THE Waihi Daily Telegraph WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WAIHI MINER MONDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1904

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume IV, Issue 1204, 19 December 1904, Page 2

THE Waihi Daily Telegraph WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WAIHI MINER

MONDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1904

(Irro iilmll tlio I'ro.-s tlm 1-n.fit >" B •; i i -111 ti. •infain Unawwl liy imliionoi' ami imbriliul li)' yz\a ■ Iforo patriot Truth liur i>l tiimi , iicwojiis i!ini, 'cMeilKod to holiiion Mlmrlii. ■«! i ltw

A FEW days ago w« quotc.l parts «f ii report fiirni.-ibefl ci Hid Daily Olironiclu liy Hip si'iil by dial jonrnal ~„ the Transvital lo ascertain tho facts in con. nectiou with Chinese- labour on the

Hand. In his preceding articles he claims to have shown (1) that ] white unskilled labour is profit- \ ablo; and (2) that it is pure goldgreed, tins lust for still bigger dividends, that has inspired the Randlord to import the cheap Chinese article. But even if it were adtnittod for argument's sake that white unskilled was unprofitable and impossible, there are other facts which prove the second half of the contention to be true. These facts are; (1) That by paying the Kallir an increased wage (but still not nearly that of the white man), black labour could have been got, and the importation of Chinese would have been unnecessary ; (2) that the landlords wish to employ white men so long as they can hire them as convicts, at a subsistence wage, These two facts cotailetely expose the inner mind of the Randlord. If his motive were not greed, he would have been willing to concede a moderate advance of wages to the blacks, rather than import the Chinese. That his motive is goldgreed, is proved by the employment of convicts. It is the cheap that is wanted, always the cheap; and not in order to save the industry, but to squeeze bigger dividends out of it. The commissioner continues:— "According to the official returns on illst December last, there were 480 convicts employed in the Transvaal mines. . . It appears that the Government receives a wage which pays for the cost of keening the convicts, and thus the mineowners secure 'a furthor supply of cheap labour. On 31st December, 1902, the East Hand Proprietary Mines employed 281! white unskilled; on illdt December, 1903, the number was 18; 2GB had made room for Chinamen and convicts. The Randlords are seeking to lighten their burdens in oiher ways. The great argument of Mr Lyttelton 1 (Secretary for the Colonies) in favour of Chinese labour was that, as we had imposed obligations on the mines in the way of bearing cost of i development and equipment of the rest of the country, the mines must have cheap labour in order to carry out these obligations. Now Mr R. W. Schumacher has advocated (in a speech at the annual meeting of the Rose Deep Mine) that the policy of • every civiljsed country is to make , each district responsible for its own 1 public works. "I do not say," he went on, " that it would be wise to carry out this policy to the letter, At the same time, the saving to the central Government would be enormous if the present unremunerative expenditure were curtailed." The future policy is to bo summed up in the words "bigger dividends," got by lowering, at [ any cost, the working expenses. This cheapening of the cost of production, no matter who suffers, is not an act created by opportunity. The opportunity has in face been created with a view to the act, The Raiidloriis intended to do this all the ' time, and they have used the war, the blood it spilled, the civil administration, and everything else as means to their ends. As far back as February, 1900, there appeared a prophetic article in the Revue Slid Africaine, a financial weekly run by a firm of mining brokers, Diipeni and Co., with thejobject of introducing the stock of the Rand Mines, Ltd, to the French investor, The wriler-and this was over four years , ago—fixed the rmotint of the war indemnity at £28,000,000, and predieted a ten per cent, profits tax. Then he held out to the French investor, as bait the following ,l econo. raies" which "a Liberal Government, looking after the interests of the mines, would allow to be made in the diffeient branches of the exploitation"—

By Iho dynamite monopoly ... 400.00 C By the recruiting of natives ... 200.00 C l3y tho prohibiting sale of liquor to nst™ 525,000 By tho suppressing thofts of amnlgaui 500,000 By Ihe loworing white wages... 1,000,000 By tho lowering native wages „. 868,000 By tho suppression of rook drills 900,000 Total economies $,393,000 Concerning these seven economics, the Chronicle's representative remurks : "Six weeks after thisarticlo was written, the Chamber of Mines met at Capetown, in March, 1900, and the Native Labour Association was formal." (This Association has a monopoly of the recruiting of native labour,) "Native wages were reduced to 30a a month very soon after, and rock-drills have been re. placed by Chinamen at a shilling a day. Every item on the programme liaH been carried out except the seventh, Does anyone doubt the ability or intention of the landlords io cany out the seventh item of their progrimme, when the other ix have been put through?"