TOUR OF AFRICA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 9 January 1936, Page 4

TOUR OF AFRICA

16,000 MILES BY CAR MR JUSTICE OSTLER’S IMPRESSIONS Mr Justice Ostler and Mrs Ostler arrived back this week from an African tour. They motored some 16,000 miles through South Africa, Central Africa, and East Africa. The car had an enclosed front seat,' with 'a' covered box body at the back, enabling them to take a complete camping outfit and two native servants. The travellers visited the Kruger National Park. Tills, they said, was one of the great sights of the world. It was heavily stocked with every species of wild* animal common to that part of Africa. For many years the lions had had to he kept down, to allow the other animals to increase. ■ For the last nine years, however, no lions had been shot- and the theory of Colonel Stevenson Hamilton, warden of the park, that lions were necessary to maintain the balance of nature had been amply borne out. Kenya, said Mr Justice Ostler, contained* some 17,000 and had many thousands of acres of fertile land, and also a good climate and in

most places ample rainfall. Nevertheless, the farmers were feeling the effects of the depression. In Kenya at the present time the only crops which were paying were tea and sisal, which weie limited in area.

“Kenya is grossly over-governed,” said Mr Justice Ostler. “The settlers have grown desperate and there are lniittcrings of rebellion. The Colonial Office recently sent a commission out to enquire into methods of cheapening the cost of government. This step has, for the time being, quietened the outcry: but if tlie cost of government is not soon radically cut down there will be trouble with the settlers, who, in the meantime, are facing ruin.”