It will be otherwise when
the number increases, as it will soon do, to fifty and a hundred. Upwards
of seventy concessions have already been granted, and I know one house
which has, or soon will have, half a dozen ready for market. Then natives
and Kruboys will strike for increased wages till even diamond-mines would
not pay. The Gold Coast contains rich placers in abundance: if they fail
it will be for want of hands, or because the cost of labour will swallow
up profits.
The country-people, Fantis, Accra-men, Apollonians of Bein, and others,
will work, and are well acquainted with gold-working. But they work in
their own way; and, save under exceptional conditions, they are incapable
of regular and continuous labour. It gives one the heart-ache to see their
dawdling, idling, shuffling, shiftless style of spoiling time. They are
now taking to tribute, piece and contract work. The French mines supply
them with tools and powder, and, by way of pay and provisions, allow them
to keep two-thirds of the produce. It is evident that such an arrangement
will be highly profitable to the hands who will 'pick the eyes out of the
mine,' and who will secrete all the richest stuff, leaving the poorest to
their employers.
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