Public opinion on the Rand is unanimous that absolutely vital questions for the mines' future are, for the moment, labour and taxation. A comprehensive and impartial view of the circumstances of the mines must force the conclusion that such contentions are perfectly sound. Naturally, however, the dimensions of the latter factor have less weight since the reduction of the customs tariff and the previous abolition of monopolies, and, with the pending solution of the question of dynamite, the mining industry is now not only in a vastly superior economic condition than it ever was, but has been placed in a position to sustain, not without some difficulty maybe at the outset, all the prospective burdens of projected Imperial taxation. In saying "not without difficulty," the crux of the present economic situation, as looked at by the leading and responsible section of the mining industry and competent individuals at large, is touched. For the judiciousness or otherwise of the immediately heavy incidence of the share of the cost of the war, which it may be contemplated to place on the Transvaal, is what causes the present misgivings; and, with the operative capacity of 1898 still some ten to fifteen months ahead, the immediate call for heavy contributions can only act as a drag upon progress. It is with this consideration in view that the Chamber of Mines, in a recent letter to Lord Milner, asked for a delay of five years before making a first payment, in order to allow time for the industry to recover its former level, and that other authorities have also entered their protests. [Illustration: PROSPECTING FOR GOLD: PANNING A SAMPLE]