Agriculture and Live Stock
There is a surprisingly small proportion of the land of the country under cultivation, since only 13,000 acres have been treated. Four-tenths of this total is in the well-watered Grootfontein district, while the Windhoek region has another three-tenths. Mealies, potatoes, lucerne, vegetables and melons are the principal articles grown, but a good beginning has been made with fruit and tobacco.
There are 1,330 farms, and they cover an area of over 32,000,000 acres; they vary in size from 6,000 to 50,000 acres. In 1913 they carried 205,643 cattle, 53,691 woolled sheep, 17,171 Persian sheep, 472,585 Afrikander sheep, 485,401 goats, 13,340 Angora goats, 18,163 half-bred Angoras, 15,916 horses, 13,618 mules and donkeys, 7,772 pigs, 709 camels, and 1,507 ostriches. All these figures, with the exception of those relating to the camels, show a considerable increase on the preceding year, and while they may be of no value in estimating the quantity of stock in the country at the close of the war, on account of the inevitable slaughter following on a siege, they serve to show how much advance has been made in pastoral development, in spite of the rinderpest of 1896-7, the droughts of more recent years, and diseases such as anthrax and lamziekte.
Great improvements have been made in the stock since the German occupation. The cattle owned by the natives, while hardy and useful, were of little value as sources of milk, and the meat was of an inferior quality. Goats and fat-tailed sheep were the other animals possessed by the natives. But the Germans have imported stock of the best quality and of every description.
Cattle and horses have come from Germany and the Argentine, Karakul sheep from Russia, merino sheep from Australia, and Angora goats from Cape Colony. Animals purchased abroad by farmers have been imported at the expense of the Government, and considerable encouragement given to stock-rearing. Much good work was expected from an Agricultural Advisory Board organised at the end of 1913, and a staff of Government experts had been collecting information on such matters as water laws, fencing rights, and animal diseases; these experts were to have assisted the members of the Board in drafting useful measures. A Land Bank with a capital of £500,000 was established in 1913, and some advances were made to farmers in the following year. The object of the Bank was to supply the farmer with capital at a reasonable rate of interest under a bond which could not be called up as long as the interest and other charges were duly paid, and to provide easy terms for repayment of the principal. The Bank was also expected to assist in providing fresh capital for effecting farm improvements, making the increased value of the farm security for the advances made, to foster the establishment of co-operative societies for the sale of produce and the purchase of certain articles in bulk. It would appear that the first grants were made to the farmers in one particular area, and the farmers in other parts were highly incensed at what they affirmed to be favouritism. Shortly before the war broke out the Bank was notified from Berlin that the proposed remittance of one and a half million marks for advances had been cancelled.
Among other industries are those connected with sealing, guano export, whaling, and brewing. The export value of seal skins has averaged about £2,000 per year for several years, but in 1913 little profit was made by the sealers on account of the low price received for the skins. Whaling has not yet been a great success. The breweries at Windhoek and Swakopmund have proved highly lucrative; and they have been successful in driving imported beer out of the market.
Then it should be remembered that much valuable research work has been done in the country, and that the characteristic German virtue of thoroughness has been manifest in the systematic labours of such men as H. Hahn, Rath, Schenck, G. Hartmann, Lotz, Range, Schinz, Schultze and Rohrbach, who have done much for knowledge in the realms of history, ethnology, geology, philology, and economics. The peculiar problems of the country have been most diligently studied, and maps dealing with geological features, rainfall, vegetation, distribution of wild animals, etc., have been compiled with great skill and most careful attention to detail.
On the whole Germany is able to give a fairly good account of her stewardship so far as the development of the colony is concerned. Thirty years is a short period in which to look for broad and beneficial results in a land that has many natural disadvantages; that so much has been achieved is a tribute to the patience and persistence of the settlers.
Chapter X
THE DIAMOND FIELDS
The discovery of diamonds near Luderitzbucht in 1908 was an event of great importance to the country, and in view of the value of the diamond fields, and the powerful influence they have had on the economical development of the country, we shall give some account of their discovery, probable origin, and the nature of the mining operations connected with them.
There can hardly be a more dreary place on earth than the strip of desert land that borders the coast of South-West Africa, and it is hardly a matter for surprise that geologists tramped leisurely over the wind-blown sand dunes, making careful note of the geological features of the country, without for a moment suspecting that the gravel beneath their feet was thickly studded with the hard and brilliant little “stones of fire” known as diamonds. Somehow or other it is not the lot of the geologist to discover gems and gold in South Africa. A child playing with the pebbles on a river bank; a poor Dutch farmer lazily sifting gravel through a coarse wire sieve; a prospector sinking a well in search of water; a kaffir shovelling sand—in such unromantic ways have Nature’s chiefest treasures come to light in this land.
One day in April of 1908, a kaffir working on the Kolmanskuppe railway line, not far from Luderitzbucht, picked out of a shovelful of coarse sand a small, rough, whitish stone that sparkled in the sunlight. Little did the “boss” to whom he showed it dream that in the tiny stone lay the promise of an increase in the revenue of the country of nearly seven million sterling in half a dozen years, and the conversion of the tin-shanty settlement at Luderitzbucht into a substantial and progressive little town in the same period. But so it proved.
As luck would have it, the native had worked in the De Beers diamond mines at Kimberley; he knew the difference between a rough diamond and a white pebble. Had he not received a substantial bonus from the compound manager as a reward for his honesty whenever he discovered a “fire stone” in the blue ground and handed it over to the official? But his “boss” laughed at him when he said it was a diamond, and told him to “get out!” The railway contractor, however, a gentleman named Stauch, laughed after another fashion when the gem came into his hands. He hurried off to Swakopmund, and there sought an interview with the owners of the land, the Deutsches Kolonial Gesellschaft. He came back with half a dozen licences in his pocket which gave him the right to peg certain extensive areas. It was not long before little parcels of the gleaming gems were in his possession. The wise Herr Stauch is now a diamond magnate.
The news of the wonderful discovery quickly spread, and before many months had passed companies were exploiting the gravel occurrences. It is amusing to recall to-day the ridicule heaped on these “discoveries” by financial and other journals. The gems were “dolls’ diamonds,” “diamondettes”; it was “financial folly” to pick up these little glittering, weather-beaten specks. With a characteristic display of journalistic wit, one well-known weekly affirmed that “he would be an ass indeed to allow himself to be imposed upon by such ‘carats’ as these.” But the carats recovered last year, for instance, were valued at the nice little sum of £2,945,975.
The diamondiferous area is an extensive one. It is a strip of sandy country near the coast, from 2 to 12 miles wide, extending intermittently from Conception Bay (100 miles south of Swakopmund) to Angra Juntas, some 60 miles north of the Orange River, a total distance of about 250 miles. The strip is broken by a chain of hills and rocky ridges running mainly from north to south. In the wide valleys and depressions thus formed, ranging from 2 to 3 feet above sea-level to over 500 feet, the diamondiferous gravel is found. The deposits are by no means uniform. Large stretches of ground may not contain a single stone, while a rich “pocket” may hold scores of the glittering gems. The patch, too, that is so rich in diamonds may have a surface view precisely similar to that of the barren areas around. Such freaks of deposit seemed to some of the early prospectors to be the work of whimsical genii.
The precious stones lie among tiny fragments of banded agate, red garnet, red jasper, chalcedony, milky quartz, and sand.
The deposit varies in depth from 6 inches to 15 feet. Over the mixture the furious trade winds from the south rage for eight or nine months in the year. A process of natural concentration proceeds apace. The light particles are caught up and whirled away to the sand dunes, until in many places nothing is left but the heavy diamonds and a thin layer of coarse particles. Naturally, the little depressions here and there, especially those on the windward side of obstacles, have a good concentration of rich detritus. The gems are never found in any quantity in the valleys that run from east to west, but in those that lie in the line of the prevailing wind.
The diamonds found in this sand are peculiar to the country. They are wholly unlike any other known African stones. When in 1901 some natives professed to have found certain small stones in the alluvial diggings on the Vaal River, the experts knew at once they were not river stones. The boys had stolen them from German South-West Africa. All shades of colour are found among them, but the stones of a clear white appearance, with a barely perceptible yellowish tinge, predominate. Pale pinks and lemon yellows are fairly common. Impure shades are remarkably few, and fully 85 per cent. of the gems are fit for cutting. They are said to resemble the stones derived from Brazil. In size they are small; it takes six or eight to make a carat as a rule, but a few large stones have been found. One weighed 34 carats and another 17 carats. These large stones, however, are very exceptional.
How did the diamonds get there? That these lustrous gems should sprinkle the sand so thickly in this dreary region may well give cause for wonder. Geologists differ as to their probable source of origin. Dr. Wagner, in his exhaustive work on “The Diamond Mines of Southern Africa,” summarises the main theories as follows:
(1) The diamonds were released by weathering from the crystalline rocks of the basement system.
(2) The diamonds were derived from the denudation of the primary deposits of British South Africa, carried down to sea by the Orange River and distributed along the coast by the agency of the Benguella current.
(3) A modification of the second hypothesis, according to which the diamonds were carried down to the sea from sources believed to exist within the interior of German South-West Africa.
(4) The parent rock of the diamonds lies submerged off the present coast.
Dr. Wagner dismisses the first three, and advances arguments in favour of the fourth. He concludes that they have been derived “from a primary deposit, or from primary deposits, which now lie buried beneath the sea somewhere off Pomona,” as there is a steady—if not quite persistent—increase in the average size of the stones as one proceeds from north to south, until the Pomona area is reached, where the average weight is greater than anywhere else. On this supposition the lighter stones have been swept northward by a strong ocean current when the coast was still submerged. To this we may add the statement of Dr. Marloth that among “the prospectors who know the country south of Prince of Wales Bay, the belief is quite common that Pomona diamonds came from some volcanic fissures that occurred there.” Kimberlite “pipes” and dykes occur in the Keetmanshoop, Gibeon and Bethany districts, but they contain no diamonds.
Dr. Versfeld, however, is of the opinion that the diamond-bearing gravel is not of marine origin, but debris from diamond “pipes” which has been concentrated by the strong winds. It is quite possible, he argues, that the stones may have been transported hundreds of miles, but he recognises the futility of laying down hard-and-fast theories. He ventures to affirm, however, that the discovery of diamond-bearing pipes “much nearer to the Luderitzbucht deposits than those at present known seems well within the bounds of probability.” And with that pleasant probability we leave the matter of the origin of the stones.
All the mineral rights of the diamond fields have been held by the German Colonial Company, and their “sphere of influence” extends for over 300 miles along the coast and about 60 miles inland. Six companies—each with a fifty years’ concession from the Colonial Company—practically monopolised the industry. These are the Pomona Diamantminen Gesellschaft, the Koloniale Bergbaugesellschaft, the Diamanten Pachtgesellschaft, the Deutsche Diamantengesellschaft, the Vereinigte Diamantminen, Luderitzbucht, and the Kolmanskop Diamond Mines, Ltd. The Kolmanskop Company is registered in the Cape Province, and they have a valuable holding of about 10,000 acres, 6 miles from Luderitzbucht.
The first stage in exploitation is rather picturesque, from the spectator’s point of view. You plod up the side of a sand dune and, on gaining the top, look down into the depression below and see, perhaps, a dozen natives crawling about the sand on all fours as if in search of coins or gems which some one has dropped. You watch them. One man is using the flat of his hand as a scoop, running it slowly through the sand; another is “harrowing” with his fingers; a third squats on his haunches native fashion and gazes intently at a little heap of particles in his hand, while another, by a hoarse exclamation, draws attention to something in the palm of his hand. These boys are “sampling” the ground. It is a laborious and most trying task in the fierce summer sun. The top layer of diamondiferous gravel is invariably richer than any underlying deposit, so it is possible to get a fairly accurate idea of the value of the detritus by this primitive picking. “Washing” tests are sometimes made instead of hand sampling. Should the boys succeed in finding a fair number of gems, the second stage is entered upon, This is very prosaic. The deposit is shovelled into swinging sieves (the “babies” of the Vaal River diggings, slightly improved), set in a rectangular frame. The sieve is swung backwards and forwards in order to eliminate the fine sand, which falls to the ground. The screened gravel is then conveyed to the concentration plant for further treatment. On some of the claims the deposit is excavated by dredgers which use large electric shovels.
The jigging plant—highly specialised machinery—receives the gravel in capacious hopper mouths, a process of digestion goes on to the sound of much crunching and groaning, the useless tailings are thrust out, while the diamonds are ingeniously hustled into a place of security from which they can be easily removed at intervals. Fully 90 per cent. of the gems in the gravel are recovered in this way. Immense sums of money have been spent on machinery. Huge structures have sprung up on the sandy waste; and it is claimed that on some properties the equipment is even superior to that of the highly elaborated plant at Kimberley. Certainly this lavish expenditure on central concentration plant shows a great faith in the future possibilities of the industry.
Several of the mining properties are linked up to Luderitzbucht by light railways, and the companies in the vicinity of the town draw their electric power for the machinery from the well-equipped power-station at Luderitz Bay. Oil engines are in use on the distant claims. The entire coastal belt is practically a desert, and the little water found here and there in the wells that have been sunk is too brackish for human consumption; so water, both for drinking and diamond-washing purposes, is derived from the sea. Large condensers have been erected on the coast; the water is conveyed along pump lines, and also transported to the distant claims by water-carts and in tanks carried by camels. The pump line from Elisabeth Bay to Kolmanskuppe is no less than 17 miles in length. Some 5,000 natives and coloured men were in the employ of the various companies before the war; the majority of the natives were Ovambos, but Cape boys were found in large numbers. The pay for the Ovambos was at the rate of £1 5s. per month, with rations, while the more satisfactory Cape boys received £3 per month, with rations.
Working costs vary considerably. The factors which determine them are: the situation of the claims, the richness of the deposit, and the scale of operations. In the case of five companies, we give the figures for 1913:
| Average Cost Per Carat. | Average Value. | |
|---|---|---|
| s. d. | s. d. | |
| Pomona Diamantminen Gesellschaft | 1 6 | 50 0 |
| Koloniale Bergbaugesellschaft | 8 0 | 40 0 |
| Deutsche Diamantengesellschaft | 15 0 | 45 0 |
| Diamanten Pachtgesellschaft | — | 40 0 |
| Kolmanskop Diamond Mines, Ltd. | 10 6 | 23 6 |
These figures compare most favourably with those of the South African diamond mines. The average cost per carat from the Premier Mine, for instance, is 11s., while the average value is only 22s. But it must be remembered that operations begin on these fields at what may be called the middle stage of the Kimberley activities. Underground mining, flooring, and washing, in connection with the Kimberley mines, involve enormous expenditure, so it can readily be understood that the working costs of exploiting a gravelly surface deposit will be, other things being equal, considerably less than the mining of underground diamondiferous rock.
The German Government derived a good revenue from the fields, as they imposed a tax of 66 per cent. of the output value, less 70 per cent. of the working costs. Prior to 1912, the heavy taxation and royalties absorbed from 45 to 50 per cent. of the gross value of the output, but the scheme of taxation was amended as above. In addition to the tax the Government enjoyed a monopoly in the sale of the stones. Producers were compelled to sell them through a Government organisation in Berlin, called the Diamant Regie, and a commission of 2 per cent. was charged on all sales made. On presenting his diamonds to the representative of the Regie at Luderitzbucht, the producer received 12 marks (a little less than 12s.) per carat on account. He had to wait until the Regie had disposed of the gems; then the Government tax and the Regie’s commission were deducted from the amount paid for them, and the balance came at length into his hands. Early in 1914 the Regie was reorganised and came under the management of the parties directly interested in the revenue derived from the sale of the diamonds. Half the shares were held by the Government and half by the mining companies. The Government also had large interests in the Fiskus block of claims, which during 1913 produced an average of about 12,000 carats per month, so even if the Government should make no change in the present law in South-West Africa, they stand to reap a rich harvest from the fields. The areas owned by private companies cannot, of course, be confiscated.
In view of the fact that South-West Africa may now be regarded as a part of the British Empire, the probable life of the fields is a matter of very real interest and importance. The experts differ, but there is reason to believe that they will yield diamonds in good number for many years. There are some who fix the limit at fifteen years. Writing in 1913, Dr. Wagner states that “a long and prosperous career may confidently be predicted” for the industry. Probably they will last another twenty years. It is true that certain rich claims have already been worked out, but vast areas of low-grade gravel yet remain to be exploited. It is estimated that no less than £20,000,000 sterling worth of gems are in sight on the 10,000 acres held by the Kolmanskop Company. During 1913 areas considered unworkable were dealt with at a good profit owing to the introduction of modern plant; the northern fields in the neighbourhood of Conception Bay and Spencer Bay, which had been neglected for some time, were added to the list of profitable propositions. It is not at all unlikely that new deposits will be discovered. It is believed that diamonds were found off Pomona as a result of dredging operations, but these activities were abruptly terminated by an Imperial Decree. Diamonds have been found on Possession Island and Halifax Island (British possessions for many years), but the cost of the prospecting operations, which was considerably in excess of the value of the stones found, did not encourage the Union Government to follow up the discoveries. As the gems are found along the coast and on the islands off the coast, it is not unreasonable to infer that they lie in the sand of the sea-bed, unless they have been dropped from the clouds. Here is an opportunity for an enterprising syndicate. Then it must be remembered that the war has seriously affected the diamond trade. The market will take years to recover. Even when conditions swing back to normal it will be some time before the market will be able to absorb the existing stock of stones. To continue working these fields at the rate of output shown by the figures for 1914, for instance, would be worse than folly. Wisdom will dictate a considerable lessening of the output, and this, of course, will have the effect of prolonging the life of the fields, an altogether desirable state of affairs, since the revenue may then be used to develop the agricultural resources of the hinterland. Whether the many German shareholders will consider this wise or pleasant is another matter. Up to the present the main portion of the profits has gone into Government revenue to pay for the civil administration of the country, but the bulk of the dividends paid to shareholders has gone into the pockets of men who reside out of the country. The investors, except in a few instances, have had the satisfaction of drawing some fat dividends. The Koloniale Bergbaugesellschaft paid out in 1912 the nice little dividend of 3,800 per cent.; the year before it was 2,500. The Pomona Company paid out at the rate of 175 per cent. in 1913, while the Kolmanskop Company paid 30 per cent. in 1912.
Diamonds Produced in South-West Africa since 1908.
| Year. | Carats. | Value. | Value per Carat. |
|---|---|---|---|
| £ | s. d. | ||
| 1908 | 39,762 | 53,842 | 27 1 |
| 1909 | 519,190 | 704,123 | 29 0·5 |
| 1910 | 792,642 | 1,015,779 | 25 7 |
| 1911 | 766,465 | 968,418 | 25 3·1 |
| 1912 | 992,380 | 1,408,738 | 28 4·7 |
| 1913[18] | 1,470,000 | 2,953,500 | 40 1·9 |
| Total | 4,580,439 | £7,104,400 | — |
The figures given in the last Consular Report (1913) differ slightly from the above, which are from Dr. Wagner’s volume, “The Diamond Mines of Southern Africa.” The Consul’s figures are as follows:
| Carats. | |
|---|---|
| 1908 | 39,375 |
| 1909 | 483,268 |
| 1910 | 867,296 |
| 1911 | 747,152 |
| 1912 | 985,882 |
| 1913 | 1,570,000 |
The Consul also appends a statement showing the output of diamonds during the last three years from mines in the Union of South Africa, and the sales of German South-West African stones during the same period. These figures are deeply significant, and serve to show how important a factor in the diamond market these stones have become.
| Year. | Country. | Carats. | Value. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1911 | Union of S. Africa | 4,891,998 | 8,746,724 |
| ” | German S.W. Africa | 816,296 | 1,019,444 |
| 1912 | Union of S. Africa | 5,071,882 | 10,061,489 |
| ” | German S.W. Africa | 902,157 | 1,303,092 |
| 1913 | Union of S. Africa | 5,163,546 | 11,389,807 |
| ” | German S.W. Africa | 1,284,727 | 2,153,230 |