THE FUTURE OF AFRICA.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2882, 11 May 1878, Page 2

THE FUTURE OF AFRICA.

Now that time has permitted a closer inquuy into Stanley's recent discoveries it appears the. poetical horoscope which he drew of the future cf the great Africen continent was somewhat overcolourad. His dis3ovcries will not, it is alleged, tend much to develop commerce, simply because the produce of equatorial lands already more than suffices for the demands of non equatorial countries. Ivory, again, may be at the present moment a drag in Central Africa, but the stores of it would soon be exhausted, and, with the widespread introduction of firearms elephants would be shot down faster, than they could be reproduced. The mineral wealth of Africa may be great, but there will always be the difficulty of transporting ores from the interior to the coast, arid although gold is known to exist, it must be found in larger quantities than at present to work any great change in African pros* ■ perity. We are st;ll some way, therefore,. from the adoption of a land route via Africa from England to the Antipodes. The dream of an unbroken railway journey from London to Natal, .utilising two submarine tunnels at Dover and Gibraltar, is still very far fetched, and we may bo well content if in „ the next few years telegraphic communication can be established instead.