WHITES NOT WANTED.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 30 November 1926, Page 3

WHITES NOT WANTED.

IN SOUTH AFRICA. MINE OWNERS PREFER BLACK •LABOUR. South Africa has come very much into prominence in the past month at the Imperial Conference, where General Hertzog set all agog by claiming nationhood for the Union, within the Empire. The following article written for the Christchurch Star by Mr E. J. Howard, M.P., deals with the Union’s greatest source of wealth —the Raiul gold mines'. Ten years after the signing of peace between Briton and Boer, the fourfighting 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 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 poor country.. Without the goldfields s'he would have a hard job to make both ends meet. It is estimated that the gold-mining industry contributes -10 per cent of the annual revenue of the Union. It varies 1 a little, but it is safe to say between 35 per cent and 40 per cent. Of this the Witwatersraml Reef contributes the largest part. The meaning of the word is the White Water Ridge. The word has been shortened to “Rand,” the “quite nice people” call it the “Rout.” From no\y on we will write it the “Rand,” and pronounce it how you like. It is the richest and most permanent reef yet discovered in the world. And yet, to use 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 volcanic 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 fire-. First the deposit was laid down Iry water action, and the cooling of the earth squeezed it into the present shape. It is termed a Blanket Reef, the word “blanket” being Africander for almond rock. The conglomerate looks like that, the almonds being represented by quartz pebbles and the sugar by the sandstoneand iron pyrites. Taking her “full and bye,” as a s'eaman would say, the reef is what a miner would term “a lowgrade proposition.” If is only because of the coloured labour that these mines have been so. successful. The reef alone employs ISO,OOO coloured men and about 18,000 whites. Of course, the reef is not worked asf one mine, but all the mines arc amalgamated for purposes that need not bo explained here. The reef /Tuns roughly east and west for about 60 miles, with .Johannesburg 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 Village Deep, for instance, being over a mile and a quarter below. If we built or bored three tunnels side by side from the North Cape to the Bluff it would not represent quite the amount of boring that has been done on this reef. And they are still boring at the rate of 13 miles a month. ;Loi the reader try to think that tunnel out for a moment, and then try to think of what a mosquito bite the Lyttelton tunnel is. If there was gold in the Port Hills, there would be as many holes as there are in a colander to get to tliQ Port. Now, here also, is a statement that would be “star headed” in America. Eight hundred million pounds sterling lias been won from the Transvaal since a poor old miner named Walker spotted the first bit of gold on *i Dutch farm that is now a city, in ISSS. Poor old George Walker died an old age pensioner two or three years ago. And yet lie lived to See a barrel* waste of land transferred into one of the finest cities, for its age, in the Empire. Forty years is but a moment of time. And yet!

We are speaking of gold. Australia also had its gold discoveries. Perhaps the same belt of country passing- round the earth contains gold. But Australia’s fields do not last. And perhaps it is as well, because the country is now bong developed along agricultural and pastoral lines. We live by what we cat. We can’t eat gold, and all gold represents! is the right to the primaryproducts of some other human. While- the African gold fields are a great help to Africa, they are also a

hindrance. The gold mine owners want cheap labour. As a fact, they must have cheap labour.if they are to continue. So they don’t want “whites” in the country. Whites get votes and tlie Legislature can still hobble the industry. The true Africander does not want, white immigrants?, because he knows they will come from Great Britain, and he is a “Boer” still. So far, the Africanders—l prefer the term in-, stead of .Dutch —have had the best of it ■since the Act of Union. We hear about the difference between General Hertzog and General dan Smuts', but they were, both Boer generals. General Botha, was the first Prime Minister, then General Smuts, and now General Hertzog. Honestly, the only difference in policy and outlook between the three seemed to me to be the treatment of the mine owners. * Tlie Chamber of Mines naturally becomes a great power in that country. •Contributing 33 to 40 per cent of the general taxation and working on a fairly 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 pictures. And will be in the picture for many years. There are .miles of country held by the Government and not being worked yet. When the present mine-own-ers want those foes'll fields opened up they will sec that the country puts the right Government in power. Now for some figures. About £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 millions as dividends. All these figures’, of course, vary from year to year, but 1923 has been picked out for the purpose of illustration. The number of people employed indirectly as a result of the gold mining operations of South Africa- can be guessed. I