: I'RliSlDENT S ADDRKSS. 2/ 



of the country, and the estabhshment of industries to take the 

 place of the worked out mines, inchtding- of necessi'ty am]^le 

 provision for education and technical training and research. 



The results of the industrial census now being compiled will 

 be awaited with much interest, since, for the first time, we shall 

 be put in possession of the details of the industrial activities of 

 the Union, apart from the alread}' pulilished statistics relating to 

 ])ower. The recent conference of manufacturers at Cape Town, 

 described by the Minister of Mines and Industries as " the most 

 important conference that had ever been held in South Africa,"' 

 and at which a Chamber of Industries was formed, l)etokens an 

 admirable spirit of co-operation. It is also a hopeful sign oi 

 the recognition of the importance of new industries that some 

 of the larger towns in South Africa are offering special facilities 

 for the acquisition of factory sites and i)()wer and water at cost 

 price. 



Every country is dependent to a greater cr less extent on 

 other countries for its raw materials, and we are all familiar 

 with the efforts which are now being made to make the Empire 

 self-supporting as regards raw materials for industries. South 

 Africa must benefit by its inclusion in this scheme ; for example, 

 the world's principal source of chrome ore, so valuable in special 

 steel making, is in Rhodesia, and the Prieska district is said to 

 possess the largest deposits of asbestos in the world. 



One of the saddest features of modern industrialism has 

 been the cloud of suspicion and mistrust which has hung over 

 the relationships between emi)loyer and employee. The frank 

 and full recognition of trades unions by the mining employers 

 of the Rand and the adoption of the principle of the " round 

 table " conference, will, it is to be hoped, tend to the lasting 

 benefit of both parties, and result in increased industrial effi- 

 ciency to which nothing can contribute so much as a settled and 

 contented community. To eliminate or even to minimise indus- 

 trial warfare is a great achievement, which must add tremen- 

 dously to the stability of industrial enterprises. But disci])line 

 and loyalty to their Unions is essential on the i)art of the workers 

 if this new arrangement is going to bear the economic fruit anti- 

 cipated. 



This dissipation of the feeling of estrangement is one indi- 

 cation of the wider and deeper sympathies which are being 

 engendered by the w-orld crisis. As a prominent South African 

 labour leader has said, the exi>eriences through which so manv 

 millions are now passing " are going to produce a feeling of 

 greater human sympathy between all men, which will enable 

 them to achieve their end — the happiness of their fellow beings 

 — with less rancour and bitterness." 



The growing white population of this country makes agricul- 

 tural and industrial development imperative, but greater atten- 

 tion must also lie directed to the educational and technical e(|uip- 



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