CONTRACT RENEWAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10960, 1 May 1907, Page 1 (Supplement)

CONTRACT RENEWAL.

■'-. Sir West Ridgeway is of opinion that the new Gbvernment of the Transvaal will allow the renewal of contracts with the Chinese already m the Transvaal; and he hopes that the Cabinet will >ot veto such legislation. „ ;f ; These remarkable statements, f which Controvert eyerythirig tha,t has been .aid on the subject of Chinese labor .by nearly every member of the Government at one time, or another, brings into further; prpminehce the magnitude of Ike campaign of misrepresentation which was waged at the general election. ; Although thef Government, whidh pledged itself before the. electors to immediate repatriation, have been m office* for fifteen months, there are still over 50,000 Chinese m the, Transvaal, and a further 2000: arrived m January last. Only a trifling percentage of the coolies have' been compulsorily repatriated or have returned to China by their own wish at the expense of the Government.; : It is stated m. the last Blue-book issued on the subject that the death-rate among the Chinese employed m f.;the mines only amounts to eleven per thousand, - while the death-rate among the natives similarly employed is thirty: seven per thousand.