MR CECIL RHODES IN ENGLAND.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 10211, 17 January 1895, Page 2

MR CECIL RHODES IN ENGLAND.

In an interview with The Times Mr Rhodes outlined the main objects of Ids visit to England:—Ono object is to arrange the necessary finances for the extension of the Cape railway system northwards from Mafeking, via Gaberones, and Palapye into Matabeleland. The Colonial Office has already pledged itself to the extent of an annual subsidy of £10,000 per annum for 10 years in connection with the extension of the line to> Gaberones and a similar subsidy for th» extension to Palapye —practically £200,000 in all, spread over 20 years. As for the East Coast route, via Beira, Mr Rhodes said he was content, for the present, with what had been done in the matter of railways. The Beira line had now completely spanned the " fly" belt and from Chimoio an escellont road had been constructed by the chartered company at cost of £4000, right up to Salisbury. During his stay in England Mr Rhodes will also probably order a further 500 or 1000 miles of poles and wire for tho African transcontinental telegraph, which is now practically completed as far as Blautyre. The next objective point will be the southern end of Lake Tanganyika whence the line will proceed along the western bank of the lake through CWo territory. Another leading reason for Mr Rhodes presence in this country is. that he wishes to meet the shareholders of tho British South Africa Company and to place before them the conclusions at which he has arrived ia the course of his recent tour through Rhodesia. Mr Rhodes expressed the most complete confidence in the future of that country Of the gold reefs he said there was" an abundance. One belt of country well provided with minerals, stretched'a'lmost continuously from Tati, in Matabeleland, to Unilali, close to the Portuguese frontier on tho east. A report upon the janous gold districts had been prepared by Mr J. 11. Hammond, an American, engineer of eminence, and it Was of a decidedly favourable character. Tlirouyh out tho country the natives were settlbior down to steady work, and a white poptfationsome4Uoo iv number, wore eiiew, etically developing the gold districts 'ifr :•, hodes emphatically denies the Vumour that, oao object of his visit iatobrWabout an amalgamation of the Johannesburg mines. All this and w^tevcrSr bug ness may demand Mr Rhodes attention ho hopes to have completed in time to permit of his return to Capetown before Christmas. The reason for this baste is that ho is exceedingly anxious to watch the operation of his Glen Grey Act. Thb ho believes, will have a far-reaching offecfc upon the wellfare of the native races ofi Afnca It will teach tho native to work and will increase his independence instead of curtailing it. By separating tho dweltog-places of the whites and native* it will diminish the chances of creating a. half-rastc population. For the first time, tho Act will give to the black a title-art inalienable titlo—to land, aud a real stake in the country. As managing-du-ector of the British South Africi Company and Minister for Native Affair* in tho Cape Colony, Mr Rhodes represents, as he said, some 3,000,000'0f natrres, and, m spite of what ill-disposed and illinformed persons might say or think, he was resolved to do what could be done in a practical manner to teach the native, sometbW of the d\gn»ty aud usefulness of life and la enable them to exist on a footiii of seif^rospect and independence. Whufc Mr Rhodes emphatically did a** oolievo was that tho native was eithox intellectually or morally fitted to bo placed upon an immediate footing of equality with the wmte man, endowed .with the inheritonS of centuries of civilisation. Upon the general Dohtaoa] outlook in South Africa Mr Rhodes was naturally somewhat retwont: but he appeared to think that the troubles of the Transvaal Uillnnders would gradually find , remedy, somethfng of the present coition of affairs boSI perhaps due to «» facfc that those of 32 irnnsvaal ahom who possessed the most money, *,d therefore tho most power, wwad suffer financially from any distur banco of- tho general equilibrium and would therefore deprecate any part£ cularly forward policy. A.s to a general federation of tho country-" tho ultimate amalgamation"— Mr Rhodes takes tho view that it will be ''a work of SOme tvno." Comparatively few years misht witness tho absorption b/ '£ Cat; Colony of her proper Hinterland, S£ Bcduianaland and Rhodesia territories" Se^ZAS^^ 3^l^-