PLAIN SPEAKING.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2026, 29 March 1890, Page 3

PLAIN SPEAKING.

Mr Labouehere is a very plain speaker, and can go straight to the point. His opinion of Stanley’s work may well be pondered over. He truly remarks : —“ That Stanley is a man of vast energy, great courage, and undaunted perseverance, I do not for a moment question. So were Cortez and Pizarro. But I very much doubt whetherthe marches of Stanley through Africa have benefited humanity in general, or African human beings in particular. Geographically he has discovered a new pond and seen a new mountain. Cui hono ? A pond is a depression, a mountain is an elevation, and whether there are more or less depressions and elevations in Africa than we heretofore supposed is an exceedingly unimportant matter. He has brought back Emin and a number of the people who were with Emin. A great nany of Emin’s people died during the process of bringing them back, whilst Emin himself so soon as he was brought back walked through a window and injured his skull. During Stanley’s marches, many Africans were laid hold of, and made to carry burdens, with the result that they died of fatigue; many men (dwarfs and others) who objected to his traversing their territories were shot, and many of their villages were burnt. Civii&ation has not been presented to the inhabitants ef Central Africa in a very alluring aspect, and they are not likely to enslave each other or to eat each other less in consequence of their glimpse of it. One cannot help asking why this waste of energy, why all this shooting and burning, why the Africans cannot have been left alone ?”