The telegraphic summary of the debate, though fairly full, does
not enable us to see how the supporters of the Motion met the arguments, based on official statistics, put forward in recent issues of the Johannesburg Star, the paper until lately edited by Mr. Monypenny. These are:—(1) That so far from being in a ruinous condition, the gold industry is making steady advance, the output for the year—the first whole year since the war—being estimated at within one million of the total output of the year before the war, and nearly twice that of last year. (2) That the total number of the natives employed at the mines has increased from 49,000 in October, L.,02, to 81,000 in September, 1903. In February last the Chamber of Mines suggested to Mr. Chamberlain that 52,000 were required to restore the condition of things before the war. Of these nearly half have already been ob- tained, and with the monthly increase of 3,000 which the chairman of the Native Labour Association informed the Labour Commissioners he could obtain, the whole 50,000 would be made up within a year. (3) That the treatment of the natives in the Rand mines leaves something to be desired in view of the fact that the mortality per thousand there is more than twice that amongst the natives on the De Beers mines, and four times greater than that amongst natives employed elsewhere.
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