A Letter from Natal.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 6244, 17 June 1890, Page 3

A Letter from Natal.

We are permitted to make the following extracts from a private letter from Mantzberg, Natal, South Africa, from a resident there to his brother in South Canterbury. “ I wrote yon last from Johannesburg, but likely as not my letter miscarried, the postal arrangements of that place being by no means perfect, 1 had to quit the golden city sooner than I wished or intended. Rheumatism, my old enemy, got hold of me again, after I had been weakened by the fever and dysentery common among among newcomers out here, and pretty nearly knocked me over* Johannesburg is not the best place in the world to be knocked up in, but I found many friends there who did their best for me, and best of all packed me off to Natal when they saw no chance of my doing any good where I was. The three hundred miles of coaching shook me together a bit. We had changes of horses every thirty miles or so, and in some places a “ span ”of ten at a time. The horses rattle away at full gallop, and as there is no road except that made by the waggon and coach wheels, you may imagine we had a decent shaking up. We met several hundred waggons going up to Johannesburg with provisions, timber, etc. The spring was just coming on, so that transport riders (carriers) had little to fear os regards provision for their oxen. The traces were very distinct of former and less lucky riders, whose oxen had died on the road for want of grass. Some* times we could see a whole treck (team), IS or 20, alongside the track, or at any rate their skeletons- The ara vogels (vultures) were not long in picking the little bit of flesh off their bones, and in twenty four hours the bones would be bleached by the sun. “ I reached here about the middle of December, glad enough to be in the land of a certain amount of comfort again. I was a month before I got anything to do, but I landed on a fine easy billet as bookkeeper in one of the stores, £lO a month to start with and a rise of 23 per cent after two months. We can live here very well for £5 a month. Trade is in a very bad state hero just now. Several of the big houses of business have been squeezed out of time, and all the rest are pretty hard up. The prices of gold shares have fallen in some cases to one* fifth of what they were when I was at the Band, the natural result of the violent speculation that wont on in the early part of last autumn. The fields are good enough it seems, but badly managed, overtaxed by the Government (block-beaded Boers) and want of railway communication makes the cost of transport very heavy on all kinds of enterprise. Of course it was all right so long as British capital flowed in ah lib, but when they began to expect something by way of return the Jobannesburgers replied “ Oh we have had to pay all away to the Government, for labour, transport etc," while all the time instead of looking after the mines the managers were speculating on Change. But it is very different there now that the money is not coming in for them to speculate with. Living is very dear there, lias hotel living just ruinous, 16s a day, or at a “cheap” one 12s 6d. The hospital charge is 15a a day too, so that what with hospital and hotels my sickness cost me a pretty penny. Fortunately I had made a little out of gold shares so that I did not do so very bad as regards money, on the whole.

“Taking things all round I am not sorry I left old England, although my experience here has been rather a rough 0119. You know

we just had to slave our life away in London for a paltry £2O or £36 a year. It makes me riled to think I stood it so long, and lost my , health there. I used to do more work there . sometimes in a day than I do hero in a whole I week, and one is treated like a man here at the same time. Of course it is pretty dull here at times, and the beat makes one confoundedly lazy. “My travels from Capetown to Johannesburg and Johannesburg to Natal, have not given me a very good opinion of the agricultural resources of the country. We are told that wheat grows very well in some parts, but heavy hailstorms, floods etc., make a farmer’s prospects very risky indeed. Those who have gone in for transport riding have not done at all bad for the most part. When I came down they were getting 15s to 17s per lOOlbs for riding goods from Ladysmith to Johannesburg, a distance of about 280 miles. The journey took them about three weeks to a month, with loads of three to four tons, and teams of 12 to 18 oxen. Each waggon requires two Kaffirs, one to lead the oxen, and the other to sit on the waggon with a whip about thirty yards long, and it’s “Oh poor ox ! ”if he is in a bad temper. “ We have been having a very dear lime for flour here during the last month or so. We have been selling any quantity at 30s and over, per bag of lOOlbs, but recent shipments have brought the price down to 20s retail. We have bought large quantities to arrive at £l4 per ton. I suppose you would like to sell some at that price in Now Zealand. We are importing largely from Australia, but do not hear of New Zealand flour at all. Meat is pretty cheap in this country, but the cost of living is generally speaking much higher than at Home. The country does not produce as much aa it might be made to do, by any means, Farmers are too lazy, or else they are unable to work so much in the sun."