THE GOLD COAST

Evening Star, Issue 22638, 3 May 1937, Page 7

THE GOLD COAST

RISE IN LIVING STANDARDS Well-built houses are gradually replacing the mud huts of old in Gold Coast Colony in Africa. This is mainly the case in the-larger centres, according to the annual report on the social and economic progress of the people of the Gold Coast, 1935-30, released by the British Government. The people there are “ well content ” to invest their savings in a good house. Actual construction may be spread over a number of years. Often completion is the result of several distinct efforts between which material — mainly cement blocks—is collected for '.he next advance. The report also deals with Ashanti, the Northern Territories and logoland under "British Mandate, with a total African population of 3.0C0,(m0. Most of the inhabitants of the Cold Coast are small farmers. Sufficient food is grown for the family, and the occasional stranger. Near the large

towns and the raining areas, fanning takes place on a larger scale. Cocoa is the most important agn cultural product. About a million a<. rc, are under cocoa, and each acre carries about 400 trees. Cocoa -nltivation accounts for one-sixth of the total labour potentiality of the country. Almost every member of the community has his own plantation. The average farm is about one acre. It will yield as much as 5401 b, for which last year the grower got about £3 10s. In the coastal regions the Government is encouraging large-scale cultivation of bananas, oranges; and grapefruit. A small canning plant for producing tinned grapefruit has been quite successful as the technique of canning is easily acquired by Africans with but little supervision. BARTER USED IN ASHANTI. In Ashanti, kola nuts are harvested in largo quantities from the forests and sold to the Northern Territories. The Northerner who comes .into Ashanti to buy the 'nuts usually brings with him fowls, shea butter, native blankets, or other goods which he can trade against food and kola. Outside the forest belt, farmers sell the nuts to women who husk them,

carry them to Kumasi and soil them to petty dealers in small quantities. The handling of a large crop Harvested from a great number of separately owned and widely cattered plantations has brought in .ts ti.'in an army of middlemen. This uneconomic feature of small holdings s being fought by the formation of farmers’ co-operative societies, of vhich tneie are now over -400. with nearly 9,000 members. Hunting and fishing -'oral next in importance to agriculture in the life of the colonists. Pottery is made in many places—mostly by women. Weaving and-eye-ing from local cotton an! vegetable dyes is another village industry. Some cloth is made by beating the inner bark of a certain tree. Rope and string are made from hibiscus bark and sisal fibre. A ropemaker earns about 5s a week. Every village also lias its own blacksmith, .sawyer, and carpenter. Road transport gives employment to many. Timber exports are increasing and the United States,_ once me colony’s greatest customer, is taking increasing quantities of Gold Coast woods. Living is cheap. A labourer’s foed costs 3d a day in the country and (id

iii the towns. Wages varv Lt tween Cd and 2s a day for unskilled labour. Artisans arid tradesmen earn from 2s to 7s. Education is voluntary. In 1935, there were 643 mission schools, of which 360 were assisted by the Government. Of these 195 were Presbyterian, 65 Methodist, 58 Roman Catholic, _ 19 English Church. The three State-aided mission primary schools are controlled by the Roman Catholic Church. Reluctance to send girls to schools is disappearing, and there is a growing demand for female education. Games, especially football, are very papular. Post Office traffic increases every year. Thus, 1,350,000 more letters were written during the past year. Deposits in Post Office Savings Bank have increased by nearly 50 per cent, in two years. Accra, the capital, now boasts a broadcasting service of 750 subscribers, of whom 66 per cent, are Africans. Plans are being made for other rediffusion stations to be maintained by African apprentices. The colony’s four largest prisons ate equipped with workshops in which trades are taught by African instructors under supervision of a European instructor, of industries.