A LETTER FROM THE RAND.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 5558, 8 April 1905, Page 9

A LETTER FROM THE RAND.

IMPRESSIONS OE A TASMANIAN. 'An cx-Tasmanian resident:, writing from Qenniston, Transvaal, to a friend in Wellington about the Rand; where he is in business, says: Concerning Natal and Capo Colony, I don’t .worry milch about the wages, cod of living, and climate in these colonies. Climate on the Baud, owing to the high elevation, is not too hot in summer, and, though cold in winter, especially in the early morning and night, is not nearly eo severe as in Tasmania. Our fains we get in summer-and our "dusts” in'plenty in winter. . Personally, I like tho climate very well, and after living fifteen months here 1 am not anxious to ( leave. As regards wages, the mines, of course, pay tho best wages—underground miners on contract make (some of them) very good money; even rip to : .£SO and ,£IOO per month. ■ They don’t last long. Now- that we ■ have Chinese labour lots of miners down below are “bossing boys,’’ i. 0., they have twenty-five or thirty Chinese hammering out the holes and they (the boss miners) charge them. These boss miners get fifteen shillings to eighteen shillings and, four pence a day by day pay. I don’t fancy that when they take this job on contract that they make very much more. , . , In reference to battery work, amalgamators get from .£25 to ,£3O a month; assistant amalgamators JCl!> to about ,£lB or .£2O a month. On the mines, single men’s rooms me provided,' and the men are charged about ten shillings a month for them. • Married quarters are provided to a greater or less extent, <m most of the mines. A man can get a' house on the mine (that is a man who; is not on the staff) for SA a month or so. Yet he ..may not get. one on the mine, and might have to rent a house not on the mine property, and pay full rental for it. Shop assistants are paid from JB15; a month upwards, but’a man is lucky to got £25 a month. Tradesmen are paid about 18s 4d to .£1 a day. Cost;of Living.—Rents are high, from £7 a month upwards according, to location, site of house, etc. I reckon*a married couple ought to be able to live frugally, 'yet decently, including house rent, on .£2O a month. If a man can buy a house, the heavy cost of living is naturally reduced. < There are crowds here out of work, end lots of the people' don’t think much nf the place, but personally I Jike it good. If a man strikes anything decent here at all, he has a bigger margin between income and expenditure than in Australasia.”. -