COLONIAL SERVICE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 59, 10 March 1936, Page 11

COLONIAL SERVICE.

CUSTOMS AND LIVING COSTS.

OFFICIAL INFORMATION.

Officialdom occasionally provides an I amusing document on the ways of life and cost of living in the far corners of a great Empire. One of these (says the Melbourne "Herald") is the recently ptibliaHed"second edition of "Information as to thqv Conditions and Cost of Living in the Colonial Empire," compiled by the British Colonial Office as a guide and as a warning to * all who contemplate living in a colonial' outpost.

The prudent mother who contemplates a sojourn, in the Virgin Islands with her family is warned by the report that she should provide light woollen vests for her delicate children, while Englishmen stationed on the Gold Coast are urged not to sit about after games without a sweater, or to neglect to have their filter scrubbed weekly. Costs of living, the Colonial Office has learnt, vary anomalously in the several colonial centres. Thus, while a beefsteak fetches 9d per pound, in Northern Rhodesia, and a cooking chicken may be had for only 1/6, bread costs Cd per pound, and butter 3/. The British tradition of eggs and bacon for breakfast is expensive in Rhodesia, where bacon is quoted at 2/7 per pound, although native eggs (dubious) may be had for 1/ a dozen. Many Colonial Governments have forwarded to London headquarters details of outfit and equipment. In Nigeria, a generous supply of sock 6 is advocated, as it is difficult to get mending and darni'ing done locally. Mosquito boots, cushions and vegetable seeds (in sealed tin) might also be included in the' outfit of the prospective resident of Nigeria. Bookcases and Tables. Decrees of seniority condition to a nicety the free- h&ncl-out of fuiniture tuven to public officials in Nigeria and Uganda. The head of a senior department receives two towel rails, while his -junior colleagues must be content with one. The two senior grades, moreover, are supplied with one bookcase (revolving), but 'the smaller fry, whose libraries are assumed to be less extensive, must store their books as best they can. In the dining room no amount ot subtle bragging can help the junior officer to conceal his status, for he must eat off. a., table, of only 4ft in diameter, while his betters boast a more extensive board of a full sft Across. Many a sinister n6tc is struck in the section of the report headed "General Remarks." Whoever proposes to settle in St. Helena, for instance, is given a mysterious warning "to communicate with the Secretariat before leaving England, as there may be peculiar circumstances prevailing and much discomfort might be avoided if this plan adopted."