TRANSVAAL PICTURE POSTCARD
MESSAGES ON MINING CARDS

The Postcard
The caption is reversed out in white ‘Miners in Cage going on Shift.’ and ‘R.84. COPYRIGHT.’ It was published by ‘ “SAPCO” Real Photo, Box 5792, Johannesburg’ which is printed on the divided back (address side) in brown.

There is no date given on this card, but it is probably circa 1912. It would appear that early cards published by this company have a lowercase ‘o’ for ‘Co’ hence ‘ ”SAPCo” ’ on the address side which is printed in black. On later cards an uppercase ‘O’ is used, hence ‘ “SAPCO” ’ but the address side is still printed in black. However, the address side here is unusually printed in brown.

More research of the 'South African Photo & Stereo Company' photographic cards is required. By studying postally used or manuscript dated cards, it may be possible to recognise variations in style between the years 1909 and 1912.

The Message
The technical message about Block and Tackle etc. may have been part of a serial message (on more than a single postcard) to someone, who was perhaps, about to come to work on this mine. There are few punctuation marks in the message and there has been no attempt to add any below.

“This is a Three Compartment Shaft I am on this one this week You may have to make fast on of these skips in the incline shaft but you see there is plenty of room to fasten any thing around girders are around the skip and say you want to pull the rope off drum you fasten your rope to the frame of the shaft any where learn to make Knots of all kinds and you got the lot as its the main point the Riggers out here are mostly old Sailors run away from the ships at Cape Town we have not many Guide Ropes here they all run on wooden skids with shoes each side of cage Carpenters work. The Block and Tackle you see on the Frames is for Holding the Rope when changing skips for Cages to wind men” (sic.)

Note
Seems like a case of 'Old Sailors feel the wind and never put to sea’.

MAIN SHAFT ROBINSON DEEP GOLD MINE

The picture postcard
The postcard is captioned ‘MAIN SHAFT, ROBINSON DEEP GOLD MINE, JOHANNESBURG / JV500594’. Published by Valentine & Sons Publishing Co., Ltd., / P.O. Box 1685, Cape Town. and on the divided back, it states ‘Photo printed in Great Britain.’ Addressed to "w. Newton Drew Esq, Raincliffe, Ecclesfield, nr. Sheffield", although it was not posted as a postcard and was probably sent in an envelope.

The message
"Eh ma Lad, Its now so bad. I might be in Pit heads & Barnsly, an all, dumps everywhere same as Smithy Wood only this is gold & not coal. I am told there are a big number of Yorkshire men at Vereeniging and there it is coal mining but not a black looking country. The place has a white population of 2,000 & coloured about the same number. Please excuse haste as I have a number more to write to. How goes the dancing, I expect you will have Agnes home soon after this arrives.Yours always ‘oly ‘ENR"

Note
The 'Smithy Wood Colliery, in south Yorkshire, first appears on the 1850 Ordnance Survey map. During 1904/5, ‘Smithy Wood Colliery was still a moderately small coal mine with a bank of coke ovens. Perhaps the writer here, as a young lad, did his apprenticeship at Smithy Wood and moved to the Transvaal after the South African War. Now on the Witwatersrand gold mines, the writer was probably experiencing problems. The last big depression was in 1904, which did not improve until 1906. However, the date of this message may be as late as the 1913 miners’ strike. It started in May when European miners declare a strike at the New Kleinfontein Mine, and industrial action spread to other mines. By July the miners were preparing to declare a General Strike, with some strikers beginning to arm themselves. Much damage was caused in the city and a number of shootings took place. Fatalities followed once the Army was call out.

The message
“Steel Headgear”

“This is one of the richest mines on the Rand. There are not very many steel headgears. When hauling, the vibration on top is very marked especially on wooden headgears."

The Postcard
The ‘P. S. & C.’ - Box 1470 - Johannesburg’ (Paul Schaefer & Co., (also Durban box no. 294 and Cape Town Box 1205.) is captioned in red ‘Robinson G.M. Co. – No. 2 Shaft’. The divided back (address side) in printed in green and it entered the post at Johannesburg on 21^st September 1910 arriving at St Johns Wood in N.W, London during October.

The message
A glimpse of a bit of your future home. I hope your aunt makes you stump up for all your damages. Lots of love from Dad.

The postcard
Unknown publisher but it may have been published in France or Holland.
The caption in red ‘Head-Gear & Engine House N.^o 2 Shaft. Wemmer G.M. Johannesburg. It entered the post at Benoni on 12^th November 1903. The double-circle datestamp in tied to a grey and carmine aniline ink, King Edward VII stamp. It was addressed to “Mr. R. Robinson, c/o Mr Millicen, 33 Stainsby Road, Poplar, London E, England.”

Note
This picture postcard in far from common.

The message
We are going to Delagoa Bay soon. So I send you cards from there.
They will be of some interest as it is an out of a way place Molly [?]

Note
Molly posted the picture postcard on the 23^rd of May 1904. However, we wonder if Miss Garland, living at or staying at 10 Springfield Road, St Leonards, Sussex, England, was pleased to receive this postcard from Johannesburg. For on arrival she had to pay the postage of one-penny and the tax of a further one-penny, as Molly had omitted to adhere a postage stamp to the card.

I would have been delighted to receive this picture postcard as it is one that you do not see every day. For it is published by the Stationery firm of Ad Sonn, PO Box 2619, Johanneburg and is numbered 80009 - see Picture postcard publishers

The message states that Delagoa Bay "is an out of the way place"! The South African Republic was peacefully annexed by the British on 12^th May 1877 and called Transvaal. A survey from the eastern gold fields to the sea, reported that the town (Port) of Lourenço Marques on the East coast was just a small town, built on a sand beach where Portuguese engineers were draining the lowland and 'banking out the sea'. There were no more than 50 Europeans in the place and the unhealthy low-lying coastal areas made traveling to the gold mines near Lydenburg etc. in the Transvaal Colony difficult. (The journey to Delagoa Bay was only free from tsetse-fly in the winter. However, yellow fever and typhoid were also problematic.) Captain C. Warren, R.E., estimated the cost of building a railway from Lydenburg to Delagoa Bay, circa, 150 miles to be between £1,800,000 to £3,000,000.

The following year, 1878, the Portuguese proclamed Lourenço Marques a vila (town). The Railway was not opened until the South African Republic had gained independence from the British. It was on the 1^st January 1895 that the railway was officially opened, and ran from Pretoria to Delagoa Bay, Portuguese East Africa (Moçambique). By 1904 Delagoa Bay and the town of Lourenço Marques was a busy place with 50 per cent of the share of rail tonnage destined for the core region of the Transvaal named the ‘Competitive Area’. This area was defined by lines drawn between Pretoria, Springs, Vereeniging, Klerksdorp, and back to Pretoria. In return, the Portuguese guaranteed a constant supply of African (black) labour, mostly for the mines. This arrangement was maintained when the Union of South Africa was constituted on 31^st May 1910.

References
Captain C. Warren, R.E., 1877, ‘From the Gold Region in the Transvaal to Delagoa Bay’, [Communicated by His Excellency

Sir Bartle Frere, Bart., Governor Cape Colony.] The Royal Geographical Society (1878), pp.283-287.

Harries, H., (1994) Work, Culture, and Identity, Migrant Laborers in Mozambique and South Africa, c.1860-1910,

Portsmouth, N.H., Johannesburg and London, pp.11-15, 99-104.

Woolgar, J., (2010), Chinese Indentured Labour on the Witwatersrand Gold Fields, illustrated by Picture

Postcards published between 1904 and 1910, including an analysis of postcards and covers, Gravesend.

The picture postcard
Published by W. Saphra as number '133'. Captioned in grey 'Native Employees of the Simmer & Jack G.M. Co. Johannesburg.' The undivided address side is printed in red and addressed to "BW. Smith A.B / H.M.S. Ocean / China Station / Wei-hai-wei / China". The card entered the post at Pretoria on the 9^th January 1905 via Singapore during early February, and with two datestamps for 'Victoria' [Hong Kong] for the 17^th and the 18^th of February. The sender gives his address as The ‘"Pay Office" South African Constabulary, Pretoria.

The message
“Dear Bert [?] Pay Office SAC Pretoria
All well. hope you are kiff.
Above some idea of the crowd employed by a mine. Port Arthur has fallen at last. Write soon Note my change of address.
[signed]”

”Good luck Bert, compliments of the Seasons, [signed]”

Notes
‘Kiff’ is a South African, English slang word for ‘good’, ‘nice’ and so on. It is from the Arabic word 'kif' which means ‘pleasure’.

'SAC' is an abbreviation of 'South African Constabulary'. It was established in 1900 during the South African War. Following the war, it was merged with the Transvaal Colony Police Force.

The fall of Port Arthur refers to the Port at the entrance to Pohal river, China. The Japanese defeated the Russians at the River Valu in early May 1904, then lay siege to the Russian forces at Port Arthur. On the 2^nd of January 1905 Russian troops surrendered to the Japanese.

The Postcard
Captioned in red, 'New Blue Sky Gold Mine'. Published by ‘R. O. Füsslein, P. O. B. 6345, Johannesburg.’ The number of the picture postcard is given as '4329'. The picture has been overprinted in 'old-gold' with a Season’s Greetings message. The divided back (address side) is printed in red and it entered the post at Boksburg North on the 4^th of December 1910. It was addressed to "Master A Hay" of "Woodside Aberdeen, Scotland".

The message
“Dear Sandy this Mine is opposite our house. Note the convicts working in the coal waggons xx indicates the warden, the one without the hat is a Native Detective, a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, John”.

Note
Non-skilled labour was not easy to find for the gold mines and before 1906, an additional source of labour were convicts. They were put to work at the Consolidated Main Reef but this source proved inadequate. Black and other African convicts had been employed on surface work since 1903. From 1907 to 1910, between 300 and 780 African convicts together with eight Chinese, were put to work on the mines, once again this was negligible considering the large shortfall of labour.

Overall, the African miners who came to the Transvaal preferred to work on the gold mines, rather than the unpopular Vereeniging and other coal mines.

Postscript
I am unaware of another Transvaal picture postcard, which illustrates convicts working on a Transvaal Gold Mine.

Reference
Woolgar, J., (2010), Chinese Indentured Labour on the Witwatersrand Gold Fields illustrated by Picture Postcards

published between 1904 and 1910, including an analysis of postcards and covers, Gravesend, pp.1, 14, 25.

More to come soon! Keep safe.

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