ABSTRACT
The slow pace in the development of administrative capacity and urban infrastructure in Johannesburg during the 1890s became all the more evident as the city's population expanded. Three issues dominated political discussion in Johannesburg during the reconstruction period: rates and taxes, ownership of town lands and the scarcity of housing in the city. The gold law in its two versions established the relations between the state, private owners of land and those who were working mining claims on both state and private land. Economic and political developments in the city had a decisive impact on the configuration of working class neighbourhoods in Johannesburg and therefore on the processes of urbanization and settlement of the population to which Curtis was referring. Brewing, flour milling and baking, carriage and wagon building, harness making, and brick and tile making were the most important local industries which spread throughout the city's six wards and Brickfields.
