To these men, and to the other heads of departments, to battery managers, cyanide works managers, assayers, samplers, surveyors, office staff; the shareholders in every mine owe a debt which they do not realise and which is often inadequately acknowledged.

Amongst these men--I could give hundreds of examples--there is the greatest sense of duty to their employers, and from one year's end to another, by day and night, in the bush, on mountain tops, in fever swamps, in wild and deep places all over the world, they faithfully carry through their arduous work." Such is the type of Uitlander the gold mines have attracted; add to them, mechanics and the most highly skilled artisans: for it is to the interest of the mines which pay high salaries to employ the most skilled labour.
A population such as this, has nothing in common with the adventurers who rushed to the placers of California, or with the fancy picture of the "wealthy metal-hearted mine owners," presented to us by Dr.Kuyper.
5 .-- _Distribution of the Gold Production._ Dr.Kuyper speaks of "the vultures" who come to rob the country of its gold; we would point out to him that before gold can be extracted from the rock, a vast amount must be sunk in it.

We have just seen that the cost of production often exceeds the profits.
Dr.Kuyper, in his childish innocence, imagines that "the vultures" carry off the gold as soon as it is extracted.
Had he taken the trouble to ascertain the facts, he would have seen that the greater part of this gold remains in the Transvaal, and either goes to the Government, or to defray the cost of production.
I borrow the following figures from the supplement to _The Critic_ of July 8th, 1899.
Let us take the last five years:-- Gross Profits.

Dividend to Paid to Boer Shareholders.

Government.
1894 L7,930,481 L1,595,963 L2,247,728 1895 8,768,942 2,329,941 2,923,648 1896 8,742,811 1,918,631 3,912,095 1897 11,514,016 2,923,574 3,956,402 1898 15,942,573 4,999,489 3,329,958 -- --------- -- --------- -- --------- L52,898,823 L13,767,598 L16,370,387 =========== =========== =========== Thus upon L52,898,823 worth of gold produced between the years 1894 and 1898 only 25 per cent.