Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1893-10-19
lRANSVAAL WONDERS
VI j. ". Matthews Tells Of the Fahuouc
Wealth for the Miner

| oo'"' WI tll6 winner,
III. ). w. Matthews. a nionao. of
cape Town, and for over a dozen va,n.
p past resident of Johannesburg IN tho
iransVaai Republic, and who has had
many curious experiences in sont,,
Africa, is at the Palace. saws tho San
FRANCISCO Chronicle For a time he
belonged to the Council of Cape Town
! ne has also been a member of tbo
sanitary Board Of Johannesburg aud
curing nearly all of the time Of his
to Ill that country has been IN
eerested IN the diamond and cold
neids. DR.; Matthews SAYS that in his
OPINION the Transvaal Renublic -
en'e[lhS on a career of PROSPERITY ot
winch the past is but the merest sng.
sestlon, much as it has hitherto aston
lsheo the world. His reasons for this
are III part the vast gold reefs recently
discovered IN the new parts of the
| country, winch are greater by far than
nose nose winch have made the country
| famous, ana the extension of the SeIofi
Railroad from Delagoa BAY. which viii
enaple miners to get machinery and
other supplies in quickly and with light
charges Tor freight
ne whole of California from 1910 to
lS92, said he, 'produced e223O, 900 900
OF gold. whereas We, in eleven linear
liliies Oh the gold range, will produce at
our present rate of output e3;25 .OOO. 900.
The gold-bearing reef is conylomerate
from five 10 fifteen feet in width, and in
some instances, as has been proved.
ZOO feet deep. Besides this compara-
lively sinai! territory in which 50 much
wealth has been found, we have the
Selaba Mountains and the Murchison
Range, III which reefs 100 feet broad
ana equally as rich have been discov-
cred.
'In January, 1886, we began taking
out gold at the rate Of 10000 ounces. or
Sloo,0O month, and now we are aver
aging lZo,O00 ounces month"; or 81 800
oOO month. The product is so great
THAT one is continually astonished, and
Is compelled to stop and ponder over
1T. W hen the mines Of the Selaba and
Murchison mountains begin to be
opened our present output will be but
drop in the bucket.
1.-The best miners we have are from
the Pacific states of America They
have an expert knowledge and are of
the class we most desire. For Il long
time we had nobody who really under
stood much about mining, but as soon
posted in it we made great progress.
Why, here is an instance, that of
Charles f.. Buffers of Grass Valley, Cal.
He went over there and starteda chlor
ination works, and the first month he
cleaned up-above all Xpenses--Sz5,
600. This, remember, was the first
month. Many other Californans are
connected with leading mines and mills,
and are all doing we'll.
'There are three powerfully rich min
ing houses or firms in the Transvaal, the
same as the Rothschilds, the Gouldsan
the Nanderbilts, generally speaking, are
prominent in finance in England and
this part of the world. They are the
Ecksteins, the Barnatos and Sigismund
Neuman. All these are owners OF Won
dertully rich groups of mines.
ave have Il remarkably good govern
ment and safe one, though it may be
called little slow Still, while the
United States pays its President $4,000
a year, we pay ours SAC, GOO. This, when
YOU consider that the whole of the
Transvaal is nothing like SO big as Cali
fornia, a single state of the American
union, it will be seen that we do not do SO
poorly by ourrulers. President Kruger
is very reliable and careful man and is
getting rich very fast.
'one lnlnE tIllt Will Slllkc you de SUI
prsing is our very heavy duty. For in
stance, all our cigars come from Ha-
vana, and there is duty of cents on
every single one. The duty, with the
amount charged by the dealer, makes
the total cost of a cigar Sc cents. Yet
we smoke them right along. We also
paw a duty of cents on every banana.
On hams we pay a duty OF II cents
pound, which makes hams sell for
about 60 cents on the average. On
many other things we pay proporuon-
ate duties, and still we thrive and get
wealthy. / think. however, it will only
be short time till the duties are re-
duced.
"Despite the guarding of the diamond
mines there is still a good deal OF steal
ing of diamonds. They are constantly
inyentinr new ways to circumvent the
guards 1t is a great temptation to steal.
a native 1indsa diamond, forinstance, as
bic as a walnut. Well, if he can secretee
if It means that he has a fortune ana
that he need never work any more.
diamond that size is worth S2o,oUo,
enough to last poor native all his lie.
SO he sets to work contrlvlng now 70 get
away with it. moon, a.,
81 have known them to conceal dla
monds in their nostrils and IN their nol-
lowed-out boot heels and in all manner
of wavs scarcely to be imagined. 10
the best the guards can the laborers VIII
J.,