NILE ROUTE DEVELOPMENT.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 4806, 8 November 1902, Page 4 (Supplement)

NILE ROUTE DEVELOPMENT.

Reuter’s representative has had an interview with Sir Charles Eliot, H.M. Commissioner for British East Africa, who has arrived in London after a journey through British East Africa, Uganda, the Upper Nile, and the Soudan.

Sir Charles said: “Accompanied only by native servants, I left Mombasa on 28th June, with the object of reaching home by the Nile. m,v purpose being to see the military and commercial possibilities of that trans-African route. At Mombasa I entered a train on the Uganda railway and travelled to tho lake terminus at Port Florence, whence I crossed Lako Victoria to the Uganda Government headquarters at Entebbe and to Kampala. “From Kampala I drove in an open buggy drawn by a pair of mules right across the Kingdom of Uganda, a distance of 180 miles, at Butiaba, on Lake Albert. For four days I was driving along a good broad, undulating road.

Tho districts round Lake Victoria are known to contain indiarubber, valuable woods, and possibly minerals, all of which will be attracted by the IJgandaMombasa route. One of the first things most likely to be done in the future for increasing the value of the Nile rout© is tho making of a railway line between Berber and Suakim.

During the whole journey Sir Charles Eliot had not tho least difficulty with tho natives, all of whom were perfectly friendly, and rendered every possible assistance.

European settlers are already beginning to come to British East Africa, a large portion of which is eminently suitable for European settlement, and others excellent agricultural advantages. bir Charles returns to his post in a few weeks.