MORNING MARKET AT JOHANNESBURG
Photo by Barnett & Co., Johannesburg
SOUTH AFRICAN INDUSTRIES
At present South African industries (outside of agriculture and pastoral pursuits) may be said to consist of mining and railways. The railways, in spite of heavy rates, have made a great mining industry possible. What could they do in respect of other and ordinary industries? It is a question of rates. Given recognition of the principle that railways should be the most essential part of the governmental plant spoken of by Lord Milner—plainly to be used for developing the country, and not for the use of extracting revenue to which it is at present put, not gold-mining alone, but a hundred industries would presently flourish. On the Rand there are already great engineering works contending against many difficulties, and especially the cost of labour. These works execute repairs for the mines, make castings, and even manufacture new machinery. A great future industry, which for the present is impossible on account of want of railway facilities, is the exploitation of the rich iron ores of the Transvaal. It is stated that a syndicate with large capital has been formed to undertake this work on a large scale when the conditions are favourable, and within the next few years it is probable that the Middelburg district will have smelting furnaces, foundries, rolling mills, and all the varied works of a young iron and steel industry which may eventually take a leading place in the world. Mr. Carnegie recently stated that the iron ores of Britain will be exhausted in twenty-five years, and those of the United States in sixty years. The extensive deposits of the Transvaal should last for centuries.
Another possible future industry is the distillation of oil from the shales of the Eastern Transvaal and the Orange River Colony. These deposits are at present being tested, and give promise of payability. Throughout South Africa there are many flour mills. The chief works being at Port Elizabeth and Cape Town and in the wheat district of the Orange River Colony. Other industries which have found a footing, and are now making steady progress, are leather-making, boot and harness making, wool-washing, jam-making, candle-making, waggon and cart building from colonial woods. All these industries are carried on chiefly in the Cape Colony and Natal. In the Transvaal there are pottery works, a cement factory, many breweries, and one distillery. In the Cape and Natal there are also several large breweries. One great industry which has arisen, owing to the mining wealth of the country, is the manufacture of explosives. There is a large dynamite factory at Cape Town owned by the De Beers Company, and another—the largest explosive factory in the world—at Modderfontein near Johannesburg. The Modderfontein factory cost upwards of three-quarters of a million to build. The works are spread over a large area, the property comprising 5280 acres. This factory was owned by a company with German, English, and French interests, formed to work the dynamite monopoly for the Transvaal Government. The high prices it charged, and the huge profits it made, being additional direct burdens on the already overloaded mining industry, were the causes of great discontent. Since the war the monopoly has been abolished. The company is now practically a British company, and its policy appears to be to meet its customers, and gain their goodwill. Prices have been reduced by 30s. a case The prices now being: blasting gelatine, 67s. 6d.; gelignite, 50s.; and dynamite, 50s. a case, as against 97s. 6d., 87s. 6d., and 77s. 6d. respectively before the war. These prices are fair, and it is stated are just sufficient to give a margin of profit. At present in the Transvaal it is a question of allowing free competition in explosives, or of just granting sufficient protection to the existing factory to enable it to live. As the factory finds employment for nearly 3000 hands, white and black, it would certainly be a national loss if it had to shut down.
In the nature of things in South Africa all classes of industrial undertakings are difficult to establish, and probably a moderate protective tariff would be beneficial to the country in the long run, as in the initial stages it would serve to turn the balance between profit and loss. Every industry successfully established adds to the white population, and is therefore to be welcomed. A policy of moderate protection then for industries, which could be fed by the natural resources of the country itself, should be carefully considered by the Government. Such a policy, together with a thorough cutting down of the present industry-killing railway rates, would go a long way to make a speedy beginning in South Africa of the great industrial activity which is sure to come eventually.
FOOTNOTES:
[13] The British South African Company has decided to expend £2,000,000 on railways in Rhodesia—£1,000,000 to be expended immediately for work to be completed by the end of next year, and a like sum, towards the end of 1903, will probably be sanctioned for the purpose of carrying the Cape to Cairo line north of the Zambesi to the bend of the Kafue, a distance of 300 miles. When the proposed work is carried out Rhodesia will have over 2500 miles of railway.—Ed.
[14] It is interesting to note that Portugal has strengthened her position in Africa by granting to Mr. Robert Williams a concession for a railway from Lobito Bay, near Benguella (in Portuguese West Africa), to the eastern frontier of the Colony. Lobito Bay is four days’ journey nearer to England than the Cape, and it is described as having one of the finest harbours in the world, and accommodation for larger vessels than Delagoa Bay.—Ed.