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Providing daily news in Lower Natal since 1835 and Federation wide since 1908- 6 shillings- 26th of October 1920
Rush to the Centre of the World: Viewpoints from 4,300 feet underground
Otavi, Free State of Langfield
The first gold rush that rocked the nation took place 50 years ago, when prospectors found near the border between the Free State and the Loda Chiefdom a strand of gold which has led to the birth of a new town as Loda and Engell alike and even extra-continental prospectors have pushed to extract and exploit the riches of our lands. Since then, the Union of Natal has risen into becoming the greatest nation in the southern hemisphere, as gold rush was followed by a diamond rush, and then by another gold rush and then the whole process repeated, as the economy developed, infrastructure was build, cities rose up and trade expanded more and more.
Today, the town of Otavi, a traditionally sleepy town of half white Langfielders of Engell and Gaullois ancestry and Loda nethians, situated at the foothills of the Eastern Grans, is going through its greatest phase in history as as the gold rush in the Eastern Grans is fuelled by the investments of the world huge Engello-Natalian Conglomerate, as they opened this month three more pits, with about 5,000 new jobs opened at the mines. The whole town of Otavi is expected to expand in the following years as it becomes the centre of the mining industry in the mountainous areas of the Free State, with some optimists believing that in time it will replace Parow as the State's capital and main city.
The Conglomerate, which is Natal's also biggest corporation has issued the construction of a whole new neighbourhood in the east end of the town for the new workers, mainly made from cheap wood houses, transforming the whole Goldend area into a company town.
The Otavi mines are offering a breakthrough of engineering as the are as of yet the deepest in the world, with the officials from the Conglomerate promising that if development continues the way it does, the region prosperity will continue to increase and that soon, a race to reach the centre of the world will soon start. The Queen Zandile pit, worked mostly by Loda labourers, reaches the nauseating depth of 4,300 feet inside the mountain, where by the conditions are very hard on the workers, but the promise of good wages and riches are motivating everyone to get into the elevated and go deep underground.
"Working in a mine is probably the hardest job in the world, and especially with the recent history, the 2nd most dangerous after a soldier," says a worker jokingly as he takes a pickaxe and hands it to his colleague, while he goes to take some dynamite from the storage facilities. "We are expanding the mines. From what I understood, they believe that the small valley in front of the town was the place where millions of years ago, a meteorite has fallen and the extreme conditions of the crash has created all those riches. We are still expanding the mines and using this," he says as he shows the dynamite. "We are making much more easier and faster if we use explosives, but it also makes it more dangerous, it is a continuous concern on us to see if the shaft holds or crashes on us or not," he says looking concerned.
While Himyar is a continent of extreme inequalities both in the colonial societies but also in the independent nations like Natal and Cathiopia, societies are broken between a very rich minority and the majority living in penury, with a little to non-existent middle class, for many, the booming mining industry of Natal is the best way of guaranteeing an open door for social mobility for many, irrespective of their racial belonging. Compared to the other Himyari societies, many which are colonial, where the colonial elite is closed off hermetically from the native majority, or Cathiopia, where the new republic is built upon the old foundations of an ancient civilisation, Natal is a new nation like the nations of westernesse which gives it's workers the best chances in Himyar for social mobility.
OTHER NEWS
Sport: The Jacaranda Cup Rugby Tournament has started with a mach today in which the Harton Oryxes have defeated the Mzuzu Cobras, 46 to 27. John Owens, coach of the Oryxes is full of hope as he called his current squad a dream team.Weather: Rains are expected on the coast, with spring bringing rains into the inland. Tonight, 17 degrees are expected in Camp Hill, 20 in Harton, Blackmere and Parow and on the other side of the Grans, 18 degrees in Wynyard and Balaka and up to 25 in Mzuzu.
Now playing on Coogee Street: Tonight the West End Theatre is having its premiere of "The Mutual Admiration Society" comedy musical. All the tickets have been sold out.