Vol. VIII. No. 93. 
IMPERIAL INSTITUTE JOURNAL. 
[September, 1902.] 237 
Supposing all such requirements are met, there remain 135,000 natives for 
farms in the Cape, Bechuanaland, Natal and Rhodesia, the mining industries 
outside the Rand, the railways, railway construction, the Government service, 
irrigation, house and municipal work, a totally inadequate number, based 
even as it is on this liberal estimate. One of the highest authorities on 
South African natives states that this estimate is altogether too high. The 
true proportion should be 1 in 8 of 60 per cent, of the population, since it 
is necessary to allow at least 40 per cent, for able-bodied adults remaining in 
kraals to look after the women and children, and for those who are unwilling 
to work from various causes. Possessing such figures, naturally many mining 
houses on the Rand have become convinced that there is not enough native 
labour in South Africa to work the mines. 
The report of the Chief Inspector of Factories, Workrooms, and Shops of 
Victoria for 1901, states that during that year the number of workers 
employed in the registered factories and workrooms of the State increased 
from 52,898 to 56,945. With respect to special Boards appointed under the 
laws of the State to determine the lowest rate of w r ages which may be paid in 
particular trades, there are now 38 such Boards in existence, six of which were 
authorised in 1896, 21 in 1900, 11 in 1901. The Boards authorised last 
year are to deal with the minimum wages payable to workpeople engaged in 
the following trades : — Aerated Water, Artificial Manure, Bedstead-making, 
Brass-working, Brewing, Brush-making, Iron-moulding, Leather Goods 
Manufacture, Malting, Oven-making, and Wicker Goods Manufacture. The 
Chief Inspector estimates that “ when all the Boards have made their deter- 
minations, about 35,000 persons will receive the benefits of the system.” 
With respect, however, to the Furniture trade, the report states that it is 
agreed by every one acquainted with the trade that the Chinese do not pay 
the -wages required by the law, and the* Chief Inspector remarks, “ I have 
again to admit that I do not know of any means of compelling them to comply 
with the law.” Refuting the allegation that the minimum wage is nearly 
always the maximum wage, and that fixing the former tends to take away 
from the good workman the incentive to do his best, the Chief Inspector 
states : — “ the Special Board system has now been in force in a few trades 
since 1897, and I have no hesitation in saying that the minimum wage is never 
the maximum wage. If we take the clothing trade, for instance, the minimum 
wage for adult males is 45s. per week, whereas the average wage paid last year 
was 53s. 6d. per week ; for aclulj: females in this trade the minimum wage is 
20s. per week, whereas the average wage paid last year was 22s. 3d. per week. 
In the boot trade the minimum wage is 42s. for adult males, whereas the 
average wage paid last year was 44s. yd. ; for adult females the minimum is 
fixed at 20s., whereas the average wage paid last year was 2 is. Sd. Taking a 
trade in which the women are principally employed, namely, the shirt trade, 
the minimum wage is 16s. per week, whereas the average wage paid last year 
was 20s. 8d. In this case, however, the majority of the workers are engaged 
upon piece-work. 
According to the Chief Secretary, Malta has entered upon a period of 
prosperity, especially for the working classes, who form the bulk of this 
community. Owing to important works undertaken by the Local Government 
for the extension of the drainage, and for the increase of the water supply — by 
the military authorities in connection with the scheme of defence, such as the 
opening of new roads and the erection of additional barrack accommodation 
and by the naval authorities for the construction of two large docks in the 
French Creek — the demand for labour was in excess of the supply, hence 
wages rose. Compared with five years ago, an ordinary labourer can, at 
present, earn from is. Sd. to 2s. 6d., against is. 6d. to 2s. 2d. in 1897, and 
skilled labour commands from 3s. to 4s. 6d. per day, against 3s. to 3s. qd., 
whilst fitters' wages range between 4s. and 5s. 6d., against 3s. 6d. to 5s. in 
1897. This increase in the value of labour has caused a change in the 
economic conditions of the thrifty workmen of Malta, whose life is evidently 
easy and contented. The effect of this prosperity is noticed not only in the 
statistics of the savings bank, in which the yearly deposits have risen from 
^99,113 in 1897 to ^120,109 in 1901, but also in the increase of marriages, in 
the large excess of births over deaths, and in the visible signs of comfort and 
cheerfulness observed in this class of population. The total expenditure 
incurred by the Government of Malta in public works in the year under 
review amounted to ^101,849, of which ^53,328 was for annually recurrent 
works, and ^48,521 for works of an extraordinary nature. Sir Gerald 
Strickland states that an opinion is gaining ground that the climate of Malta 
has somewhat changed for the better, that the hot weather begins later and 
ends earlier, and that rain falls at periods of the year which used to be drier. 
This may be due to the Government having adopted the policy of 
systematically planting a number of trees every year. The standard of comfort 
of the people is being rapidly raised, owing to the greater contact with British 
subjects from other parts of the Empire, promoted by the great increase of the 
fleet and garrison. The presence of the garrison regiments with grown-up 
families, and the opportunities now enjoyed by non-commissioned officers, 
petty officers, and even by stokers in the navy, to bring their families out to 
Malta, are producing social conditions under which Malta is ceasing to be 
merely a dependency, and becoming a colony in a more proper sense of the 
word. 
Foreign Countries.— Ever since the great Antwerp dock strike in the 
winter of 1900-1901, there has been a combined and successful effort on the 
part of employers to combat labour unions by the formation of a “ federation ” 
which has for its object to protect and develop the interests of the shipping 
trade. This federation assures regular work for the dockers, is gradually 
uprooting the evils of which the working classes complain, and by arbitration is 
amicably settling all disputes. The workmen are guaranteed an indemnity in 
case of lack of work, and mutual benefit associations among the dockers are 
favoured and encouraged. These associations supply the members with 
medical aid, old-age pensions, relief to the families in the event of sudden 
death, etc. All these privileges are made possible by subscriptions from both 
employers and employed. The success of the federation has exceeded all 
expectations, and now over 5,000 dockers have become members. Never 
has there existed a more complete understanding between masters and men 
than under these conditions. Day work has now proved so efficacious that 
the necessity for overtime work has greatly diminished. The new Labour 
Exchange, which was opened on the 16th of March, is constructed in the 
very heart of the Antwerp maritime district. A similar institution is 
contemplated for the south end of the city. 
In Germany the industrial situation shows little improvement as compared 
with a year ago, although the downward tendency has to some extent been 
checked. Employment has been more regular in the coal trade, but this 
was due to a larger export demand rather than to increased activity at home. 
In several large iron works hands have been discharged. The textile industry 
is also in a depressed state, particularly in the wool and linen sections. 
A Labour Department and a Higher Council of Labour has just been 
established in Italy. The principal functions of the Labour Department, 
which will be attached to the Ministry of Agriculture, Commerce and 
Industry, will be the compilation and publication of information relating to 
questions affecting labour in Italy and in those countries outside Italy which 
are selected as their destination by emigrants • to the regulation and 
remuneration of labour, to the relations between labour and capital, to the 
number and the economic position of the working classes, including the 
statistics of non-employment, to trade disputes, to industrial accidents, and to 
the effects of legislation and institutions in foreign countries, and the conduct 
of such enquiries as the Department may be directed to undertake by the 
Ministry, acting on its own initiative or on the request of the Higher Council 
of Labour. The Labour Department will publish (monthly, or at shorter 
intervals) a Journal which, together with its special reports, embodjfing results 
oi its enquiries, will be sent free to such workmen’s associations as may apply 
for these publications. The law imposes upon all local authorities and 
organizations of employers and of workpeople the duty of furnishing the 
Labour Department with such details as that office may request them to 
supply in order to enable it to carry on its work. The penalty for refusing 
to supply information asked for by the Labour Department, or for wilfully 
supplying false information, will be a fine of 5 to 50 lire (4s. to £ 2 ). 
SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL DEPARTMENT 
OF THE IMPERIAL INSTITUTE. 
1 
THE GEOLOGY OF ZULULAND, 
Topography . — The topographical features of the province of Zululand may be separated 
into two distinct divisions — the Littoral and the L T plands. The littoral varies in width 
from about four miles at the Umlalaas Magistracy, to over twenty miles in the neighbourhood 
of False Bay, St. Lucia Lake. In general character it is fiat or gently undulating, bounded 
on. the west by the rising foot-hills of the Uplands and skirted on the east by the sand-dunes 
which separate it from the sea. The depth of the sand has been proved in places to be over 
90 feet, and in many localities it is probably more. Most of the surface sands have 
been blown into their present position, but underneath they show distinct stratification and 
often false bedding, indicating that they had most probably been deposited in lakes and 
lagoons. Much of the littoral is occupied by impassable marshy areas, and often impenetra- 
ble scrub. It is also studded with innumerable brackish and salt water lakes, from small 
mud-holes up to St. Lucia Lake, whose surface area is about loo square miles. Most of 
the littoral is open country, and it is only in the gullies of the permanently running creeks 
that the timber grows to a considerable height. The actual coast-line nearly as far north as 
the Umfolosi river presents at intervals more or less of a rocky character, these rocks being, 
however, only visible between tide marks, and they belong to the coal-bearing series with 
their associated volcanic rocks. Further north the rocks are of a less resistent nature, and 
have suffered disintegration. Taken as a whole the coast of Zululand possesses no natural 
harbours, and is of a most dangerous character to shipping. The rivers are blocked in all 
cases to navigation by sand-bars. There is distinct geological evidence that, since Tertiary 
times at least, the coast-line of South-east Africa has been slowly rising and becoming dry 
land, and the littoral represents what was in later Mesozoic times part of the coastal sea- 
floor. This raising of the land, and the formation of bars by means of the Agulhas ocean 
current, have been the means by which the lagoons have been formed at the mouths of the 
rivers. 
The elevated country is chiefly formed of coal-bearing and volcanic rocks lying more 
or less horizontally, or with a slight dip eastward. Around Melmoth to the east of 
Eshowe, and to the north of Hlobisa, metamorphic granites, gneisses and schists occur, while 
large tracts of the Uplands are covered by basaltic outcrops, which sometimes represent 
contemporaneous lava flows, but more commonly sills and dykes which have been intruded 
among the coal-bearing strata. The latter have been denuded to great depths by the rivers 
which flow eastward to the coast, with the formation of extensive valleys. The southern 
portion of the Lebombo range rises abruptly from the flat littoral on the east, and on the 
west from an equally level plain. It is formed of a very siliceous rhyolitic rock, and its 
surface always presents a rough and rugged aspect, and is of the most barren description. 
The rocks forming the Recent and Pleistocene formations consist of the alluvial detritus which 
has been deposited by the rivers in the more open portions of their valleys and the points 
where they enter the littoral. They are rarely of any great thickness or extent, but where 
they occur they form fertile soils. 
The Cretaceous Rocks usually outcrop where the littoral joins the foot-hills of the 
Uplands. There seems to be no doubt that this formation is largely developed over the 
northern portion of the littoral of Zululand, but is hidden in the majority of cases by the 
overlying Pleistocene and Recent sands. In boring for coal near the mouth of the Umhlatuzi 
river it was proved by two bores that a fossiliferons limestone identical with cretaceous lime- 
stone of the outcrops mentioned, exists at a depth of 70 feet and 90 feet, respectively, and 
there is every likelihood that the coal-measures also exist beneath this formation. The 
exposed fossiliferous beds of the cretaceous formation are all of marine origin and consist of 
conglomerates, calcareous sandstones, limestones, chalk and chalk marls. In the south at 
the mouth of the Umhlatuzi river, the cretaceous rocks in all probability rest unconformably 
on the coal-measures of the L'mlalaas coalfield. Further to the north on the littoral they 
probably rest on the thick series of basaltic rocks ’which overlie the coal-measures of the 
Santa Lucia coalfield, as far north as the Umsinene river, and still further north rest on the 
Rhyolitic lava of the Lebombo range. 
The Coal-bearing Formation . — The area in which coal is known to occur in Zululand is of 
great extent, covering, as it does, the major portion of the province, and stretching from near 
the Tugela river with a few local exceptions, where the metamorphic rocks appear at the 
surface, to the north of Nongoma and into Swaziland. To the north-east of the lower 
portions of the Umfolosi river and in the eastern parts of the Makowe hills, large develop- 
ments of basaltic rock occur, overlying, and apparently conformable with, the coal-bearing strata. 
These evidently contemporaneous lava sheets often attain a considerable thickness. In 
