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310
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THE DIAMOND
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eighty
thousand shares of one pound each. These were later changed into
160,000 preferred shares of five shillings each with a cumulative
preferential dividend of 250 per cent, annually, and 320,000 deferred
shares of 2s. 6d. each, thereby splitting up the stock into smaller
shares without increasing the gross capital stock, and creating a wider
field for speculation and manipulation. With an earning capacity of
four to five hundred per cent, after paying the preferential dividend,
the Premier deferred shares have fluctuated within about three years
between 20 and 4-1/8, both preferred and deferred standing to-day at about £8.
It
is worthy of notice and highly suggestive of the advanced conditions
which will prevail in the new empires now forming in Africa, that the
two new colonies of Great Britain, formed and governed by a mixture of
English and Boers, show an advanced understanding of the natural rights
of all the people to a share in the natural wealth which one or a few
may chance to discover.
In
the Transvaal, the government has established in practice the idea that
natural wealth does not justly belong entirely to the discoverer, but
should inure largely to the people who through their government must
protect and uphold him in the seizure and possession of it. This just
recognition of the communal rights of the people is a distinct
adjustment of methods, to the advanced condition and enlightenment of
the people, and is a decided and advantageous contrast to the dealing
of the neighboring Cape Colony, where the natural, ready-made wealth of
the country, has been taken out to enrich a few men, who have
grudgingly returned to the government the smallest contribution which
could be arranged
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