A MINER'S LETTER.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume I, Issue 14, 11 March 1890, Page 3

A MINER'S LETTER.

(From the Sydney Evening News.) At a time when ihe South African gold fields are attracting considerable attention, and drawing numerous perpuns from Australia, the fojlowing letter, written by an Australian miner, will prove interesting :- Juhaimenhurg, Transvaal, South Africa, December 16, 1889.

Dear Sir,—l write to give you an account of the Transvaal goldfivlds. Barberton, where the big rush occurred three years ago, has collapsed, owing to the reefs being botU too small and too poor to pay. A large number of mining companies were floated in London, with capitals amounting in the aggregate to £8.000,000; nevertheless, not one pound's worth of work was done in the lodes to open them up or prove them. In fact, all these' properties were floated in London on. the most fraudulent reports. Generally a sum of from £5(0,01)0 to £IOO,OOO was placed to the credit of the com? to open up the mines and erect machinery for treating the ore, Thiß money is all spent now, and the lodes having been too poor to pay, the mnehinery is all standing idle. The London investors have, therefore, suffered considerable loss. The Johannesi burg goldfold is 300 milts from Barber-

j ton. There is only one main line of reef at Johannesburg, and over 50 miles length of it has been taken up and floated into a company. All thi> ground was mostly floated without any work having been done to prove if the reaf was payable or not. This Johannesburg line of reef would never b< called a quartz reef lode in Australia. It runs through country as level as possible, and the lode is composed of water-worn pebbly stones and cemented gravel. In Australia we would call it a cemented gravel wash. It is ver\

like the cemented gravel wash that was at the White Hills Lead on old Sandhurst in Victoria. This lode averages from 18in to 2ft in thickness, and yields on an average loz of gold per ton. There is a large reef, 12ft thick.

separated from the small reef by only a few feet, but it will not pay to work, a>it yields only 3dwts of gold per ton There are nearly 3000 head of stampers going The mining work is all done In Kaffir labor. The company pav them 15s per week, feed them, and builr! Kraals for them to live in. A white miner is engaged to superintend every group of ten Kaffirs, showing them how to work and where to bore holes. The white miner fires all blasting, and

does all the timbering work in the mines. These Kaffirs would not be engaged in the mines in Australia il they worked for nothing. They are the most stupid, and the most dirty wretches I have ever seen. They work naked in the mines, living as bad as any beast, and never washing themselves. They are, in f'a-t, as bad as the North Queensland wild blacks. " The yield of gold from this line of reef, for the last four months average i from33,OUOto 34,000 ounces of gold per month. This yield does not pay half the expenses of all the companies that are working on this line of reef. There is no timber fit for mining purposes growing within 700 miles of the place; therefore, as the ore is br ken

and raised from the lode the workings are filled up with mullock from the surface, so as to secure the ground. This makes the working of the reef very expensive. There are large eoa/ deposits fifteen milts fiom Johannesburg and all supplies of fuel for the use of people and machinery aiv obtained from these coal mirn s. Johannesburg has a population oi' 40,00.) white people, and as many more Kaffirs. It is iar larger than the Broken Mill town, of the buildings here have cost £IOO,OOO. The Mining Exchange is a splendid building. The Boers will not allow any railways to be made in the Trans-

vaal, and, in consequence, all supplies are very dear. All mining companies at Johannesburg are so heavilv taxed Under the 80-r Government that i< costs JOs an ou■ ce. on all gold obtained.