Notes from South Africa.

Southern Cross, Volume 9, Issue 30, 26 October 1901, Page 7

Notes from South Africa.

[From Our Own Correspondent.]

Sir, —Since my last there have been great doicgs in Durban, especially in the way of people showing their confidence in the future of the place and its trade, for a few years to come. I have already told yon of the good things to be done in cold storage, as it is called here, and to support which I have said I may mention that the firm of Sparks and Young, butchers, etc., Durban, have just successfully floated their cold stores into a company, and in four days, the confidence shown by the public was so great, that the amount required was subscribed nine times over. The amount was £200,000, so that those who wanted 1000 shares have to be content with 150 instead. This surely is a record for four days only, and especially when we know they had to pay 5s per share on application, and 15s on allotment. People here have not forgotten the amount made, for eleven months, by the Transvaal Cold Storage Company, and as a consequence they made all haste <? to get a cub in at this business. There are no shilling calls about this, but it is a case of down with 1 your money. As there is still room for one or two more such companies in Durban, and then not overdo the thing, I don’t see why some of N.Z.’s spare cash cannot be made to earn 100 per cent in eleven months as well as the Transvaal’s. I enclose the' advertisement, so that anyone calling on you can see for themselves. It is well worth seeing by shareholders in such concerns in Southland. It appears to me that the two companies have gone together to do away with competition as far as possible, so that they can bhed the public to as great an extent as the Transvaal Cold Storage Company did when they made their record profit of 100 per cent in 11 months after allowing the British Government 2d per lb on all the meat they had stored during that period. That there is money in this thing, and likely to be for a few years yet, is quite evident by the way these shares went off, apart from what we can see for ourselves. There are five colonies here, with very large populations, that cannot for at least seven years produce their own meat and dairy produce, and it is very questionable whether, even after seven years, they will have any stock for market, owing to climatic and other conditions, such as rinderpest, that will kill off in one year, or Season, 10 or 20 years’ growth of stock. Then, again, when we come to consider the nature of the soil, we find that it takes on an average four acres to one sheep, so that very little calculation is required to see that so far as raising meat for our own use is concerned, the look out is blue. There appears to have been an attempt at a strike, in one, or more, of the mines up at Johannesburg. The Commissioner of Police had 36 miners arrested and sent down to the coast under armed escort. It does seem hard that men should be compelled to work for 5s per day, for work they have been used to getting 20s and 22s 6d per day.. But still they agreed to do it, or they would not have been allowed to go up there, and should be made to stick io their word. This is the result of promising young men, that they shall have the first chance to go to the Rand when the war is over, if they join a regiment and are on service at the time. There is not much doubt either that many mining managers have been using their influence to get the mines started, with the result that the men employed in the mines are only to get the same pay as the men employed in the field, although it

Durban, August 31, 1901

Company-forming in'Durban. —One Hundred per) cent. Profits.— A Chance for New Zealanders.—Miners on Strike. —11lTreating Indians. Fourth and Fifth Contingent^— Bluff Improvements. Shipping Notes. Volunteering in Natal.

does not appear that the mines profit by the low wage as they have to pay the same as they paid before the war broke out, and the rest of the cash goes fairly to some special fund. In this case it appears to me that there will be trouble till the war is over, as there are men working side by side with those who have had their turn at the front, as against those who remained at the coast all the time, while the warrior was promised the preference. Now, my opinion is that those who have done their 12 or 18 months of service for the British should get full pay, as they were promised the preference. And the man who saw fit to let others fight should be compelled to remain on the coast —even strangers arriving should have precedence of the coaststicker.

I lately gave an instance of how they treat the Indians out here. Now I see there has been trouble on Mount Edgecomb. I take the following from the Mercury of 23rd August : Twelve Indians indentured to the 1 Natal Estate, Mount Edgecomb, who said they had come to “complain,” were fined £1 in the Borough Court, with the alternative of a months’ imprisonment, for being in town without passes. It is the old trick of the ravage beast of an old slavedriver again who has been cruelly ill-treating these poor beasts of burden, and they came into town to lodge a complaint to the Court against their employer, and as be is the one they were supposed to get their passes from, it is easy to see what show they have of obtaining any redress. Even the man on the bench thought it too much trouble for him to get the twelve to state their grievances. My opinion is that if enquiries had been made the overseer might have been arrested on a very serious charge. But it is no use complaining—people here are so used to treating these poor blacks in such a brutal manner, that they say one cannot deal otherwise with them. What the blacks have to put up with here beggars description, and must be seen to be realised. But by degrees the Kaffir and the Indian are being educated (where the parents can afford it) and the day of retribution must come sooner or later. Some kind friends sent me a few papers giving an account of the reception of the 4th and sth contingents in Invercargill. Taken on the whole, I should say Southland excelled even itself on that memorable occasion. It was with a mixture of pleasure and regret that I read the report —the latter feeling due to the sad accident that marred the joy of the occasion. I was sorry I was not there to add my mite to the enthusiasm displayed. But I am more than delighted to see that Sout bland knows how to treat men who risked their lives for the cause they think just I am bound to say that they one and all will be more than ever convinced that there is no place like home, especially after the cool and off-handed reception they got at the hands of those for whom they came to risk their lives, and who let them come without extending the hand of friendship, and then Jet them depart without even saying ‘ thank you.’ And yet we are told —‘ People here are full of gratitude for services rendeied.’ There is not one of those brave fellows but has had some very hard and trying experiences daring their stay in South Africa. I need not ask those employers to re-engage these brave youths on their return, for I am sure that any employer will only be too glad to have such in his employ.

Long may they all live to wear their medals !

There is another thing I must express my great pleasure at reading, and that is that tenders have been accepted for the P.O. clock at the Bluff. I was beginning to think that my Bluff friends were all waiting for the tower to grow high enough to be seen in Invercargill. It seems that I often make a blunder, for a friend said to me before I left that the electric light would soon be in the shops at the Bluff, but that it would not belong to the Council. I maintained that if the Council did not own the light that the party supplying it would have to light the streets free for the use of the same, so that you see I am only a man after all (Man was made to err.) On Wednesday, 28th, the s.s. Dulwich left Durban for Bluff Harbour, via Albany and Melbourne. Her reason for calling at Melbourne is that she has to go into dock there, She is 2,111 tons, and commanded by Captain Radford. The harbour here continues to be quite full, with quite a fleet waiting outside for a berth. The G-overn-ruent have ordered another very large and powerful dredge of the suction class, and not before it was wanted, for there are 3 feet 6 inches less average depth on the bar at present than when I came here, eight or nine months ago. And it is quite a common thing to see a vessel blunder u>ver the bar as she is entering or Teaviag. The Kanzler, of the German East African line, and the barque Mandalay, are cases in point. The latter was being towed in, and bumped so heavily that she parted the tow rope, but with the assistance of another tug she was brought inside. The s.s. Kanzler, a fine steamer, quite full of passengers, got a severer doing in leaving, but she also managed to continue her voyage. We are just now looking for someone to honour by sending him to Parliament to represent —ah, well, never mind who, but certainly not me, as I have not served my three years yet. It is said that the cadet movement as it exists in Natal is one of the most advanced known. It is in a sense a modified form of conscription, as every school boy, above a certain age, must be taught to shoulder his carbine and make himself efficient at the ranges. Of course they are not obliged to join any regiment or volunteer corps after leaving the school, but this has all along been advocated, so I am given to understand, by the Volunteer Department in Natal. In Natal at pre.-ent there are only two thousand volunteers all told, but if they are determined to continue the cadet corps for the next few jears, they should be able to muster at least 10,000 —not for outside service, for Natal politicians are too mean to send men to fight out of South Africa, but for defence purposes alone. —Yours, etc., E.G.B.