Total 37 "

That is to say an average distribution of 12.33 per cent. for the
three years. The purchase price would thus be:

12.33 X 20 = 246.66 per cent.
17 years' premium 17 "
------
Total 263.66 "

This has been clearly explained to the Volksraad but without avail,
the President's influence on the other side being too strong. During
the Session of 1895 it was made clear that agitation against the
Company was as futile as beating the air. When the Hollander clique
found that they could no longer convince the Boers as a whole of the
soundness of their business and the genuineness of their aims, and
when they failed to combat the arguments and exposures of their
critics, they resorted to other tactics, and promulgated voluminous
reports and statements of explanations which left the unfortunate
Volksraad members absolutely stupefied where they had formerly only
been confused.{09}

The following is taken from an article in the Johannesburg _Mining
Journal_, dealing with the burdens imposed by the railway company
upon the industry:

RAILWAY MONOPOLY.

This is another carefully designed burden upon the mines and country.
The issued capital and loans of the Netherlands Company now total
about L7,000,000, upon which an average interest of about 5-1/3 per
cent.--guaranteed by the State--is paid, equal to L370,000 per annum.
Naturally the bonds are at a high premium. The Company and its
liabilities can be taken over by the State at a year's notice, and
the necessary funds for this purpose can be raised at 3 per cent. An
offer was recently made to the Government to consolidate this and
other liabilities, but the National Bank, which is another
concession, has the monopoly of all State loan business, and this
circumstance effectually disposed of the proposal. At 3 per cent. a
saving of L160,000 per annum would be made in this monopoly in
interest alone. The value represented by the Custom dues on the
Portuguese border we are not in a position to estimate, but roughly
these collections and the 15 per cent. of the profits paid to the
management and shareholders must, with other leakages, represent at
least another L100,000 per annum, which should be saved the country.
As the revenue of the corporation now exceeds L2,000,000 a year, of
which only half is expended in working costs, the estimate we have
taken doe