=Source.=--_The Board of Trade Journal_, December.
_Extracts from a Report, dated 4th October, by Mr. Ralph Williams,
British Officer at Pretoria._
On the 20th September, 1886, the Witwatersrand district was
declared a public goldfield, and from that date the history
of Johannesburg begins. For some months the town was known as
Ferreira's Camp, and the Natal Camp, and it was not till, perhaps,
March last that the present town of Johannesburg became recognized
as the central point of the goldfields of the district. From that
date the growth of the town has been almost unprecedented.... Large
hotels exist which equal in accommodation anything in South Africa.
Warehouses are full of all that can be obtained even at Cape Town.
A theatre--rough, it is true, but of considerable capacity--is in
full working order. Four banks are at work. Three newspapers are
published every other day.... The actual number of the population
I can hardly estimate, opinions differing so greatly. In the town
of Johannesburg itself I am disposed to think there are about
4,000 people. The outlying districts also contain a very large
population, probably nearly equalling that of the town.
The reefs which constitute the wealth of the Witwatersrand are
entirely different from any development which has yet been
worked.... The principal reef, which has now been traced to a
distance of between twenty-five and thirty miles, is called the
"main reef." It may be taken to have an average breadth of from 3
feet 6 inches to 15 feet. It has in several places been tested to
a depth of 70 feet, in every case being proved to be better and
richer at the lower levels than at the surface.
An inspection of the properties and inquiry into the cost of
production cannot fail to impress one with the fact that, if these
reefs are found to have sufficient depth, one of the richest
goldfields in the world has now come to light.