THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 1903. CONDITION OF RHODESIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12239, 7 April 1903, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 1903. CONDITION OF RHODESIA.

The secretary of the British South Africa Company has recently presented to his directors a report upon the present condition of Rhodesia, as the result of an extended tour of inspection. The distinctly optimistic tone which pervades this report will be discounted by those critics who never tire of pointing out that the very existence of the great company depends upon popularising this vast outlying province of the Empire and upon securing public confidence in its development. But the world at large is inclined to regard hopefully the prospects of a region acquired by the indomitable energy and daring foresight of the great Empire-Builder whose name it bears and guaranteed to the Empire by that desperate struggle which made Britain unchallenged suzerain of all South Africa. And in any case we cannot be otherwise than profoundly interested in the condition of a country which covers three-quarters of a million square miles and may not unlikely become the future home of mere English-speaking people than now dwell in the United Kingdom. Whether" we like or dislike the Chartered Company method or administration we cannot overlook the facts that under no other system would the risks and responsibilities and expense of acquiring, holding, opening up and developing such a region have been undertaken, and that we owe it to the British South Africa Company and its famous chief that kindred and not alien hands hold in present fief territories over which the colonial expansion of our fellow colonists in South Africa may be directed. For these considerations we must always, regard the Chartered Company as a great national organisation, whose difficulties are national difficulties and whose success is a real national triumph. .

If the British South African Company needed justification for its existence it could confidently point to the railway work which largely occupies the attention of the report before us. We have no desire to see the private railway supersede the departmental system thoroughly established in the Australasian colonies, including our own. Bui we may, nevertheless, frankly regret that our colonial energies in railway construction in no way compare with those of the great company. This colony of ours is unfortunate in that it is not driven by the same whip of necessity as that which has overhung the administration of Rhodesia. The South African Company has to push its lines to a profitable completeness or to go into bankruptcy. It has no great Customs revenue from which it can make good persistent deficits and no cheerful constituency of taxpayers' by whose aid it could dawdle over railway-building and fritter away a perennial supply of loanmoney. Thirteen years ago, in 188S, the Company undertook its first construction, the line from Kimberley to Vryburg; to-day, the Ehodesian railways extend for 2193 miles, white Cape Colony is only just ahead with 2396 miles, and Natal, Orange Riper and Transvaal far behind with only 612 miles, 442 miles and 895 miles respectively. : This rapid railway work is almost entirely of. the standard South African gauge of 3 feet 6 inches, and its main line already run? far beyond Bulawayo to Salisbury and thence to the Indian Ocean port of Beira, made famous by the.landing there of the colonial contingent that first carried relief into hard-pressed Mafeking. It took us all by surprise when the Beira route was selected as a way into the arena of war, but from that port the traveller can now travel luxuriously, and without breaking rail, to Capetown itself, passing safely by Ach and fertile plains and mineral-bearing mountains that only half a generation back were entirely outside even the Marches of civilisation. And we in "progressive" New Zealand still lack railway communication between our two chief cities, while our .principal goldfield is still served, by carts ) and our North of Auckland Extension creeps along at the minimum record pace of a mile a year. The Company is reaping its reward in •■ the steady increase of profit on the railway traffic, which rcse from £23,000 in 1901 j ho £87,000 in 1902, in spite ; of "concessions" such as Sir Joseph Ward is - always quoting to us as departmental gifts to the public..- The Seddoa Adminis-

tration reaps its reward for our colonial methods in the political support of districts in which railway money, is squandered, while the New Zealand taxpaper pays the piper. In gold mining, Rhodesia, can boast that its winnings rose from 16,000 ounces in 1898 to 194,000 ounces in 1902, with every prospect of steady increase in returns until it ranks among the great gold-bearing countries of the world. An abundant supply of steam coal will be reached by the railway during the present month. Copper on a large scale exists in Northern Rhodesia. And for labour— in every way unhappy difficulty in South Africathere is the native race, for whose persuasion an increased hut-tax is suggested.' No allusion whatever is made to the question of Asiatic labour, which, by the way, we are assured by Mr. Chamberlain was notproposed to him or by him in the Transvaal. We may hope that we shall hear no more of such a solution, but that white labour will gradually occupy the whole of South Africa, including Rhodesia, as the industrial needs of the country render the available native labour insufficient. For it is,; of course, the native labour difficulty which minimises the value of Rhodesia as a great agricultural and horticultural country and which, in spite of the splendid soil and climatic advantages expounded upon in the report, renders New Zealand and Canada, Australia and the United States, so much more advantageous than Rhodesia to the intending British emigrant who seeks not only to build up a home on the land, but to keep himself and his family English yet. Still, Rhodesia is gradually becoming Europeanised. Bulawayo contains 6000 Europeans and outlying Salisbury 2500. The electric light is already to be seen in this innermost Africa and the' gigantic Victoria Palls are spoken of as the source of power for industrial energy. Add to which there is Penny Postage throughout South Africa, including Rhodesia.