ket
value to any except the holders of the surface rights. They were
unsuccessful in this through some lack of provision in the law,
and year after year the subject was fought out and postponed, the
disputed ground all the time becoming more and more valuable, and
consequently a greater prize for the concessionaire and pirate, and
a greater incentive to bribery on all hands, until it came to be
regarded by the worthy members of the Volksraad as something very
like a special dispensation of Providence, intended to provide
annuities for Volksraad members at the expense of the unfortunate
owners. After a particularly fierce struggle, the Volksraad went so
far as to decide that those companies which had been obliged to
convert their original claim-holdings into bewaarplaatsen should
be allowed to re-convert them to claims and to retain them. Even
this was only gained after the Minister of Mines had, on his own
responsibility, issued the claim licenses, and so forced the
Volksraad to face the issue of confirming or reversing his action!

In this matter the President again fought tooth and nail against the
industry, and most strenuous efforts were made by him and his party
to obtain a reversal of the decision, but without effect. This,
however, only disposed of a small portion of the ground at stake.
With regard to those areas which had never been held as claims, the
issue lay between two parties known respectively as the companies,
who were the surface-owners, and the applicants. The applicants,
according to the polite fiction, were those who, having no claim
superior to that of any other individual member of the public, had
happened to have priority in order of application. As a matter of
fact, they were Government officials, political supporters and
relatives of the President, financed and guided by two or three of
the professional concession-hunters and hangers-on of Mr. Kruger's
Government. Notwithstanding the existence of a law specifically
prohibiting Government servants from concerning themselves in other
business and speculations, the parties to this arrangement entered
into notarial contracts determining the apportionment of the plunder,
and undertaking to use their influence in every way with the
President and his party and with members of the Volksraad to secure
the granting of the rights in dispute to themselves. With them was
associated the originator and holder of another infamous monopoly,
and it was stated