The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1907-12-07
NEWS FROM THE MINES AND MILLS
Gold Of Africa and Australia.


To understand the marvellous reg'i-
larity Of the worlds gold supply you
must go to that wonderful musn-
room" city in the high African yelt'-
johannesburg Leaving smiling
world behind you. you seem to have
landed on some other dreary planet,
and in the midst Of it loom the pala-
tial skyscrapers of Elof street, the
princely Office buildings of Market
Square. with their express elevators,
telephones. electric lights, and all the
pomp and circumstance of Wall street.
Here nearly 300 mines are boring he
wondrous milc-deep reef, which The
ablest living mining engineers are
agreed could produce sl5o,390.ovO
worth Of gold every year for genera
ton more. And yet it seems but The
other day that the site of Johannes
burg was a mere handful Of tinroofed
shanties on the wind-swept yeldt, raw
and ugly, dusty and forlorn. You meet
men who trlmpled hecdlessly on the
- tpbbt'tNpN'N WI III Va tr'At 'i''N'' =" ''-''
Hays Hammond estimated years ago
lay in that l30-mile reef.
1t is a tragic fact that the Golden
City" is also a land OF disappointment,
The truth is, South Africa produces
gold and diamonds and nothing else.
There is not another single industry to
support the country. The result Is
grimly expressed by one of the Roths-
lie
worth OF gold flow out of this city
and our people are following the gold
1t is the old question Of labor. After
the war there was "a great rush to 10
hannesburg Business houses trebled
in number Structures worth 100000
OoO were put up with feverish haste.
Then came the reaction. and an amaz.
ing exodus of white men from the City
of Gold InsolyenCies quadrupled IN
number and criminal statistics told
dismal tale. In the past three years
the mines have spent over 81 l,phu,Duo
recruiting laborers in central Africa.
with the poorest results. Only 1900
shlvertns negroes were secured. and
a. these came from tropic climate,
they could not stand the cold winter
months of the high veldt The result
was a death rate so extraordinary that
the British government would no
longer allow similar recruiting in ,rop-
ical Africa. For this reason an army
of Chine Sc, nearly 10000 strong. Hds
imported. and this raised a grave po-
litical question in the British House II
Commons
Yet, Notwithstanding all drawbacks.
it is certain the Rand's output will oe
maintained and the worlds gold sup
r,l, will ,f 4 II
ing on Every year sees new fields
tapped. Those of Australia are as yet
barely scratched, because of the dif-
ficulty OF travel in the waterless in
terror The Importation Il thousanls
of Indian camels, however, has ma lie
big difference in this respect. AS to
Australia. she has already produced
over s3,000.O00. 900 worth of gold and
Yet her vast surface is barely touched.
New South Wales alone has 10000
square miles of gold country which in
great part has never known miners
pick.
After all il is western Aust ralia that
is the real land of gold: though its
ralnless interior makes prospecting a
fearful risk. And yet today an army
10000 strong is fighting the wilder,
ness; and the government has spent
Ib',ooo,oVu on plant designed 10
pump water to the gold fields nearly
400 miles in the burning interior.
Gradually Australias gold mining is ne
coming like that of the Rand-a mere
question of mighty machinery. In
Bendigo today there are golden shafts
three-quarters of a mile deep. And IRON
Tasmania in the South to New Guinea
In the north from Mount Morgan in
tie east to kalgurli in the west-a
straight line of 2400 miles each way
the Australians are raising gold in
vast quantities. The stamps of Nal
gurli's Golden Mile" have already
pounded out $l60, 900 900. The great
problems here are fuel and water. 1t
costs $25 to haul cord of miserab BILE
sage brush over the seas of sand to
the batteries. And there are savage
natives to be reckoned with too-be-
feathered cannibals, notoriously treach-
erous and hostile to the white man.
w. G. Fitzgerald in Van Nordens
Magazine.