employment can be obtained for the prisoner, the
court may impose the ordinary penalties provided
by the law.”
On pages 195-6 the Report deals at greater length with
this section of the Vagrancy Proclamation. Obviously
it is advisable to clear up the position arising under this
Proclamation.
B. Indirect Compulsion.
The provisions of the Prime Minister’s Land Bill in
regard to licenses for squatters and of Mr. Pirow’s Native
Service Contract Registrations Bill, together with the Pass
Laws of the Union and the question of the supply of Con-
vict Labour to Private Employers, should be compared
with the principles suggested in the Questionnaire adopted
by the Conference (p. 67), as follows :
“Do you consider that the International Labour
Conference should adopt a Recommendation depre-
cating resort to indirect means of artificially increas-
ing the economic pressure upon populations to seek
wage-earning employment, particularly by
(a) imposing taxation on populations on a scale
dictated by the intention of compelling them to
work for the benefit of private enterprises :
(b) rendering difficult the gaining of a living in
complete independence by workers by unjustified
restrictions as to the possession, occupation, or
use of land :
(¢) extending abusively the generally accepted mean-
ing of vagrancy ;
(d) adopting pass laws which would result in
giving the workers in the service of others a position
of advantage as compared with that of other
workers ? >’
Under Section 12 (1) of Mr. Pirow’s Native Service
Contract Registrations Bill any Native domiciled in the
Transvaal or Natal, and being between the ages of eigh-
teen and sixty, is liable, in addition to all other taxes. to a
| fA