DARKEST AFRICA

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 20, 19 October 1920, Page 8

DARKEST AFRICA

WHAT MISSIONARIES ARE DOING [N THE TRAIL OP LIVINGSTONE One of tho world's greatest authorities on Central Africa, the Rev. R. Stewart Wright F.R.G.S., is at, present vmi mg We li idton. Mr. Wright has lived , longer in Central Africa than any other - living Englishman, and no one else has so closely followed the trail ot the great David Livingstone, who first penetrated tiie interior of tho Dark Continent. Ia missionary.of the London Mis.ionarr Society. Mr. Wright lirst went out to Central Africa 33 years ». It was the London Missionary Society that sent out Livingstone tc, explore.Central Africa, and to bring, the natives to a knowledge of the Christian kith. After Livingstone's death, the society undertook to .end the Gospel to the people living on the shores of the great Late langanyika, on which lako at .Ijj.ji) Living- £ was discovered by Dr. Stanley. Tanganyika is übout GW miles os tho crow Hies from the coast of La,f Alnca, but the iournev inland for travellers involved a Saw of 1200 to 1400 n.iles up the Zambesi River from Chinde. a small town at the mouthy lurther lourmar on the Shire River, and the negotiation of Take Nvassa. From Lake Nvassa to and the whole journey from the mouth of ' ho Zambesi to Tanganyika takes from xto seven weeks. "Steamers are now running on tho Zambesi and on Lake Nvassa," said . Mr. A. right to \ reporter, "but in the early days wo had to tramp every foot of tho road. Bicycles, and in some ' parts, motor cycles, are now king used. I and we have a weekly mail from Home to Tanganyika. The mail tikes six or seven weeks to reach us from Home, but it is regular. IV e have a telegraph, and we can got a telegram from i Tanganyika to London in a low hours , So wo 'have made big strides. Early Days of the Mission. ■ During the first ten yea re of the rnis- • eion we lost a man by death and a - man invalided Homo every year, added Mr. Wright. "That was from 1877 to I 18S7, the year I went out it was also i before the days when the European. Powers effectively occupied Central I Africa, nnd when the head hunters and • slave raiders were in full power. On 1 arriving In the south end of Tanga- ; nyika 1 found the people praotieally in ' the same condition as our forefathers > wfro in 2i'SJ years ago, in Britain. My ! colleague (tho Rev. D. P. Jones) and I ' had to found a new station. Wo did ' not know a word of the language of 1 the people, we had no trained servants ' or workmen, wo were surrounded by fighting, we had many attacks of fever .and great privations for want of sunio of tho necessaries of .life, but wo went on with our work, and tho work has ■ proceeded steadily from that day. to this. Toglay we have five stations, staffed by ten Vliite missionaries and about ' forty native evangelists. Wo have re- ' eluced 'two Contrail African languages • to writing, we have dictionaries m the D vocabularies of tho people, and wo " have the whole of the New Testament ; printed in these languages. Wc have 1 also a church with about 700 members, ' 230 school?, 450 teachers, and over 13,000 ' scholars. We have trained men cooks 1 and servants, brickmakers and bricklayi crs, sawyers, carpenters, cabinetmakers, ■ boot repairers, and everyone of the Goy--0 eminent offices in Northern Rhodesia is ■ staffed with native workers,-all of whom s have been trained on mission stations. I ■ lived at Tanganyika longer than an} other Englishman.- I have twice been through German East Africa from the fouth to Victoria Nyanza. I have travelled through British East. Africa, where a number of New Zealanders are settled. Some of these settlers went there after ' the Boer War, and I understand a good 5 number have gone there since tho last ? war. I have been more closely on the 1 track of Livingstone than any other ", white man—right into 'the heart of the r Dark Continent." e s Slow Development. " i Parts of Central Africa were develop- : ir,g slowly, continued Mr. Wright. The l Shire Highlands, which were discovered ,i by Livingstone, and where he said that t whllte men could get a good living, were l now settled by planters. There were some hundreds of these planters, who' cul- . tivated cotton, coffee, tea, and tobacco. \ At the town of Blantyre there was now a newspaper, two banks, and a chamber of commerce, while in British East Africa—a very fino country indeed—anything could be grown from the tropical zone on the coast right up to the terny- perate, or cold zone. ) /'We had a very tough campaign with , the Germans,": remarked Mr. Wright. > "They attacked our men in' Northern i- Rhodesia on several occasions, but were a beaten back every time. Under General • Smuts, who took over the conduct of the (1 campaign against the Germans, the Brit- • ish drove the enemy out of German East Africa, and they crossed into Portuguese f territory. The Portuguese, .instead of r putting'up a fight—for they were armed, - and had a fort—simply surrendered, and s gave up everything to the Germans, who i were thus equipped for another eighteen e months' campaign." r Unlike the rest of the world, Central Africa 'was happily free from Labour « troubles, but, said Mr. Wright, the Government was very hard on the natives. The territory was administered on behalf of the British Government by a a chartered company, which limposed a ' head-tax of 10s. £er annum on the na--1 tives to provide for the police, magis--5! trates, and commissioners. "It is if very 9 cruel tax on the native," declared Mr. ? Wright, "because ho cannot get vrorx. ■' The" tax presses very severely on the natives, and it is a great shame. The company says that the native can earn money by going down into tho mines, but when the native does go to the mines he returns homo diseased, and during the time he has been away his wifo '. often gets into trouble with other men, . and it is a very serious matter for the country. I do not object to tho natives 1 paving* a tax. That is right enough, but let them pay a tax in proportion to their i'win''". .Now, a man's wage there is only ss. a mimth, and I should not ob- ' iect to a ss. tax, or, say, a month's work >.n tho year in lieu of it, b,ut 10s. a man per annum is altogether beside the mark." '. Mr. Wright, intends to tour the Dominion, and contemplates settling in this country. He will probably take un, ministerial work on behalf of the Congregational Church in the Auckland district toward the end of the year.