"The average mine manager, whether in South Africa, or India, or
Australia, or wherever I have met him, is an extremely capable man.
Of course, there are exceptions--some managers are not capable;
some are not even honest, but, as a rule, those in actual charge of
our gold mines to-day are men who can be relied on, but I do not
wish to confine my praise to the managers only. The mine captain,
whose valuable qualities are known more to the manager than to
outsiders, is usually a most capable man, and devoted to his work.
Many and many a time, after his hard day's work should have been
over, has a mine captain cheerfully started off with me on a three
or four hours inspection of his workings, only too delighted to
oblige, and asking merely that his visitor should show an
intelligent interest in what he saw. To these men, and to the other
heads of departments, to battery managers, cyanide works managers,
assayers, samplers, surveyors, office staff; the shareholders in
every mine owe a debt which they do not realise and which is often
inadequately acknowledged. Amongst these men--I could give hundreds
of examples--there is the greatest sense of duty to their
employers, and from one year's end to another, by day and night, in
the bush, on mountain tops, in fever swamps, in wild and deep
places all over the world, they faithfully carry through their
arduous work."

Such is the type of Uitlander the gold mines have attracted; add to
them, mechanics and the most highly skilled artisans: for it is to the
interest of the mines which pay high salaries to employ the most skilled
labour.

A population such as this, has nothing in common with the adventurers