§ MR. CHARLES McVEIGH (Down, S.)To ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he can state what wages are paid to white men employed on the Australian gold mines, and what it costs per ton to mine and mill the ore in each of the States of Western Australia, Victoria, and Queensland; and whether he can state what wages are paid to the Chinamen imported to South Africa, and what it costs to mine and mill the ore per ton on the 600 mines they are employed in on the Transvaal gold fields.
(Answered by Mr. Churchill.) The wages paid to white men employed in Western Australian gold mines appear to vary from a minimum of about 10s. per shift to surface labourers, to a minimum of about 15s. or 16s. for rock-drill men in shafts; men working in wet ground being paid 1s. 8d. per shift in addition to the ordinary rate of pay. In Victoria the wages of surface men vary from £1 to £2 5s. per week, and of miners and pitmen from £2 5s. to £3. The cost of mining and milling varies largely; the average cost of working, per ton, in twenty-two companies in Western Australia in 1905 varied from 16s. 5d. to 38s. 8d.; adding to this the average cost of development, the variation was from 22s. 7d. per ton to over 40s. per ton. The average working costs, per ton, over the whole amount of tons mined and milled, do not appear to be given in the Reports of the States mentioned; but some indication is afforded by the dividends paid. Thus, in Western Australia in 1903, dividends to the amount of £2,024,152 were pa d on a total product of the value of £8,770,719, or about one-fourth. The ore value appears to be about one ounce per ton, or about 72s. In Victoria the amount of ore treated was 1,078,433 tons in 1903, and the dividends of the principal lode mines were about £500,000. In Queens and the value of the gold yield of 1904 was £2,714,934 and the dividends paid by gold mining companies amounted to £831,966. The average wages paid to Chinese labourers in the Transvaal were, for the year June, 1904, to June, 1905, £1 13s. 6d. per man per month; for the year 1905 the average monthly wage was£1 17s. 7d. The cost of mining and treating the ore in the Transvaal mines is variable, and no average figures are given by the Mines Department, but the working costs of the subsidiary companies of the Rand Mines, Limited, are cited as representative of the working costs of the gold mines in the Witwatersrand area, and these are £1 2s. 8d. per ton. Every effort has been made by this Department to provide my hon. friend with a full and 601 accurate reply; but I must observe that, having regard to the very complicated and extensive nature of the Question, it would have been more convenient had he found it possible to give me somewhat longer notice.