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The officials were the next
to suffer, and for six months before the Annexation these unfortunate
individuals lived as best they could, for they certainly got no salary,
except in the case of a postmaster, who was told to help himself to his
pay in stamps. The Government issued large numbers of bills, but the
banks refused to discount them, and in some cases the neighbouring
Colonies had to advance money to the Transvaal post-cart contractors,
who were carrying the mails, as a matter of charity. The Government even
mortgaged the great salt-pan near Pretoria for the paltry sum of 400
pounds, whilst the leading officials of the Government were driven
to pledging their own private credit in order to obtain the smallest
article necessary to its continuance. In fact, to such a pass did things
come that when the country was annexed a single threepenny bit (which
had doubtless been overlooked) was found in the Treasury chest, together
with acknowledgments of debts to the extent of nearly 300,000 pounds.


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