CHINESE ON THE VELDT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 5802, 20 January 1906, Page 13

CHINESE ON THE VELDT.

A special correspondent writing from Johannesburg to the “Daily Chronicle’' of November 27th says: The Golden City onco more, with nil its glaring contrasts and ite life of fevered industry. Stone and marble palaces side by s;do with tin hovels. A lumbering Dutch waggon, drawn by a span of sixteen oxen, makes way for a steam morlor-van laden with merchandise, A smart Victoria from Long-acre hurries past, followed by a Cape cart. All is noise, bustle, confusion, dust, and intermittent thunderstorms. And every now and then one bees a group of al-mond-eytvl Celestials lurching through the streets, .staling at tho tcone with faces which might ho wooden masks for all tho emotions they show. The Chinese arc everywhere. You see thorn in the stroeta of the towns, on the platforms of tho railway stations, or about the Hand. There are now nearly fiO.OOO of them scattered up and down a slice of country about forty miles in length. Some arc working in mines which arc practically in Johannesburg itself. Yesterday morning J was walking down Commissioner Street, when I came across thirty of them at work digging out tho foundations of a now hotel. They were prisoners terving terms of hard labour, and were leaded out to tho contractor «t a shilling a head per day. And they were employed in the very centre of Johannesburg. Out at Knight’s, I saw a huge camp where MOO more Chinese prisoners are at work making a deviation of tho railway line from Gcrmislon to Bokrinirg. Go where you will you cannot get away from the yellow terror. The Landlords protend astonishment at the interest shown hv tho Mother Country in the subject, and their organ.* arc getting almost vicious in their wrath. “The hireling of a Radical newspaper can hardly prove an impartial witness,” said tho “Star.” pleasantly, last; night, in tho course of some oblique references to my humble pelf. It is all n political plot, they SBv. “Unfortunately, we have reason to mistrust tho bomi-fidcs of a large section of the British Prom when dealing with tho question of Chinese labour,” said the "Hand Daily Mail” yesterday. Vet it is quite pebble to detect an increasing feeling that the importation of the Chinese has been a mistake. They are cxjtfuirivc to bring over. They cost more than the Kaihrs to keep. And thev arc a failure as workers. Now that the mine:* are making up their returns they find that, working cordti. where the Chinamen have been employed, have gone up. Hero is the manager of the Glen Deep, in his annual report, telling of increased costs “due to changes in tho labour supply.” The Glen Deep bo it remembered, was one I of tho mines employing unskilled while i labour before tho Chinese came. j Yes, Chinese labour is a failure from j the commercial point of view. But that ! is (ho leari important side of the ques- ; tion. Hero is a list of the week’s out- [ rapes—or, rather, cf those which have ; come to light;— i Sunday.—Mr Vaughan's home attack- f ed at Bernini. Mrs Vaughan injured I about the head. Motive: Revenge, Mr I Vaughan being employed on the Bcnoni • Mine, i Tuesday.—lsrael Likuattski. n store- \ keeper at H«ndje«fon(om, found mur- ; on tho floor of his More, which had * been looted. Wednesday.—Married Kaffirs attacked near Krngersdorp. Kaffir woman out- : raged, another severely cut about the head; husband* injured. < Thursday.—Coolies at Kleinfontein ; Deep struck work. Police fetched, and > forty-eight ringleaders arrested, alter a riot. Now. whatever may be the value of Iho opinions of "Radical hirelings,” there can ho no question about these facts. I he dead bodv of Likuailri-ki is no invention of a political party in &each of a programme. Outride tho towns tho

people aro terror-stricken. Ono storekeeper on tho Boat Hand yesterday told mo that ho hod Bold hundreds of ro volvors during the past month. Tor what the people dread is not eo much robbery as brutal violence. The sweeping* of the Chinese prisons, who are now overrunning a British Colony, are not content with mere robbery. They do that m? a matter of course. Whnt the women in isolated farms and lonely stores dread is tho cry of “Tsa. tsu!”—“Kill, kill!*’—from tho yellow fiends who roam over the veldt. People in the country dare scarcely go to bod at night. They gather at each other's houses for protection and companioualiip. Only this week the evidence given in the Bcrgvlei case, where tho coolies attacked Mr Ferreira's farm on October 16. lolls a story of a midnight raid, where Mr Ferreira’s wife, Bister, and his two daughters had to watch whilst ho was attacked with knives and sticks. M hat wonder is it that terror reigns on the veldt, or that tho cmiutr** people aro now all armed, and shoot first, when they see a Chinaman at night ? Of course, those facts aro concealed iulong as possible. And the system of what may bo called manufactured public* opinion in favour of the Chinese is j kept up. If you aro a trader or a | worker on tho itand you must not say a j word ngalnrft tho Chinese. If you don’t 1 like them.—“Voetzak." This u> a Dutch word which means I “bo off, “clear out.” It is generally api plied to dogs. It has come into pro- | minonce ot late owing to a speech made by Sir George Farrar at Pretoria in July last, when he was addressing a meeting | of “Progressives," as the Landlords and I their adherents have dubbed themselves. J In a sentence, Sir George summed up tho ; policy of himself and his friends with i brutal frankness. He was talking about ! the raihvaynien, who were then asking , for some concessions, and, eaid Sir j George: | I am sorry tho men arc diswnG-i : •-! ; but they have their remedy; they can go hack to the country from whence they came. And if Mr Whiteside is I - wise dissatisfied ho, too, should go back to hie own country. Sir George’s blazing indiscretion was all over the Colony in no time. Ho h«> made two or three attempts at explanation, but in vain. Tho “Progressive” policy to th© man in the street is a policy of “Voetzak.” If you are dissatisfied, clear out and go to jour own country—especially if you are an Australian. Mr Whiteside, it will bo remembered. withstood the autocrats to their face*, and, as a member of the Labour Commission, destroyed their case—“ Voctzak." Yet, in spit© of all this, there are signs of reaction. Th© Boors have made no secret of thotr dislike of Chinese, and public meetings are being bold in various towns. Three weeks ago Mr Crcswell addressed a largo gathering at Polchofstroom. at which a resolution was adopted demanding th© immediate repatriation of tho Chinamen. I shall have something to (?ay in a future letter «K>ih Mr CrcstvoU's admirable address. Similar meetings have been hold at Kruger* dorp and Germiston. at which an unmistakable feeling was shown. It really looks an if tho Randlords will not be able to bulldoze tro Transvaal much longer. Meantime, the yellow men are continually in evidence. Ae I write four cf them arc driving past in a c-.b. while a: every street corner stand groups of hollow-eyed and denperato white men, most of whom fought during tho war. waiting for work, and now against absolute starvation. Bvory now and then one surrenders. On Friday a man hanged himself rather than bear sny longer the interminable struggle. He wn«a onlv a whit© British subject, for whom his own country had no use. Fifteen months ago, when I left the Hand, /ill the trouble.* were over. The Chinese had come, and with them “prosperity for everybody.” Apparently it did rot stay long. Thor© haa been ro boom. The j European investor holds aloof, and the 1

bulls and bears of the Stock Exchange nro engaged in the merry pastime of dog-worry-dog. Meantime this magnificent; country, with its splendid openings) for labour and capital languishes in the trough of depression.