TRUE PIONEER

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 11, 14 January 1932, Page 11

TRUE PIONEER

DEMMEEE OF KENYA

COSTLY EXPERIMENTS

iFrom ''The Post's". Representative.) LONDON, 18th November, Lord Dolamere, whose; death in Kenya Colony; is reported, was one of the pioneer settlers, of that country and had done more for development there than any other man. He was Sir Hugh Cholmondeley, K.C.M.G., and the only son of the second baron, whom he succeeded when ho was a boy of 17. Formerly he seryed as i a lieutenant, 3rd, Battalion, Cheshire Regiment, and, a. captain of the Cheshire Yeomanry Cavalry. , ; Lord Delamere went out, to Africa in 1891. He took out tho bestequipped hunting' expedition that, up to that time, had left this country. He remained in Africa three years, and from 1596 to 1898 explored further tracts of the Dark Continent.1 Soon after his return after, innumerable 'adventures 3n;;;^hq''; btish,.,ho\was injured by a fall while .hunting : with the Cheshire hounds. .His spine was injured, and he was for a long time an invalid. .'■.'. :" ... * . . During his,convalescence the pretty Lady Florence Cole, a daughter of the fourth Earl of Enniskillen, was a frequent visitor to his ancestral home, Vale Royal, near Northwieh,'and ■ she helped to amuse him by reading to him. The sequel was their marriage. She shared her; husband's love of travel, and went through Africa with him almost from end to end. : : : They settled at last. near Nairobi, where Lord Delamero developed the model farms, extending to 100,000 acres, that havp since , attracted so much attention to the colony. He also went in for cattle and sheep raising on a gigantic scale; "■:. - There were many lean years of hardship and pioneering before success was attained, but the;-colony has since reaped, the benefit of his costly experi-; ments in. wheat acclimatisation • and wool-growing on an estate of ; about '7000 acres near Nairobi. ': ' Owing to'his lavish expenditure in developing the country, he at one time found himself with only £200; a.year en which to live until the money inTested in his farms began to materialise. It was revealed in a White Paper published in 1926 that he had spent between £50,000 and £60,000 in "Kenya .Colony. . : '.-. ~ DISPUTES WITH AUTHORITIES. In 1906 a dispute about the'conveyance of some land led to Lord Delamere being prosecuted, with two other Sien under the Indian penal code, on a charge of fraud, but after-being committed'for trial he was acquitted by the Judge ?s direction. • Two years later Lord Delamere came in conflict with Sir J. Hayes Sadler who was then Governor. Crowds in front of the Government House had shouted "Resign" because the Governor would riot yield to the demands of a deputation. _ The Governor retaliated by suspending Lord Delamere from tho Legislative Council of British East Africa for having led "an organised demonstration of an insulting . and disorderly character against His Majesty's representative." But eighteen months later .Lord Delamere/ was, restored to the Council, on which he continued to be one of the most prominent members until two. years ago. He then reBignedvin protest against what he con- % cfn nnn *n '■ extravaga»t vote for ±-90,000 for improving the Government .House.

__-During the war his influences with the warlike Masai tribe was unrivalled At^a timo when they proved hostile and intractable he went among them with a few personal servants and -induced" them'to "turn out for service in the campaign. COMPARISON WITH WAKEriELD. n^^riVelnmcve's name," says the "Daily.Telegraph,". "will be associw i J' l, tl, Kenya as Edward Gibbon Wakefield's.is with New Zealand. In the ; early days of colonisation in Austial la aud New Zealand Wakeficld had ■"> propounded his famous scheme to achieve what was called 'vertical emigration'—a simultaneous emigration'of all classes, so that-the New World should have the benefit of the human organisation of the old. Wakefield acted on his own.theories and ended ins life in New Zealand, but hia schemes remained in the stage of mere .theory. Nearly a century later Kenya saw something like a fulfilment of his plan. Lord Delamere was in the vanguard. He made valuable and costly efforts in breeding and in wheatgrowing, and much of the progress of agriculture in tho colony is due to him. He stinted neither time nor money. The country of his adoption was the focus of all his activities. He Was a colonist in the .full sense and a pioneer who not only planned but Drought to fruition."