610 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



Omitting war expenditure, secret service, and for- 

 eign missions, Sir David JBarbour reckoned the 

 normal expenditure at 2,607,000, to which he 

 added 225,000 as the interest on a loan of 

 5,000,000. To pay for damages done to Natal 

 and Cape Colony and to repair the devastation 

 in the Transvaal the loan may be 7,000,000. 

 The South African constabulary is to consist of 

 10,000 men, 4,000 of whom will be paid by the 

 Imperial Government, leaving 6,000 to be main- 

 tained by the Transvaal at a cost of 1,500,000, 

 which raises the annual expenditure to 4,332,000, 

 leaving a deficit of 865,000, which it is pro- 

 posed to meet by imposing a tax of 10 per cent. 

 on the profits of the gold-mining industry. This 

 tax, together with a proper enforcement of the 

 mining licenses and contracts for leased mines, 

 would yield from the start 550,000. As the 

 wealth of the Transvaal depends almost entirely 

 on its gold-mines, the bulk of taxation must 

 necessarily fall on them either directly or indi- 

 rectly. The import duties on articles used for 

 mining purposes and on mealies supplied by the 

 companies to the colored laborers fall directly on 

 the mines, and those levied on articles used by 

 the white employees fall indirectly, making the 

 wages for white labor 30 per cent, of the total 

 cost of working the mines. The abolition of the 

 dynamite monopoly will save the mining com- 

 panies 600,000 a year, and great gain will accrue 

 from reducing freight rates when all the railroads 

 become the property of the state. The customs 

 receipts under the republican Government fell 

 from 1,355,000 in 1896 to 1,000,000 in 1898. 

 The expenditure on education is reduced by the 

 English expert from 267,000 a year to 200,000; 

 on local police, from 352,000 to 250,000; on 

 railroads, from 359,000 to 25,000. 



The stocks, bonds, and other securities belong- 

 ing to the Transvaal Government have a face 

 value of 1,825,000, consisting mainly of shares 

 of the Netherlands Railroad. The mining rights 

 in Government land at Johannesburg may be 

 worth 2,750,000 at present valuations and much 

 more if they are carefully investigated and sold 

 to the highest bidder. Mining areas may yet be 

 found elsewhere on state lands, of which there 

 are 11,000,000 acres. The republican Govern- 

 ment through defects in the mining laws wasted 

 its most important asset, which is the Government 

 right of mining and disposing of gold and other 

 minerals. From an industry that could declare 

 dividends of 5,000,000 the state derived a direct 

 revenue of not more than 150,000. The laws 

 were framed to benefit the owners of the land, 

 but the whole benefit was ultimately obtained 

 by large capitalists. Mining on the Witwaters- 

 rand is essentially capitalist mining, as a very 

 heavy expenditure is necessary before a claim 

 can be profitably worked. The capitalists bought 

 out the owners of lands where they desired to 

 sink mines, and thereby were able to select the 

 most promising claims and to reserve the mining 

 rights to other parts of the farm which might 

 contain gold by placing these spots under culti- 

 vation before the area was proclaimed, and thus 

 opened to the public for mining purposes, and 

 even then the owner had a prior right to select 

 claims and received a share of the license fees 

 collected from prospectors and diggers. Any out- 

 siders who selected claims on such a farm had 

 to buy out or combine with each other so as to 

 unite a sufficient number of claims to make a 

 Transvaal mine and to invest a large capital, in ' 

 the meantime paying the high license rates on all 

 the claims. The capitalist who had purchased 

 the fee simple, and thereby acquired the special 



mining rights and privileges which the Transvaal- 

 law intended to preserve for the Boers, was there- 

 fore usually able to get hold of any good claims 

 discovered on the farm without paying much 

 money. Sir David Barbour proposed to reduce- 

 the privileges granted to owners of the land, to 

 lower the fees paid by prospectors, and to sell 

 the mineral rights in state lands known to con- 

 tain gold or charge a rent contingent on profits. 

 The proceeds of such sales Sir David Barbour 

 proposed to lay aside as the Transvaal contribu- 

 tion toward the extinction of the debt incurred 

 by Great Britain for the prosecution of the war. 

 The war loans amounted in the beginning of 1901 

 to 55,000,000, and that whole sum might be 

 charged against the Transvaal and Orange River 

 colonies, but a loan of 7,000,000 will probably 

 have to be raised with imperial guarantee by the 

 one and 2,000,000 by the other before they can 

 be rehabilitated, and neither will have sufficient 

 revenue for some years to come to pay its own 

 expenses. No surplus revenue in the Orange River 

 Colony can be foreseen, but after two years from 

 the conclusion of peace the Transvaal may be 

 able to set aside something from additional taxes 

 on the mines and the existing claims of the state 

 against them properly enforced and from revised 

 customs, stamp, license, and excise taxes. Aside 

 from mineral lands the public lands of the new 

 colonies are not likely to be salable. It is im- 

 possible to determine what part of the British 

 war debt can ever be recovered from the annexed 

 republics, probably nothing from the Orange 

 River Colony, and if the Transvaal Colony can 

 bear a part or the whole of the debt it will have 

 to be imposed by degrees. 



The scheme of government planned for the new 

 colonies by Mr. Chamberlain was direct admin- 

 istration by the Crown for an indefinite period, 

 to be followed ultimately by self-government. 

 Municipal self-government would be established 

 early, and the old laws and customs are to be 

 maintained as far as practicable, the officials of 

 the late Government being retained in office. The 

 two new colonies were to have one governor-in- 

 chief, with a lieutenant-governor for the Orange 

 River Colony, where fewer radical changes would 

 be necessary than in the Transvaal. The rear- 

 rangement of the boundaries, giving the south- 

 eastern parts of the Transvaal to Natal, could 

 only be settled after civil government had been 

 reestablished for some time. On Oct. 18, 1900, 

 Sir Alfred Milner was appointed High Commis- 

 sioner for South Africa, the office being made in- 

 dependent of that of Governor of Cape Colony,, 

 and was commissioned Governor of the new 

 colonies for the purpose of inaugurating civil gov- 

 ernment. In case of his death or absence the 

 senior military officer commanding in South Afri- 

 ca was to be High Commissioner, and in the event 

 of the death or departure of Lord Roberts the 

 High Commissioner was. empowered to act in his 

 place as administrator of the conquered territories 

 for the time being. Sir Alfred Milner was au- 

 thorized to invite the officers administering the 

 several colonies and protectorates in South Africa 

 to send representatives to confer with him as 

 High Commissioner on all subjects of common 

 interest. Failing other means of concerted action 

 for which legislation might be necessary in the 

 several colonies, he in his central position as High 

 Commissioner should be enabled to set in motion 

 and to further the union and consolidation of 

 South Africa in regard to some of the most im- 

 portant interests which affect its component 

 parts. The Cape ministry admitted the necessity 

 in the existing condition of affairs for the sepa- 



