OUR SOUTH AFRICAN LETTER

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXIV, Issue 4978, 30 May 1903, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUR SOUTH AFRICAN LETTER

No. 4. (By Mr Chas. Onyon.) JOHANNESBURG: THE HUB OF THE RAND. ’ The predictions or the glorious time that would obtain when the war was over tor all residents on the Rand has not been fulfilled. In jioint of fact, the outlook is the reverse of promising.’More especially is this the case in regard, to those who have flocked into the Golden City, and are still pouring in, and who have to gain a footing. Many of these people are now washing they had never listened to the vapourmgs of those who counselled a hastening to share in the bounties that flowed to all who reached the Transvaal—the laud of rich and plenty. The disillusionment has been all too sudden. To those with means, even limited means, there are opportunities here not to be had in settled communities; but the same opportunities would occur in any other country which was getting an access of population in the same ratio as the ex-Boer Republics. No special claim can be advanced for the Rand, under that. heading. A skilled workman can find plenty to do in any British centre, and there is no singularity in regard to Johannesburg. Builders, stone masons and suchlike need never want for employment. But how about the reward for service. It used to be said that here the labourer would find be was trill}’ worthy of his hire; that his worth would be recognised by liberality of treatment not elsewhere met with. TJis wage-earners certainly getgood money, yet when the cost of living is taken iiito account the money soon goes, and the worker is left no better off that in the more distant colonies. For ordinary maintenance is double on the Rand to what it is in British dominions outside Africa, while the appreciated comforts of home life are as yet not to be had by the poor man in the' 1 Golden City. Moreover, the lot of those who work by the sweat of their brow is not being bettered. > On the contrary, temporarily at least, everything points the other way. In the pre-war days strikes were never heard of. It is different now. There has been a revolt in tho mines against increased duties being required from rock-drillers. In tho printing trade a lock-out has taken place, and there is simmering discontent among the railway hands at exactions plaped on them Without further recompense. Tho "rule of gold” is evidently bent on only allowing a living wage to those who work with thoir hands. These it is from whom the controllers of tiro mines will seek, if they are permitted, to extract any war tax that may bo levied. 'The remission of duties on foodstuffs lias so far made no perceptible difference in the cost of living, and until the exorbitant railway freights are cut down prices will remain much as they arc. The following are the railway rates on timber per ton weight:—Delagoa Bay to Johannesburg, 5s per 1601 b; Durban to Johannesburg, 5s 9d per 1001 b; Capteown to Johannesburg, 8s 2d per 1001 b: Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg, 6s 2d per 1001 b: East London to Johannesburg, 5s 9d per 1001 b. Consequent on tho abnormal demand for bouses, rents instead of coining down are being raised, £2O a month being asked for a house of five or six rooms, and readily obtained. This state of affairs will be rectified in course of time, but at the rate building material can be procured it will be many months before the present industrial population can be decently housed. If the foregoing remarks apply more especially to skilled or semi-skilled workmen, what about tho nondescripts, - These form by far the greater portion of those that are making for the new colonies. By the Cape mail tiain which arrived on Friday last eighty •jf those men arrived in Johannesburg, and upon my interrogating them I found that they neither know where to go nor how the’v' were going to fare. Tho majority or" them had only a few pounds to start life again with, and the Golden Citycan already register a large number of unemployed., They are to be met at the corner of nearly every street. In this category most of the reservists and volunteers that fought during the war have to be classed. However, the room for expansion in the Transvaal has been described as enormous; there is no question that this is so. Apart from the mineral wealth the upper reldt will undoubtedly become one of the granaries of the Empire.' Enlightened husbandmen are what is wanted; men who will understand now to go about farming. It would be useless settling the ordinarv bandy man on the land. • The farming industry has undoubtedly been neglected in the bout). African colonies in the past and especially so in Natal. A man with a few thou' S aiid acres leases his ground to kaffirs to grow mealies upon, and this brings him in such an income that he can abide in luxury. If a bona fide settler approaches the Natal Government for land, the first question asked him is how much capital does he bring with him. The Lands Department has a large number ot applications for land, and a number from New Zealanders but what they want is men with capital. The other applicants .are are pigeon-holed) for the time being. There are millions of acres of splendid rolling downs lying waste in Natal, and this vast area has little or no human or animal life. of animal life, however, the question of disease will have to bo reckoned with. The redwater and rinderpest are the two pi agues that sweep the cattle off in thousands. The repatriate npeopie recently imported two hundred mules into Delagoa Bay, and the mules had not been landed above a few days when over a hundred of them were swept-off by disease. These animals cost the Government over .£2O per head to land. Speaking personally 1 am of the opinion that the best soieneo available in the Old Country should be obtained by the Imperial Government, and a number of ■ the intelligent young farmers, who have been brought up in the various South African colonies, should be instructed and trained as vets. Men with no special calling are having a hard time of it .in Johannesburg. Those of them tffaf are ready and willing to turn their hands to whatever oomes along will no doubt be absorbed in time; it will, however, be weary waiting for some. There are so many "Micawbers” hanging about the Band that any thinking of doming from New Zealand on slice, would be well warned to refrain from precipitately making Transvaalwards. Men are being imported from Home under contract for two years for the railways, and - they are to receive os per day and will be housed. If without means only skilled labourers should for the present venture to the Rand. Beople with capital are doubly welcome. There are lots of seemingly safe channels for investment and the establishment of industries would naturally tend to provide employment. RT regard to the Fublio Service—the headquarters of which is at Pretoria—a recent applicant, an cxWolunteer officer, was met with the answer that the High Commissioner's list'of seekers after billets contained 85,000 names, and that it was useless further swelling the total. Of course the whole of the applicants are not on the spot, but e. great many more than can hope to be taken on are. The New Zealanders, however, of which there' are about eighty in Pretoria, generally manage to squeeze a fellow colonist into a Government berth if he wants one, and a young man who arrived, here from Patea the other day was immediately taken on in the Lands Department. Some of our fellow colonists who have received high positions under the Transvaal Government are receiving from £SOO to £IOOO a year. In being given Government employment after the war it was very much a case of first come first served. Consequently, except in the higher official positions, when credentials were well scrutinized, it is to be feared the Government have got a. most incompetent staff of servants. There is at all events no doubt some of the departments aro filled with regular dunderheads, men appointed from the military and who have no experience for the positions which they hold. South Africa is a country of violent contrasts. Intensely warm and again bitterly cold: peacefully, calnt or tempestuously rough. The dust storms in Johan-

uesburg and Pretoria are very disagreeable to the inhabitants, -and- tho- : water carts are conspicuous by their absence. The Africanders are lean on the one hand, on the other very fleshy. The women for the most part are inclined to be too charmingly embonpoint or, must it bo said, scraggy. Fierce energy is coun-ter-balanced’by dull apathy. You find the strictly abstinent side by •side with the tippler in an extravagant sense, the devotee having to herd with the utterly irreligious. In Johannesburg the contrasts are seen concentrated. A step or two from the busiest and best heat thoroughfares and you are in a veritable slum. Luxury and want are neighbours, the millionaire living in the utmost opulence is not far removed from the squalor of a black quarter. Palatial tnres aro shoulder to shoulder with Jhe meanest of tumble down buildings, jhe smartest of turnouts can any day b<> witnessed struggling for right of way with an ill-conditioned ox or donkey team attached t'i a waggon whose collapse seems miirinent. The kaffir does not now show the respect for the whits that he was wont to do in former days* /he •'‘Tommy,” who during the war used to sir. down, smoke cigarettes, and talk to these natives has spoilt him. The kaini would ask “Tommy” how much whs getting; “Tommy" would reply Is 2a pei day, the kaffir would say "me getting 4a a dav, mo four times ns good as you. Hence the kaffir’s independence. Ihe tension has got so great in Maruzburg, the capital of Natal, that the inhabitants are petitioning the Government to have the natives removed from the icotpaths. They have become a nuisance by jostling the ladies in the streets. Johannesburg will be a fine city. There is no doubt of that. Some of tne contrasts e-ill disappear. Coranufcsioner street contains some film edifice—these ore being rapidly multiplied. The Exijloratiou Buildings, winch, cost a quaiioi of a million, will at no distant date lose first place in the ranks of the ‘ finest buildings." A huge .£300,000 hotel the Carlton, is being erected, and this edifice will contain »mo seven hundred rooms. The "Corner House, - ’ a veritable landmark. has been pulled down to eive place to another and much improved Corner House.” But Commissioner street is by no means going to have a monopoly ot fine buildings. In all quarters-of the inner circle handsome shops, warehouses and business premises are going up,-want of material alone keeping back improvements going on taster than they are. _ It is a common thing to be shown an imposing block of three-story buildings which are to be pulled down and sky. scrapers’’ erected in their places. Ihe Municipal Council is making haste slowly in doing its part to put its house in order. As a nominated body without mandate from the ratepayers, the members arc probably adverse to committing themselves to heavy, expenditure. Necessary works, the laying down of streets, is, however being gone on with, and five kinds of materia' for street pavement are bein g given a trial' ih :) ono of i .Hie main streets in order to the roost durable article. An immense Town Hall is projected for Market square, opposite the Post Office, and this edifice will bo surrounded bv trees, which will have the effect of doing away with a herd of trafficiug blacks, which proves an eyesore to the community at large. The Post Office is to have an additional story added to it, together with a fine Town Clock. Cooking from the Post Office steps. Market square, which is being flanked on either side by fine buildings will thus be converted from a veritable dust heap into a central square that should do Johannesburg - credit. Beauteous villas are springing up , in the growing suburbs, as well as bouses that by no stretch of the imagination can ho called pleasing to the eye. Accommodation must be provided for all sorts and conditions. It is a common thing for three or four men to occupy one room, and for people in business to sleep in the rooms in which they carry on their dailywork. In the main, however, the additions to buildings now going on and in prospect;will make for increasing the attractiveness of the Golden City. The chief rendezvous for dwellers in Johannesburg has always been the General” Post Office, which facing Market square, occupies the whole of the frontage between Market and President streets. Up to the end of the year there was no postal delivery to any part of the town, and stamps can only be obtained at Post Offices, so it can be understood the rendezvous is thronged during business hours. More private letter boxes —which cost twenty shillings a year—are provided for the public at Johannesburg than at any other city in, or probably out of, the Empire. There is a passage way in the Post Office building right through from one street to the other,, and the whole of one side is taken up with boxes, besides which there are about as many more on a second floor, and' quite a> number aro in the basement. And ihe 6000 odd boxes are to be shortly added to. Were it not that the bulk of correspondence thus finds its way to owners the pressure of business in the public chamber could not have been hvertaken. As it is the congestion at the counters.is very great. The delivery System which has just been inaugurated is relieving this, however.