Wastes in Mining. 319 



this waste of labour comprise the relatively cheap Kaffir, but extends 

 to the much more highly-paid overseer ; for if labourers are employed 

 in too great numbers on any given piece of work, the cost of super- 

 vision must in proportion be unduly inflated. Viewed as a source of 

 human energy the Kaffir stands high in the scale of labouring people, 

 but from the facts that relative to his wants his remuneration is 

 enormous and that his sense of responsibility is very inadequately 

 aroused it is difficult to train him to be as efficient a workman as he 

 is seemingly capable of becoming. 



There exists but little doubt that if the Kaffir were forced by the 

 promptings of his own unsatisfied wants to work continuously year in 

 and year out, that he would become an excellent labourer. But 

 owing to the fact that his wants when he is in his native kraal are 

 limited, and that he is in reality a landed proprietor, he is able to 

 accumulate in comparatively few years sufficient wealth to live in 

 what appeals to him as being the most agreeable fashion for the rest 

 of his life. That is, he works hard for two short spells in the year, 

 at the planting and reaping seasons, in order to cultivate enough 

 land, the produce of which together with the yield of his flocks will 

 suffice to feed himself and his family. 



The wages that the Kaffir has, through his mastery of the labour 

 position, forced the industrial to pay him, enables him to earn this 

 comparative wealth by working on the average not more than half 

 the year for a verv few number of years. This means that the men 

 engaged in directing industrial enterprises have to put up with 

 n constantly fluctuating labour force, and the proportion of 

 entirely untrained labourers is unduly large. Either one of these 

 factors would tend largely to a wasteful use of labour ; their com- 

 bination results in a state of things which, in spite of the constant 

 and unremitting care of the managers of all large industrial enter- 

 prises, is neither satisfactory to them or beneficial to the Kaffir. 



As a striking example of the waste of labour that takes place in 

 pursuits other than mining. I may be allowed to quote the following 

 figures. According to the 12th Census of the United States, out of 

 a population of 76,303,387 people, 9,349,922 males were engaged in 

 agricultural pursuits. Thus for every male engaged in agriculture, 

 not only were 8.2 people fed, but an enormous quantity of food 

 products were exported, and sufficient raw materials, such as cotton, 

 wool, hides, timber — grown not only for its own manufactures, but 

 leaving an extremely large surpl.us for export. 



From the latest figures available to me of the Cape Colonv. which 

 comprise the only complete returns I have seen, I find that out of a 

 population of 1,652,036 people, 323,601 males were engaged in agri- 

 culture. Or for every male engaged in agriculture onlv 5.1 people 

 were partly fed, as Cape Colony is a large importer of food products, 

 and not only was the export of raw materials, such as wool, hides and 

 feathers small, but the amount consumed in manufactures in those 

 Colonies was practically nil. 



While it is impracticable to accurately compare the above figures, 

 they present a sufficiently startling point of view to make one realize 



