Publisher's staple-bound booklet in grey wraps.
24pp. Illustrations in text, four plates and fold-out map.
A very rare booklet, limited to 250 copies, co-authored by Percy Albert Wagner (1885-1929) who wrote the magisterial work The Diamond Fields of Southern Africa (1914).
The booklet is inscribed at the top of the front panel "With the Author's Regards", "the Author" being curiously underlined for emphasis. I can find no works by W. O. C. Ross, who is credited as a co-author, prior to the year 1925. My feeling is that this is signed by Wagner as he has a record of works attributed to him up to that date (see SABIB). Wagner was a trained professional holding doctorate degrees in both engineering and science whereas Ross, being the Deputy-Inspector of Mines, was the official whose name presumably only had to appear on this government publication to give it authority. Clearly this annoyed Wagner.
'The Batavia Goldfields are situated near the border of the Bechuanaland Protectorate in the north-western part of the Rustenburg District of the Transvaal. They take their name from the Government farm Batavia No. 858, on which the original discovery was made and on which most of the exploratory work to date has been done. It should be stated, however, that they are also sometimes referred to as the Northern Rustenburg Goldfields.
The discovery of gold in this part of the Transvaal is due to Mr. P. E. Maré, who on 6th May, 1922, found that a thin bed of conglomerate outcropping along the crest of a low hill in the southern part of the farm named was in places rich in gold. News of the discovery was soon noised abroad, and within a short space of time the outcrop of the conglomerate had been traced westward across Batavia on to the adjoining farm Kameelboom No. 857, where it was also found at several points to carry gold.
The two farms were proclaimed public diggings on 8th May, 1923. Over 700 gold seekers assembled to take part in the "rush".'
Not a single copy of this title was found in any of the major South African libraries during the SABIB survey.
- Overall Condition: Good
- Sold By: Rare Paper
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- Country: South Africa
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