Boer Politics Part 6

CHAPTER VIII.

BOER OLIGARCHY.

Dr. Kuyper, who has juggled with these facts, enumerates with a sort of amazed frankness the reproaches addressed to the Transvaal Government:

The relations between legislative and judicial authority give rise to comments which cannot be considered groundless.... It has been called scandalous that the Chief Justice of the High Court should have been deposed. But, in 1839, President Johnson, of the United States, met the difficulty by making a majority of nine in the High Court, thus a.s.suring to himself a compliant majority.

There is a mis-print in the Article in the _Revue de Deux Mondes_. The date should be 1869 not 1839; and truly Dr. Kuyper has lighted upon a good example in his selection of President Johnson; the only President of the United States who has been impeached!

I know that sort of argument generally employed by people who are in the wrong and especially employed by people whom Dr. Kuyper can scarcely bring forward as models. "All very well, but what of that little slip of yours." ... Dr. Kuyper might as reasonably invoke _la loi de dessaisiss.e.m.e.nt_ voted by the French Chamber last year. Our answer to him is that the violation of the most elementary principles of justice in one country, does not justify it in another. He proceeds:

"The Boer Government is said to be an oligarchy. And yet every citizen has his vote--Throughout the land there are juries...."

Really Dr. Kuyper affects too great _navete_. The Boers may have created a democracy among themselves; with regard to natives and Uitlanders they are an oligarchy.

"Every citizen has his vote": But Mr. Kruger's argument for refusing the franchise to Uitlanders is that they numbered 70,000, while the Burghers were only 30,000. Here we have a minority governing the majority; what else is an oligarchy?

"Throughout the land there are juries"; yes, but juries made up of Boers who try Uitlanders, treat them as enemies, and find that the policeman Jones acted rightly in killing Edgar. That way of const.i.tuting a jury is a certainty of injustice to the Uitlanders, and not a guarantee of justice.

President Kruger promised to do something for the munic.i.p.al organisation of Johannesburg; this is how he keeps his promise. Each division of that town elects two members, a Burgher and an Uitlander; according to the last census, the burghers living in Johannesburg, numbered 1,039; the Uitlanders 23,503; thus 1,039 burghers had as many representatives in the munic.i.p.al Corporation as the 23,503 Uitlanders. The Mayor, who was nominated by the Government, had the right of absolute veto.

In modern law there exists a principle introduced by England, which is the true basis of representative Government: "no representation, no taxation." It is the right of every citizen who contributes to the taxes to approve of them and to control the use of them.

In autocratic governments, he has no such right. In oligarchic governments, the governing cla.s.s imposes burdens upon those it governs.

This is the case in the Transvaal.

In an oligarchy, taxes are not levied with a view to the general good of the community, but for the benefit of the ruling cla.s.s; and this is the political conception of the Boers.

Dr. Kuyper says, in speaking of the Uitlanders:

"No one invited them here; they came of their own accord."

Therefore they possess the right to be taxed, but nothing else.

Dr. Kuyper's a.s.sertion is not strictly correct; for he forgets the invitation addressed by Mr. Kruger, in London in 1884, to all who were willing to take their abilities and their capital to the Transvaal, in which he promised them rights of citizens.h.i.+p and a.s.sured them of his protection.

But the matter of invitation is of little account. Let us allow that there was no invitation. Neither did Fra Diavolo invite the travellers he despoiled; _ergo._, according to Dr. Kuyper, he had the right to despoil them. The Uitlanders are travellers, at whose expense the government of Pretoria has the right to live, and to support the Boers.

Such is plainly the idea of Mr. Kruger and of the majority of the 29 members of the Volksraad, and we shall see that that idea underlies the whole of its political economy.

Mr. Kruger was, however, in error in supposing that he could practise this system indefinitely in these times of ours, and with respect to the citizens of a country which represents the modern conception of industrial civilization.

Professor Bryce, a strong opponent of the present policy of England, says in his _Impressions of South Africa_ (p. 470):

"A country must after all take its character from the large majority of its inhabitants, especially when those who form that majority are the wealthiest, most educated, and most enterprising part of the population."

Mr. Kruger has aimed at realizing this paradox: the oppression and plunder of the most enterprising, most educated, the richest and most numerous portion of the population by the poorest, most ignorant, most indolent of minorities.

CHAPTER IX.

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE GOLD MINES.[12]

1.--_That Gold is Mine!_

Let us see in what terms Dr. Kuyper justifies the Boer policy of exaction:

"The Leonards and their set are very ready to tell us that the taxes in Johannesburg exceed in proportion those levied in every other country.... As to the quota paid by Uitlanders to the State, we beg leave to remind the British of two points: first, that they are exempt from all military service; secondly, that it is a far more serious matter for the Boers to pay with their lives, and the lives of their sons, than it is for these wealthy owners of gold mines to pay so much per cent. upon their enormous dividends; and that if they do pay the Transvaal some thousands of pounds, they pocket their millions. Moreover, love for the Transvaal has never entered their metallised hearts."

This little gem merits careful a.n.a.lysis. Mr. Kuyper shares the belief that one has only to go to Johannesburg to shovel in the gold. If the working of mines were so simple a matter, Boer intelligence would be equal to the undertaking. As they are not worked by them, it must be because there are difficulties. These difficulties have been overcome for them by the Uitlanders. Once overcome, the Boers present themselves and say: "That gold is mine!"

"Why then did you not take it yourselves?"

The Boers, who pride themselves upon driving their teams of oxen, but who consider that to in-span them is work only fit for Kaffirs, consider gold mining beneath them, let alone that they have not the capacity for it. They leave it to the Uitlanders: all the same, Dr. Kuyper holds it just that it is they who should take the profit.

[Footnote 12: _Le Siecle_, 3rd April, 1900.]

2.--_The Proportion of Gold per Ton._

Gold ore is found in infinitesimal quant.i.ties in large deposits of waste matter. In 1898 of the 77 Gold Mining Companies at work, three-fourths reported a yield of 1/2 oz. per ton; some only 6 to 7 dwts. per ton.

Consequently we find mines worked where one ton of rock will yield 1/2 oz. of ore, or perhaps only half as much. There are other mines which swallow up the capital, and give no return at all.

3.--_Cost of Production._

In 1892 gold producing in the Transvaal cost 35s. 6d. per ton; in 1897 the cost was reduced to 28s. 6d.; in 1898 to 27s. 6d. This reduction of cost is in no way due to any reforms made by the Government, but to improvements in the methods employed, and especially to the more extensive use of compressed air drills.

Out of 8,965,960 tons of ore raised in the Wit.w.a.tersrand nearly 18.2 per cent. had to be thrown out; that is: about 1,634,500 tons of ore were rejected as sterile. In some cases the proportion of sterile ore has amounted to as much as 40 per cent. The cost of production from the deep levels is 34s. 6d. Out of the profits of each month, expenses and the cost of working material have to be met. (Speech of Mr. Rouliot, President of _The Chamber of Mines_, January 26th, 1899.)[13]

Mr. J.H. Curle in his valuable work _The Gold Mines of the World_, published in 1899, estimated the debts of the Rand Companies at 5,515,000. "It is not unusual," he writes, "for the directors of a deep level mine to spend 500,000 before one single ton has been crushed."

[Footnote 13: See the _Revue Sud-Africaine_ (Paris), February 26th, 1899.]

4.--_A Gold Mine is an Industrial Undertaking._

According to the report of the Industrial Commission appointed to inquire into the mining industry, there were, in 1896, 183 gold mines in the Transvaal. Of these 79 had been gold-producing, while 104, still in process of development, had as yet produced nothing. Of the 183 only 25 had paid dividends.

In 1898, a year of great progress, of the 156 mines situated in the Rand, 40 only were paying dividends, representing, on an average, a return of 8.7 per cent.

In reality, a gold mine is as entirely an industrial undertaking, as is any other form of commerce; for its proper development it requires men of the highest capacity, not a mere set of adventurers, as Dr. Kuyper and other Pro-Boers tell the simpletons who judge without examining facts. This is what is said on the subject by Mr. Curle, who saw the mines at work during his extended and conscientious enquiry:

"The average mine manager, whether in South Africa, or India, or Australia, or wherever I have met him, is an extremely capable man.

Of course, there are exceptions--some managers are not capable; some are not even honest, but, as a rule, those in actual charge of our gold mines to-day are men who can be relied on, but I do not wish to confine my praise to the managers only. The mine captain, whose valuable qualities are known more to the manager than to outsiders, is usually a most capable man, and devoted to his work.