A WARNING FROM OAPE TOWN

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 4077, 21 February 1894, Page 5

A WARNING FROM OAPE TOWN

The following from the Cape ' Times ' may be taken as reliable. As will be seen the journal is in favor of immigration per «c, but cannot help but warn those at a distance to stay away just at present. Our contemporary says: "All who have the welfare of South Africa at heart must rejoice to see the white population continually increased by immigration from Europe and Australia, as it is only in this way that the tremendous preponderance of colored people will be counteracted. But, however , desirable a stream of immigration is from this point of view, the capacity possessed by this country for the absorption of the classes of immigrants which have been Souring into it lately is not so elastic as to nd room for the large influx of immigrants now taking place. Wo tlieruuue have at the present time a large amount of labor coming to markets which are already fully supplied. Each mail and intermediate steamer which has arrived at Cape Town from Europe during the past ten or twelve weeks has oeen filled with passengers, more especially the later ones. Immigrants have been arriving from Europe at the rate of between 400 and 500 a week, besides occasional reinforcements from Australia. A large proportion of these immigrants are artisans; but, though it is not very long since any steady handicraftsman was certain of obtaining continuous and remunerative work, this is now no longer the case. So far as Cape Town and the suburbs are concerned, not a week passes but at Salt River Works, at the various buildings now in course of erection, and at the shops of the local builders, numbers of applicants for work are turned away with the answer that no additional hands are wanted. Many artisans also who do obtain work find it to be but of a temporary nature. A considerable percentage of the immigrants do not stay in Cape Town at all, but hurry forward by the first train to the goldfields. Perhaps never since the days of the great boom has such a steady and continuous stream of passengers left for Johannesburg as during the past few weeks. Clerks, shop assistants, and others of this class are absolutely a drug in the market, and to men of this class going to the Rand in search of employment we can only re-echo 'Punch's' celebrated advice to those about to marry, — 'Don't.' The wages paid to this class at Johannesburg are little, if any, better than those obtaining in Cape Town or Port Elizabeth, while the cost of living is nearly twice as much. About £11 is the monthly salary paid to a clerk or shop assistant, and if lie gets £15 he must consider himself lucky. Then having to reside at a boarding-house in town makes living for them much dearer than for the miner ; £8 a month is about the lowest for which a man can obtain board and lodging, exclusive of washing, for which the charge, it may be mentioned, is either 4s or 6s a dozen; and during the winter, when dust storms are raging, the washing bill is no inconsiderable item in the month's expenditure."