there was a shortage of Native labour, the Government
must legislate to force the Natives to the farms whether
the farmers were prepared to pay wages or not.”
SHORTAGE OF LABOUR ON MINES AND
FARMS : A COMMITTEE APPOINTED.
On 18th December last Reuter Pretoria reported that
an inter-departmental committee had been appointed,
representative of the Native Affairs, Mines, Railways and
Agricultural Departments to investigate European and
Native labour resources in South Africa and in a later
report stated that *“ The principal matter for investigation
will be the Native labour resources of the country, and
how far a redistribution can take place so as to make up
the shortage of about 10,000 Natives on the Rand mines,
as well as the shortage on the farms.”
The position which it was desired to rectify was that
there was a shortage of Native labour on certain farms and
at the gold mines and at the same time a surplus of Native
labour in the towns. It is evident that, notwithstanding
the high cost of living and relatively low wages obtain-
able in the towns, a large number of Natives prefer to
take their chances in the towns to going to the gold mines
or up-country farms. What can be the reasons for this
preference ?
THE REASON WHY NATIVE LABOURERS
PREFER TOWN WORK TO THE GOLD MINES
Many—in some parts at least of the country the great
majority—of the Native labourers who flock to the towns
have already worked in the gold mines. They are not
returning to the mines because they know that prolonged
work in the gold mines is ruinous to health. They fear
miner’s phthisis and consumption. This is an entirely
reasonable anxiety, as reference to the Miner's Phthisis
Commission’s reports will show.
This explanation of the men’s preference for the towns
is borne out by the Medical Officer of Health of East
London who says (last Annual Report p. 14) © Twenty-
eight per cent of the year’s notifications of Tuberculosis