3-'0 Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



the enormous waste of labour occurring in agricultural pursuits in 

 this Colony. 



As far as the routine surface work on the mines of the Wit 

 watersrand is concerned, their managers claim, and, I think, with 

 justice, that the waste of labour has been reduced enormously since 

 the opening of these fields, and that the margin for further reduction 

 in this direction is very small. As an example of what has been 

 done, I would instance the fact that the number of employees in a 

 certain loo stamp mill with crushers, in the year 1890 was 28 white 

 men and 121 natives; this mill crushed under 5000 tons a month. 

 At the present time a 100 stamp mill crushing 14,000 tons of ore a 

 month will only employ 11 white men and 27 natives; showing that 

 the labour, measured by the tons crushed, has been made 11 times 

 as effective. 



I have seen, as doubtless many of you have also seen, a Kaffir 

 who looked on a shovel for the first time, and whose conception of its 

 use was limited to placing it on the ground, carefully filling it with 

 ground scooped up in his hands, triumphantly placing it on the top 

 of his head, then bearing it off to the spot to which the ground was 

 to be shifted. And I have also seen Kaffirs who were able in a 

 day to load 40 tons of sand into trucks, and shift them 40 feet — a 

 task which would be considered excellent work anywhere in the 

 world. If the labour force of any industrial venture is largely 

 composed of men like the first-mentioned, a huge waste of labour will 

 for a time be the result, whereas if any very large proportion can 

 accomplish similar work to that of the second set of workers, then the 

 manager of such an enterprise can view an inspection of his labour 

 sheets with equanimity and unconcern. 



While undoubtedly an enormous amount has been accomplished 

 in reducing the waste of labour on the mines of the Witwatersrand, 

 we still have to acknowledge that enough remains to be done to 

 engage the serious attention of those who have the interest of these 

 mines at heart. Personally, I am no great believer in what has been 

 called " dramatic economy of labour." Under such an impulse, the 

 interest on the capital necessary to be spent in order to save the 

 labour of one man, is apt to exceed the wages which would have to 

 be paid that man. I am, however, a great believer in the slow, 

 laborious, but permanent effect of education on the labourer. Catch 

 the Kaffir young, educate him so that he knows how to work, instil 

 into him sufficient ambition and enough wants to make it necessary 

 for him to work continuously in order to satisfy them, then that very 

 necessity for continuous labour will draw out and increase his sense 

 of responsibility, so that he can be trusted to do his work properly 

 without the excessive and wasteful supervision now necessary. Also 

 educate the overseer to realise that he is a foreman of a gang of 

 labourers whom he has to train to work to the best advantage, and 

 this accomplished, you will have probably reduced the waste of 

 labour to the minimum possible under South African conditions. 



