GOLDEN JOHANNESBURG.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10042, 9 January 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

GOLDEN JOHANNESBURG.

(By Frank G. Carpenter.)

I write this in the golden, capital of South Africa. Johannesburg rests on a reef out of which has been taken £180,000,000 -worth of the precious metal and which is supposed to hare three billions left. There -is more gold about it than about any other city of the world, •and: more is coming from it than from any other gold region. Johannesburg is the Denver of Africa and, like our Denver, it is about a mile above the sea. Indeed, it is even higher than the great mining city on the edge of the Rockies. It is close to 6000 feet, and if you could stretch a wire about the earth at its altitude, it would almost cut the top of Mount Washington. Denver and Johannesburg have many things in common. They are both on high plains and not far from bleak, semideserts. They are both in the hearts of the continents to which they belong. Denver is about half-way across the United States. It is a little bit over the edge, perhaps, veering toward the west, which, after all, is the best part of our big country. Johannesburg is about half : way between the Atlantic and Indian oceans, and it is farther north of the Cape of Good Hope than Sandy Hook is east of Chicago. Its nearest port is Delagoa Bay on the Indian Ocean, which is about 400 miles distant, and it can also be reached by Tail from Durban, which is a little more than eighty miles farther. Both cities are based npon gold, and are fed by the mines. The territories which support Denver lie in the Rocky Mountains at its back, extending a long distance to the north and south. Those which support Johannesburg are right under the city, and they run in a great narrow strip east and west. They consist of several veins, covering a distance of 130 miles. The best part of the whole has only a length of sixty miles, and it is right in the centre of this that Johannesburg is situated. Some of the houses are bunt over gold mines, and the streets run over land which has been honeycombed with tunnels and filled up again, after the gold has been taken out, for fear that the buildings might fall in. Beth cities were founded by miners. Denver was started in 1858, just a halfcentury ago. Johannesburg dates hack only to 1886. The land about both cities was considered almost worthless until the mines were discovered. The ground upon which New York stands was once sold for a half-peck of glass beads and brass buttons, the 6ite of Melbourne was bought for a pair of old blankets and the foundation of all Chicago was offered for a pair of cowhide boots. In early days there was a 2000-acre farm on the ate of Johannesburg, and it was sold for a team of broken-down oxen. To-day the land and buildings which stand on that £»rm are assessed at about a quarter of a million dollars, and! from it goes ont mora than £20,000,000 worth of gold every yea*. In January, 1905, two business lota, not far from where the farmer's hut stood, brought £20,000, and it is only four years since the Standard Bank of South Africa purchased the ground upon which it has erected a building worth threoKmarteTß of. a. million. A let on Pn'tchiid street sold for £40,000 about nme.years ago, and there are business locations here so valuable that one would have to cover them with bank notes to buy them. This is so now, notwithstanding that times are hard and business is decidedfy dull. And stall JohannesbHrg is only about 21 years oH. When our boys who are to cast their first votes at the coming Presidential election were raw, reel babies, the country about here was a wilderness and a waste, covered with grass during a few months of the year and- a bleak and burned desert for the remainder. It was then in its beginning as a mining camp, and its most striking features were canvas tents, mud huts, and ox waggons. The Johannesburg of to-day is made of eteel, stone, and wood. It is not as weE built as Denver, but it is a magnificent citv considering its source of supplies and thai it is away off here in the wilds. The town has just about the same population aa Denver. It numbers about 150,000 souls, bat 60,000 of these are blacks.

Johannesburg has about the best- street car system of South Africa, and the lines belong to the municipality. I understand f that they pay well and leave a big proa fit every year in the city treasury. The n cars are all double-deckers. There is a covered compartment on the roof and, [_ for a "ticket"—that is, threepence —you k can go to any part of the city or its j suburbs. ,J Johannesburg produces enough of the 3 yellow metal to make a big herd of golden calves eveTy year, but nevertheless it keeps the Sabbath and ha 6 no end of Protestant \ and Catholic Churches. The English . Church will hold 1100 people and it cost j over £40,000 to build. There is also a _ large Jewish synagogue, about thirty Free- £ masonry lodges, and 6ome other semireligious organisations. _ As to amusements, these South African £ towns pay more attention to such things than we do in America. Johannesburg has £ athletic grounds which cover 30 acres, in- . eluding fields for cricketing, bicycling, and j golfing. There is a ladies' bicycle track , and outside the city limits there is a raoe- ' course, where races are periodically held ' throughout the year. At the summer and „ winter handicaps the prizes amount to j £2OOO or more, and there is a meeting 1 each season, when the races last for three days. The town has a turf club and 3 social clubs of Various kinds. It has a' s recreation and concert hall which will 1 hold 2500. I t.Kinlf its citizens pay more j attention to fun than we do. Tnere is no business done after noon on Saturday, 1 and the people then, go to the races and j club .grounds. The city has fairly good j theatres. It has a public library, a uwr versity, and' excellent schools. \ Johannesburg has, ini proportion, _ a t larger colored) population than Waashingt ton. It has 60,000 or 70,000 natives, made up of Kaffirs, Basutoe, and other negroes j of this part of the world. The blacks are > not allowed to vote, and they have little I to do except as workers for the whites. . They have far less rights than our negroes, s although they dress and look much the j same. The Kaffir here rides in a separate . car, a little open trailer which is attached to the rear of the trains for his accom- • modation. la going along the streets the negro must keep off the pavements and walk only on the edge of the roadway or ! in the middle of the streets. He has : hi s own churches and schools, and 1 the ■, whites expect him to keep to t-hem. , About the only municipal positions that . the blacks have are as assistant policemen. [ 'They are dressed in uniforms, and carry i dubs, which are more like shillalahs than i our police club 6 at home. The Kaffirs also [ act as jinriksha men. They have little . victoria-like two-wheeled carriages, in r which they pnll one about for sixpence j per mile, or 3s 2d per hour. The iin- • riksha men are • mostly Zulus, and they , are among the queerest natives I have i yet seen. They dress their hair in all • sorts of ways, making, it stand ont from , their heads in great rolls or horns. Not a few of them have real cow horns so ! fastened to their heads that they seem i to grow there, th© roots of the horns be- • ing hidden in tiw "wool. Thes© m©& wear ' breeches which reach halfway down the thigh, leaving the lower part of the legs . and feet bare. They paint the bare portion with whitewash. ; Of the 90,000 whites in Johannesburg about 60,000 are males and tie remainder females. In other words, there are about part of the former are bachelors who haTe come here to seek their fortunes. Many of these drifted in here at the time , of the war and were soldiers in the Boer or English armies. When peace was declared the country wafl booming and for awhile* they found; plenty to do. At that time Johannesburg was growing like a green bay tree. Many new buildings were .going np, real estate values rose out of sight, and everything was planned oil the basis of Johannesburg's becoming a second Chicago. The money paid in indemnities and foT the repairs necessitated by the war brought thousands of pounds into circulation and the demand for lahor exceeded the supply- Mechanics were imported by the shipload, and wages rose. Carpenters got Is. per hour _ and other mechanics proportionately high* wages. Then the bottom fe3l out. It . was found, that the cuimlry was .overpeopled, and that the towns w?ra overbuilt.. The new

t business blocks could not be rented, and 3 the values of property fell. Houses which 1 were worth £15,000 four years ago'can be - bought for from £6OOO to £IO,OOO to- ' day, and rents have proportionately fallen. 1 When the boom burst, thousands of men j were thrown out of work, and there are 1 thousands of mechanics in South Africa 5 who are now a burden on the community. It must be remembered that there is a 5 prejudice "here against the white man 1 doing what is considered the black man's ! work. There are many white men who t would be glad to go into the mines at 1 a dollar a day, which is the Kaffir's wage, lj but the trades unions and the people are k against it. There are about six times • as many blacks as whites in South Africa, • and the whites feel that they must keep "up their standing as a superior race to i hold their own. So far the white men > act largely as overseers. They do but > little hard work, and, after they have - been in the country a short time, they L get the idea that hard work is degrading : and turn all jobs of coaree manual labor over to the Kaffirs. Some of the whites I have said l , I understand, that they will 1 not labor for less than a living wage, > and that amount is considered to be at ; least ten shillings per day. So there are > many reduced gentlemen mechanics down I on their uppers and .half starving out here •' in this land, which is producing more l gold and diamonds than any other part 1 of the world. ■ I do not think this is a good place for Americans without capital. There are ■ large numbers of our skilled specialists, • such" as mining and mechanical engineers, who do well, but even such men should have a job contracted for before they . start. This is no place to wait for a iob. Indeed, I doubt if there is anyi where else in the world' where the bare • necessities of existence cost so much. i Houses which would rent for £3 a month in any city of this 6ize in the United States cost here from £5 to £lO a month ; and bachelor livings—that is, board and i lodgings—run from £7 to £lO per month per head. Clothing is dearer than in our own country, and a 6 for such luxuries as drinks and cigars, the charges are - enormous. Any kind of a bottle of ginger ale costs Is, and at the better restaurants the price of a Scotch highball is half a dollar. I have naid' Is for a small glass i of mineral water and Is 6d for a glass of lemonade. Indeed, the situation of these people makes me think of Tantalus, who was ■ condemned to stand up to his chin in . water under a loaded! fruit tree and see the fruit and water retreating every time i he sought to satisfy his hunger and thirst, : or of the poor little boy whose face is i pressed against :the glass of the -candy store windows as he hungrily eyes the sweetmeats within. Johannesburg is surrounded! by gold, bedded oh gold, with eold extending thirty miles on each side of it. It- is pouring out one hundred and! twenty odd millions of gold dollars every twelve months, and' for the past ten years it has been flooding the globe. Nevertheless its people are poor, and- most of the treasures they dis? from their soil eo to the nabobs of England and the stock companies of Europe. It is somewhat like Ireland, a country of absentee landlords, and its people are the white and _black slaves of these far-away millionaires. In addition to this the country is cursed! by the cheap native and Chinese labor. It would be far better if it turned' out less gold and diamonds at a - high wage, rate and 1 the wages were spent at home. As a result of this boom and its collapse the South Africans are deeply in debt. Both farms and business blocks are plastered: with mortgages, and interest rates.are comparatively high. , Thepeople are Optimistic, and they have all the trash of the pioneers in a fast developing country. _ They overestimated everything at the time of the war and branched' out upon- credit. During the _£crht with the Boers money flowed like water. England's puree strings were opened and a. colden shower rained down,on the Transvaal., .Kew institutions of all kinds were' created. -Expenses were enormously increased- and everything was planned as though the war appropriations, and the large . war population were to continue forever. This was not confined to Johannesburg, but th« boon) extended tb Durban,

Capetown, and all the towns of South Africa. Durban put up buildings to accommodate 100,000 people, and it has now less than 50,00, while this town could take care of 50,000 more without overfilling its houses. , , . Indeed 1 , South Africa is much bigger in the eyes of the world than it is in reality. The whole country has not as many white people as Philadelphia, and in this I mignt include all the whites who live south of the equator. Nevertheless, there are banks here with millions of capital. There aTe several thousand miles of railroad, and there axe half a dozen cities with trreat ports and costly improvements: The wonder is not that South Africa is hard up. It is really a wonder that it is at .all.