chequer had
exceeded the shareholders' dividends; and when the reverse happened in
1898, the Government of Pretoria determined to put that matter right.

6.--_Cost of Production and the Transvaal._

Dr. Kuyper also complained that the entire cost of production was not
absorbed by the Transvaal. In his statement of January 26th 1899, Mr.
Rouliot proved that the greater portion was in point of fact expended
there. He gave the following figures concerning the expenditure of
fifty-six companies in 1898.

The mines had only imported direct to the amount of L369,000, paid for
machinery, which could only be constructed in Europe, and for Cyanide,
to avoid having to buy the latter from a local trust, which raised the
price 100 per cent.

Through local firms they had imported machinery and certain products to
the amount of L324,438. From local merchants they had bought machinery,
&c., to the amount of L2,487,660. They had paid L767,600 to the Dynamite
Monopoly. They had distributed L3,329,000 in salaries to their employes,
native or European. If we take it that the expenditure of the sixty
other Mining Companies, gold or coal, in the vicinity of Johannesburg,
was similar to the above, we have a total of something like nine million
pounds sterling put in circulation, _plus_ purchases of dynamite, _plus_
merchandise bought through the medium of local tradespeople. Thus we see
that the bulk of the cost of production actually remained in the
Transvaal.

7.--_What the "Vultures" brought._

Before Dr. Kuyper's "vultures" came to despoil it, the Transvaal was in
a very shaky condition. It was heavily in debt and the Exchequer was
empty; the Boer having always had a horror of paying his taxes. In 1884
when Messrs. Krueger and Smits came to London to sign the famous
Convention, and stayed at the Albemarle Hotel, they found themselves,
after the first few weeks unable to pay their bill, and Baron Grant had
to come to their assistance. Now the "vultures" have been pouring some
millions annually into the coffers of the Transvaal; a certain
proportion of which has stuck to the fingers of Mr. Krueger, his family
and intimates. The "vultures" have brought riches, industry, and
civilisation into a wild and uncivilised country. The simile of the bird
of prey is more applicable to the Boer than to the Uitlander.

CHAPTER X.

FINANCIAL POLICY OF THE BOERS[14]

1.--_Receipt of the Boer Exchequer._

Like every true aristocra