LIVING CONDITIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA AND N.Z. COMPARED

Wanganui Chronicle, 6 January 1947, Page 4

LIVING CONDITIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA AND N.Z. COMPARED

Living conditions in South Africa, taken generally, were better than in New Zealand, said Mr. Allan Gorrie, of Durban, who is visiting his parents in Marton after being absent from the Dominion for ten years. In an interview Mr. Gorrie said he had not been back long enough to make an accurate comparison on the cost, of living, but he thought the two countries were of about the same standard. Rents in South Africa were higher than in New Zealand, also certain food nrices, but in New Zealand he considered car prices “ridiculously high.” In the Union car prices were all controlled, and a 1939 modern American five-seater car went on the market second-hand at £235. A 1946 better class American car sold at £550 Tyres and petrol were also plentiful in South Africa, he said.

A food shortage was becoming apparent when he left South Africa, said Mr. Gorrie, and there was talk of introducing food rationing. Because of the proportion of natives, this had not been considered practicable during the war, he said.

In common with other countries, the end of the war had meant a bH expansion in air lines, and South Africa followed the system adonted in New Zealand. Australia and England of having all the lines State controvert. This had been carried out to such an extent that the British Overseas Airways Corporation flying-boat service between London and Durban had been cut. out, and a South African land plane service instituted Sendices flew from Johannesburg and London in 48 hours

Asked if there had been any fresh develonments arising from the large gold strike at Odendaalsrust. Mr. Gorrie said the strike had so far affected only the Stock Exchange, fortunes being made and lost overnight It was exnecled. however, that ten years would ekwse before gold was produced from the mine in any quantity. This was the usual time for the starting of operations in a large mine. Land agents, working on lhe assumption that the small settlement would follow the course of Johannesburg, which grew in a few decades from a settlement 1o a nuge citv of lhe goldfields, had already “town-nlanned" new towns on the route to Odendaalsrust, and speculators wore already snapping up sections in towns which had vet to exist.