wishes of the Home Government. In the same manner the Government of Natal has been forced by public opinion to protest against the claim of the Indian Government that Indians, being British subjects, are entitled to live in any part of the Empire on the same conditions as white British subjects. Following in the wake of the indentured coolies, a superior class of Asiatics settled in the colony and started trading operations. The effect of this Indian emigration to Natal has been to ruin many of the small English traders, and the better-class Asiatics have now obtained a monopoly of most of the East African trade. The Imperial Government will no doubt insist on Indian subjects having equal rights with white men, but the future Federal States of South Africa will, I believe, defy the Home Government as did New South Wales.

Having travelled in most countries of the world, I am convinced that climatic influences are the factors which rule the development of the human race. It has been ironically remarked that the progress of civilisation among savages takes the form of a missionary, a gunboat, and a punitive expedition, civilisation on these lines eventually leading to the gradual extinction of the aborigines. There is an element of truth in this epigram which cannot be ignored.

Having endeavoured to show that any great development of the new colonies depends chiefly on the labour question, it is now necessary to briefly explain the conditions of banket mining.

The Witwatersrand consists of a series of tilted pebble-beds having a dip which varies very considerably. The beds on the western series in some instances lie nearly vertically. The outcrop dip is, however, seldom maintained to any depth, the formation as a rule flattening out. The general dip varies from 70° to 30°. A Transvaal mining claim consists of a parallelogram 150 ft. by 400 ft. measured on the surface. The holder is entitled to work the reef or reefs which lie underneath this surface area, but he is not entitled like under the Rhodesian Gold Law to follow the reef.

Assuming the bed to be 4 ft. thick and dipping at 30°, the ore contents of one claim would amount to 19,795 tons. If the dip were 75° the contents would be 66,236 tons.

In the earlier days of these goldfields it was generally supposed that the outcrop dip would be maintained, but fortunately for the deep-level mine-owners the reefs flattened out after dipping for a distance, thus enabling the deposits to be won at far less capital cost than if the outcrop dip had been maintained. Nature has favoured these fields in a remarkable manner, for every condition found is favourable to cheap working.

There is very little local heat in the rocks, and the cost of mechanical ventilation has thus been rendered unnecessary. In the American gold-mines timber is a heavy item in the costs. On the Rand, owing to the nature of the roofs, this cost is but a mere trifle. There

is an ample supply of water if properly conserved. Considerable loss has been entailed in the past by proper facilities not having been granted to the industry for conveying the water to the fields. The rainfall on the Rand is very variable, in 1891 being 40.85 inches, while in 1896 only 17.01 inches were recorded. The climate is neither very cold nor very hot, the constant fever epidemics which have prevailed in the past being solely due to unsanitary conditions and a bad supply of water. Immense beds of coal, lying at shallow depths which can be easily and cheaply mined, are situated within five miles of the eastern section of the Rand, yielding a good secondclass steam coal.

Lastly, the continuity of the reefs, both laterally and clinometrically, and their extraordinary regularity have created a great manufacturing industry, the antithesis to anything of the kind previously known in the history of gold-mining.

It is true that the yield of gold per ton of ore crushed is less than was obtained when mining operations were first commenced, but this is entirely due to the cause that, when machinery had to be conveyed to the Rand by bullock waggons, the mine-owners were unable to obtain sufficient money to provide large reduction plants, the consequence being that only rich selected ores were passed through the small light mills.

To arrive at the average working cost of all the companies producing gold is not possible, as some companies do not publish any returns. Probably 258. to 288. per ton would be a fair

estimate.

Under the Boer Government the system of taxation was indirect, and under this system the mine-owners asserted that they provided 90 per cent. of the revenue raised. In 1897 the Transvaal revenue amounted to 3,956,4021.

The Transvaal Government were entitled to 85 per cent. of the profits made by the Netherlands Railway, and they derived an annual income of over one million sterling from this source. As to dynamite, the Government only received a small royalty amounting to approximately 50,000l. per annum. The price of dynamite as sold by the concessionnaires was about double its price in the open market. This money found its way into the pockets of the concessionnaires, who benefited to the extent of 300,000l. to 400,000l. per annum.

In my opinion a direct system of taxation is the only possible method which will allow the great resources of this country to be developed; and though repetition may be wearisome, the important factor must not be overlooked that the real wealth of the country lies in low-grade ores, which greatly exceed the high-grade ores. To accomplish this end, railway rates must be reduced to a point which, after paying working costs, gives a return, say, of 3 per cent. on the

capital. There should be no tax on dynamite or on any of the necessities of life. Concessions which have stifled trade should be abolished, the majority of them having been obtained by bribery and corruption. This system of taxation would allow six dwts. ores to be workable at a profit, and the output of gold would then be limited only by the supply of labour. Before the outbreak of the war sixty-eight companies with 5,910 stamps were crushing on the main reef series. In 1897 forty-two of these companies with 4,235 stamps distributed in dividends 4,925,793., their combined nominal capitals being 19,463,740.-the average nominal capital, in December 1900, of each company thus being 463,423. The nominal capital is no criterion of the actual money provided for equipment and development; for example, the Robinson Mine has a nominal capital of 2,750,000l., but the actual amount expended by the mine-owners on equipment and development does not exceed 80,000l., the equipment having been provided out of profits. The 80,000l. does not, however, represent the true sum provided for equipment and development, as 50,000l. of this sum was realised by a sale of one thousand original 1. shares at a premium of 50l. On the other hand, the Ferreira Company has a nominal capital of 90,000. to-day worth 1,822,500l., but the working capital was provided by issuing 11. shares at premiums varying from 91. to 171. per share. The aggregate market value of the forty-two dividend-paying companies is 55,178,4491., each company having an average value of 1,313,773., yielding at present market prices 8.88 per cent. The seventeen companies with 1,215 stamps which were unable to declare dividends in 1899 owing to the war, have an aggregate market value of 25,766,039., or an average value of 1,515,649., their nominal aggregate capital being 8,206,5171. Their average yield per stamp for the month of July 1899 was 80·12 oz., as against 79-33 yielded by the forty-two dividend-paying mines. The remaining nine mines with 460 stamps had a nominal aggregate capital of 2,162,625., a market value of 1,405,750l. Five of these nine companies are Barnato flotations; the result, therefore, is not surprising. But for the war, the total dividends of the fifty-nine companies for the year 1899 would have been approximately six and a-half million sterling. It is necessary to remember that these high dividends were earned notwithstanding the heavy indirect taxation imposed by the Boer Government.

It is now necessary to consider how many additional stamps can be worked for a number of years on this particular area. Some of the outcrop companies having a very limited number of claims will in a few years be exhausted, and the future of this section of the Rand will then to some extent depend on the deep levels. Though the Rand beds vary in richness very considerably, along the strike of the reefs very little if any variation is found between the ore lying near the

outcrop and the ore to the dip of the same. There is no difference between a deep-level mine and an outcrop mine except that the former requires a larger capital outlay for the sinking of deeper shafts and the larger machinery entailed thereby.

At the Consolidated Gold Fields meeting in 1897, Mr. Hays Hammond stated that the deep levels could be worked at the same cost as the outcrop companies. This statement, though it appears contrary to common sense, is, I think, correct, but only for the reason that Mr. Hammond must have had in his mind the fact that the deep-level mines would crush on a larger scale than do some of the small output companies.

Mining operations, whether gold, copper, or coal, cannot in any part of the world (all conditions being equal) be carried out so cheaply at great depths as at shallow depths. Owing to the absence of local heat in the rocks already referred to, there is no reason whatever why mines on the Rand should not be successfully worked to depths of 5,000 feet, and probably much deeper. The Calumet and Hecla Copper-Mine, Michigan, U.S.A., is 5,000 feet deep, and is, I believe, the deepest mine in the world. The late engineer of this mine recently informed me that at a copper-mine in this district a shaft was now in course of sinking to a depth of 7,000 feet. For the purpose of argument I assume that the banket formation will be worked to a depth not exceeding 5,000 feet. On this basis, at least, 15,000 stamps could be worked for a great number of years on the twenty-five miles already referred to. If 5,910 stamps on this small area -notwithstanding heavy indirect taxation--could produce sufficient gold to pay dividends at the rate of six and a-half millions per annum, 15,000 stamps on the same ground would give a proportionate yield.

6

The following extract from a speech of Mr. C. D. Rudd in 1896 will enable the reader to form an opinion as to the value of the best mining claims. Exclusive of such extremely rich mines in the neighbourhood of the Robinson Mines which return from 30,000l. to 60,000l. in profits, and under which we have very large holdings, we may say the ore will yield on an average about 408. per ton.'

The general average value of claims on the central Rand would be from 10,000l. to 20,000l. each. The licences payable for claims are:

If a mine has 200 claims, and 10 claims are worked per annum, digger's licences of 158. per month would be payable on each of the 10 claims, prospector licences on the 190 claims, and if the land was required for refuse heaps-i.e. tailings-2s. 6d. per month for such surface claim.

I have dealt so far with this particular section of the Rand, for it is the one best known to the public, but there are many hundreds of miles of low-grade reefs which have not yet been referred to. On Randfontein shortly before the outbreak of the war a cross-cut driven from the Porges Mine struck no less than ten reefs lying back to back within a few yards of each other. The main reef itself on the Central Rand is not payable except in a few instances, but it is important to remember that if taxation were levied on the lines suggested the main reef could then be worked by many mines, and this would greatly enhance the value of the outcrop companies. The effect would be in many cases to double the life of the mines. Immense deposits of ore have been proved on the Barberton, Pochefstroom, Lydenburg, Murchison Range, and Klerksdorp fields, and these could nearly all be worked to a profit, for, though low-grade ores, they give a return of over six dwts. In 1898 the gold production of the world was estimated to be 57 millions, the Transvaal yielding 16,240,630l., or more than any other country in the world. The Witwatersrand yielded 93.20 per cent. of this latter sum, the outside districts 6.77 per cent., alluvial 03 per cent. The output for 1899 would greatly have exceeded that of 1898 but for the outbreak of hostilities, the returns for the first six months of 1899 showing a very large increase over the first six months of 1898; but the war, of course, prevents comparison.

I have now endeavoured to show that under a proper system of taxation the production of gold will depend solely on the supply of labour, but it is necessary to show on what items of mining costs saving can be effected. The following figures were placed before the Boer Industrial Commission in 1897 as being the average cost of the Crown Reef, Robinson, Henry Nourse, New Hereot, City and Suburban, and Geldenhuis Deep:

NOTE.-A reduction in Kaffir wages has taken place since these figures were compiled.

On the Langlaagte Estate and Gold-Mining Co. the reefs are 10 feet thick and the working costs are only 178., while on the Rietfontein Estate I have seen the main reef leader less than half-an-inch thick. Though nearly 4 feet is taken out of the stopes, the Riet A has a