NATIVE LIFE IN KENYA

Taranaki Daily News, 25 July 1931, Page 10

NATIVE LIFE IN KENYA

ADMINISTRATION PRAISED. BIG GAME COUNTRY. Warm praise for the British administration of Kenya was expressed by Mr. George Mortlock, who has lived there for the past three years, in an interview on his return to Christchurch. Mr. Mortlock and. Mr. C. S. Speight, both old boys of the Christchurch Boys’ High School, left for East Africa in 1928, anxious to see at first hand the life and opportunities of that colony. They lived for some time at Nairobi, and after some exciting big-game hunting in Uganda and about the source of the Nile, went on to visit - the United Kingdom and Europe before their return to New Zealand. Mr. Mortlock, when interviewed by the Press, had many interesting observations to make on the native life at Kenya.

From Durban, Mr. Mortlock and Mr. Speight made the ten days’ sea trip to Mombasa, which is the port of Kenya, and from which Nairobi is reached. by railway. This town is about 330 miles inland, at an altitude of some 5500 ft. The journey from Mombasa is a most interesting one, for it passes through the biggest game reserve in East Africa, containing zebra, giraffe, eland, and buffalo. Although it is. only a few miles from the Equator, Nairobi has a dry and pleasant' climate, temperate bei cause of the ' height. The population comprises about 35,000 natives, 11,000 Indians, and only 3500 white people, of whom almost half are civil servants. The Indians were' originally brought over to construct railway lines in the colony, and now supply the bulk of the plantation labour. They are, incidentally, the only settlers who can successfully barter with the natives, exchanging salt, sugar, blankets and beads for the native produce, chiefly skins and maize-meal. The town itself is comparatively small, containing a few modern buildings set immediately beside the poor tin sheds in which the natives and Indians conduct their sales. The administration of the natives is can-ied out directly from England, through the Colonial Service. The Country is divided into a series of districts, to each of -.-Inch a District Commissioner is appointed. The men Mr. Mortlock describes as an exceptionally fine type. They were usually pro-native; indeed, he says that during his three years’ stay he did not hear a single fault found with their work among the natives. Each District Commissioner was given complete power over about 30,D00’ natives. In some districts the Commissioner would attempt to fonn native councils. His chief work was to settle arguments over grazing rights and over wives. “The East African native, in the raw state, is not worried by money,” said Mr. Mortlock. “He measures his wealth i cattle and wives only. The more cattle a man has, the more wiv'es he is able to buy. Here again, the British administration has done wonderful work for the native by inoculating the cattle against rinderpest and the East Coast fever, and preparing pastures for them by irrigation. Now that they are no longer killed off by disease, the herds have accumulated to such an extent that they constitute quite a problem for the future. The country is full of them.” ~ ... The immigrants are mostly well-to-do people, retired officers of the Indian Army, and sons of the English aristocracy. Such men as these have taken a great deci of capital to Kenya since the Great War. The chief exports are coffee, sisal (a plant resembling flax which is used for binder twine), and a little maize. In its increasing altitude, Kenya supports almost every kind of vegetation. In some parts wheat is crown; in other , sheep farming is conducted on. a small scale. Coffee, however. is the chief product, and to its cultivation most of the farms are devoted. With native labour at such cheap rates, farming at first appears a very interesting and attractive business, said Mr. Mortlock. Not many people have found it profitable, however, for there ifl endless work to be done, and a great responsibility. The civil servants are occupied chiefly in the railways, the courts, public works, and public trusteeship. They are signed on in England and sent to Kenya on contract, working 30 months for each seven months’ leave. “The general impression that there is forced labour in Kenya should be corrected,” said Mr. Mortlock. “there is no such thing. No person I have ever j seen is more happy than the native in his raw state. All his difficulties have been solved by the British. During my whole three years, I did not see a single starving or hungry native. Their wants are small, and their food is easily grown. They eat only once a day, in the evening. They are all completely happy until they are educated to want things. Though they have not the physique of the African negro or the Zulu, they make fine policemen, and fine soldiers in the King’s African Rifles.” - • . Kenya, he emphasised, was the most wonderful game country in the world. During recent years, Americans had flocked out in hundreds for the big game huntihg) and had gone to grea pains to secure a good bag. Nairobi Tas almost always the headquarters for hunting trips, and from this base the J . irists would go out into the bush for periods as long as three months. Lions, leopards, elephants, rhinoceroses, and buffaloes were to be found in plenty. Although there was a great amount of huntin”, the country had been well looked*after and divided into game reserves so that, in one part or another, every class of game was protected. Mr. Mortlock and Mr. Speight themselves went bn a three months’ hunting trip through Kenya and Uganda to the Ripon Falls, near the source of the Nile. From there the trip was continued further inland to Lake Albert, on the border of the Belgian Congo.

Thev killed a great, number of buck* and" buffaloes, and wounded several lions. ~ , • . Mr Mortlock and Mr. Speight both intend now to remain in Christchurch.