The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1912. RHODESIA'S FUTURE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 26, 24 September 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1912. RHODESIA'S FUTURE.

Rhodesia and its future are much talked about just now, .and many eyes are directed towards this land of almost limitless possibilities. It is just twenty-three years since a Royal Quarter was granted to the British South African Company, conferring upon it large administrative powers in. the region north of the Transvaal, now known as Rhodesia. The territory has an estimated area of 440,000 square miles and a population estimated at 1,771,000, and the authorised charter is to promote trade and commerce, and to work mineral and other concessions in those regions. The authorised share capital of the company amounts to £9,000,000, of which £8,056,507 has been issued. Rhodesia is divided into two portions by the river Zambesi, and n the opinion of some is destined soonei

or later, to take her place in the South African Union. Northern Rhodesia is the British sphere lying between the Portuguese settlements, German East Africa and the Congo Free State, excepting the Nyasaland Protectorate. It has an a-rea of about 291,000 square miles and a population -of about 1,000,000, of whom only about two thousand are Europeans. The exports include ivory and rubber, also tobacco aid cotton, which are being grown with considerable success. This territory was previously divided into the two provinces of North-Eastern and

North-Western Rhodesia, but by the Order of Council of May 4th, 1911, they were amalgam a ted under Mir title of "Northern Rhodesia," the amalgamation taking effect from August 17th, 1911. Southern Bhodcsia includes the two provinces of Matabeleland and Mashonaland, an area of 148,575 square miles, with a population of 770,000. The Europeans at the census of 1911 numbered 23,582, The country lies between the northern boundary of the Transvaal on the south, and the Zambesi on the north, and the Portuguese provinces of Man- ! ica and Sofala as the eastern boundary.

The seat of government is Salisbury, which is also the capital of Mashonaland and the chief town of Matablcland is Bulawayo, which once an outpost of civilisation is now a thriving and busy town of some six thousand souls. The trunk railroad from tihe Cipe passes through the town. Itwas at a banquet at Bulawayo a few weeks ago that Earl Grey, ex-Governor-General of Canada, said that before his present visit bis impression was that while the destiny of Southern Rhodesia

would bo union with title rest of South Africa, in which it might, porhi'.ps. figure as the controlling province, Northern Rhodesia's destiny, owing to its sub-tropical nature, would be to merge in a great sub-tropical dependency, including Xyasaknd, Nigeria, East Africa, and Uganda, which might bo developed into a second India, largely through the efforts of Indian subjects of the Crown. After his recent visit to Northern Rhodesia', however, he believed that Northern Rhodesia was destined to rival, and possibly to surpass, Southern Rhodesia as a prosperous agricultural country. He therefore begged the settlers in Northern and Southern Rhodesia not to decide immediately what was to be the eventual fate of the new empire which the genius of Cecil Rhodes, the generosity of the shareholders of the Chartered Company, and their own labour had secured as a priceless possession of the Crown. He was inclined to urge them to consider many times .before they changed their present regime. They could dismiss from their minds the fear that the Chartered Company would ever be tempted to sell the country for the sake of dividends.