AN UNPROFITABLE COLONY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15921, 6 May 1912, Page 6

AN UNPROFITABLE COLONY.

The Kaiser has made several unsuccessful , efforts to promote settlement in German South-West Africa and apparently he thinks now that strong measures are required. He has bought a sheep-farm at Windhoek, we are told in a cablegram, with the object of attracting immigrants in that direction and "making Germany less dependent on Australia." It is to be hoped that the royal venture will prove to be profitable. South-West Africa is the only one of Germany's African colonies that is suitable for white it is not an attraetive land. The climate generally is unpleasant and the rainfall deficient, while stock suffer from all the diseases that ravage British South Africa and a few more beside. The territory has an area about three times as great as that of New Zealand, but the total population is little more than 200,000, about 8000 being Europeans. ' The figures include soldiers and civil servants, so that the number of real colonists is very small indeed. The situation is illustrated by the fact that the Fatherland has to pay nearly the whole cost of administration, while the imports far exceed the exports in value. Windhoek, where the Kaiser is going to raise sheep, lies about 180 miles inland from Swakopmund, a costly artificial harbour that has been constructed amid the desolate wastes of the coast. It is the administrative centre and occupies a highland, where the conditions are eaid to be bracing and healthy. German South-West Africa may become a prosperous colony in the course of time, if capable farmers can be persuaded to occupy its lands, and the Kaiser realises, perhaps, that he can pioneer the way by spending a part of his revenue in providing what probably will be an excellent experimental station. But the growers of Australia and New Zealand need not fear the loss of the German wool market for very many years to come.