ROMANCE OF GOLD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 21029, 13 November 1931, Page 6

ROMANCE OF GOLD.

SOUTH 'AFRICAN PIONEER.

STORY OF RICH DISCOVERY,

MAN WITH GREAT VISION.

[FROM ora OWN CORRESPONDENT. ]

CAPETOWN, Oct. 1

By the passing of Mr. Fred Struben at, Newton Abbot, England, there has been removed on© of the pioneers of the South African gold industry. Though it is generally admitted that George Walker was the first man to find the actual main reef leader on the Rand : there is little doubt that Struben first really recognised the potentiality of the banket formation and comprehended the vast reservoir of wealth which lay buried beneath the rocky slopes of the Witwatersrand. What that realisation has meant to South Africa and the immense advantages it has conferred on an otherwise sparsely-populated and ill-developed country is now a matter of history.

It was after much discouragement from his contemporaries and many failures that Mr. Struben at last opened up the banket formation in March, 1888, and he has left on record his emotion when he realised he had made the great discovery—one of those breath-taking moments which make all the'toil and disappointments and hardships of the prospector's life vanish in one dazzling flash of vision. The Lucky Discovery. "Leaving camp," Mr. Struben said, "goon after breakfast, I was fossicking about for several hours without finding anything of value. The sun was pouring down from a cloudless sky, and I was tired of tramping over the rough and rocky ground, and carrying the various samples I had collected on the way. I determined, however, to keep moving, and about mid-day I was down in the valley that runs at the bottom of the range. "Suddenly I looked up against the southern range and saw that a disturbance had taken place in the rocks. I immediately conceived the idea of the possibility of a reef in the formation. The thought gave me new life and vigour. "All depression and tiredness left me, and I moved quickly forward to the spot. I was not wrong in my opinion, for there I found a reef cutting right through the displaced strata. Hastily I broke off a piece of the surface rock and took it to a stream which ran down the valley only some 50yds. away. 1 crushed-the stone on a large flat rock, slipped it into a pan I always carried with m» and panned it. "Imagine my joy when, out of that little bit of rock, there came almost a teaspoonful of gold, the pan being literally covered with it.. I was so astonished at the quantity of metal, which was of a light yellowish tint, that I was still doubtful whether it was really gold. Ore of Remarkable Richness. "I set off at once, at a rapid pace, to my camp, and tested the metal with chemicals, and also by heating. It was then I realised I had found a vein of remarkable richness and of great value. 1 stood at my tent door alone. There was no one to speak to in the vast solitude of the silent veld. Years of suffering, ridicule and disappointment came before me in a flash at that moment. I re member that the only thing that was left to me through it all was that strange un conquerable confidence within me that one day I would strike a rich gold field. Then as I looked over the barren veld and desolate kopjes I saw a vision of gold-bearing formation that, would bring millions of capital into South Africa, and provide work for thousands of miners." What this discovery meant to South Africa is shown by the fact that since that year up to 1930 the Transvaal goldmines have produced gold to the value of £1,062,614,028.