Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-03-15

widow, who had to pay eight pounds
for herself and three children |
petitioned the governor to have the
fines RENTED or reduced, but the
governor saw fit to remit only one of
| the children's fines. A Wesleyan min
listers wife told me she knew of a ma
tive boy without pass who was found
driving an OK. He was arrested and
brought TO court and fined Then he
was sent to drive the animal home
again without pass. Before he could
get there he encountered another DO
iceman, and he was again arrested
and brought to another court and
again fined.
Mr.. Maxeke speaks Of how the ma
tives must be very careful not 30
crowd against a boer in TransvaaI.
So in Natal they must exercise the
same care with regard TO the English.
\ missionary friend of mine had occa-
sion to send me one of his Christian
natives on an errand, and it was neces-
sary for him to pass a railway plat
form on which there was a crowd Of
white people. He may have brushed
against somebody, but he did not know
it till a big Englishman knocked him
down and kicked him off from the
platform. l asked my friend, who is
an Englishman himself, why he did
not have the brute arrested. He said
it would be of no use to bring a case
of that kind in any court in the col
ony.
Mr.. Maxeke complains that the high
est wages paid to native men in Trans
vaal is not more than Sc a week.
know of good many who have re-
ceived higher wages than that But
Sc week is a great deal more than
natives get in Natal. The English
import coolies from India and sell
them to the colonists for the price OF
their passage and from 10 to Is shill-
ings a month. This is one way in
which the price of native labor is kept
down in the English colony Another
way is by the law compelling any ma
tive to term OF service for the gov
eminent at less than one-fourth of
what he could get for the same kind Of
work in Transvaal. Once the natives
used to flock to the diamond mines
in Kimberley, Cape Colony, where
they could get good wages, but since
Mr.. Rhodes has accomplished his won
derful scheme Of consolidation only
about half of the mines are allowed to
be worked at all, and the native la
Dor is done chiefly by convicts. who
! are imprisoned in their compounds.
This has been the means of making
the de Beers Consolidated" Of which
Mr.. Rhodes is chairman, the richest
corporation in the world, but it has
not increased the price of native labor
| The same thing may be expected in
| Transvaal should the great financier
| ever be able to consummate a similar
scheme there under the British govern
ment. If in Transvaal there seems to
| be more vigorous enforcement of the
regulations with regard to the natives
| than in Natal, it is doubtless for the
| reason that it is always necessary
to be more strict in the enforcement of
law in crowd than where there are
few. The native population which
came into johannesburg for work is
about ten times as great as in Durham,
the chief city of Natal Hence, should
the native code of Natal be enforced by
the English in johannesburg, there is
no reason to suppose that it would be
any less severe and brutal than what
is now practiced by the beers. It is
! true there are good people in England
/ who have tried to do something for
the natives, but they have had no more
effect to ameliorate their status I'M
| der the laws than the many good and
earnest Christians who are among the
beers. The English colonists resent
their interference as stoutly as do the
| beers. / have no doubt that if they
supposed that the home government
was going to effect any radical i'm
provement in the social condition Of
the natives so as to release them from
the bondage and oppression which they
suffer both from the beers and the
English colonists they would turn in
and help the beers against the home
government -