114 SOUTH AFRICA. 



channels of commerce with Europe and returns 

 no more to Colonial coffers. 



Doubtless the success of the Transvaal goldfield 

 has largely benefited the Colonies as regards credit 

 and speculative profit, but it is an open secret 

 that the interest of the aggregate capital employed 

 to produce the gold output amounts to much less 

 than the same amount of capital would produce, 

 without any of the numerous mining risks, if 

 invested in Consols. In the nature of things too 

 numerous and abstruse to be here treated, it must 

 be confessed that largely increased amounts of 

 produce from the surface of the settled parts of 

 South Africa can hardly be reasonably hoped for, 

 whatever may be the value of the mineral resources 

 of the country, and that in the interests of the 

 future, when mining may as is usually the case 

 in the long run be a fading and bygone industry, 

 some strenuous effort should be made to open up 

 new pasture lands within measurable distance of 

 the old Colonial boundaries. 



