SOUTH AFRICA’S WEALTH

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 287, 4 September 1928, Page 15

SOUTH AFRICA’S WEALTH

WHAT WILL REPLACE GOLD. Some interesting observations on the economic position of South Africa were macle by the Governor-General, the Earl of Athlone, in an address to the Federation of Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire in London. He said the prosperity of South Africa had been built on gold. She paid in gold for about one-half of her imports, and it was true enough that, if gold suddenly failed her, she would have to reduce her mode of life to one consistent with a margin of one-half or probably much less than one-half what she at present imported. While it did not' seem likely that the goldfields would go out of production all at once or even consecutively diminish very rapidly, there was no doubt that the statesmanship of South Africa had this point well in mind—the gradual setting up of some form of wealth production which would supplant gold if gold failed or supplement gold if gold diminished. There were various views of what this form should be. Some people were all for the development of industry; others were all for the more intensive development of agriculture and fruit culture. Some again were greatly taken with the idea of turning the native into a much more active producer than he was, on the sound principle tliat an active producer was also an. active consumer, and that a native population with a large agricultural production would afford a valuable internal market for home industrial products. But, whatever form of wealth production was advocated, the search for it and the pursuit of it were more industrious and persistent, perhaps, in South Africa than in most other countries. The Earl of Athlone made a comparison of the country’s exports in 1910 and 1927, showing that vhile the output of gold had greatly increased, there had been a substantial expansion in the exports of agricultural products, while the proportion of exports other than gold, in spite of the increase in the latter, had risen from 37 to 50 per cent, of the total. These facts seemed to show that there was a great deal of wealthproducing, against the possible sad day when there would be no more gold.