The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-12-30

service Of a substantial addition to its
debt, which at present amounts to lit
tie more than G40,000 In addition, it
may be pointed out that, as is the case
in the Transvaal, the officials are paid
far more highly than is necessary, for
instance, whereas in Natal the Chief
Justice receives G1,50O the Puisne
Judges G1 900, and the Attorney General
$500 a year, in the Free State the COR
responding salaries are G1,S00, R1 400,
and G1, 900, respectively-so that inter-
| nal economies of administration might
also be introduced. The State possess s
considerable public property in lands,
telegraphs &c; but it's chief asset is
| the railway system, which in 1897 pro-
duced a gross profit of G504,000, and
which, at low estimate, may be valu-
ed at G5,500, 600! There is no doubt that
under British rule, with the security of
the railways, a loan of G50000 600 could
| be raised for the annuity required to
redeem that sum in thirty years, with
! interest at per cent, is G205, 010, which
is to all appearances less than the Free
| States annual expenditure on arma-
ments during the last three years.
| ultlS 10 JIlc llluCIl lilOIt lIlpOl lclHI
question of the TransvaaFs resources,
we find that in 1856, before the Wit
watersrand gold discoveries, the reve-
nue. was e21S 594. and the expenditure
G194 6S4. BY 1895 the figures had risen
to e4,35SOO0 and e4,125000 and the
estimates for 1899 gave a revenue Of
e4,5S9 600 and an expenditure of G4371,-
900. AS the area of the Transvaal is
49, 1879 square miles, with, at the last
census, a white population of 100000,
of which $4,000 were Beers and native
population of 600, 900, it is instructive to
see where the expenditure has gone.
The following figures are taken partly
from the Almanach de Gotha and partly
from pamphlets recently published by
M. Edouard Naville, at Geneva, and NJ
Henri Dupont, at Paris. They ought
not, consequently, to err on the side of
injustice to the Transvaal. Now. what
do we find? In 1886 the salaries of
Government officials amounted to e51,-
S31, in 1895 they were 9570,047 and
for 1899 they We're estimated at e1,216,-
1894. Under the head of military eX-
penses the appropriation rose from
92S,000 in 1894 to $4,000 in 1896 to
ef95 900 in 1896, and to G614,0O0 in 1897
with reduction to f357,000 in 1898
and an estimate of only e265000 for
Is, Then there are curious items,
called special expenditure and sundry
charges which since 1898 have absorb
ed about e3OOO,OOO, an average of over
e420, 600 year. Lastly. we have pub
lie works" which as recently as 1895
accounted for only 1883 900. In 1896
h..
f701 coo, in 1897 it was G1,054,00O and
for 1899 it was put at E67000O, These
figures speak for themselves. Nothing
has happened to justify such an extraor-
binary increase in expenditure, and it
is notorious that the bulk of the out
lay on public works is represented by
the building of forts, while the special
expenditure and sundry charges are
but another name for the secret serv-
ice money which has been lavishly spent
in procuring arms and substituting the
Continental press.
We have not space to go into the de-
tails of the economies that could be af-
fected under a proper Government, but
good judges are convinced that the
Transvaal might be comfortably ad-
minietered for 92,000,000 less than its
present cost. Knock off the military
charges and secret service money, and
reduce the extravagant official salaries
by only half, and a sum would be freed
that would enable a very large indem-
nifty to be raised. So far we have taken
the revenue of the Transvaal as it is
under existing conditions, and although |
the gold-mining Industry has undoubt-
ment, it cannot be said that it has been |
stifled by excessive taxation? 1t Is not |
so much what the Government has got |
out of the Johannesburgers by direct or
indirect taxation as the loss and ex- |
pense it has caused them owing to cor |
rupt administration. The actual taxes
to which the gold mines are subject are
no great bar to their development and |
the fact that the dividends paid in 1898
amounted to G4,847,505 in spite of dear
and bad dynamite, native labor Difficult
ties, the Illicit liquor traffic. and the
lack of proper protection against thefts
of gold and amalgam, shows that the
can easily support the present
taxation, provided it is fairly admin
istered Under a good Government that
suppressed the traffic in stolen gold and
the natives from being allow
ed to lncapacitate themselves by drink
Ing the vilest spirits the profits Of the
would be greatly augmented |.
Mr. Hays Hammond believes that SIS.
Der ton is a conservative estimate of the
direct and Indirect benefits Of good gov
and such saving in expenses
calculated on the tonnage of ore crush
ID in 1898 would mean an addition of
"a 1876 900 to the annual dividends. AS
,uming the existing tax at per cent.
IN the dividends maintained, the Gov
revenue from this source
would be more than doubled, and it is
obvious that the more the Rand gold
mining industry prospers the larger
must be the revenue accruing to the
government.
Taking the Transvaal revenue only
It the budget estimate of 1899, we repeat
hat a saving of G2,000000 year in
expenses should be easy. In mis- pamph-
ct, M. Henri Dupont arrives at the
anne result by comparing the expenses
f Cape Colony and the Transvaal. The Z
rea of the former is 276,000 square miles l
oughly, as against the 119,139 square {
niles of the Transvaal; it's white popu- {
alton is a third larger and it's black q
population just double that of the Boer i
Republic. BY eliminating the debt Y