NORTHERN RHODESIA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19722, 13 December 1926, Page 3

NORTHERN RHODESIA

GREAT UNDEVELOPED LAND I CLIMATE FOB WHITE MEN. NEW ZEALANDER’S EXPERT- . ENCES. So much has been heard lately about the Kenya Colony that most people suppose it to bo the only “white man's ! country,” in Centilal Africa. As a I ' matter of fact, there are large areas in ; Northern Rhodesia and the mandated ! T u"’k t Territory which are well • suited to permanent white settlement ' .. -u ;.r.-- acquiring a British J I farming population. A New Zealander, Mr D. F. Duigan. : ; formerly of Wanganui, who has re- . ' turned to his native land for a few ' months’ holiday, after several years in ' ( Northern Rhodesia, gave an interest- 1 ! ing account of life and sport there in i ;an interview in Auckland. Mr Duigan 1 , holds a property of 10.000 acres at ; ■ Abercorn, at the southern end of Lake : TY.nanyika. in partnership with his i i brother-in-law, Air Justice Ostler, ' whose companion he has been on two ■ I different big-game expeditions in, 1 I Central Africa within recent years. ; Agricultural Country. ! Northern Rhodesia, said Mr Duigan. : ; was a protectorate under the Colonial ' Office. It should not be confused with I Southern Rhodesita, a self-governing : colony separated from it by the River Zambesi. The protectorate contained ' 10,000.000 acres of land above 500 ft in 1 altitude, and the average rainfall was { 50in. The wet sefason ran from Noveini ber to March. From .lune to Novem- | ber no rain fell, and the weather was ; beautifully fine and clear. It was pos- ' sible to grow fine specimens of Euroi pean vegetables, fruit and flowers, inj eluding strawberries. ' The chief products for export were , ' maize and coffee, which were, shipped | to Europe by steamer to Kigoma, some ! 300 miles up Lake Tanyanyika, and thence 780 miles over the former Ger- ■ . man railway to Dar-es-Salaam, on the i ■ oast coast. The freights were very ; ' reasonable—about £4 a ton. Cattle ' were raised for the local market, but ! it -was not expected that with competition from the Argentine it would bo I possible to develop an export trade in I beef.’ The cattle were the progeny of ! imported bulls and native cows, the dis- ! tinguishing hump of the latter disap- | pearing in the first cross. Development of Mining. I Mining had become of grent importance to the territory, said Mr Duigan. jAt Broken Hill, toward* the. southern i border, were very large lead and zinc, '' mines operated by British capital and ' native labour. A water-power scheme costing h million was being carried out to supply electricity for further developments. The region was rich in minerals, only a small part of which i had been exploited.

Just across the border of the Belgian Congo, near Elizabethville, was the Star of the Congo, one of the largest copper-mines in the world. This was owned by the Belgian Government land | a British financier, Mr Robert Williams. Broken Hill, which had been developed largely by Australian mining engineers, was connected with Capetown by nearly 2000 miles of railway, . but another line was being built 1 through the Portuguese territory o: ' Angolti to connect the two mines with Lobito Bay, on the west coast. This would shorten the distance very much. Profit From Coffee. ' Communications were being very • much improved. It was now possible to . travel by motor-car from the source of the Nile, on Lake Victoria Nyanza, to : the railhead in Northern Rhodesia in ;Ihe dry season with little or no htircl I ship. ; Speaking of the possibilities of set tlement in Northern Rhodesia, Mr Pul gan said that there was abundance land, but no one could expect to rnalu a success with less than £5OOO capita : Coffee whs a profitable crop in the high lands. Its market value was about a hundredweight, and under favourabl conditions 15cwt. or more could be pn ! duced from an acre of land, with th i help of irrigation in the dry season. .' I great dcla.l of coffee and tea were nov. I being grown in the higher country oi 1 the Tanganyika territory as wolf. i Northern Rhodesia was very satis , factorily governed. The natives wer ' contented, their rights over lands occupied by them were safeguarded, and there was an efficient medical service, which was making a successful cam paign against what remained of sleeping sickness and tsetse fly. The North ern Rhodesian po-lic-c, consisting of natives under white officers, kept order everywhere with little difficulty. The settlers were for the most part British There w r ere very f(*w Dutch and practically no Indians, though great numbers of the latter were to be found in ! the territories further north. So far the white men were only a handful in ' a vast country, but there was a very good prospect of further settlement as time went on. Hunting the Hippopotamus. ; Mr Duigan showed some photographs of typical settlers’ houses. These were substantial buildings of loctrlly-made brick, and did not at all suggest a tropical climate, being provided with chimneys. Fires are very necessary in the cooler parts of the year. All kinds of sport were to be had. . There w r as abundance of game, including lions, leopards, elephants, and every variety of antelope. Contrary to the general belief, the African elephant was not dying out, but was even increasing. In some districts elephants had to bo systematically hunted because they caused famines among the natives by destroying crops. In the ordinary way four animals might be killed under licence by one person in any year, the. fee being substantial. As a result, only the largest tuskers were shot and wholesale killing was pre--1 vented. i One of the most exciting experiences

he had ever had was a native hippotanus hunt on Lake Tanganyika. This vas varied out in dug-out canoes by a hand of men whose forefathers had been hipnopotamus-henrers for generations. The leader was an active man >f 70. When an animal was located he was harpooned with la razor-pointed spear of native iron, mounted on a pith-wood shaft bearing a float. The shaft became detached when the hippo “sounded,” and the float, being tied on to the head with la line, showed where it was.

After striking the blow, the natives all lay down in the canoe, which the hippo was very likely to attack with his teeth. It was provided with a strake of fibrous material, in the hope that the lanimal would bite this instead of the wood. Sometimes a canoe was upset and men were lost. Ho had heard of men being bitten in two. The harpooning was repoared until the hippo became exhausted, when it was killed with a lance-thrust. As h carcase weighed a couple of tons, it kept a village in meat for a long time. The natives were allowed to hunt only occasionally, otherwise the animals might be killed altogether.