Boer Politics Part 7

Many and many a time, after his hard day's work should have been over, has a mine captain cheerfully started off with me on a three or four hours inspection of his workings, only too delighted to oblige, and asking merely that his visitor should show an intelligent interest in what he saw. To these men, and to the other heads of departments, to battery managers, cyanide works managers, a.s.sayers, samplers, surveyors, office staff; the shareholders in every mine owe a debt which they do not realise and which is often inadequately acknowledged. Amongst these men--I could give hundreds of examples--there is the greatest sense of duty to their employers, and from one year's end to another, by day and night, in the bush, on mountain tops, in fever swamps, in wild and deep places all over the world, they faithfully carry through their arduous work."

Such is the type of Uitlander the gold mines have attracted; add to them, mechanics and the most highly skilled artisans: for it is to the interest of the mines which pay high salaries to employ the most skilled labour.

A population such as this, has nothing in common with the adventurers who rushed to the placers of California, or with the fancy picture of the "wealthy metal-hearted mine owners," presented to us by Dr. Kuyper.

5.--_Distribution of the Gold Production._

Dr. Kuyper speaks of "the vultures" who come to rob the country of its gold; we would point out to him that before gold can be extracted from the rock, a vast amount must be sunk in it. We have just seen that the cost of production often exceeds the profits.

Dr. Kuyper, in his childish innocence, imagines that "the vultures"

carry off the gold as soon as it is extracted.

Had he taken the trouble to ascertain the facts, he would have seen that the greater part of this gold remains in the Transvaal, and either goes to the Government, or to defray the cost of production.

I borrow the following figures from the supplement to _The Critic_ of July 8th, 1899.

Let us take the last five years:--

Gross Profits. Dividend to Paid to Boer Shareholders. Government.

1894 7,930,481 1,595,963 2,247,728 1895 8,768,942 2,329,941 2,923,648 1896 8,742,811 1,918,631 3,912,095 1897 11,514,016 2,923,574 3,956,402 1898 15,942,573 4,999,489 3,329,958 ----------- ----------- ----------- 52,898,823 13,767,598 16,370,387 =========== =========== ===========

Thus upon 52,898,823 worth of gold produced between the years 1894 and 1898 only 25 per cent. of this amount went to the shareholders, 30 per cent. was paid to the Transvaal Government, while the cost of production absorbed 45 per cent. The two last figures show that about 75 per cent., that is to say, three-quarters of the entire production remained in the Transvaal; and we have only taken the average of the last few years, during which the cost of production has been reduced to a minimum, thanks to the perfecting of the methods of working.

Let us add that while according to the above table in 1898 the estimate of the revenue was 3,329,000, the expenditure rose to 3,476,000. In 1899, the estimate of the revenue was 4,087,000.

From 1894-97 the amount paid directly into the Transvaal Exchequer had exceeded the shareholders' dividends; and when the reverse happened in 1898, the Government of Pretoria determined to put that matter right.

6.--_Cost of Production and the Transvaal._

Dr. Kuyper also complained that the entire cost of production was not absorbed by the Transvaal. In his statement of January 26th 1899, Mr.

Rouliot proved that the greater portion was in point of fact expended there. He gave the following figures concerning the expenditure of fifty-six companies in 1898.

The mines had only imported direct to the amount of 369,000, paid for machinery, which could only be constructed in Europe, and for Cyanide, to avoid having to buy the latter from a local trust, which raised the price 100 per cent.

Through local firms they had imported machinery and certain products to the amount of 324,438. From local merchants they had bought machinery, &c., to the amount of 2,487,660. They had paid 767,600 to the Dynamite Monopoly. They had distributed 3,329,000 in salaries to their employes, native or European. If we take it that the expenditure of the sixty other Mining Companies, gold or coal, in the vicinity of Johannesburg, was similar to the above, we have a total of something like nine million pounds sterling put in circulation, _plus_ purchases of dynamite, _plus_ merchandise bought through the medium of local tradespeople. Thus we see that the bulk of the cost of production actually remained in the Transvaal.

7.--_What the "Vultures" brought._

Before Dr. Kuyper's "vultures" came to despoil it, the Transvaal was in a very shaky condition. It was heavily in debt and the Exchequer was empty; the Boer having always had a horror of paying his taxes. In 1884 when Messrs. Kruger and Smits came to London to sign the famous Convention, and stayed at the Albemarle Hotel, they found themselves, after the first few weeks unable to pay their bill, and Baron Grant had to come to their a.s.sistance. Now the "vultures" have been pouring some millions annually into the coffers of the Transvaal; a certain proportion of which has stuck to the fingers of Mr. Kruger, his family and intimates. The "vultures" have brought riches, industry, and civilisation into a wild and uncivilised country. The simile of the bird of prey is more applicable to the Boer than to the Uitlander.

CHAPTER X.

FINANCIAL POLICY OF THE BOERS[14]

1.--_Receipt of the Boer Exchequer._

Like every true aristocrat, the Boer has always had a horror of paying taxes; he only approves of taxes paid by others.

At the time of the annexation of the Transvaal by England in 1877, the Government was being crushed by debt, the burghers resolutely refusing to pay their taxes.

Some order was brought into the finances by England; but the Boer revolt in December, 1880, was caused by the determination of Colonel Owen Lanyon, the English Resident, to seize the bullocks and wagons of recalcitrant tax-payers.

The Transvaal Government obtained the Convention of 1881. In 1883, the budget showed 143,000 revenue, and 184,000 expenditure. From April 1st, 1884, to March 31st, 1885, the revenue rose to 161,000, the expenditure remained at 184,000.

In 1886, the gold mines were discovered, and in 1889, the revenue rose to 1,577,000. The crisis of 1890 caused it to drop below the million; in 1892 it rose again, reaching in:--

1894 2,247,728 1895 2,923,648 1896 3,912,095 1897 3,956,402 1898 3,329,958

In 1899, it was estimated at 4,087,000. These figures do not include the sale of explosives from 1895 to 1898; the share of licences of claims from 1895 to 1899; nor the Delagoa Bay customs dues paid to the Netherlands Railway for 1898 and 1899.

[Footnote 14: _Le Siecle_, April 4th, 1900.]

2.--_Budget a.s.sessment of the Burghers._

According to the _Staats Almanak_, the white population numbers 300,000, of whom 175,000 are males. The number of burghers aged between sixteen and sixty, ent.i.tled to vote, is 29,447; that of Uitlanders, between the same ages, 81,000.

These 30,000 Boers who represent the electoral portion of the community, do not pay one-tenth of the revenue of the state. They represent, however, a budget of over four millions of pounds; or, 133 per head. If our 10,800,000 electors in France had a proportionate budget at their disposal, it would amount annually to 1,436,400,000; or considerably more than our whole National Debt.

The burghers are thus fund-holders in receipt, per head, of a yearly income of 133 from the Uitlanders. Never has there been an oligarchy so favoured. It is true that all do not profit in the same proportion. "The Transvaal Republic" says a Dutchman, Mr. C. Hutten, "is administered in the interests of a clique of some three dozen families."[15]

[Footnote 15: _The Doom of the Boer Oligarchies_. (_North American Review_, March, 1900.)]

3.--_Salaries of Boer Officials._

The salaries of the Transvaal officials amounted, in 1886, to 51,831; in 1898, to 1,080,382; and in 1899, they were estimated at 1,216,394.

Salaries amounting to 1,216,394 for 30,000 electors! Such are the figures of the Transvaal Budget.

Here we find undoubtedly a great superiority over other countries; and the officials in receipt of such salaries would look down with profoundest contempt on the much more modest pay of their European colleagues if they knew anything about them. Each elector represents more than 40 of official salaries. At the same rate the pay of the French Government officials would amount annually to about four hundred and thirty-two millions pounds sterling (432,000,000)! This is not all.

In 1897, a member of the Volksraad asked what had become of some 2,400,000 which had been paid over to Transvaal officials, in the form of advances of salary. He received no reply.

4.--_The Debit Side of the Boer Budget._

In a pamphlet, by M. Edouard Naville, _La Question du Transvaal_, and also in the _Revue Sud-Africaine_ of October 22nd, 1899, we find a list showing the expenditure of the Pretoria Government, from which may be gathered the extraordinarily rapid rate of increase: In the fourteen years--1886-99--the budget expenditure amounted to 37,031,000, of which nine-tenths have been defrayed by the gold industry. From information supplied by the Government of Pretoria itself, we find that five sources have absorbed more than half:--

Salaries, &c. 7,003,898 Military expenditure 2,236,942 Special expenditure 2,287,559 Sundry services 1,581,042 Public works 5,809,996 ----------- 18,919,437 ----------- Leaving a surplus of 18,111,601 ===========

Under the headings of "special," and "sundry services," are concealed the secret service expenditure, remuneration to influential electors, and the various political expedients by which Mr. Kruger has proved "his intellectual and moral" superiority.