tive is responsible
for unsanitary conditions, it was proposed to impose upon them a fee
of 1s. per month for their passes, the proceeds of this to be devoted
entirely to the hospital. For several years this continued to yield
sufficient for the purpose. The Transvaal Government, although
accepting the plan proposed by the Uitlanders and for a considerable
time carrying it out faithfully, did not establish the right
permanently but adopted the formality of voting the proceeds of the
pass-fee year by year. There came a year when the Raad in its wisdom
decided that this source of revenue was too precarious for so worthy
an object as the hospital, and they decided to vote instead an annual
subsidy of L30,000. It was then known that the fees of the past year
had amounted to over L40,000 and there was every prospect of steady
annual increase. This explains why a seemingly generous subsidy by
the Government does not meet with that hearty recognition to which it
is apparently entitled. When a Pass Department was proposed, the
Government inquired how it was suggested to maintain it. The Chamber
of Mines proposed to raise the pass fee from 1s. to 2s. per month,
the extra shilling to be devoted entirely to the administration of
the Pass Law. With the experience of the hospital shilling in mind
particular care was taken to have the agreement minuted and confirmed
in writing. Nevertheless, it transpired in the evidence given at the
Industrial Commission that the department was being run at a cost of
slightly over L12,000 a year, whilst the proceeds of the shilling
reached the respectable total of L150,000 a year. The Government,
therefore, by a breach of agreement, make L138,000 a year out of the
pass fund, and L120,000 a year out of the hospital fund; and the
mining industry suffers in the meantime through maladministration in
the department, and are doubly taxed in the sense that the companies
have been obliged to establish and maintain at their own cost other
hospitals all along the reef. It is not suggested that the companies
should not provide hospitals, the point is that having established a
fund, which although nominally paid by the natives really has to be
made up to them in wages, they were entitled to the benefit of that
fund.

{17} The story is told of two up-country Boers who applied to the

President for appointments, and received the reply, 'What _can_ I
do for you? All the important offices are filled, and you are