AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE.

Patea Mail, 4 August 1882, Page 4

AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE.

Mr Felkin, author of a book on Uganda, Central Africa, which has recently attracted considerable attention, and Mr Hutley, a missionary at Zanzibar, have written letteis to the Times drawing a deplorable picture of the state of things that exists in this part of the world. In and near Zanzibar, says Mr Hutley, slaves and ivory are the chief articles of commerce. The former are imported wholesale from the interior to the coast; they suffer fearfully destructive ravages from disease en route ) and of a company of slaves amounting to three hundred only fifty upon a recent occasion reached Unyanyembe. Slaves are cheap, being purchaseable for the price of an ox, a musket, or three or four strings of beads. The consequence is, they are barbariously treated and left to perish if they are ill, or killed in cold blood if they are troublesome. In Morocco and in the Egyptian Soudan the condition of things is equally bad, and both Mr Felkin and Mr Hutley agree that if Egypt passes into the hands of Arabi Pasha and his followers, all the good work effected by “ Chinese ” Gordon will be undone. On the other hand, Mr Hutley is strongly of opinion that the slave trade would disappear before the extension of commerce, and with a special view to thisJ extension advocates the construction of a railway through the country. —— COSTLY POUNDAGE CASES. Some documents produced at a meeting of the Titnaru Borough Council show that poundkeeping is not an altogether profitable business. One impounded horse, having a broken fetlock, could not be sold and had to be shot, after running up expenses to the tune of £2 Is. Two others died of “ old age” in the pound, the costs of the two being £4 4s. “ One billy goat” ran up a bill of £1 13s, and was sold for Is. Another horse was sold for 13s, his bill being £2 16s, and a loss was sustained on another one. Three animals were sold at a price that left some surplus, but the whole of the transactions showed a loss of £7 6s 9d, the expense account being £l4 6s 9d, and the receipt £7. 8