§ MR. MARKHAMI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether, seeing the Mining Returns of the late Boer Government showed the average wage paid to white men on the gold mines was over £1 per day, he can say what is the present average wage; and whether since the war there has been any reduction in the standard rates of wages of white men; and can he say the approximate amount of wages at present monthly paid to white men on the gold mines over and above what was paid before the war.
§ MR. LYTTELTONThe Government mining engineer in his report for the year 1902–3 states that the rate of wages paid to skilled white workmen remained practically at the same level as obtained before the war: and in his report for 1903–4 he says that the rate of pay earned by European mine employees practically remains unchanged. For the year, June, 1903, to June, 1904, I find that the average wage comes to very nearly £1. The increased numbers of white men now employed on the Rand as compared with July, 1899, amounting to over 2,500, represents approximately a monthly sum of over £60,000 in excess of the amount previously paid to white labour.