A TALK WITH MR GEORGE HUTCHISON.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13145, 1 December 1904, Page 8

A TALK WITH MR GEORGE HUTCHISON.

OEF AGAIN TO SOUTH AFRICA. JFboji Ora Own Cobee3Pondent.) LONDON, October.29. "Yes, I am off to South Africa again next ■week," said Sir George. Hutchison tc mo the <ky before yesterday as we sat together over the fire trying not to seo or feel tho dense- : -brown fog which made each of •my office windows a. framed picture of '"The JumiJG." , Ho was looking, i thought, very well- and' vigorous. " 1 sail in the s.s. Briton on the Sih." "Will you bo long away from England? "Quito uncertain," replied ilr Hutchison, shrugging his shoulders expressively. '"It all depends! Js ; ut there is going to be a. great deal doing in the"Trans\aal, and 1 'want to bo on the spot." Business? "Oh, yes, perhaps; I cannot say yet. But thoro is going to be a considerable stirring up of various elements when the first instalment of representative government oomes in next year." How do you mean , ;

"Well, you may bo quite buto," replied Mr Hutchison, ''that when onee even a measure of constitutional government such as has been granted to the Transvaal shall have como into force Donning etreet will : h!ivo no pwire until ail tho rest siiali bo granted. It is true that the Crown authorities will have a majority in tho Chamber, but they will be unablo to prevail in the long run against the oloctod reprerentalivos. All that has been seen and tried before. When you give a, Crown colony oven the smallest modicum of constitutional government it never rests contented until it has got the rest in ono way or another. Downing street will have troublous times until it has given full representative institutions to the Transvaal."

Do you think the Boers will give much trouble under the new regime? "Not in any senso hostile to the Crown or tlie Imperial Government," answered Air Hutchison. "Thoy will loyally accept the position and will r.ot tadco up any imtriendly attitude- towards England, ]3ut naturally they will have a keen eye to anything that works in their favour or makes for their intonate. And assuredly they will rule—in a wholly jK-aceful way—in any Transvaal Parliament through sheer power of their numerical majority—that is all." How about the Chinese labour question? "That will settle itself in course of time, and in an entirely peaceful way," said Mr Hutchison. "When the constitutional government is established all parties will go on the basis that existing contracts must bo respected. Only ttay will not permit any extension or any fresh immigration under such contracts as those now existent. South-Africa is very rich in natural resourcKS, and it is, and must be, a whiteman's country. All that talk about the impossibility of obtaining labour was the merest bunkum and humbug. The mineowners did not want to give current wages, but wished for oheaper labour—that's all. Why, whe-n the Angelo Deep Company went about bemoaning themselves and declaring that they could not get white labour for ICg, or even 20s, a day, it is within my own knowledge that they could easily "have got any amount of it at fe. But they did not want to pay so much if they could get labour ehoaper, and hence the Chinesescheme. However, that will not prove- a very serious trouble in the ions; run, for the Chinese now in the- country will steadily save up all tlioy can, and at tlie end of their contract time they will return to their beloved China."

"There is another phase of tho labour question, however," continued Mr Hutchison, "which may como to bo a source of future trouble. Indians are flocking into (he Transvaal in largo numbers. They will constitute a very serious menace to white labour. They are Hindoo?, and according to tho requirements of their religion they voluntarily live at an almost inconceivably cheap rate—at a far cheaper cost than even the Chinese. Moreover, they will not trade with Europeans, but isolate themselves entirely as to trade, thus forming distinct foreign eemmunities in tho midst of the European _ settlement, and largely underselling whito labour. They may yet prove an awkward matter to deal with. , ' .