THE TRANSVAAL FROM WITHIN

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2019, 2 March 1907, Page 3

THE TRANSVAAL FROM WITHIN

Tho special correspondent of -tho Pall Mall Gazette has written a luminous and suggestive description of the condition of things in the Transvaal, which emphasises strongly tho reiterated statements that depression is the dominant factor. The pinch is roost acutely felt amongst tho commercial community upon the Rand, although It 1 is also apparent among the smaller Dutch farmers. Ono rosw dent who' had watched the ’vicissitudes of Johannesburg for the past 20 years significantly observed that the community had arrived at the suggestive stage of pawning its jewels. Sales “without reserve” are the order of the day, and the insolvency court is the institution which is doing the most business. The building trade, as the result of the boom, is in a very bad state, and, at a modest computation, 80 per cent, of it is out of employment. Owing to a far too sanguine anticipation at the close of the war, Johannesburg began building on a large scale, and the craze spread to other large centres in. the Transvaal and Natal. The result is that it now contains accommodation, residential and otherwise, far in excess of the demands of its present population, anil many huge buildings which were erected in the best business centres of the town are either wholly or partially unooupied. This means a heavy loss of interest on capital expenditure,and also heavy rates. The consequence is that Johannesburg is the most heavily mortgaged city in the- world. The general depression is attributed mainly to the lifeless condition of the stock market. Everybody in Johannesburg gambles in shares, and as most of the buying w-as done in ! a rising market, the stick of whose rocket has come down, the depletion ol private purses has been enormous. The dividends of the paying ventures mostly go to Europo, because the local public seem to have bought for an immediate turnover, and the holders of stock acquired their scrip on the fall of the market. With regard to the repatriation of tho the journalist found tlie general public of one mind. They hate the Chinaman, and would gladly see him out of the country to-morrow. The majority of the people are existing on a thin dietary of hope that the Government in some mysterious way will yet bring about tho steady prosperity of the country. But in the meantime the Transvaal is supplying the world with a magnificently deplorable example of a great economic principle. The prosperity of the greatest industry is not bringing prosperity to tho colony because the profits go direct to Europe and the criminal authorisation of Chinese labor has shut the colonists themselves oi]t of the industry..