I then turned an inquiring attention to the Johannesburg newspapers, and
from a heap of them obtained their opinions on the gloom prevailing in
the "Golden City." There were columns of allusions to the general
distress, of the unemployed becoming numerous, of tradespeople unable to
find custom. Clergymen had been interviewed, who said that "poverty was
rampant," that shopkeepers were almost distracted through fear of
insolvency, that the country's credit was going and almost gone, that
Australians were leaving in such numbers that sufficient berths on
steamers could not be found, and that the inaction of the Government was
driving skilled and willing workmen away.