THE TKANSYAAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11125, 14 November 1907, Page 6

THE TKANSYAAL.

IMPRESSIONS OF; A NEW ZEALANDER. Mr Edward Saunders, a well known Ashburton resident, a, son of the late Mr Alfred Saunders, has just returned to Canterbury after several years spent m tlie Transvaal, where he was engaged m farming. "There is but little real trouble between the two white races m the Transvaal," said Mr Saunders, speaking to a Lyttelton Times interviewer. "Tlie real English and Dutch are getting along well together. I do not think ior one moment that the present leaders liave any intention of departing fiom their promise that the policy of Het Yolk was to be one of racial reconciliation — the avoidance of course of distrust and division, and the union of all white inhabitants of the State into a great South African nation, content prosperous, and united, regarding Southern Africa with commpn patriotism and prida -as its home,, and. working with united forces for its future greatness. The burning question m the Transvaal just now is how i to deal with the unemployed. The miners struck at a time of depression, rathe.r unwisely, and . the mine owners beat tliem, anil will take none of the strikers back into .the mines. The Government is trying to "cope with the trouble, and has provided a good deal of work m one direction and another. The Transvaal Government is not trying to encourage land settlement at present. The attempt to settle the land has not been an unqaulified success by any means, and the aim j of tlie Government is to improve the po- j sition of the people enow on the land I rather tlian to encourage any further set- 1 tlement. Since the war 20 per cent, of the Johannesburg hotels have been wiped out, and wages and scrip have steadily fallen. Salaries all over South Africa have fallen fully 20 pe.* cent daring this year, and will soon reach a bare living rate. Hundreds of men are starving. It will take years to remove the difficulties associated with the agricultural development of the country. The many New Zealander s who have attempted farming there will bear me out m that statement. It is more disappointing, perhaps, as an agricultural country tlian m any other respect. Tlie cheap land, the cheap and plentiful labor, the good markets and splendid climate are more tlian counterbalanced by the oountless stock diseases, the difficulty of transport, locusts, hailstorms, and incessant political unrest. I have given the country a fair trial, and am quite satisfied to come back to New Zealand."