A KING WHO LOST HIS GIN

Hokitika Guardian, 18 June 1928, Page 1

A KING WHO LOST HIS GIN

(By J. F. Stewart, F.R.S.G.S., lee turer in Forest Engineering, Edinburgh University).

The construction of a new harbour at Takoradi, on the Gold Coast, which is to be opened shortly by Mr J. H. Thomas, is an event of importance. As fan as I am aware, it is the only constructed - harbour on the. whole At-

rioan coast, from Tangier to Walvis Bay. It is naturally an event of the first importance to the Gold Coast Colony, the trade of which in' recent years has increased to an astounding; extent. Doubtless tho prosperity of the country will be greately enhanced by the possession of the only good deep-water port in all British 3Vest Africa..

Takoradi is a few miles to the west of Sekondi, hitherto the port of tho Gold Coast, and tho idea of a deepwater harbour there is not a new one. Tho scheme is at least 27 years old to my. knowledge, and was evolved, not by any Government official, as is generally supposed, hut by one Lefeber, who 30 years ago was my predecessor as general manager of an important company on the Gold Coast. Ho was there in 1901, when Sekondi was in the making, and he determined that its construction was a huge blunder, and that in a very short time it would he found to he impossible. Ho therefore cast about along tho coast to see if he could find any place with deep water which would be a suitable site for the commercial port of a prosperous country. He fixed on Takoradi. Shortly afterwards his connection with the company arid the coast terminated, and in the early part of 1902. when I succeeded him, I found a concession in existence. The consideration for it was the payment monthly to the king of £lO and a case of trade gin.

I did not favour the continuance of

this.payment. For one tiling it seemed to me that it was very doubtful whether a valid title could be obtained, but What weighed mostly in my mind was this: The British Government had built the railway to Kumasi from Sekondi, and had spent millions in making the latter place the ocean terminus, building costly station, wharf*? offices, yards, bungalows, and so on, and had allowed a town to be established. I decided that even a British Government having done this, and having known as much about Sekondi and Takoradi as Lefeber did. would throw all this money away, change to Takoradi, and spend more “millions there. But I did not know the capabilities of a British Government in this direction. I should have done so, however, for I had just left a post on the construction of a Great British mual port in another part of the world where the Government had spent some eight or ten million pounds and then discovered they had built the Jiarhour in the wrong place, and had sent out a commission to sec what could be done about it. But to return to Takoradi. Hesitatingly for a few months I paid the king’s subsidy to the headman, whom he used to send in for it; and then, on Sunday, I thought 1 would go along and interview the old gentleman” and see .if I could not come to some better arrangement. . It took my Kroo-boys some hours rowing along tlie coast under a burning sun, and then, when I arrived at the “.capital,” I was told that the king was away in the bush, but that messengers had been sent to tell him l was. there, and to come hack. i waited, becoming gradually more impaient, while messengers constantly

came to say that the king was on lus way. Tliis farce, not uncommon n\ Africa., went on till late afternoon, and the king never came. The climate of the Gold Coast is not conducive to patience and good temper, and I lost mine. I left word for the king that our agreement was terminated, and that there uas no more ten pounds and cases of gm. and I returned to Sekondi. Next day the king and all his headmen, umbrella carrier, and retinue, arrived at my bungalow full of apologies and explanations and begging for a renewal of the concession, payment of the money, and most, of all, for the “squareface” (gin). ; However, the royal procrastination had been the means of overcoming my hesitation and uncertainty. I was obdurate, refused to have any further dealings with the monarch, and the concession over Takoradi, for v hat it might have been worth, passed out of "our possession,