SOUTH AFRICAN GOLD MINES.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 379, 22 June 1889, Page 6

SOUTH AFRICAN GOLD MINES.

(To the Editor.) Sjr, — t-T agree with your correspondent "T.M." that the fact of a bank clerk netting £50,000 by a lucky mining spec, does not prove that there 13 a great chance for everyone to do the same who may pack up and teek to the Transvaal. At^the same time you must allow me to correcothe impression that the site of the present .mining boom is in a torrid part ( of South Africa. A3 a matter of iact,' the N. Transvaal, where Johannesberg is situated, has one of the finest climates in the world, being some 4,000 feet above sea level, is remarkably well watered, and surrounded by the evev-fertile veldt — a prauie that does not require an expenditure of capital and energy to lay down to grass, or of bonedust to keep it in heart after sown. No, sir, having travelled in various parts of South Africa, including the Transvaal, I have come to the conclusion that Providence has done far more to render that country habitable than for this northern part of New Zealand. At the present time thousands of oxen must be slowly hauling the heavy Cape waggons between Newcastle in Natal and Johannesberg, doing their 14 miles a day for months, with only the grasa of the veldt to subsist on. During the winter of 1878-79, when our troops to the number of 8,000 marched into the heart of Zululand, having in' the baggage train upwards of 10,000 oxen besides horses and mules, nothing, was carried for these animals excepting a little fodder for the English troop horses. Deberts there are in South Africa, unfertile as the sandy wastes of Australia or the pumice flats of New Zealand ; but Natal, Zululand, Transvaal, Swaziland, Matebeleland are the oases of the desert, favoured with a bountiful rainfall in the summer, and on the high veldtlands a glorious, dry, bracing winter. The great drawback to English mining enterprise in the Transvaal is that the country belongs to the Boeis, who most cordially, and perhaps with just cause, hate, and, since Majnba, look down on the English. Kaffir labour is so cheap that the pick and shovelminev, workingfor others, would have but a poor show, and as you in your leader remark, provisions are necessarily expen sive, though indeed mutton should be cheap enough. The Boers are graziers, not agriculturists. Id has been a wonder to me why they have permitted the miners to flock into their territory, for they can gain but little by the influx of population, as they never trade. In fact, the Transvaal towns are composed of a mixed English, I German, and French population, but never a Dutchman. To the unitiated it is a cause of surprise as to where the Dutchmen can come from, seeing they turn up in such numbers, well mounted, and armed with the perfect Westley-Richards falling block rifle, on the occasion of a commando for the defence of their homes, or for purposes of aggression on native territory. Yourreadersmayaskwhy has South Africa had &uch little attention in the way of emigration ? Simply because the country has a large native population, who, willing to accept a Is a day wage, naturally keep out of employment the white knights of labour — very much to the advantage of the employer. For a clever prospector with a knowledge of reefing and a couple of nun dred pounds in the bank, there is, lam certain, a good opening, as reefs have been traced from Ley den berg across the Limpopo even to Sofala (Ophir), the supposed spoc whence Solomon obtained gold — 666 talents (more than. 27 tons weight) in one year. " And all King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold, none were of silver ; it was nothing accounted of in the days of King Solomon "—(I." — (I. Kings, x., 21). Up to last April, upwards'of 200 Transvaal mining specs.- had been floated in London, with an aggregate paid-up capital of £50,000,000, and at that date a scrip value of £95,000,000. I agree with "T,M."that at£22,000 (present price) the Saxon is better value than most of the Transvaal mines,' and I consider it a great misfortune that a good mine, such as the one in question, has not ere this been sold at a fair price to an English syndicate. I leave to your readers' imagination the effect that would have been produced on 'Change by the fortnightly cablegrams, coming to hand regularly during the past six months, announcing to expectant shareholders that 2500zs of gold had been banked for a two-weeks' crushing. The shares would certainly have stood at a very considerable premium, and many other mines could, on the strength of the above, have been floated at Home, and with plenty of capital forthcoming, honestly worked. Why does not the enterprising "T.M." take in hand, say the Ajlburnia.and float it at Home ? 20,000 shares of £I— 7s 6d paid up j vendors, i.e., present shareholders, to receive 2s 6d cash per share, and one paid up to 7s 6d for every three shares held at time ot handing over the mine. This arrangement would leave £5,500 in hand to pay for floating, working the mine, and getting rid of the tributers. The Caledonian, Trenton, Cambria, and others might .well be disposed of on the same plan, with profit to present shareholders and a fair prospect for the English investors.' • Unfortunately, with the single exception ,of the Kapanga paying 6d a short time ,back, not one New Zealand mine has paid a cent in dividend, to the" too-confiding British public, who f might therefore reasonably fight shy of, further investment. — Yours, etc.j • , H. J. Tauranga. . . „a ) / ,

Alm6nd and' Raisin" 'Pudding. — Soak a quarter of a pound of the stale crumb of bread in; half a pint of new milk ; add two tablespoonsful of finely-shred suet, the same of currants washed and picked, a little su^'arjthe ' juice and finely-chopped riind'of a - lemon, three «well-be,aten ' eggs; ' ;and a 1 tablespoonf ul, of, ale. Well butter a mound or- basin. , Place the mixture in it, and boil or steam for tKree hours." ' ' u

some months before the American grain harvest, so as to be manufactured and distributed to the uttermost parts of .that great country. During harvest months, and for come time poon after, the demand for twine material is small, and ehrSwd business men therefore ! believe confidently that if flax will keep up till September, prices, are likely to remain high, ns fresh American orders will then be sent, out against the grain crop of 1889. If flax keep up till' September, New Zealand will coin' money. For the past six months many would-be— knowing neople have been predicting a perfect collapse of prices in the flux trade when June came round. They declared that the June prices would kill the trade. But June has come, and nearly gone, and although a fall came there has been nothing approaching a collapse and mill-owners are still jubilant. The London Economist's price { list formanilla for each month for several years shows that hemp fluctuates ■ greatly in prices from month to month, bnt because it ranges from LlO a.ton no one dreams of its going out of use. London and American advices teach that flax may probably go down somewhat in priceH, but that at anything like L 22 a ton New Zealand hemp will b« very largely taken into consumption for many purposes.