Chinese Cheap Labour in the Transvaal.

Otago Witness, Issue 2623, 22 June 1904, Page 30

Chinese Cheap Labour in the Transvaal.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — A New Zealand friend, now resident in Durban, has sent on to me the Otago Witness of 30fch March, with a request that I would deal with some of tine statements of Mt M'CrAcken, fie inventor of "Taico," concerning South Africa. Three years ago, while travelling from Melbourne to Durban, I liacTi as a shipmate a ycuug clerk who was coming to South Africa, m search of fortune. Although I had at ! that time five years' residence in South Africa. I to my credit, I had no idea, how littlo I had 1 learned of the country tmtil that young quill- , driver took me in hand. After two oi threa ' days of never-ending questions, I had to re- ; mind my inquisitor that Paul Kruger himsie-lf, ■ an Africander of 70 edd years of age, would . find it a hopeless task to satisfy his burning thirst for knowledge. It was much of a sur- ' pri?s to me, therefore, to learn that IT. J M'Cracken, after a. sojourn of ten wß?ks, much. | of wJiich, no doubt, was spent in ptitting Ma i new explosive on the market, had essayed to | teach" your readers something about this land! ; of very diversified features and conditions. Bnt why did he not readi up the subject ill some reliable book? Without leaving New Zealand he migiht, by a few days' reading, 1 have learned more than he h«s from his ten , weeks' sojourn. You spy be holds very decided opinions on the subject of Chinese labour. One is, that it is "absolutely necessary." Now, I ndniire 1 inventive talent, stnd scarcely anything inte- • rests nic more thiaai chemistry; but I am | human enough to admit that were "Taipo" ! my property, I should be tempted to advocate ; Chinese labour for the sake of tlie increased i demand it would creak for explosives. Well- ! paid European labour means few mines and a small consumption of stores- cheap Asiatic labour means many mines and a- large consumption of stores. " The only practical solution of the labour question is ths importation of Asiatics." That is exactly -what the mining magnate* and the share-market babblers say, and if their energies were transferred to New Zealand, tliey would say it there. Hoggenheimer has very little sympathy with the aspirations of European and Kami workers; hi<s plan is to test everything and everybody from tho view of an investor on the lookout for big dividends. "The offer of a higher rate of pay would not attract the extra labour required." J,s I3ia.ii so ? I know lots of men here who would reply: "Try it." So Mr M'Crackea is quite sure ths.t the result of n, referendum would be in , favour of Chinese labour. Lord Milner objected to this test because "it would take too much time." The alleged necessity for importing -Asiatics became evident more than a. year ego. In, view of tho fact that no Chinese have yet sailed, it is na.tu.ra! to ask if less of time was a genuine reason for not taking a vote? " The people of the Transvaal understand the position of affairs." A ye&L a.go 5000 men pa.ssecS a resolution condemning importation ; many talked openly of opposing the scheme with the. rifle, if necessary. Most of thos» men would admit to-d«y tlha.t the fore* of cosmopolitan capital has been too strong for llit^n. The mining maen.ite was tight who said : "In six months ttfiey will be on their knees asking ior Chinese." It is rather too much to say, howevea-, tha.t those 5000 men recognise tho absolute necessity of importing Asiatics ; they are silent now, but <Jisy think deeply nevertheless. Has Mr M'Cracken heard of am aati-Chinesa meeting being broken up by "roughs" hired, ab 15s a head? Had. those "roue'h.s" been better paid they migh,t have held 'he secret. Docs Mr M'Craoke-Ti know that hu >sre<3s of men on East Rand mines ,vere refuncted tha expenses incurred in comirg into town to obstruct the same meeting' This is no idle rnrawr, unless it be- true that "all men are liars." ■Would Mr M'Craeken contend ihai tha 45,000 signatures to the sp-cal pro-Chinese petition truly represented 4.5 TOO id ale adults? If so, he has very, wiry much to learn yet of the methods rdorrted by fi'i&ncial Israel. A bank clerk boasted that he h?d signed it six times. It Tffvy have been that he wished the country and tho mining industry well, or — it may have bepn-fo him a. thine for jiest. It is rofreshir^ to find some one who thinks w'ha.t Ho-wcnhei-mer thinks of the future welfero of South Afuca As Hoggenheirner— ci" most of him — was boirn in Germany of Jewish parents, has been in 'South Africa Tint a few ycai-s, and still sr-Nika English with a very foreign accent, most people hone- think that he has no pa.vticurar reason to woiry about coining generations of South Africans. Wow to sonip ol.^er srtstenifnts of Mr M'Cracken. "The principal pTexTnetions are. bananas, pineapple.". ard othor tropical fruits." "Tbore tve a few tea. s-nd sugar plantations." The %3 production* are ir.cl. with, only in a narrerv strip of the N.rta.l coist, «ndl Natal itself is much pnialle>- th?n either the Transvaal. Orange Riv<=T Cnionv. or the Car>e Cakrav, not to mantion Rhodesia. ''The climate is not oeoA." Thi-=; is ef-iiivleiit to s-avirsj thsit the cliipatp of Au«iiplia ii rot s;ockl, hecauss ore micht contact malaria in northern tprrHw-v rnrl saach? blight on the Wet Austtalian no'dfielda. " New Zea'-ajK^ws do not have too happy a, time, because rhev are too sjo-ahen I for t-he average South African whit" 1 " On the cosmopolitan Itasndi the Now Zealand er« fcim a very =urall minority, and go-ahnd men — ■ Americans, Jews of all nationnhtie-s, Ge.rinfivs. n'c — nre =o ploiitif'il that a handful of hn&tlers. even fiom the North Pole. would i.et bo noticed The case' would be different m swno slec^v Dvic'i dorp, no doubt. I hear Australians brrlly spoken of sJino'st every day— generally by the Britisher; but a distinction sreni* to b" m-ade in the c-nse of New Zea'aaiders. The lotter are cei^ainly more li>o-ly to be wplconw in a cosmotohlcin commi.Rity than Australians ; it is ha.id to dcfinA the differences, but they exist, and not without result. I have left tlie statement that "the majority of the neople me in favoivr of tha Transvaal lemaiiiiing a Crown colojy " utitil 1t="I-, n^ it deserves svcrljl in-eiitSon. because of its gioss inaccmacy. For th? "nst 12 months ihe lo^gintr for a rerre^ente'tive •pai-linment his been incirua=im; in <«tvpnat>i. Thfsro is scarcely a mm on the c ? but what is eettiiig '"fed uc" wi'h Cio-.vn Colony rule Tbero is a v/idesprpad impiossioii that th^ mpitalisis are ton stiorg for i lie Administration, cud that only a parlianiiul elected by th.c people cmi fiusticitc sciiia

of their schemes. Even the Johannesburg cfculy press — aoid this is significant— new admits that the people are eager for a change. What citizens of the Empire we're ever content to be ruled by imported officials and their nominees? Was it for this that the cxTJitlanders cried out for political freedom? The discontent has been so pronounced lately that it would be madness to refuse representative government much longer. In conclusion, it can do r.o good fnr Mr M'Cracken to give ■expression to statements like the last. The Britishers h«ie are just as eager to secure the franchise as their Lrethren in the other self-go vermng colonies •—I an etc.,

Anglo-South afbicak Johannesburg, S.A., May 7.