FORCED LABOUR FOR PRIVATE EMPLOYERS.
The Labour Office Report (p. 286) states, “ almost all
legislation on the subject of forced labour forbids recourse
to it for the benefit of private individuals. The only
direct legal compulsion of this kind appears to be in the
Dutch East Indies, where it is a survival of a feudal in-
stitution. . . . the Government’s policy in this case is to
buy out the rights of the feudal lords, and considerable
progress, at great expense has been made.”
The Report further states (p. 290) “ Taxation as a
means of forcing workers to seek employment. There have
been cases where the taxation imposed upon Native
populations has been devised with the express intention
of forcing them into private employment in order that they
might earn the money necessary to pay their taxes, and
measures of this kind have been frequently advocated by
interested parties.
“Tt need hardly be said that taxation designed for this
purpose is an alternative to the direct enactment of forced
labour for private employers.”
THE NATIVE SERVICE CONTRACT
REGISTRATION BILL.
The Minister of Justice has prepared a Bill with the
above title under which with certain limited exceptions,
any Native male domiciled in the Transvaal or Natal
outside any location who is or appears to be above the
age of 18 and under the age of 60 will be liable to a special
tax of £5 unless he can prove that in the year in question
He has worked for at least three months under a contract
of service or as an artizan. This is in addition to the poll
tax and, as in the case of the poll-tax, non-payment is
an offence rendering the defaulting Native liable to im-
prisonment and that without cancellation of his liability
to pay the tax.
THE BILL EMBRACES ALL THE SUGGES-
TIONS OF THE FARMERS.
The Minister of Justice, in an interview with Ons
Vaderland stated that the new Bill * embraced all the