BASUTOLAND.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 4 September 1914, Page 8

BASUTOLAND.

The greatest authority on the Ba- ■ :- sutos and Basutoland is in JLondon., This is M. Edouard Jacottet, of the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society, who has spent the past 30 -. : years in Basutoland, and is now on furlough. The work of this society" '#|jrj dates back to 1833, when Moshesh. the greatest of the Basuto chiefs, invited missionaries of Paris to settle in his country, and from that " day until his death proved their firm friend. In conversation with „•. a representative of "The Daily j Chronicle" M. Jacottet said that ". '- to-day between one-fifth and onesixth of the population was Christian, the total population being about 403,111 natives and 1,396 whites. It was Moshesh who weld- --* ed the various Bechuana tribes into a nation. The progress of the x Basutos is extraordinary, not the least striking- illustration of this - being, the genuine native literature^*/ which is developing. M. Jacbttei. - mentioned one young Basr.to who has written a little book in the Besusto language, entitled, " The Pilgrim to the F-ast," which he describes as "a work of genius;" he has brought to Europe with him another MS. of the same writer, which "is 10 times as good as Rider Haggard's .African romances, for Mr. Haggard's blacks are always painted Europeans, but the warriors in this work are the real thing." M. Jacottet declares that never before has the native been so faithfully interpreted. For the first time "he is revealed by one .of his own race." M. .Jacottet paid a warm tribute ol praise to British administration of Basutoland. A. large proportion of the population can read and write, crime is rare, murder almost unknown, no rent is paid for land, each having from his chief as much as he can cultivate, there is no public debt, and the annual revenue exceeds the annual expenditure. There is also higher education, technical education, a native press—£4,ooo is spent on native literature per year—and a native newspaper, "The Star of Basutoland. No wine and spirits are allowed into the country.