COURSE OF GOLD DISCOVERIES CONTINUED.—MOODIE’S SYNDICATE.—THEIR
EXORBITANT DEMANDS AND THE RESULT.—BARBER BROS., AND THE UMVOTI
REEF.—MAD SPECULATIONS.—FUTURE OF THE GOLD FIELDS.
Previous to this, in 1881, a long lull had taken place in gold
discoveries in the Transvaal, owing to various causes, and among others
to the war.
In consequence of rumors of gold having been found at Eland Hoet being
in circulation, a number of men, including prospectors, diggers, and
others, were attracted from Lydenburg and Pilgrims’ Rest to that
district, and notwithstanding the fact that this _swindle_, as it was
termed, was severely criticized in the public press, yet by this means
the discovery of the Kaap gold fields was incidentally brought about.
Many of the diggers worked up the gullies, came on the Godwaan plateau,
and ultimately the Kaapsche Hoop gold fields, still further south, with
the Duivel’s Kantoor as its centre, became an established fact. With
respect to the later gold discoveries in Swaziland I shall speak further
on. The Duivel’s Kantoor, Devil’s Counting House, at which I have
mentioned we rested a night, is now comparatively deserted, containing
but half a dozen houses, and two canteens; but in June, 1882, before the
Transvaal government, by granting a concession of most of the valuable
mining land in the locality to a private company, drove the diggers
away, this village was the prosperous business centre of at least 500
diggers, who were spread over the Godwaan plateau, an area of
twenty-eight by fifteen miles.
After the concession, of which I have just spoken, was granted to the
Barret-Berlyn Co., many of the diggers went down into the Kaap Valley
and found alluvial gold at a spot afterwards named Jamestown, close to
the Kaap River, in Lat. 25° 31′ S. and Long. 31° 26′ E., about sixteen
miles from the present town of Barberton; and although nuggets up to 58
ozs. in weight were found by individual diggers, there still was no
general or substantial success.
Jamestown, however, may take the credit to itself of being, as it has
been styled, “the cradle of the country which was in future to populate
our reefing districts.”
Some of the diggers becoming dissatisfied with their luck left the
place, went in a southwest direction, and struck some very rich gold
reefs, together with some insignificant alluvial diggings, on certain of
the farms, thirteen in number, the property of Mr. G. P. Moodie, the
Surveyor General of the Transvaal. The choice of the farms has since
proved a very lucky stroke for Mr. Moodie, for although when he acquired
them from the government he might possibly have looked forward, in the
distant future, to a railway being constructed from Delagoa Bay to
Pretoria, which would enhance their value, yet at the time he became
their owner no one ever dreamt of the possibility of their being
gold-bearing. This gentleman had made in 1870 and 1871 three official
journeys from Pretoria to the coast, with the object of discovering the
best line of road either for rail or wagon, and on his second journey he
passed through this tract of country.
I may mention, in passing, that, touching the geology of the district, a
late writer states that “the formation consists chiefly of argillaceous
slates and schists, sandstones, and conglomerate, in some places
disturbed by granite and traversed by quartz-reefs and igneous dykes.
The reefs are for the most part vertical, and run almost due east and
west, with a southerly inclination.”
But to return to the history of these gold fields, discovered on Mr.
Moodie’s farms: In November, 1882, certain terms on which diggers were
allowed to peg out claims on these properties were posted up at the Gold
Commissioner’s office at the Kantoor by Mr. Moodie’s attorneys, and as a
consequence many proceeded thither to prospect. Their reports being
considered satisfactory, a general rush was made, for with the most
crude and primitive appliances it soon became generally known that a
comparatively large quantity of gold was being turned out. The number of
diggers increased rapidly, spread out into three camps, and everything
went on prosperously until towards the end of 1883, when Mr. Moodie
disposed of his property to a Natal syndicate for £240,000. Before doing
this he rescinded the terms which he had made with the diggers during
the previous year, and the consequence was that great dissatisfaction
was caused among them. The Natal directorate, evidently with the
intention of squeezing out of the diggers all that they could get, and
forgetting the possibility of killing the goose that lays the golden
eggs, immediately began to impose the most exorbitant taxes. They
demanded £3 a month license money per claim, and a royalty of from 7½ to
4½ per cent. on all gold turned out. These changes, together with
payments for wood, water, charcoal, grazing, and stand rents, soon was
attended with the result that might have been foreseen—the diggers were
led to prospect on the government farms adjoining, and situated to the
northeast, on which in 1885 a public gold field was proclaimed.
In the winter of 1884, Messrs. Barber Bros., gentlemen well known in the
Cape Colony, at the time joining business with pleasure, were shooting
game in the Kaap Valley. In the month of August, they came to a stream
known as the Umvoti Creek, about half a mile distant from the site of
Barberton, a township which has since been named after them, when, on
looking up the side of the steep ravine bordering it, they detected a
quartz reef jutting out, which on examination showed visible gold. This,
with the assistance of Mr. T. C. Rimer, who can well lay claim to be one
of the pioneers of the Transvaal gold fields, they opened up, imported a
ten-stamp battery (the first on the Kaap fields) and began, as soon as
it was erected, to crush at once. From the moment their returns became
known the death-knell of Moodie’s Co. was tolled, either as a paying
investment, or as regards any further important increase in the
prospecting or mining on their property, although the various
sub-working companies, notwithstanding their being so heavily taxed, are
in many instances doing fairly well. The diggers now made the rush to
which I have above alluded, and left Moodie’s almost deserted, when the
mountains and gorges, the rugged slopes and defiles along the Makoujwa
range, became peopled by prospectors, attracted from all parts of South
Africa, and many valuable properties were discovered; but it was not
until “Bray’s Golden Quarry,” ten miles from Barberton, was found (May,
1885), that the South African world became awakened to the fact of the
richness of the Transvaal as a gold-yielding country. This wonderful
mine was, as the discoverer himself told me, accidentally found after
five months prospecting on the Sheba range by Mr. Edwin Bray, whom I
knew in 1871 as a pioneer diamond digger, and whose name will now
forever stand associated with the development of this auriferous region.
Although the company which he formed did not at the time possess its own
machinery, and was for months compelled to send its quartz eight miles
away over a rugged country to be crushed at an expense of at least one
oz. of gold per ton, pending the completion of a tramway to the Queen’s
River, yet it paid back in fifteen months 63½ per cent. of its capital
in dividends; its £1 shares sold readily at £75 or over, and the return
of its crushing averaged 7 oz. 3 dwts. per ton; and this, although from
tests applied it had been proved that the refuse-tailings contained 4
oz. of gold per ton, lost through imperfect manipulation.
The sight of the quarry at once raised endless speculations in my mind
as to the vastness of its wealth. To form even a remote idea was an
impossibility. On the one hand I could look from the bottom of a deep,
almost precipitous, ravine, where the reef could be measured 100 feet in
thickness, and see towering between 400 and 500 feet above me the
capping of the quartzite reef, lying at an angle of fifty degrees on the
edge of the quarry proper, while on the other no limit to the extent of
the reef hidden from view beneath my feet had yet been determined;
neither had the length of the vein, although almost certain indications
had been found that it extends nearly half a mile. I began to calculate
what the return of this company will be with the 100 stamps about to be
erected at daily work, until dreams of untold wealth came over me, from
which I awoke to warmly congratulate my old friend on his marvellous
success, which as one of the most active mineral prospectors in the
Transvaal he so richly deserves. On my visit to Mr. Bray’s I noticed
that the road to Sheba is dotted with canteens. Although the distance is
only twelve miles, yet the inner man can be supported six or seven times
before arrival at Eureka City, (within a stone’s throw of the Sheba
Reef), and when there almost as many canteens as houses may be counted.
Notwithstanding, however, the great amount of prospecting work which has
been done, very few really payable gold reefs have been as yet struck.
Speaking of prospectors’ work, I may state that on the day I left I
counted in the Gold Co.’s office 513 registered blocks of amalgamated
claims; but of these more anon. There can be no doubt that the precious
metal exists in various degrees of richness in the quartz-veins that are
to be seen all around the Kaap Valley, yet these have not been
discovered in quantity rich enough to warrant the great influx of
diggers and men of almost every trade or profession, or the absurd
speculation in claims and shares which has taken place.
[Illustration:
SHEBA REEF, BRAY’S GOLDEN QUARRY, BARBERTON.
]
The public have been warned over and over again that these are no “poor
man’s diggings,” but at a distance the very name of _gold_ serves to
call up the most enchanting visions, and forbids the difference between
alluvial diggings and quartz mining being sufficiently weighed. There is
such a thing in this world as living on a name; many a “worthless son of
a worthy sire” has found out this secret, and the name of Edwin Bray and
the stupendous wealth of his quarry has tended to enable company on
company to be floated which never will pay a dividend between this and
the day of their liquidation. To Natal men the credit is certainly due
of first developing the fields. The object which they had in view in
forming companies was to found dividend paying concerns, with small
capitals only sufficiently large to provide adequate machinery to
develop the property; whereas some, though of course not all, of the
other speculators, who came in at a later period, formed large
companies, took in any number of claims, whether proved gold-bearing or
not, so long as they would swell, with an appearance of justification,
the enormous capital of their prospectuses, got thousands of pounds
promotion money, and, by means of a nicely managed ring, ran up the
shares to a premium and then sold out.
As time goes on I feel certain that many things will have to be
rectified, none more so than the pegging out of claims by
power-of-attorney. If this absurd system be continued, there is nothing
to prevent the four hundred millions who inhabit the Celestial empire,
or even the Man in the Moon and his family—could communication be
established with Earth’s satellite—holding claims to the direct
detriment of those whose energy, determination, and self-sacrifice have
prompted them to seek their fortunes in this new El Dorado.
The Transvaal, however, will in a very short time create further
sensations. On the Sheba Hill veins of antimony (stibnite), worth in the
commercial world £33 per ton, have been found; and at the Komati,
baryta, used for bleaching and for the adulteration of white lead, has
been discovered; while in the other parts of the district horn-silver,
or chloride of silver, possessing 78 per cent. of the real metal, has
been unearthed. This is not the same as Mackay’s celebrated mine in
America, the Comstock, which is argentite, sulphite of silver, commonly
termed black silver, containing as much as 85 per cent. of silver,
though it is, as will be seen, immensely valuable. Then again, both the
blue and green carbonates of copper, as well as native copper, can be
found in abundance, and the wonderful Albert Mine, with similar ones,
situated near Pretoria, of fahlerz tetrahedrite, or grey copper ore,
running from 113 to 200 ozs. of silver to the ton, must not be
forgotten. Again, large coal deposits have been found at Ermelo and
Bronkhorst Spruit and also at Wynoor’s Poort, about 100 miles from
Barberton, the last named being very little inferior to Welsh coal.
Colonel Warren,[111] formerly on Major-General George H. Thomas’s staff
in the army of Tennessee, a practical geologist, also informed me he had
discovered in the Transvaal, on his road up to the Barberton gold
fields, petroleum shale which, he said, was almost a positive proof of
the existence of petroleum, in what may prove to be highly payable
quantities. These coal deposits will be of immense value when the
different water-rights in the Kaap Valley are all taken up, as the
necessary wood for feeding any large number of steam engines is not to
be procured without great difficulty and serious expense.[112]
Some idea of the madness of the speculation that has lately existed may
be formed, if it be taken into consideration that the inflated selling
price of the scrip of different companies floated merely, not worked,
exceeded £5,000,000, while their subscribed value is under £2,000,000.
This has produced what I may term an abnormal and unnatural state of
things, not only at De Kaap, but in various other parts of South Africa.
It is important to bear in mind (January, 1887) that there are at
present only ninety-seven stamps at work (I include those on Moodie’s),
yielding a profit of about £160,000 a year; and investors and
speculators will do well to remember that it will be at least eighteen
months before an appreciable difference in their number can be made. If
we as business men compare this return with the outlay of money which is
taking place, we can at once see the ruinous scale on which business is
conducted. As I told you, there are 513 amalgamated blocks in the
proclaimed government gold fields, paying each, on an average, £10 a
month duty to government; this is £61,560 a year. Then must be added the
cost of working; put this at a very low estimate, say £20 per block,
there is £123,120 more. I will not reckon the expenditure of those
prospectors who have not pegged out, but take next the share list of
companies floated. These amount to say roughly £1,800,000, but their
inflated value is at least £5,000,000. Now surely these investors expect
some interest on their capital, and if a modest 5 per cent. only be
allowed, although all mining speculations ought to return at least 20
per cent, (and you will agree with me, the greater part of this capital
will pay no interest for two years), we have a further loss of £250,000
a year to the investing public, or a total of £434,680 at the present
time.
I saw the mania which occurred some years ago on the Diamond Fields, but
there, even, nothing so outrageously absurd and preposterous happened as
in this gold share mania. I remember the time when central shares in the
Kimberley Mine, which in the height of the mania barely reached 300 per
cent, rise, and were, moreover, at the very time paying over 50 per
cent. interest on their subscribed value, falling on the collapse
occurring from £400 to £26 per share, and, although the property is one
of the richest in the world, yet it has taken years for it to regain its
status. How then about gold shares running up from £1 to £25 per share,
or 2,500 per cent. advance, which are not working, have no machinery,
and cannot pay a dividend, if not for years, at least for months.
The great question is, What is to be the future of these fields? I must
say that, after careful investigation, I am not sanguine as to the Kaap
Valley being able to carry any large population for a long time to come,
and even then the population will be purely a working one, men toiling
for regular wages, miners, engineers, and skilled artisans employed by
companies. The average English laborer will be driven out of the fields
by native labor, 1,500 natives being at present employed, and there will
be no such thing as a poor man jumping into a fortune except by some
extraordinary stroke of luck. I cannot too strongly impress on those who
are without capital, that Barberton is no place for them, that is,
unless they are prepared to be contented with wages no better,
proportionately, than they can earn in any other part of the world. The
skilled artisan or experienced miner may be fortunate enough to obtain a
succession of highly profitable engagements, but that is very far from
being a certainty. Although I would not altogether wish to discourage
those who are willing “to scorn delights and live laborious days,” and
who possess certain special qualifications in technical knowledge, from
visiting Barberton, even although their store of money almost reaches
the vanishing point, yet I would bid the vast majority of those without
capital to pause and ask themselves whether it is not better to “bear
those ills” they “have, than fly to others that” they “know not of.”
Were this an alluvial gold field my advice would no doubt be different.
A man who, fifteen years ago, would have found the dry diamond diggings
a possible Golconda, would now, I will not for a moment say starve, if
he be sober, honest and industrious, but will have long to wait before
he comes within measurable distance of the realization of his hopes, if
he should ever do so. At Kimberley the day of the individual digger,
unless he should be a man of enormous capital, is past and gone. There
is a curious analogy between the two places; that which the increased
expense of working, together with the amalgamation of claims, has done
for the former, the working out of the known alluvial fields has done
for the latter. In fact, I am reluctantly compelled to admit, that I
know of no poor man’s diggings of any sort in South Africa.
That some good and extremely profitable reefs have been found, I do not
for one moment wish to deny, but as I have just now said, these can be
counted on the fingers of one hand. That gold is here and in large
quantities is true, but it requires gold to get it, and there is such a
thing as paying a guinea for a sovereign.
The place is now mainly, if not entirely, subsisting on imported
capital, and that intangible entity known as hope. For capitalists, who
are choosing to risk their money in testing the value of the reef
properties, this is all very well. What I want to do, is to caution
against disappointment those who think they are on the high road to
fortune, when with hammer, pick, and tent they start off prospecting.
In concluding the subject of the gold fields I will only say that I am
afraid that great disappointment must be the lot of the many—I mean the
many who seek the fields comparatively penniless, trusting to receive
some sudden, unearned favor from the blind goddess, rather than
determining to force a smile from her by earnest, honest toil.[113]
During my four months’ stay on these fields I pursued my profession and
had many opportunities of seeing the country, being called on
professional work in almost every direction, from Eureka City and the
Sheba range to Moodie’s, and from the Kantoor to the Kami Klubane Beacon
in Swaziland. And I also assisted in carrying out the hospital work,
which was organized on a new footing while the larger government
hospital was being built.
[Illustration]