"AN ASSISTANT EMPIRE MAKER."

Otago Witness, Issue 2309, 2 June 1898, Page 46

"AN ASSISTANT EMPIRE MAKER."

MAJOR F. G. D. LUGARD. O. B , D.SO.F.

Major P. Q. D, Lugard, who will shortly arrive in West Africa to Sake command of an important force operating In fche hinterland of the Niger, had a fine career in East Africa where he has spent the last three or four years, before moving tp tbe west of the contj^enfc. Invalided home fn 1887, as a result of overwork and climatic unpleasantness in Burmab, Lugard selected the Equator as a suitable sanitoriara. After passing in review Emm Pasha, H. M. Stanley, and the commander of an Italian expedition then on its way to Abyssinia, thasa three at the time dividiDg the interior between them, Lugard eventually set oub as a free-lance in the direction of the sources of the Nilo. On his way he offered his services to the African Lakes Company, asking for employment in the campaign against the slave-raiders. The fates led him to Uganda, where he remained for some years, schooling, chiding, and chastising its turbulent ruler in turn, and ultimately emerging with a train of bearers behind him, who carried on their backs the manuscript notes from which their chief presently, evolved one of the finest volumes on Eqaatoria which has ever seen the light. By his

INDOMITABLE PLUCK, ENERGY, AND PATIENCE

he obtained an ascendancy, such as men of his type alone can acquire, over the mind of the vacillating and capricious poltroon who swayed the destinies of Uganda. Having made himself a power in the State, he taught the inhabitants the meaning of the words justice, right, and reason, convinced them that perpetual warfare was not a necessity of existence, and prepared them for that gradual absorption into civilisation wbioh has gone on steadily from his own to fho present da?.

Major Lug&rd is a nephew of Sir Edward of that ilk, who from the beginning of the reign, and until his burden of ysars and of honours gave bin a right to retire, did his country such good service in India and at the War office. His grandfather was adjutant at the Duke of York's School for 50 years, and his father did duty for some decades as army chaplain in Madras. Major Lugard was educated at RoesaU, where his comrades consented to condone his offences of industry and intellectual success in consideration of his prowess at football. A year after he entered the army he had the good luck to come in for active service in Afghanistan, and the bad luck to miss joining in General Robexls's march to Candahar; his regiment, the 9th Norfolk, having been pronounced " too sick " to go, was sent back to India. Here he becam.B

A GOOD SHOT,

which 2«2complishment came in useful in Africa later on, where his gun had frequently to find food for a train numbering a couple of thousand men. How he went for elephant, lion, hippo, rhino, buffalo, crocodile, giraffe, zebra, and all possible manner of deer those who wish to know Joaay read in his book, and very exciting reading ifc is. Even those who peruse volumes for the cake of being " exhilarated and not elevated " might find it worth their while to turn over the pages of Lugard's adventures. These are not confined to Africa only. The writer has contrived to introduce plenty of variety into his life, and incidentally touches on the expedition to the ruby mines ia Bnxmah, when he undertook the transporb duties; describes the dire experience o£ being lost in a bamboo foresb; expatiates on certain tussles with wild beasts in India ; and does not diedain to tell of one night; oufc of many which he spent with the London Fire Brigade.

The point which strikes one about this mac, who has well earned the title of Assistant Empire-maker, ia that. HE SEES THE GOAL TO BE ATTAINED AND

MARCHES STRAIGHT FOX IT, and whether the stage he occupies be a wide or a narrow one, he shows himself to be resolute, singla-minded, and of strong character. Feared as a rule, loved sometimes, admired and respected always, he was the man for the work fcbat had to ba done, and a hundred proofs might be cited to show that the natural austerity of his nature is ao tempered by kindliness that the welfare of those children of the world, the deaizens of Central Africa, irresponsible, mutable, and unstable as the dusfcs of their own deserts, yet nob altogether unlovable as he describes them to be, was assured while in his hands.

It vf&B Lugard'a wish to remain permanently in East Africa, but the Colonial Office decided that, excellent as he had proved himself as an administrator and marshal to a savage King and Court, he was jet more indispensable as a pioneer. The late Sir Gerald Portal was, therefore, despatched to continue the young officer's work, and the latter was seat to

THE NIGER. There, after the manner of his kind in the past and present, he fulfilled his mission as Assistant Empire-maker, labouring silently, incessantly, assiduously in the service of the State, while his very existence was forgotten for a time by all but the Government officers and their pigeon-holes. Then cams the day when the country at large learned that a certain wide section of a vague hinterland had by some subtle process been transformed into a well-denned and shapely province, and that all which remained was for some representative baud to root out the tiny tentative streamers that had been set up in different directions and plant the great imperial banner in the midst of the said province in their stead.— Fall Mall Gazette.