do everything in its power to meet the demand for labour. Mr Oats, a member of the House, thinks they must swallow their prejudices and agree to the importation of Asiatic labour, as was done in Natal.' In view of the fact that the development of the colony is now being hampered through the want of labour, he thinks it would be simply foolishness to bow to existing prejudices against Asiatic labour. Speaking at an agricultural dinner recently a well known member of Parliament said it was a fact that Herefcrds were one of the hardiest cattle known; they got fatter on less food, and they were freer from dire disease and other breeds. He hoped in the re-population of South Africa, ay here there Avas likely to be a great settlement of farmers, that the Government Avould see its way to promote investments in Hereford cattle. He Avas. perfectly persuaded that, as in the prairies of North and South America, so in South Africa, the breed of Hereford cattle would do excellently. TROOPERS WANT ASSISTED PASSAGES.

Writing to the Natal “Mercury,” an Australian trooper, dealing Avith the question of assisted passages, says:— “Now that the Avar is over and martial law Avithdravn, I presume that it is the earnest desire of all in Natal that prosperity in the fullest sense of the Avord should follow. To cultivate this very desirable state of affairs, Ave require—equally with capital—a British population. There are many men now in Natal aylio have served at the front, also others avlio may not have had the opportunity of doing so, but AA’ho are making their homes here, or at least trying to, aud I believe they are all welcome. The Government grants assisted passages to the Avives and children of men aa-lio are out here and whoi have been fortunate enough to come from Britain or thereabouts, but there is no such help for those avlio are so unfortunate as to come from Australasia. We Avere desirables when fighting men Avcre wanted. Are avo desired as colonists? If so, I think it only remains for the necessary action to be taken so* that we ay ho would like to have our families here may be assisted in the same manner as those Avho can make it convenient to sail from Southampton or London. -I did not intend to be personal in this letter, but I avill state my own case. I left Australia twelve months ago, owing to the drought perishing me out. I had signed on for one of the irregular corps, but on my arrival here I was not required, peace having been declared. Nearly all my life in Australia —twenty years—-has been spent on the land or in connection with stock, consequently I Avas out of my element as regards Avork in Durban. I did not go idle; I tackled the first job that came bandy, and I am now doing fairly Avell; but Avhen I pay my board, Avashing and the other necessary incidentals, and send the balance to my wife in Australia-, I find I can’t save enough money to pay the passages of my family—although it is a. small one. If I had my Avife here and settled down in a home I could save money - and become a useful colonist once more. There is no one from whom I can borrow, or I would care to ask for money, so that I am reluctantly compelled to consider the advisability of returning, for it is impossible for me to keep two homes. I know a few others similarly circumstanced, and! I think the Government AA r ould indirectly find it a good investment to extend the assisted passages to Australasia or at least advance the same amount of money towards those passages as is at present paid for nominated immigrants from the Old Country.

THE TRANSVAAL’S FIRST BUDGET. The first budget of the Transvaal Colony for the financial year ending 30th of June next has made its appearance. The revenue is estimated at .£4,000,000, the principal receipts being from Customs £1,500,000, from mining (including profits) £650,000, from stamps and transfer dnes £500,000, from railways £400,000. It is estimated that the expenditure will be £3,702,765, the principal items being :—Public debt .charges £125,000, South African Constabulary £1,250,000, two-thirds of which are recoverable from the Imperial and Grange River Oolony Governments. A statement of the revenue and expenditure from July 1, 1902, to October 31, 1902, is also published, showing the receipts to be £1,572,644 and the payments £1,748,164.