ELEPHANTS ADD TO FARMERS’ TRIALS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 129, 22 August 1927, Page 13

ELEPHANTS ADD TO FARMERS’ TRIALS

LIFE IN KENYA COLONY Herds of elephants and zebras add to • the trials of farming in Kenya. They may come crashing across one’s wheat- ! field unless scarecrows and fires are ! used to frighten them off. f In an address to the Rotary Club toj day, Mr. J. A. Massam gave some f ; his impressions of his six years’ resi - ' dence in the colony, where a number of New Zealanders have taken up land. Mr. Massam said that the centre of j the Government, Narobi, was at tlie S end of the highlands. A temporary headache was the only sign that the 1 newcomer would have of the altitude ot the town—about 6,000 feet. An attempt had been made at town-planning, and the natives, with the exception of the "house-boys” were now kept to their own quarter. i There were two distinct elements in j the life of the town, the official and the non-official, and the best feeling did not exist between them. The settlers always came to town in battered motor-cars, j and they always wore ancient shorts and shirts. Cotton, coffee, maize and : wheat were grown extensively, and I sheep and cattle were raised in parts |of the colony. Land brought about j 30s an acre and big areas were held.