NO TRADESMEN

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLI, Issue 20441, 11 June 1936, Page 8

NO TRADESMEN

POSITION IN SOUTH AFRICA Mr R. Arneil, of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, who is visiting Timaru, paid a call at the Timaru Technical College last night. Mr Arneil is a member of the Board of Managers of the Technical College of Port Elizabeth. At an Informal gathering with the Board of Managers last night, Mr Arneil was welcomed by the chairman (the Rev. J. W. McArthur) who expressed pleasure at his interest in the College. Referring to conditions in Port Elizabeth, Mr Arneil said that the authorities were having considerable difficulty in placing boys in employment and there had been 250 on their hands during the last two years. The trouble was that the boys did not seem to want to work and had discovered the secret of living without working. There were practically no tradesmen in South Africa, and great difficulty was experienced in procuring bricklayers, plumbers, carpenters or engineers. Lately tradesmen had been brought from Australia to meet the demand. South Africa’s great problem w»as its black race, which numbered 85 per cent, of the population. The problem was to keep them in their place. The natives were gradually being put out of employment in favour of the poor Dutch. The back-veldters were being brought to the cities and given the positions held by natives on the railways, which last year had .shown a surplus of £2,500,000. The Dutch were being paid 7/6 a day and given a free house. The trouble was that, while the authorities hoped the natives would die out, they actually seemed to be multiplying.