332 TlMEHRl. 
" £443,110, but it must be borne in mind that against 
" this is to be seta capital of nearly £12,000,000, that the 
" gold was obtained from rich and often picked quartz 
" or conglomerate, comparatively superficial, and the 
" fa6l that 25 per cent, profit on capital is expected from 
" gold mining." 
No doubt a large proportion of this £12,006,006 be- 
longed to investors in England, and according to the 
foregoing extra6t much of it will never be seen again. 
In this country, with an output of 11,906 ounces value 
£44,210 for last year, there has not been invested, I 
venture to say, a hundredth part of the amount of 
money invested in South Africa. Who can say what 
the output would be, were a vast sum like this to be laid 
out in the development of the industry here, where no 
great attempt has yet been made? 
It was of course not to be expe6ted that success 
would attend all the numerous ventures floated here ; for 
in gold mining, it is the few who make fortunes, and not 
the many. Here the loss, small though it may have 
been, was, in many cases, complete, owing mainly to the 
incautiousness of the investors who trusted to unscrupu- 
lous men, of whom they had little or no previous know- 
ledge, and whose capabilities were in many cases derived 
from the fact that they had perhaps worked two or three 
times on a placer, merely as labourers and shovelmen, or 
as transporters of loads from the riverside, under men 
who knew scarcely any more than themselves, and had 
acquired the knowledge of batea working, and the 
method of fixing up a torn and perhaps washing it up at 
the end of the day's work. 
Considerable loss and inconvenience are experienced 
