THE OUTLOOK IN THE TRANSVAAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2651, 4 January 1905, Page 22

THE OUTLOOK IN THE TRANSVAAL.

With the monthly mounting gold output and a general advance in mining stocks (writes the Johannesburg correspondent of the Christchurch Pressf Transvaalers are commencing to take a cheery view of the future. Black despondency has given placebo pronounced optimisim; that is, among those who look to the sole salvation of {he country as dependent on the gold industry md these constitute the vast -majority of the dwellers in the towns. The iew settlers °? *^ c . »J d ,. ar «» lam afraid, finding some of their illusions .falsified. The' fruitfulness or. the-' soil has- probably -not been, overestimated under favourable -^conditions, bufe there is no regularity in the. seasons.; • th& good ones are. few and far between:' la the same way stock-raising has been fount* to be very precarious, owing "to the many" diseases. Thus it is that those- ,who wenfc on the land with the, expectation 'of revolutionising, by improved methods, "the oldi Dutch ideas of cultivation on a small scale, and on the other hand not risking too much in. stock, have come to, the opinion that fchs "Jt° slow v " policjr>is-/«ie>best— untilr-iit- all some antidote for the stock ravages lias- been discovered; and a thorough system of . irrigation is provided.' All>this by.th« way. As has oeen said, it, is raining thas is looked upon as the bacldbone : o£ this new colony, and appearances are that'we hav»entered upon' a" boom as far as that is concerned. The Ockfber return from the main reef, although it did top all previous mo»ths - Mnoe th© war, fell short of what most" looked ■ Eor. This is accounted for', in that several of the big mines were, and are, in the - equipment stage, making provision for the dropping of additional stamps justified by She assurance of plenty of labour. There r ire now something like 20,000 Chinese at' work, which number will be largely augmented before the end of the year, while the native black labour is coming in xeely. The November output should show i big rise, and it will be surprising if that :or December does- not reach the million, md a-half mark — a monthly yield the Mining Houses have been long striving for. \t time of writing the market is in a very nioyant state, some shares reaching a 'best" price, and nearly all stocks show i very considerable rise on quotations that lave ruled for months past. During all 'he dull days it was predicted the change yould be a meteoric one. And the predicion was seemingly a true one — the greatest >essimists of a month ago are now as greafc iptimists as Lord Milner himself, and you :now he styles himself "an incorrigible* iptimist." Not " only is it the gold ventures that are tooming ahead. Despite the great handicap mder which the Premier Diamond Comvany and sister concerns labour, by reason; f the Transvaal Precious Stones Ordinance, s compared with the Cape law (by which Jamberley diamonds escape taxation), dialond stocks are soaring in price. Premier* iave advanced within the last couple- o£ tionths from £35 to over £51. Lacs iamonda, a much cheaper stock, have had n even greater advance. The annual meetug of De Beers Syndicate at Kimberley howed the profit for the year to be some 52,000,000. This is, I suppose, the greatest aoney_-m.aking company extant.