1936-09-16 — Page 14

14

THE

HONGKONG

1936... 16, TELEGRAPH. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER

Half a

million

people

live In

Johannesburg

fo.day.

GOLD

WENT to Johannesburg by conch in 1886.

It was a mining camp, full

of Bohemian life:

There were all sorts of people, dig-

CITY

Romance Of The Rand

gers and others, several of whom in quite seriously,

Juter years became millionaires.

Everybody was Lomebody.

that he was leo. stupid to be nelerk; and that there no jobs available for hend were

Everybody spent generously what affelals, otherwise something might

he had, and what he had not.

What they had not was supplied by bank overdraft. Only an "over- draft merchant" (this is the name

WO

gave them in these days) was considered of much account.

Some yearn later the banks grew wiser. Then our friends found it more dimcult to spend what they had not got.

We lived a very merry lite. A

be done.

Aerial Tram

IANT of knowledge had some

curious results.

SIR

By HARRY GRAUMANN

ORD DEWAR once sent me LORD

burg. It proved to be worth more than gold in my journeying through East Africa.

Fifty years-

ago there

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TO SAN FRANCISCO

was only

one shack

on the city's

slie.

Via Shanghai, Kobe, Yokohama, Honolulu, San Francisco, l'anama

Canal, Havana, New York,

Prea. Taft

Pres, Hoover

Pres. Pierce

burg shere-gambling begun, and when the reaction set in banks, began to call in overdraft irrespective of consequences,

In cariler duys they had been too eager to lend when circumstances did

WHEN Lord Gladstone, the first Governor-General under

WI

the Union, came to Johannesburg in 1910, I, as mayor, hud nn unhappy

time.

It was comparable in price with bacon. I once paid 70s, for a pound of bacon during my trip through that country, and whisky there at that

He was most coldly greeted be- time was felching £5 a bottle. Later cause his father had given back the It came down to 303.

Transvaal to the Boers after Majuba. When a certain gold mining coin- (formerly Mayor, of Johan-

Early In Johannesburg days n It was most unfair that he should pany applied for the right to con- struct un aerial tram, the matter was #esburg and Member for Rand gold-mining company of which have been held responsible for his I was chairman advertised for a mine father's actions. Later the prejudice

wore down. Borr Government, under Kruger, dealt with by the Cabinet. Subse

It was submitted to the Central Division of manager. administered the country. It knew guently hardly anything about mining, and Transvaal Parliament, when a mem

ber less about administering a country janrd, made an eloquent speech stat-

of this august body, named Tant Johannesburg in the Union.

Parliament) with a growing British population.

So conflict came. But in those Ing that "the application was days good or

bad government did terrible thing"-In fact, "It amounted to blasphemy," not matter very much. What con- cerned us was how much gold

We

20

ite could find no instance in the

dug up, how much money we could Bible of things "fying through the the unly spend, how much amusement could air," and the Bible was be gol.

book he knew or cared about.

Such Incidents were amusing at the time, but they began to retard mining development.

Despite diferences, the British and

TENTS, wooden houses, and ramshackle buildings gave way to streets of brick and stone Dutch were good friends in those days with galvanised Iron roofs shortly

after I arrived on the Rand.

To-day is full of skycrapers.

Kruger

We were very proud of our little music-mall, where the boxes were generally filled with men ikke Solly Joel, Carl lanau, and the cream af the guy set, to brighten things up. One of vivid early menorles

my of President Kruger is of him laying the foundation stone

of the Synagogue nt

Park Station.

"To-day the Intrinsic

value of deep-level mines

has been established beyond

all doubt,"

and worked well together.

Racial hatreds did not develop till after the Jameson Raid. Now, for- tunately, the position is better, dating. from the time when Smuts and Hert

He declared the stone "well and zog quite recently joined hands and truly Ind-in the namo of Jesus formed a Coalition Government.

Christ," which, you will agree, was a

littlo

unusual in the circumstances.

I remember a young Dutchman applying to President Kruger for job. The great man made Inquiries, sent for the youth, and told him,

£12,000,000 SEVERAL men who started

the Rand

on

with little or no

MAM

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For full Particulars, apply to:

Vol. 26651.

Gold [OHANNESBURG — the

City-celebrates its Jubilee with an Empire Exhibition, to be opened to-day.

shack Fifty years ago it was a

on the lonely veldt. Now f has a population of half a mil- lion. Exactly fly years ago Bir Harry Graumann (known as the "boy and of Capetown" broker author of "Rand Riches and South Africa," a book recently published) pushed out to the

Hand. Io knew Kruger, Cecil Rhodes Alfred Belt, Solly Joel, Barney Barnato, and the other tower- Ing Agures of the early gold- mining days on the Witwaters- Tand

Here Sir Harry, in an interview with J.D. S. Alan, tells some- thing of the early history of Johannesburg.

The

This was the historic year when

four South

African Colonics

merged into the were

and union of South Africa, when the Duke of Connaught went out to

first open the Union Parliament.

capital-become-millionaires largely in consequence of their association with the great gold mining industry.

Alfred Belt died worth more than £12,000,000. His partner, Wernher, must have been worth something like the same amount.

Percy Fitzpatrick

Up And Down

One applicant recalled that 1 hud sold him a pair of boots for 40s. during my commercial activities in East Africa, I told him that they cost me Ba., but I had had a lot of trouble corting them to Umtall.

I asked how they had worn, and he said, "Damned badly."

goldfeld was THE Arst Rond THE

where outcrop raining alone was carried on.

Few of the pioneers believed that mines would go down thousands of feet. In fact, mining people in the early days. were afraid to sink to great depths for fear they might ind the reef had "pinched out."

To-day the intrinsic value of deep- level mines has been established be yond all doubt.

The second new field is the East

He got the job-ut £2,000 a year. This will go to show how the strug- gling fortune-seeker or prospector was poor to-day and rich to-morrow. Rand, and the third new field, is the These vicissitudes were frequent Far East Rand. Both these sections In the old pioneer days.

of the Rand Include some of the world's richest gold mines.

excited.

ECIL RHODES used to speak in a thin falsetto voice when

New Fields

The fourth new field, now coming along, is the Far Far East Band. The fifth is the West Rand, and the sixth Dr. Jameson and Belt were his two is the Far West Rand, where in the great friends, and it is tragic to think past year or two discoveries have that the blunder of the Jameson Raid been made which surprise the old should have toppled him over.

Hnd Rhodes lived, I am sure he would again have become the biggest man in South Africa,

Money to him was but the means Jo power. Rhodes got the land and Beit gut the money to develop it. South Africa has never known such a wonderful combination as these two men.

BOTIL Boers und British went into the Boer War in bilssful ignorance, The Boers mostly were unaware of the Empire's resources and thought they could dispatch all the Redcouts who might be sent.

And in the first year most of the British thought they would eat their (later Sir Christmas pudding in Pretoria! But Percy), author of "Jock of the Bush- Little did Briton or Boer think the veld," who used to be clerk in my war would lust over three years. office, joined Alfred Beit's alm. He I was in an awkward position when became a central figure in the Jame- war broke out. son Raid.

Alfred Belt established the Corner House at Johannesburg, which con- irolled the leading mines.

Belt was one of the kindest men in South Africa, especially to those he had known in the old Kimberley daya, He would say to me, "I heur old to and-so is

Give him a hundred on my "

to Triding capital was required start a mine in those days because Addi- they were al outcrop mines. tional working capital, when needed for these mines, was easy to get

To-day it requires about £2,000,-

·

Awkward

I was one of the four aldermen of Johannesburg. No racial differences upset our harmony. But I could not remain."

When I resigned, the Dutch mem- bers of the council refused to accept the resignation, and said that if I must go to Capetown they wanted me to go there as an alderman of Jehannesburg.

IN Capetown, during the war,

became chairman of the Re-

000 to start a deep level mine. It is fugee Committee. Refugee problems now practically all deep level mining became very severe, as n vast number on the Bond.

of refugers had gone to Capetown Outcrop companies prospered so from the Transvaal and had to be rapidly in the ploneer days that cared for.

·RAND MILESTONES

1853 Diggers "scratching" for gold in the Witwatersrand—“Ridge of White Waters."

10

bands.

This section of the country is going to become of vast Importance.

Na goldfeld in the world can boast such continuity of formation vhhies us the Witwatersrand.

Pres. Coolidge Pres. Lincoln

TO SEATTLE, VICTORIA

Via Shanghai, Kobe, Yokohams and Victoria,

Midnight Sept. 22nd Pres. McKinley Midnight Sept. 25th

Noon Oct. 3rd Pres. Grant Midnight Oct. 20th Pres, Jefferson

10 am.

Oct. 31st Pres. Jackson Midnight Nov, 10th Pres. McKinley

EUROPE, NEW YORK

Via Manila, Singapore, Penang, Colombo, Bombay, Suez Canal, Naples, Genoa and Marseilles.

Pres. Garfield

Pres. Polk Pres. Adams Pres. Harrison Pres. Hayes

"

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Oct. Oth

Oct. 23rd

Nov, 6th

Nov. 20th

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Oct. 10th Pres, Hoover Oct. 24th Pres. Garfield Nov. 7th Pres. Grant

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Nov.

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Nov. 18

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Jan. 31 Feb, 2 Feb.

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TO MANILA

Feb. 27

..Sept. 24th, .Oct. 9th.

[OHANNESBURG decided in

1910 that Its Mayor-Sir Harry Graumann-ought to have robes and gohl chain of office for the visit of the Duke of Con- naught.

Sir Harry close a robe of silk. Before leaving, the Duke of Connaught

congratulated Sir Harry on being the first Mayor to wear robes of suitable material for the climate Instead of the heavy fur-trimmed ones usual for Mayorn, even in the tropics.

The extraordinary part is that one can sink to a great depth on a small assay from boring operations in the

onc

thought Impossible.

conditions alleged against Boer Approved sections, with little or no fear of not obtaluing ultimate good Government. South

Africa or

highly payable results, panies when he crosses

This is due to the great regularity 1880 Mason, helping to build Mro.

Bechuanaland frontier with 600 of formation and values, extending Chartered Company "Police." Oosthuizen's farm at Langlangte,

to dimensions

would

have stubs his foot on a small rock, 1800 South African War.

surrendered unearthing the leader of the 1900 Johannesburg ..fabulous wealth of the Main :'. the British troops.

Rest Series, Gold rush begins. 1002 Pence of Vereeniging ending the

South African War.. 1887 Barney Bornato's experts advise

him to leave the Rand alone be- 1904 Rand gold mining resumes pre- enuse the rock was "not deep." 1010 A year later he plunges in, be- comes the largest holder of propositions and real

mining

estate.

1892 Johannesburg connected by rall

to Cape poris.

1805 Great drought, Rich men on

the Rand wash themselves in soda water.

war scale.

Union of South Africa, estab Ished. Experiment of import- ing Chinese labour ends; 03,000 coolies repatriated.· 1913 General strike. 1922 Strikes

organise on military lines. Killed: 72 soldiers and police, 30 revolutionaries or sus- pected revolutionaries, 42 inno- cent civilians.

1895 Dr. Jameson, confidential friend 1928 Johannesburg mode a city.

of Cecil Rhodes, singes unsue- 1030 Empire Exhibition in Johannes-

cessful raid, climax to resent-

ment by Britons against harsh

shares would soar to ten times or

burg to celebrale Jubilee of finding of gold roofs.

This committee acted in close ac- more of their face value. This made cord with Lord Milner's' wishes.

it easy to raise additional working capital by a very slight increase of a

Share-Gambling

company's original" capital, which ' Reconstruction · work was dificult after the Boer War. Al Johannes-

Cio dos MESSageries MARITIMES.

I was generally very small,,

Even if gold had not risen from

ven £4 6s. to about £7 an ounce, nearly all the mines would pay, though not, of course, on the same scale. The Rand is largely South Africa.

carrying

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