Johannesburg a Fraud.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, 4 March 1890, Page 4

Johannesburg a Fraud.

Mr P. F. Browne, a New York alining ongineer, who has recently arrived in Melbourne from South Africa, where he has spent some time examining the goldfields, has furnished to the Melbourne Argus tie results of his investigations. Mv Browne's story is very different from the rose-colored accounts which h;i/e from time to time reached this colony as to the modern El L>Grado alleged to exist in the Transvaal Republic. Mr Ir'rowne does not mince matters at all, but states that he considers the goldfields of the Rand, South Africa, the greatst frauds ever known since the South Sea Bubble. ' The fields, he states, are 300 mi'es from railway carnmunication, and are located iii a country almost barren, and with no streams of water in the vicinity. The water used for battery purposes is rain water, collected in dams, and it is so impregna.tedr>.with. olay that it floats all the light gold away. A great many of the miniug companies, he says, have been floated on deposits of baaket that will only average 3dwt to the ton. From a numjtisr. -Qf assays; heliad mads he is of opinion that the whole field would npi^yerage from 7dwt to §dwt. It is now- tjiree years since thY fields •were opened out, and the deepest shatt (vertical) is only 225 ft, showing that these deposits were simply floating, and that they have pinch d out over the fields at that dep h He has seen the balance-sheet of one of the largest rpines^ jyith a 100-stamp battery, and it showed a profit for last year of 2£ per cent on the capital invested. About £23,000,000 had been invested on the fields in machinery, buildings*,.. and in purchasing _ .from. f«he goers' land for prospecting. The total output of gold.- for. the Eand— that is, for Johannesburg arid an area of about forty miles on each side — for. 1889 was 391,0200z, valued at £ 1,. 833,570. The Government of the' Transvaal Republic ; , estimated . their revenue* for that year at £1,382,616. and for tho first half of the year the actual receipts from direct taxation in the mines and miners were £802,010 showing tl: at the estimate was a good deal under, and that the amount would probably be £1,724,---080. Previous to the gold discoveries, Mr Browne states, the Rppu -lio ,was>praeticp,liy~ bankrupt, anct ■ .the Government sold, to '.the Netherlands CoinpaDy the exclusive right to construct railways for a term, of .twouty years, and received fjonffhe Company a loan of £40,000 at 7 poi* <!&rit,' interest This jq.)i Mr Browne joints" out,' tha Govern meat has an estimated surp us of £1,300,06fr. 7\liese figures, he contend* ip t) show that tho Go veninient ha •••(?- iccoiverl, in direct taxation on l,hp.miivs and minor?, who, are jruu-ipu ly i rirwhers and Americans, moio thin the value of the total o-.ilpiu of gold. There are about, 9ooo miners on the field.