"Will you please look at the fireless stove?" a saleslady asked, as a group of women passed a "kitchen" stall in a fair ground on a provincial fair day. Turning about, there was a dish of baked beans, seldom seen away from America; an apple pie, an article of food as scarce in foreign parts as hens' teeth; a roast chicken, soda biscuits (called scones in British territory) and baked potatoes. The whole outfit had America stamped on it very strongly. All the women stopped to witness the fireless stove "demonstration." "Where's the fire?" asked one of the women. Then the "demonstration" began, both in action and word. Her auditors looked with staring eyes and open-mouth as the agent showed them and explained its working.
Comparatively few Americans live in the Province of Natal, as at a luncheon given by the American Consul's wife to her countrymen "a table held us all"—thirty being present. Invitations had been sent to a larger number, but as some of these were missionaries located in remote places of the country all did not attend. The luncheon was served on a Fourth of July, and what a pleasant gathering it proved to be. Some of those present had been away from their native country as long as forty years. Pleasant chats, speeches, toasts—the season of good fellowship that prevailed at that Fourth of July gathering, when we were all 10,000 miles from home, will remain among the longest cherished memories that those present will carry with them through life.
Though lighting, water, a telephone system and street railways are owned by the city, municipal ownership does not augur cheaper prices in Durban, in spite of the fact that the rates charged the consumer and patron insure the city not only a fair return on the capital invested, but generally a snug surplus is shown besides. Street cars are of double-deck style, but the fare is high. The system of paying is by "stage"—four cents from stage to stage, and the distance between "stages" is so arranged that the city receives about three cents a mile from its patrons. Conductors and motormen are Europeans.
While the street car system gives employment to white men, it is the only department of the city that does so. The park system and the street department work is done entirely by Indian coolies, who receive from $3 to $5 a month. They are the most hungry looking, bony, spindle-legged lot of creatures one might set eyes on; but it is largely due to this cheap help that the Durban treasury is in such good condition.
The Indian coolie is tricky, treacherous, lying, lazy, dirty and repulsive. He has about his loins a rag just big enough to cover his nakedness, while the wrapping around his head—his puggaree—is as large as a bed sheet. In other words, he makes a loin piece out of a handkerchief, but requires yards of cloth for a head covering.
Sugar growing being the principal industry of southern Natal, the Indian coolie was imported to work in the sugar-cane fields. Tea also is grown in the southern part of the province, and Indians are used in that industry, receiving from $3 to $5 a month and board. As his main food is rice, board does not cost much; and as he sleeps in any sort of a shed, the sugar grower is not put to great expense for beds and bedding. The coolie used to be brought to South Africa under what was termed the "indenture system," the indentureship periods being from three to five years, during which he could not leave his employer. It was a mild form of slavery. At the end of his indentureship he was generally shipped back to India, but could be re-employed there and return to Africa. The sugar company paid his transportation either way. But that expense did not greatly shrink the growers' pocketbooks, as the coolie was shipped in the hold of a ship, which, when packed with this class, resembled a great ant-hill. Serving two and three terms of successive indentureship to the same employer gained for him his freedom, when he could remain in Natal. From then on he became a curse. The Dutch came in full control of South Africa on May 30, 1910, and a month later marked the end of indentured coolies entering the sub-continent.
As is generally known, Indian girls become mothers at the age of from 12 to 14 years. Added to a resulting abnormal birth rate, compared with Europeans, polygamy is also a custom of the Indians. Thus will readily appear the great danger to the white interest where the Indian gets a foothold.
The Indian patronizes his own people, and for this reason many of the Arab and Hindu merchants soon become wealthy. They aim to oust the white man wherever and whenever they can do so. Their standard of living is so much lower, and their employees work for so much less than the white merchant must pay European help, that they can undersell the white in most lines of business. Some of the wealthiest men in the province are Indian merchants.
Most of the money in use in South Africa is gold—gold sovereigns—and silver. The gold sovereign is what the Indian is after. His savings are sent to India in gold. Through the Durban post office was sent not long since 65,000 gold sovereigns. Bankers and business men appealed to the government to put a stop to sending this metal out of the country, and when that method of depleting the gold currency had been checked, it was sent to India secretly, most of it in packing boxes, there being a large trade between the two countries.
The Indian having become a running sore on the financial and social body of Natal, the government has tried to tax the race out of the country. The legal age of a girl is placed at thirteen years and that of a boy at sixteen years. The tax on "legal" aged Indians is $15 a year. So, if an Indian father had three girls over thirteen years of age, and two sons over sixteen, making seven in the family of legal age, the head tax would be $105. To impose such an exorbitant tax on poor, low paid people seems a hardship. No "melting pot" that ever simmered will assimilate the Indian with the white race, however. They bring with them filthy habits and weird customs, and live the life of an Indian in whatever part of the world they may be located.