THE SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 160, 9 January 1896, Page 2

THE SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY.

■ -0 This Company to which so many allusions are made in the Transvaal difficulty, received a Royal Charter on October 29tb, 1889, entrusting it with the development of the extensive re gions lying to the south of the Zambezi which the year before had been proclaimed British territory. A satisfactory arrangement having been come to with Lobengula, the chief of the warlike Matabele, a pioneer force under Colonel Pennefather was dispatched from Kimberley, and on September 12th, 1890, reached the vicinity of Mount Hampden and there built Salisbury, the present capital of Mashonaland. Subsequently in May 1891, the field of operations of the company was extended to the north of the Zambezi, and its territories now cover the whole of British South Africa from Mafeking to Tanganyika. This territory within the boundaries laid down in the Conventions with Germany and Portugal embraces an area of 750,000 square miles, or 8£ times the size of Great Britain. The company's operations have mainly been concentrated upon Mashonaland and Nyasaland. The country is comparatively healthy, has great agricultural capabilities, and is even better for stock raising, but up to the present its mineral wealth has attracted most attention. Up to the end of August, 1893, ove t - 25,000 mining claiirs had been located. Silver, copper, blende, tin, antimony, arsenic, and lead have also been discovered. J Much has been clone for facilitating intercourse with the outer world a railway having been opened from Kir- ! berley to Mafeking. The railway from Beiva to Salisbury (295 miles) has been commenced and when completed Masbonaland will be within tive weeks travel of London. The chairman of the company is the Duke of Abercorn, Deputy chairman the Duke of Fife, directors — Lord Gilford, Alfred Beit, Albert Grey, Cecil Rhodes, George Cawsford, and Sir H. Farquhar. The administrator in Mashonaland is Dr Jamieson, and H.M. Commissioner in Nyasaland is Mr John S. Brabant.