The Coolidge examiner., 1936-10-02

Washington, d. C.-WNU Service.
HE Golden Jubilee of Johan-
nesburg, Union of South AT
rica, is marked by the open
ing of the Empire Exhibi-
ton of South Africa. Two million
visitors are expected as minimum
during the four months dura-
ton of this, the first exhibition out
side the British Isles purporting to
reflect activities of the entire Brit
ish Empire, which embraces about
one-fourth of the entire earth's land
area.
The Jubilee for Johannesburg is
golden" in more ways than one. In
claiming a place among the worlds
most prosperous, this city needs
only to mention that it is the center
for the ten-billion-dollar gold in
dustry of the Witwatersrand, dis
covered in 1886.
Thus Johannesburg is the city that
gold built. Just fifty years ago
George Walker, out for stroll,
accidentally stubbed his toe and
kicked into gold-bearing outcrop
of what proved to be the main reef
of the Witwatersrand. Here, shaped
like vast bowl imbedded face
upward, was a 70-mile stretch of
d-impregnated rock, now fami-
liarly known as the Rand and surely
one of the richest gold fields in the
World.
Immediately, upon that treeless
uninhabited no-man' s-land there ap-
feared tawdry mining village of
tents and covered wagons. Tele-
graph wires hummed and the
village became raw tin-shack town
of 5000 people
The prevailing crude process of
mining and treatment of ore lost
half the gold worked. Yet who cared,
since the Reef seemed inexhausti-
BILE? Supplies were teamed from 300
miles away. Yet who minded fancy
prices? And, as to the water short
age, ''All right; let's bring in cham
pagne!"
Thus began the babyhood of Jo-
hannesburg, which is to-day, though
a mere youth of fifty years, a giant
in achievement. The largest African
town south of Cairo and chief COM
mercial plexuS Of the South African
Unions hinterland, ''Jo'burg' has
municipal area of nearly 81 square
miles and some 100000 people, or
about half the population of the Reef,
upon which rises this city built on
gold.
Now a Cosmopolitan City
A town of such spectacular be-
ginnings needs time to settle down
to lifes quieter realities. Today, so
years young and quite used to hav-
ing an annual $225, 900, 600 worth of
gold dug up, so to speak, in its
back yard, the City of the Reef pre-
sents the aspects OF well-rounded
cosmopolitanism.
One might expect such fine public
buildings as the Town Hall. the Law
Courts. and the Stock Exchange.
Few visitors, however, would anti
cipate the planned beauty of some
of johannesburg suburbs, or the
spaciousness of its parks and re-
creation fields, or it's support of art,
medical research, and of so i'm
preSsive an academic seat as the
Witwatersrand University.
1t is reported that growth even
within the past few years has ac-
celerated, to keep time with the
amazing boom in the value of gold.
Tall buildings are taller and more
frequent on the skyline of this South
African metropolis-and still going
upt
AS for the city's play-hour aspects,
one might mention innumerable
clubs, race meets, sporting events,
motor cars like peas in a pod, and
as for motor cycles watch
your step! In off hours the City
Built on Gold forgets it's world-im-
portant mining interests in such re-
laXations as a quiet game of bowls
on swards as smooth as golf green's.
For Johannesburger are one with
Drake in their love of bowling
green's and the very same game
which tradition says the great Eli
zabethan was playing with the cap
tains of his fleet when couriers
brought news of the sighting of the
Armada.
Mines of The Rand
Strangely impressive, as one ap-
proaches Johannesburg are these
miles upon miles of mine dumps
surrounding the WitWaterSrand gold
fields and stretching across the vast
plain like avenues of mammoth
monuments. Indeed, South Africa
also has it's pyramids-pyramids of
waste material, running into mil
lions of tons of fine white sands, left
from the gold-extracting processes.
Their sloping sand-hued massifs sug-
gest military Notifications on \