RHODESIA.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 175, 18 April 1908, Page 5

RHODESIA.

SALVATION ARMY PLANS DROPPED. BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT ■. (Rec. April IG, io.43'p.nU) ■' - . ' V ' . ' London, April 16. General Booth lias announced that,-, owing to tho inadequate response to tlio-recent appeal for freslr capital made by the British South Africa Company's shareholders, the Company is unable to tfdvanci) the fltiids required for the Saivatioii- Army's Rliodesiaii colonisation project. The undertaking is abandoned for the present;

Rhodesia has been depending very greatly, on continued immigration, and to a'large extent on tho Salvation Army to promote that immigration. The debenture debt of the British ' and • South Africa' : Company. (Jlr. Rhodes's Chartered Company) is .€10,200,000, and tho, debenture debts of the Rhodesia and Mashonal.md railway-companies aro about In an article , reviewing, a special meeting of . the shareholders of '■ the British and South Africa ; ; Company, "Tho Times" says: "A \questionwhich ; naturally presents itself to the long-suffering shareholders of tho company is, \\ hat about the financial prospects of the country? It must be; remembered that. some of' those) who attended tho meeting 'aro men. and women who fifteen years ago put money into <v project chiefly,■' perhaps, for patriotic motives, ,in sympathy with Rhodes's great idea, but also as, an '■ investment which thoy could not afford to lose. ■ Sinqo' then they havo received no dividend and have seen their shares deduced to tho present low'values. On this point the visiting directors were also able to give a most. encouraging reobrt, ami it is a report which entirely ■ agrees 'with' the views of all those who have visited-Rhodesia for themselves. Tho journey-' of last 'Hummer and autamn .extended .' not' only, to' all the principal centr.es ,'in.' Southern Rhodesia, , but also to tho great s territories of North-TCestern .Rhodesia beyond tho Zambesi and- to North--Eastorn Rhodesia. - there' hra signs of rich 'produce:''' Oh,' thV'land and under the surface, and-by . tho wise forethought* of the company, following Rhode's plans, all the most promising districts are bv this timo tapped by railways. Already, nt Broken Hill, ■some hundreds of: miles'north of the Victoria ■Falls, the railway is used to carry up goods to ■tho Congo State,' and.thero is every hopo that, without cost to the company, this railway when : it has reached the bonier, will be extended to the 'rich Katanga-district in that Mate; still further to develop the' trade, to .and fro. •