A NIGERIAN JUDGE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2861, 13 January 1909, Page 58

A NIGERIAN JUDGE.

i SIR HENRY KELLY IN SYDNEY. i A RACE WITH A FUTURE. Sir Henry Kelly, who has lately retired from the Chief Justiceship of Nigeria, has paid a visit to Sydney. He was an Irish barrister, who was appointed puisne judge in the Niger Rivc-r Territory in 1891 and Chief Justice in 1899. A great part of the time he was in the very heart of the country. " There aire lions farther in than where I was," he saiid to a reporter, " but we officials never had the time to look for them. The big game is always being driven back by civilisation. The trade gun may have had something to" do with it, but I doubt it. The Brussels Convention forbids arms of precision- being sold to. natives ; I but that doe 6 not apply to the trade: gun. j The trade gun is nothing but a gaspipe for a muzzle, with a bit of wood for a stock — a muzzle-loader, and often loaded far too full. Anything goes in for a bullet, perhaps a. leg of aa iron pot. It would kill game at close range, and I daresay it . would kill a mam too; but I should say it was most dangerous to the man who fired " The natives get trade gin, too, but they very eoldoni get drunk on it. It's not asbad as it's pairiged — at Least, I should 1 , think not ; for Kingsley said he could "preserve specimens in- if. They have their own drinks, far stronger than trade gin. But there' re an abstemious lot -At least, there's less crime committed there through drink — far less—^ih&n with us; I mean less than in England ; I haven't seen Auetxalia yet. I think crimes* caused by drink are less than 1 in 1(K) there. They do get drunk at times — go on the burst at a, wedding or a funeral. You know what an Irish wake is? Well, like that. " All the time I was on tho West Coast of Africa I don't think I had- 24 hours of sickness. I was in Northern Nigeria during the company's time. But afterwards, when the British Governmer.it took over the coisntry and called it Nigeria, and made it on© with Lagos, which was a smaller colony just to the west, I came down ami lived in Lagos. The Government gives you six months' leave for a trip Home after every year of service in those' parts, because 'they consider them so unhealthy. "It is an enormous territory, Nigeria. The southern half -of it is ruled like a Crown colony. The northern half is composed of great Mohammedan empires, with i a British resident at each court. Some of I those emperors are wonderfully enlightened. J The Sultan of Sokoto, for instance, used to i subscribe to the French Revue des Deux ) Mondes, and follow closely in the news- | papers — generally French — everything that i was said about his country. Those Haussa | States (the, Haussas are the Mohammedans) j used to exist by trading in slaves before we > stopped them. They had a^writing— a sort of Arabic, — -and I believe they had Twoks. - " I am very fond of these f ellows — these West African ' blacks,— *ind I believe they have a great future before them. They can loam anything a white man can. Some travel to England, study at Oxford or Cambridge, tret called to the Bar, and become native barristers in their own country. They talk a great deal. But they are educated men, living educated lives, much in the same way as Europeans. " They are very much in the state of pupils at present, or course, and not jealous of us who rule them. The object of the Government is to make them fit to rule themselves. In Liberia the blacks do rule themselves. I don't know that you can take all that is said of Liberia for true — I have only anchored off there. But it is said that during a big European war Liberia declared its neutrality. However, little things like that would make no difference to my opinion of the West Africans. I like the men, and I don't think they are understood. " It will never be a white man's country, of course. As it is, the white men are only a few officials, and live scattered throughout the country. At the old capital of the Niger River Territory — it was chosen chiefly because there were few traders there, and has fallen back into quite a small place now — there may have been a dozen of us at a time — three or four puisne judges, the police magistrate, military commandant, and medical officer. The judges > would go right throutrh the territory on circuit. It was mostly thick forest. They are Riving fchftir attention to roads now; but the native can't understand them — ' still walks in single file alonsr them. The ; whole country almost 5s thick forest, with ; small cleavings here **id there. The forest is far too wet to be burned out, and the only large clear space I know of is at i Epirnn, on the Upper Niger, where the rice fields arc. I "We white people pull together out there. , Whatever may happen in London and Ber- | lin, we are the very best of friends with' the Germans in the Cameroons next door. They arc excellent fellows. Herr Puttkammar was my nersonal friend, nnd I | liked him well. Wo arive them all the help we can. and so do they to us."