SALVATION ARMY

Southland Times, Issue 18928, 30 April 1923, Page 5

SALVATION ARMY

ON SERVICE IN SOUTH AFRICA. INTERVIEW WITH COMMISSIONER HOGGARD. Commissioner Hoggard of the Salvation Army, who is at present in Invercargill, is one of the most widely travelled men in New Zealand to-day. There is hardly a country in the world that he has not visited in the course of his work in connection with the Army. On no fewer than throe occasions he has crossed Asia on the TransSiberian Railway; he knows the United States well; and he has penetrated even the most remote parts of the African continent. In an interview with a Times reporter, Commissioner Hoggard said he was in South Africa at the time of the Rand rebellion. He was in Johannesburg at the time and working as he was among the poorer classes he was aware that malign influences were at work among the miners. The Commissioner explained however, that the African miner was much different from the New Zealand miner. The white minera on the Rand do no actual digging, but act in the capacity of “shift bosses” for which they are paid on an average 35a a day. The actual spade work was done by the natives, of whom there were about 200,000 employed on the Rand. The coal miners were the first to strike, and they were followed by the goid miners. It was obvious that Bolshevik influence was at work and indeed, one of the rebel oommandoes was led by a Rus sian who had been in the country only three days. Commissioner Hoggard was in the town while the rebels were mobilising and he actually say the commandoes parading in the streets, but he was then called away to Durban, where the news of the outbreak of hostilities reached him. He instantly returned to Johannesburg which he found in a state of great confusion. Martial law prevailed and everyone bad to be indoors by 7 p.m. Sniping was common in the outskirts of the town, but the main bodies of the rebels had retired to the lowlying hills at the back of the Rand, where they were hard pressed by the Government troops under General Smuts. Naturally there was considerable distress among the families of the rebel miners and the Government were very anxious to relieve thia, so the Salvation Army was given every encouragement to open a relief campaign. i Eleven depots were opened for the distribution of food and over £20,000 worth of provisions were distributed. Besides this, the hospitals were crowded with wounded whom the Army also attended to. Commenting on the work of the Army among the African tribes the Commissioner said that his district had extended from the Cape of Good Hope to the Zambesi river and his work took him right into Central Africa and the country that Livingstone had made famous. Schools had been erected in all the centres where the moral and educational needs of the natives were catered for. In Rhodesia they had a huge experimental farm presented them by Cecil Rhodes, who recognised the great importance of the Army’s work in connection with the future development of the colony. Thia farm was worked entirely by natives and was supplied with water by a special irrigation scheme enabling them to grow almost any variety of vegetable. The Commissioner also was a personabl friend of Cecil Rhodes, speaks in glowing terms of his work for the Empire and for humanity- He tells an amusing anecdote in this connection. He was travelling in the same railway compartment as Mr Rhodes and a General of the Salvation Army. The General leaned over to the great Empire builder and said, “Rhodes, do you ever think of your soul?” “General,” was the reply, “you are the only person in the world that credits me with a soul. They all think I have loot it in the Empire.” Speaking of New Zealand, Commissioner Hoggard said that in all his travels he had never seen a more compact and beautiful country. As one who had considerable experience of mission work in all parts of the world he would say that the country was remarkably free from squalor and vics. This evening the Commissioner will deliver a lecture on the work of the Salva tion Army in Korea, where he has had four years’ experience.