KENYA GOLD RUSH

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 92, 20 April 1933, Page 10

KENYA GOLD RUSH

UP-TO-DATE TRAVEL

MOTOR-CAR AND AEROPLANE

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, February 9. As a contrast to olden days/when those seeking fortune in a gold rush had only the most primitive transport on which to rely, prospectors who are hastening today to Kenya Colony, in the latest gold rush in the Kakemega territory, can bring to their aid the speed of the modern longdistance airway. ' ■'Many air passengers at the present time," states an official of Imperial -Airways, "are booking through to Risumu by our African service, in order to hurry from there to Kakemega, 38 miles away. Engineers and business men, as well as fortune-seekers, are attracted by the lure of Kakemega. The journey by air is only seven days from London. "The other day we had a party of for-tune-seekers who had crossed the Atlantic from America by ocean liner, and who then went on by Nthe African air mail from Croydon. The time factor is important, seeing that it is a case of 'first come, first served,' with likely-looking claims being snapped up rapidly. ; i "Our officials out there tell amusing stories of the effects of this latest gold rush on loaal conditions. Not many months ago Kakemega consisted just of a row of small shops trading with the natives. Now it is already a centre, for streams of motor traffic. Garages are opening up. New shops are being provided. Business men are opening offices there. As for the goldseekers themselves, many of them are camping out in cars or lorries; others are living in tents or grass huts. "Lions are often encountered; but many of them seem to exhibit curiosity rather than' fierceness. In one case the motorcar of some prospectors came upon a family of lions on a distant road, On seeing the car the big lion of the party made off, followed by the female, and all the cubs save one. This youngster appeared quite fearless and full of curiosity, trotting after the car for some -distance before turning back and rejoining its parents. "But lions are now an old' Kenya story. The. new story is gold, and experts on the spot express the belief that this Kakemega area will develop into a highly-im-portant goldfield."