Boer Politics Part 8

The official salaries of 1899, estimated at 1,216,000, included a sum of 326,640 for the police. We have seen what kind of police it is.

The legislature is composed of two Volksraads, each consisting of twenty-nine members; or fifty-eight in all. Now the estimate of salaries for the legislature is 43,960, or about 758 each, more than double the allowances of the French senators and deputies.

It is somewhat imprudent of Dr. Kuyper to refer to the educational expenditure. The expenditure amount allocated for the education of the children of Uitlanders in 1896, was 650, or at the rate 1s. 10d. per head, while the gross estimate for education in the budget for that year amounted to 63,000, which works thus out at a cost of 8 6s. 1d. per head for the Boer children. Dr. Mansveldt, Head of the Education Department of the Transvaal, a Hollander, seems to have but one aim: to enforce the use of the _taal_, the Boer patois--a language spoken by no one else--the use of which keeps them in isolated ignorance. The English language is banned.

5.--_New Taxes._

This revenue, employed almost exclusively for the benefit of the Boers, did not suffice for the insatiable government in Pretoria. At a meeting of the Chamber of Mines, on November 21st, 1898, Mr. Rouliot summarized a statement by Mr. Kruger in the Raad, as follows:--

"But recently, Mr. Kruger had said he would give the mines the chance of establis.h.i.+ng themselves before a percentage should be imposed upon their returns; and that no tax would be levied till the diggings had been completed, and the machinery set up. It appeared to him, however, that the government intended to appropriate some of their profits, although it had given no facilities for the preparatory works on the mines, during which it should be remembered that their capital had been burdened by exceptionally heavy indirect taxation. The moment that capital began to be productive, it was to be taxed." (_Blue Book_, No.

9345, p. 48.)

In four-and-twenty hours, Mr. Kruger had unexpectedly managed to pa.s.s a law levying a new tax of 2-1/2 per cent. of the gross production from mynpachts (mining leases), and 5 per cent. from the gross production of other mines. In his report of January 26th, 1899, Mr. Rouliot says: "Had this new tax formed part of a general scheme for the readjustment of taxation, it might have been defended, but those who are considered best qualified to express the views of the government, content themselves by saying that it has the right to take a share of the profits realised by the mines and add that this tax is only a beginning."

6.--_Attempt to Raise a Loan._

Not content with increasing taxation, the government now wished to raise a loan. The attempt failed. The Government of Pretoria blamed the mining companies for the failure. Mr. Rouliot said, on January 26th: "It is true that the companies did not actually support the government in its efforts;" but he added:--

"Neither the Chamber of Mines, nor, to my knowledge, anyone directly, or indirectly, connected with mining interests did anything to embara.s.s the government in its financial negotiations.

It is useless to abstain from plain speaking; on the contrary, I hold it to be my duty to be frank and to state to the government that if it failed in its negotiations, it is due to its bad financial policy; to its want of an efficient system of audit; to its costly and terribly wasteful administration; to the want of precise information as to the object of the loan, and the manner in which it was to be expended."

In fine, Law I. of 1897, and the fantastic method of legislation adopted by the Volksraad, show that the Government of Pretoria offers no better guarantee to people dealing with it than did the Grand Turk, some fifty years ago.

7.--_Fleecing the Uitlanders!_

Taxation, to the Boer, means getting all he can out of the Uitlander, the old characteristic of all oligarchies. The Boer may cheerfully augment both the taxes and his expenditure. It is not he who will suffer.

I admire the Frenchmen, Belgians, Swiss, &c., who pretend that the Uitlanders are a bad lot for not being delighted with such a government.

CHAPTER XI.

MONOPOLIES IN THE TRANSVAAL AND THE NETHERLANDS RAILWAY COMPANY.[16]

1.--_Article XIV. and the Monopolies._

The avowed taxes are far from representing the whole of the burden laid upon the Uitlanders by the Government of Pretoria.

The Convention of 1881 guaranteed freedom of commerce; nevertheless, from 1882 onwards "the triumvirate who ruled the country," says Mr.

FitzPatrick (_The Transvaal from Within_), "granted numbers of concessions, ostensibly for the purpose of opening up industries. The real reasons are generally considered to have been personal." In 1884, Article XIV. renewed the guarantee of freedom of commerce; the Volksraad itself one day pa.s.sed a resolution condemning monopolies in principle: and in December 1895 the President granted a monopoly for the importation of products, under the guise of a government agency with a commission to the agent!

One of the first monopolies established was for the manufacture of spirits. The quality of liquor it supplies to the natives is atrocious.

To drunkenness is attributed a loss of 15 per cent. on the labour of 90,000 natives whose pay and food are equivalent to 40 per head, a loss therefore of 550,000 a year.

[Footnote 16: _Le Siecle_, April 5th, 1900.]

2.--_The Dynamite Monopoly._

Two despatches, one from Mr. Chamberlain, dated January 13th, 1899, and the other from the Transvaal Government, dated March 9th, 1899, indicate how Mr. Kruger always meant to interpret Article XIV. of the Convention of 1884:

On October 13th, 1893, the Transvaal Government granted a monopoly of the dynamite trade to Mr. L.G. Vorstman for a period of 15 years. The price of No. 1 dynamite was fixed at 4 15s. per case, of which 5s. was to be paid to the Government.

The Transvaal Government maintains that this monopoly does not violate the freedom of labour, as it was established in the interest of the State, not in that of the concessionaires, and that the manufacture of dynamite is forbidden to the Boers as much as it is to foreigners.

Mr. Chamberlain in his despatch denies that the dynamite monopoly has been established in the interest of the State; and points out that even according to General Joubert, Vice-President of the Republic, this is really not a State monopoly but the monopoly of one, Lippert, because it is he who has derived the greatest profits from it.

The monopoly company has always failed to fulfil its engagements; the installation was to be completed in two-and-a-half years: in October, 1896, the company was only able to produce 80,000 cases, the consumption at that time amounting to 200,000. The commission of the Volksraad estimated that between 1897 and 1899 it would be necessary to import 430,000 cases in addition to the quant.i.ty produced by the company. It is more to the company's interest to import than to manufacture, since importation affords a profit of 2 per case, and to the State a duty of 5s. Were dynamite imported by the State itself, the latter would realise about 860,000 instead of, as at present, 107,500, making a difference of at least about 752,500.

The price at which dynamite is sold is from 40s. to 45s. above its real value, from which excessive charge only certain individuals, living for the greater part in Europe, derive the benefit. This fact is attested, not by the English, but by Mr. Philipp, State Director of the Manufacture of Explosives. The Commission demanded that all dynamite should be manufactured by the State, and imposed a duty of 20s. per case on all imported dynamite.

These resolutions were pa.s.sed by the Volksraad Commission in 1897; the monopoly has continued to exist, and in 1899 it was proposed to prolong it for a period of fifteen years. On May 1st, 1898, it is true, the price was reduced by 10s.; the company giving up 5s., and the State renouncing the whole of the 5s. duty. It had therefore no interest in maintaining the monopoly; 2s. of the net profits were still payable to it, it is true; but there are no public accounts.

By way of compensation new taxes were imposed by the Government. Mr.

Rouliot, President of the Chamber of Mines, in his speech, January 26th, 1899, put it thus:--

"It is a burden borne by us on another shoulder, not a lightening of the burden."

Allowing for the increased consumption of dynamite, it has been estimated that, even with a further reduction of 5s. per case, the annual burden imposed upon the industry by the monopoly would, at the end of the period, amount to from 687,500 to 825,000. The Transvaal Government in its reply of March 9th, 1899, did not dispute these figures, but stated simply that, "the government had the right to judge what was most advantageous to itself."

The complaints of the British Government on behalf of the mining industry of the Transvaal, were founded solely upon the statement of the Volksraad Commission itself. This mania of the Government for a monopoly by which the shareholders profit greatly and the State hardly at all, proves that there are other interests at stake than those of the public.

At its meeting on February 3rd, 1899, the Wit.w.a.tersrand Chamber of Mines decided to guarantee a Government loan of 600,000 at 5 per cent., to be applied in buying-out the concessionaires of the dynamite monopoly.

3.--_Railways._

A concession for all the State railways was granted on April 16th, 1884, to a group of Hollander and German capitalists, and confirmed by the Volksraad on August 23rd following. In 1887 the shares, to the number of 2,000, representing a capital of 166,666, were held as follows:--

By Germans 819 shares carrying 30 votes.

" Hollanders 581 " " 76 "

" The Republic 600 " " 6 "

This astonis.h.i.+ng division of votes which gave to the Transvaal Government 6 out of 112, although it subscribed one-third of the capital, and a.s.sured to the Hollanders twice as many votes as the other holders put together, although they only provided one-third of the capital, was the work of Dr. Leyds. The contract for the construction of the first 70 miles is not less surprising. Messrs. Van Hattum & Co. were to build the line, at a cost mutually to be agreed upon by them and the railway company; and they were to receive as remuneration 11 per cent.

upon the amount of the specification. The 11 per cent. was to be proportionately decreased by a sliding scale so arranged that it disappeared by the time Van Hattum & Co. had exceeded the contract price by 100 per cent. Beyond that the company had the right to cancel the contract. From this it follows, that, by deciding to lose the 11 per cent., Messrs. Van Hattum could make a gain of 89 per cent. This they did, and whole sections of earthworks, which should not have cost 8,000 per mile, cost 23,000 instead. A thousand Hollanders were brought out to work on the line; and sent home again at the expense of the Government. In a country which abounded in stone, the Komati Bridge was built of dressed stone imported from Holland, with the cost of a transit of 7,000 miles.

4.--_The Drift Question._

The Cape Colony Free State Railway ends at the Vaal River, 50 miles from Johannesburg. Thence goods are transmitted by the Netherlands Railway at a charge of 8-1/2d. per ton per mile, the rate being 3d. over the rest of the line.

In order to escape this rate manufacturers resorted to the use of ox-wagons; Mr. Kruger forbade them the drifts in order to compel the transit of goods by railway. This was another flagrant violation of Article 14 of the Convention of 1884, which called forth the intervention of Mr. Chamberlain. The indignation at the Cape was so great, that Mr. Chamberlain having asked the Cape Government, whether, in the event of war resulting, it would pay half the cost, and undertake the transport of the troops by the railways, the proposal was accepted by an Afrikander minister! Mr. Kruger yielded and re-opened the drifts.