in
this connexion. One is the complicated question of taxation, and the
study this is now receiving will, I hope, extend to the method of
taxation of dividend income derived by investors. A good case can, I
feel, be made out for recognition by the tax authorities that part of
this dividend income is in effect a return of capital and should be
treated as such for tax purposes.. . ,38
♦ XVII ♦
The
possibility that gold might be found in the Orange Free State was
mooted over a century ago. To judge from a communication to the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London by
Dr. R. N. Rubidgc in 1855, a miniature 'gold-rush' developed in the
area near Smithfield; the account of the presumed discoveries had caused
great
excitement, particularly among the younger and more unstable part of
the community. Several clerks gave up their situations to repair to the
'diggings' and many rash speculations were entered into. Merchants and
tradesmen raised the price of their goods. An affidavit from a person
in Smithfield, who has some local reputation as a chemist, to the
effect that he had examined some minerals containing 20 per cent of
copper and 10 per cent of gold, occasioned still more interest, for it
was stated that the mineral in question was to be obtained in
wagon-loads quite near the surface.
Dr.
Rubidge himself visited the area, but next year the high hopes
entertained were completely dissipated by an official report by A.
Wyley, the geologist to the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, to the
President of the Orange Free State. Wyley clearly had the suspicion
that the area had been 'salted'. He wrote,
How
far Australian gold had to do with the business I have no means of
judging. That such has, in one instance, at least, been shown as the
produce of the Smithfield 'diggings', there can be no doubt, but I
believe this was merely intended as a practical joke, without any
intention of deceiving. I have heard of one nugget . . . which, when
weighed, was found very nearly to counterbalance a half sovereign; but
this may have been an accidental coincidence.
One
thing was now pretty clear to me, that there was not the remotest
chance of the Smithfield's gold workings succeeding as a commercial
speculation, and the only wonder was that this had not been long since
apparent.
Gold
does occur, I have reason to believe, in greater quantity, to the
northwards, in the Free State; but there is very much question whether
it will even there be found in remunerative quantity. The conditions
under which
38 67tli annual report of the Transvaal and Orange Free State Chamber of Mines, pp. 63-4.
