The African Colony by John Buchan

Author:John Buchan [Buchan, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Literary, Historical, General
ISBN: 9783752380576
Google: 8Kf0DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Published: 2020-07-31T00:38:42+00:00

[15] The latest information available on the subject of the Transvaal gold mines will be found in the exhaustive report prepared for Mr Chamberlain by the mining engineers, and published at Johannesburg in 1903.

[16] The following are some of the working costs of the mines. Low costs: Geldenhuis Deep, 22s.; Geldenhuis Select, 17s. 6d.; Geldenhuis Main Reef, 17s. 4d.; Meyer and Charlton, 18s. 2d.; Simmer and Jack, 20s. 7d. High costs: City and Suburban, 29s. 1d.; Bonanza, 27s. 6d.; Robinson Deep, 30s. 2d. The Robinson-Randfontein group have ore of a gold value of 34s. 9d. per ton, and a profit of 2s. over the working cost. The Bonanza has ore worth £5 a-ton.

[17] Imported labour reduces itself in practice to Chinese or Japanese. Even supposing that the Indian Government consented to the strict form of indenture necessary for mining purposes, the political danger of introducing coolie labour into a country which already contains a considerable coolie population would be very great.

[18] An argument often used in this connection is that the employment of Asiatic labourers, repatriated at the end of their contract, would mean that a very large sum of money annually left the country. But the same thing will happen if native African labour is brought from Central or Western Africa or Somaliland. It is happening at present with the natives from Portuguese territory, who form 90 per cent of the existing labour-supply.

[19] I have said elsewhere that there are few South African problems which are not long-descended. The first proposal to introduce Chinese labour was made by Jan van Riebeck, the first Governor of Cape Colony, about the year 1653. He urged the scheme with great persistence, but home opinion proved too strong for him.

[20] The cost of the acquisition of the present railway systems was roughly 14 millions. This does not, of course, represent an accurate statement of capital outlay, as in the Orange Free State considerable sums were spent out of State revenue. But even if we put the figure at the outside limit of 20 millions, the net profits are still more than 10 per cent of the capital value.

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