The morning call., 1893-09-30
UNLIMITED GOLD.
Fabulous Richness of the
TranSVaaI.
NEW FIELDS OPENING UP.
California Mining Men and Machinery
Are in Very Great Demand
in the District.
UNLIMITED
NEW FIELDS OPENING UP

DR.. j. ". Matthews. +. X. G. S., one of
the pioneers of the great mining town of
Johannesburg in the Transvaal, South
Africa, Is at the Palace Hotel. He is
prominently connected with mining aft lrs
over there besides being a member of the
sanitary board. Before he went to the
Transvaal he was a member of the coun
Gil of Cape Colony.
1.-The gold fields of Johannesburg" said
he, ''are of wonderful richness and are al
most ineXhaustlble. As this knowledge is
becoming known all over the world people
are going there iE considerable numbers.
The heavy cost of travel iss the only
thing that prevents great many more
from going. L notice by the news
papers that there is a party organizing
in this State to go over. All OF our most
successful mining men come from Cali
fOrnia. John Hays Hammond, the en-
gineer who is employed by the De Bartos,
one of the veal hest ana most extensive
firms over there. Is receiving a mag 0ificent
salary, and there is man named Butler
who used TO live at Grass Valley who es-
tablished chloriniza ion works. He made
profit of $4,000 the first month. That
may sound rather exaggerated, but it is alb
sOlutely correct.
I'm 1886 gold was mined there at the
rate oil 10000 ounces month. Now there
Is being taken out $4,000 ounces a month,
which is worth about 81. 100000.
Judging from the amount of gold that
has been mined in California, | believe
the Transvaal country is far richer in the
yellow metal comparatively than this
entire State. But that district. which is
eleven miles long, IS only suggestion of
the richness of the surrounding country
There the reefs or veins are from FIVE to
twenty-five feet in thickness
h. I frnH n
tains, which have just begun TO be devel-
ODed the reefs are 125 feet thick, and the
ore is just as rich. But the country is So
new, freights are so high and the difficulty
of access is so great that but little work,
comparatively, is going on. They are
building a railroad now that will tip these
new regions and open up mines of fabu-
lous richness, which heretofore it has been
impossible to work.
1.-The duties on imports are very high,
too. For instance. on every cigar a man
smokes he must pay duty of 6 cents
All cigars are brought from Havana, and
their average cost is sc cents. On hams
the duty Is "a cents pound, making the
total cost 60 cents pound. On every ba-
mana taken into the country the Govern
ment collects a tax of cents. These are
only instances of the tremendous rate of
customs.
"But the cost of the Government is very
great. We pay our President $4,000. and
the entire country is not as big as this
State. Besides he is allowed $500 year
for entertaining and some other per-
Quisites.
II am making particular inspection of
mining machinery while / am here. All
of our best machinery comes from this
State.
Most of the mines in the country are
owned by or are under the control of
three large firms-the Ecksteins, De Bartos
and Sigismund Newman. They are fabu-
iously wealthy, and of course very pow
erful.
Diamond mining is going on there quite
as extensively as ever. The greatest diff
Guilty is in keeping the natives from steal
ing the brilliants. They resort to the
most unheard of eXpedients to secrete the
jewels, and of course we are at great trou-
bic and expense to detect them"