“WIRELESS” OF THE WILD.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 March 1921, Page 4

“WIRELESS” OF THE WILD.

i That natives have methods of spreading news which are, to say the least of th € ,„, extremely difficult to explain can be stated without fear °f contradiction. ■ The instance recently given by a correspondent in the Daily Mail of how news of the relief of Mafeking reached a telegraph station in Griqualand AA cst long before it arrived over the wire is only one of many such eases which ocj envied during the South African AA ar. \ll over Africa news travels in the ’ same amazingly speedy and secret fashion. . . In 1913 Lord Hareourt, then Colonial 1 Secretary, caused a small sensation in r the House of Commons by stating tha ‘ lie could not give details of movements r „f troops in Somaliland, because the ■ news would reach the Mullah'with m--1 credible rapidity. The cutting up ol the Camel Corps by the Mullah was known hundreds of miles away within twenty-four hours of its occurrence, i \\ li-'-i the Benin massacre occurre , j Englishman living at an up-country I station in the Gold Coast Colony, some six hundred miles from Benin, was told j |,v one of his hoys, “Plenty white man killed in Benin country. n.is -!• days before the news reached Gape s ! Coast Castle. * * * Such instances could he multiplied to - almost any extent, and Ml who have - j had experience of natives, whethei n I I Africa, Asia, or America, are perfectly t well aware that news does travel i | through the wilds in this amazingly - rapid fashion. / . The question is how dues it* travel. S Some people will tell you it is clone I,V drums and that a code is used simis Inr to our Morse code, the news being r thus carried by night from one village t„ another. Others assert that smoke signals are used. Others, again- and s this is a common belief in South All km , i contend that the natives shout the , ! news from hilltop to hilltop. While these devices will explain some I , U ses. there are others which they do s not lit. ; Dr R. AY. Folk in, who accompanied u Km in I’asha through Uganda a 1 ...niv was at La-10, a thonsami miles south of Khartum when h 1„,. a l wizard told him and Emm tha , during the previous night he had mm ;. od Mcschera el Rok, more than ->OO . miles away on the Nile. ' He said two steamers had nrnvci there, and described the English officer "j i„ comma,ul. He said that a short man !. with a big heard was bringing papeij* for the expedition and would reach them within about 30 days. (l Thirtv-two da vs later the steamers • (!u lv arrived, and all the details given ' l,v the native proved to be absolutely II ' L correct. r Mon*, by comparison of d itos, it " ; is 'found that the wizard told the doctor 'M and Emin of the steamers’ arrival at l< ‘ Mcschera within 10 hours oi their actual arrival at the spot. •' To imagine that such news with such 11 wealth of detail could have been conveyed a distance of 550 miles inside 10 '• | mUIS seem* to me a greater strain on credibility than to accept the explanaturn that the sorcerer was clairvoyant or that d was a case of thought transI'orcnce. >t,