Until Lobengula, the mighty native chief of the regions west of the Transvaal, was subdued and his country taken from him, the British empire builders were limited in their field of endeavour, because the Transvaal was the only pass through which an entry could be made into the vast Central African region. When Lobengula's power yielded to British arms, the Transvaal became useless as the key to Central Africa, but, by means of its great mineral wealth, became of so much greater and more practical importance that it really was the entire South Africa.
The Witwatersrandt,[#] the narrow strip of gold-bearing soil which extends for almost one hundred miles east and west through the Transvaal, is the lever which moves the entire country. In the twelve years since its discovery it has been transformed from a grass-covered plain into a territory that is filled with cities, towns, and villages. Where the Boer farmer was accustomed to graze his cattle are hundreds of shafts that lead to the golden caverns below, and the trail of the ox-team is now the track of the locomotive and the electric cars.
[#] Witwatersrandt is the name given to the high ridge in the southern part of the Transvaal, which is the watershed between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The word means "whitewater ridge," and is commonly abridged to "The Randt."
The farmer's cottage has developed into the city of Johannesburg, the home of more than one hundred thousand persons and the metropolis of a continent. All the roads in South Africa lead to Johannesburg, and over them travels every one who enters the country either for pleasure or business. The Transvaal is the only great producer of money, as well as the only great consumer, and consequently all other communities in the country are dependent upon it for whatever money it chooses to yield to them. The natural conditions are such, however, that, while the Transvaal has almost all the money in South Africa, it is compelled to support Cape Colony, Natal, and the Orange Free State like so many poor relations.
The Transvaal, being an inland state, is the feeding ground of those states which are located between it and the sea. Every ton of foreign freight that enters the Transvaal through Cape Colony is subject to high customs duties and abnormal freight rates. The railway and the customs house being under the same jurisdiction, it will readily be seen to what extent Cape Colony derives its revenues from the Transvaal commerce. The Orange Free State again taxes the freight before allowing it to pass through its territory. The third tax, which makes the total far greater than the original cost of the freight, is added by the Transvaal Government. Certain classes of freight shipped from Europe are taxed by the steamship line, the Cape Colony Railroad, the Transvaal Railroad, and with Cape Colony, Orange Free State, and Transvaal customs duties.