Page:The empire and the century.djvu/632

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
TRANSVAAL OUTPUT OF GOLD
589

tions in Griqualand West, entirely overshadowed, however, later on, by the wonderful goldfields of the Witwatersrand. Gold had been known to exist in the Transvaal, and small quantities had been obtained from alluvial workings from about the year 1880, but systematic working only began in 1888. Before that year the total recorded output only amounted to £220,217. The following table gives at a glance the progressive output of the Transvaal, sadly broken, as will be seen, after 1899 by the war, but now in excess of the rate of production before the conflict:

£
1884 10,096
1885 6,010
1886 34,710
1887 169,401
1888 967,416
1889 1,490,568
1890 1,870,000
1891 2,938,000
1892 4,698,000
1893 5,649,000
1894 7,809,000
1895 8,578,000
1896 8,598,000
1897 11,476,000
1898 16,044,135
1899 15,789,923
1900 1,498,901
1901 1,014,687
1902 7,268,665
1903 12,589,248
1904 16,054,809
1905 (seven months)     11,809,859
Total £136,299,428

But the Transvaal is not the only gold producer in South Africa. That industry in Rhodesia has had a very chequered career from a number of causes, which, in the narrow limits of this chapter, it is impossible to discuss; but all the well-wishers of that country, which