POLICING BY CAMEL

Hokitika Guardian, 14 November 1927, Page 4

POLICING BY CAMEL

(By Lawrence G. Green.) In the desert wastes • r the Kala.hnri you meet the men of that strange force, the South Afriißn Police cainel patrol. They are lonely men, like the mounted police of the Canadian snows but they like the life. rhdir , “beat.” includes nearly six thousand square miles oT sandy, sundried country. They are policemen, wearing blue uniforms and carrying revolvers yet arresting criminals forms the Smallest part of their duty in the Kalahari. They have to collect native taxes.

inspect cattle to detect flic dreaded rinderpest, reported invading swarms of locust, clip sheep make meteorological observations, and compile voters’ roll in the isolated villages of the territory. 'But beyond an occasional stock theft there is a little crime indeed. Ivong and dangerous treks across the sand dunes of the Kalahari take up much of their time. A\’ator-holes are hard to find in that sun-scorced land. A small desert melon called tsaiui grows after the rains, but there is no other fruit.

So each man setting out to a distant native village loads his camel with waterhags to last for fourteen days. Ho carries a rifle, not only to shoot game hut because there wre still little bands of wild Buslmicn with poisoned hrrows who occasionally attack a white man. Blankets and a heavy overcoat are necessary, for the hot sand of the daytime becomes ice-cold 'at night Meat and mealie meal, tea, milk, sugar, and a small stove complete the desert policeman’s outfit. For days he. sits on his came], plodding across the glaring yellow sand with his eyes and ears full of grit, j without- the slightest relief from the all-pervading heat There are no trees, rivers, or pools in the Kalahari. But there is always the possibility of lying down on a scorpion at night. The policeman may have to travel for la week to reach a single white man at some lonely outpost just localise the Census Department requires a form to be filled in. Camels used in the Kalahari come from the Sudan. The police are expected ?o cover forty miles a day in norma! times. When great locust hordes are threatenng to leave their breeding places in the Kalahari and descend on the rich fanning districts of the Union the men of the camel patrol sometimes cover eighty miles of desert in twenty-four hours to bring the news to the nearest telo* graph office,