A FAVOURED PEOPLE

Waikato Independent, Volume XL, Issue 3707, 21 May 1940, Page 7

A FAVOURED PEOPLE

GREAT MINERAL WEALTH « j SOUTH AFRICANS LIGHTLY TAXED Impressions of travel in South Africa, "a country of 8.000,000 natives, 2,000,000 white people, and an immense population of pests," were given by Mr J. H. Hinton in an address to the Otago Travel Club. South Africa, he said, was a country that was poor, not in fabulous; mineral riches, but agriculturally, and one also that was subject to droughts and pests. It was his iixed opinion, formed after two visits to South Africa, the first one being in 1922, and the latter trip last year, that New Zealand, with its climate, and despite some drawbacks, was a better country in which to live, even if the people of South Africa were the lightest taxed of any of the British Empire because of the mineral wealth it possessed. A man of moderate means, mentioned Mr Hinton, paid a personal tax of only £4, and natives 10/-. He said that there were 35 known swarms of locusts in Natal at the time he was there, and 15,000 tons of poisoned pollard were provided free as one method of control. The progress of South Africa since he was there 18 years ago drew from Mr Hinton some interesting comment. Durban he at once regarded as the city beautifuL Jts pride was its flamboyance in flowers, the residential streets being arched over with flowering trees. This great city in 1922 comprised 27 square miles. Being a councillor himself, Mr Hinton was naturally interested in the municipal control of Durban and other cities he visited. He said that the Durban City Council was among the largest trading concerns in the southern hemisphere, and its rating system was one of the simplest in existence. On land 6d in the £ was rated, and 3d in the £ on buildings, which was enough to give the council the £5,000,000 that was budgeted for annually.

The municipal authority controlled the marketing of fruit, and even brewed and sold beer to the native population as a substitute for the stronger beer supplied, to the white people. Johannesburg, considered Mr Hinton, had stretched its boundaries tremendously since 1922 and now had a population of 500,000. The city .was a network of principal streets, with their centre the city hall and the post office. It would not be a far-fetched metaphor to say that Johannesburg was now a miniature New York.