WHITES NOT WANTED IN SOUTH AFRICA

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18015, 27 November 1926, Page 17

WHITES NOT WANTED IN SOUTH AFRICA

Gold Mine Owners prefer Black Labour ■

SOME FACTS ABOUT THE RAND

South Africa has come, very much into prominence in the past month at. the Imperial Conference , where General Hertzog set ail agog by claiming nationhood for the Union, within the Empire. The following article written for the “Star” by Mr E. J. Howard , M.P., deals with the Union’s greatest source of wealth- —the Rand Gold Mines

strange is it, that our bloods, , Of colour, w.lßht, and boat., pour’d all; i os-other. Would quit* confound distinction ” j TEX years after the signing j of peace between Briton > and Boer, the four fighting parts were brought together under an Act of Union. In terms of that Act the Cape. Natal, Transvaal and Orange Free State became united and are known as the Union of South Africa, under one Governor and one Government, with four Provincial Parliaments something like the State Parliaments of Australia, but with not quite so much power.

Viewing the country generally and in comparison with New Zealand it. is a pwr country. Without the goldfields she would have a hard job to make both ends meet. It is estimated that the gold mining industry contributes 40 per cent of the annual revenue of the Union. It varies a little but it is safe to say Ijetween 35 per cent and 40 per cent. Of this the -Witwatersrancl Reef contributes the Largest part. The meaning of the word is the White: Water Ridge. The word has been shortened to “Rand” and the “quite nice people," call it the “Root.” From now on wc write it the “Rand” and pronounce it how you like. It is the richest and most permanent reef jet discovered in the world. And yet to rise an Irishism it is not a reef but a conglomerate. The difference is that a reef should consist of rock and is found usually by vol-

canic fires melting the material and forming quartz or other rock which picks up and contains the gold until treated. This is written for ordinary people, not for geologists. The Rand Reef, to accept the term, was formed apparently by volcanic* action of pressure and not by lire. First the deposit was laid down by water action and the cooling of the earth squeezed it into the present shape. It is termed a Blanket Reef, the word “blanket” i being Africander for almond rock. The ! conglomerate looks like that, the almonds being represented by quartz pebbles and the sugar by the sandstone and iron pyrites. Taking her “full and by- ' as a seaman would say, the reef | ; is what a miner would term “a low grade proposition.” It is only because j t of the coloured labour that these mines , have been so successful. The reef j alone employs ISU.OIK) coloured men and about 18,000 whites. Of course the reef is-not worked as one mine, but all the mines are amalgamated for purposes that need not be explain- | ed here. The reef runs roughly east i and west for about 6>) miles with Jo- \ hannesburg about the centre. The . reef dips at an angle, roughly of about 45 degrees, sometimes flattening and then down again. The men go down very deep in some mines, the Vil.age Deep, for instance be.ng over a mile and a quarter be.ow. If we built or bored throe tunnels side by side from the North ('ape to th«_ C.uff it would | not represent quite the amount of boring that has been dene on this reef. And they are still boring at the rate of 13 miles a month. Let the reader try to think that tunnel out for a moment and then try to think of what a mosquito bite the

Lvttelton tunnel is. If there was gold in" the Port Hills there would be as j many holes as there are in a colander j ! to get to the Port. Now, here also, is a statement that j would be “star headed” in America. J Eight hundred million pounds sterling has been won from the Transvaal since a poor old miner named Walker spotted the first bit of gold on a i Dutch farm that is now a citv in 1885. Poor old George Walker died an oldage pensioner two or three years ago. And yet he lived to see a barren waste of land transferred into one of the finest cities, for its age. in the Empire. I Forty years is but a moment of time, and yet! J We arc speaking of gold. Australia i also had its gold discoveries. Perhaps | the same belt of country passing around the earth contains gold. But Australia’s fields do not last. And perhaps it is as well because the country is now being developed along agriI cultural and pastoral lines. We live | by what we eat. We can’t eat gold | and all gold represents is the right to ! the primary products of some other human. While the African gold fields is a great help to Africa, it is also a great hindrance. The gold mine owners want cheap labour. As a fact they must have « heap labour if they are to continue. So tuey don’t want "whites” in the country. Whites get votes and the Legislature can still hobble the The true Africander does not want white immigrants because they know they will came from Great Britain and he is a “Boer” still. So far. the Africanders—l prefer the team instead of Dutch—have had the

lx>t of it since the Act of Union. : hear about the difference between GenI cral Hertzog and General Jan Smuts, I but they were both Boer generals. Genj eral Botha was the first Prime Minister, then General Smuts and now General Hertzog. Honestly, the only difference in policy and outlook between the thre® seemed to me to be the treatment oi the mine owners. The Chamber of Mines naturally becomes a great power in that country. Contributing 35 to 40 i>cr cent of the general taxation and working on a 1 airly close margin between profit and loss keeps them fairly busy politically. They spend a good deal of money during elections on propaganda stuff of the "get-things-done-order ’ Goldfields, of course, arc not mentioned. However, the Rand as a gold producing proposition is still in the picture. And will Ik; in the picture fc* r many years. There arc miles of country held by the Government and not lining worked yet. When the present mine owners want, those fresh fields opened up they will sec that the country puts the right Government in power. Now for some figures. A hot it £14,000.000 a year is paid in wages, and £12,000.000 in supplies and nearly two and three-quarter millions to the Government with eight and a quarter million as dividends. All these figures i of course, vary from year to year but 1023 has been picked out for thcT purpose: of illustration The number of ' people employed indirectlj' as a rt suit of the gold mining operations of South Africa can be guessed.