RAND GOLDFIELDS

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXVI, Issue 9062, 22 April 1937, Page 3

RAND GOLDFIELDS

IMPRESSIONS OF EX-WAIHI RESIDEff ENORMOUS OUTPUT MILLION OUNCES PER MONTH “When one learns that the pro Auction of gold from the Rand field! alone are to-day standing at just or £7,000,000 per month —a millioi ounces of fine gold per month on* can realise what phenomenal pros perity is at present being enjoyed ii South Africa,” stated Mr R. B. Cram well, an ex-resident of Waihi anc now residing in Hamilton, on his return from a tour of the Union. Witb the Government collecting 42 pei cent, of the gold profits the whole of the Union is sharing in the enormous gold-producing Transvaal. This source of revenue is materially helping the Government in many other works.” The actual mining costs on the Rand were ISs lid per ton, he added, and the average value of the ore worked about 28s a ton. The greatest output last year was from the Randfontein Estates which produced four and a-half million tons or ore, while other mines were somewhere near that figure. The large mining houses had, by their wonderful organisation, made the Transvaal mining industry one of the model industries of the world, added Mr Cranwell. LITTLE WATER POWER Very little water power was used in South Africa, the figures for 1933-34 showing only 9000 horsepower against 330,000 horsepower in New Zealand. All power for big mines was generated from coal in Johannesburg by the Victoria Falls Power Company” at the remarkably low price of l-3d per Board of Trade unit. The great Victoria Falls on the Zambese River were only this year brought into use with a small ktf'dro-electric station of 3000 horsepnver to supply the town of Livingstone. The falls were too far away from the industrial centre to be economically used. In some of the gold mines on the Rand a convenient overlying seam of coal was worked to provide the power to mine the gold. In the Rand mines over 300,000 natives were employed, their wages being 2s a day on a six-day week and their keep, which worked out at 12s 6d per week. They also got free insurance, medical attention and entertainment. Their quarters were called compounds and were compact and clean. The natives were well cared for and although they were sent to their homes once a year for a holiday they seemed only too pleased to get back to the mine fields again. *The recruiting of labour for the

mines was becoming an acute problem, however, and the recruiting was now, going as far as Portuguese East Africa. JOHANNESBURG OF TO-DAY "Johannesburg, with a total population of 600,000, is probably the most prosperous city in the world to-day. In fact, one may say tbAt the prosperity of South Africa to-day just radiates from Johannesburg—the centre of the rich Rand goldfields," stated Mr Cranwell. "Everywhere around the'eity one sees huge buildings in course of construction, the older buildings being demolished. Extensive flats are going up everywhere, while in the suburbs . palacial .houses are being built by the score. The building programme for Johannesburg—without the mines and their attendant towns extending for 80 miles —for this year is said to be £9,000,000. Everywhere along the Rand or reef-bearing zone ,is a hive of industry and everyone seems to have made a fortune, either in gold share appreciation or in busness," he added. Johannesburg, however, was not without its drawbacks, he added. Situated at an altitude of nearly 6000 ft above sea level, in the summer months it was visited by frequent thunder-storms and very vivid lightning displays were often seen three' or four times a week. Earthquakes, too, were fairly frequent, and disturbing. It was said that the 'quakes were due to collapsing of old underground workings, and as no mining had been done under the city itself the population was never alarmed.