THE DARK CONTINENT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10770, 16 May 1913, Page 1

THE DARK CONTINENT.

WORK IN BRITISH EAST AFRICA. MISS lON LABOURS AMONGST THE BLACKS. INTERVIEW WITH A LADY MISSIONARY. Among the visitors to Christcliureh at present is Mrs E. Richardson, who, with her husband, has been engaged for some years in mission work in British East Africa. Tho mission with which she i 3 connected is known ns the South African Compound and Interior Mission, and it is undenominational in character. Last evening a " Lyttelton Times" reporter had an interview with Mrs Richardson regarding her life and work in that distant quarter of tho globe. THE FOUNDER OF THE MISSION. The compound section of the work, Mrs Richardson said, had its headquarters in Johannesburg. In that and the surrounding towns there wero 809,000 natives, or "boys" as they wero called, drawn from all parts of South Africa. _ They lived in large compounds during the time of their contracts and afterwards returned to their native villages. In 1895 Mr A. W. Baker, a prominent lawyer in Johannesburg. seeing the need for mission work in the compounds, decided to devote himself to it, and since 1596 he had directed the mission in that connection. In 1900 he visited Australasia, interesting Christian people in the work and forming committees to aid it in whatever way they possibly could. Efforts were made in South Africa to get the "boys" to attend day, _or night, schools, and open-air services were held in the hope that, when the time came for them to go back to their villages, they might carry the Gospel story with them. Many of them came from districts where there were no missionaries or where the conditions prevented white men living for any period. THE DANGER OF MOHAMMED-

ANISM. Mrs Richardson remarked, in answer to a question, that her husband's station was at a place called Kriva, some sixteen miles north of Port Florence, the terminus of the Uganda railway. Mission work was commenced there eight years ago. To reach the station the missionary must go to Mombasa. That was a very old town established bv the Arab traders, and it was still a stronghold of Mohammedanism. Disciples of that faith had spread it along the railway line. As yet it had not reached the tribes among whom she and her husband worked, but there could be no doubt th.it it very soon would. Unless Christian missionaries occupied the field at once, the Mohammedan teachers would soon advance. The tribe in which she was interested was 40,000 strong, and good progress had been made with the preaching cf the Gospel. Tfee great coastal tribe, the Swahih, was a Mohammedan one, and its traders, who were all' teachers, travelled through much of the country. It had been found very difficult to do any work among Mohammedan tribes,..but as yet many inland tribes were " protected";' 4' and'they offered a great field for mission work. ONLY TWO "WHITE PEOPLE. The need for Christian workers would be seen, Mrs Richardson continued, when she said that among the tribe of 40,000 people at Iviwa there were at first three white people and now only two. There was -one main and one out-station. At the main station, about ISO pupils attended the school, at the out-station 100, and at two village schools about 50 each. Near the main station, ten Christian homes had been started. Once converted, the natives remained true to the religion, although at times the missionaries were discouraged by a convert falling back into heathen ways. To the immediate north were two tribes, one 10,000 and the other 40.000 strong.. Missionaries were to be sent to these tribes at once, but further north still, towards Mount Elgan, there were tribes without any missionaries at all. In the schools the missionaries taught the children how to read and write and the elements of arithmetic in order that, as they grew up, they might be able to better grasp the Gospel message. On Sundays services were held, and at times as many as 500 natives would attend. The natives, or rather some of them, were quick to learn, and the real need was more teachers.

NO PLACE FOR A POOR SETTLER

Turning to more general things, the visitor said that the land in British East Africa was very good in places, and the climate where she lived was not unpleasant. Her home was within two miles of the Equator. At Wairahi, a town midway between Mount Assa and Lake Victoria Nyanza, there were 1000 Europeans, besides many natives and Indians. Coffee grown' had shown a good return, and so had cotton in somo places. It was not a land for a poor man. The settler must be able to experiment with different crops and wait for a market. Port Florence was on au arm of Lake Victoria Nvanza, some 40 miles from the lake proper. The lake was really a vast inland sea.

THE SLAVE-TRADERS OF THE CONGO.

CRUEL TR ADE STILL CARRIED ON. INTERVIEW WITH REV J. A. CLARKE. The Rev J. Alexander Clarke, who has spent a number of years in Central Africa as a member of the mission pioneered by Frederick Stanley Arnett, Dr Livingstone's successor, is at present in Christ church, and he yesterday gave an interesting account of existing conditions in the Congo. A general impression existed, said Mr Clarke, that the slave trade in Central and West Africa was extinct, but that was by no means the case. He had travelled inland a thousand miles from Berguela, on the West Coast, following the slave highway, and in the course oi an eighteen months' journey had come into contact with several slave caravans. The slavers organised caravans of anything from 2001) to uOOO souls, and loaded the slaves with ivory and rubber. The general condition of the slaves on these marches was pitiable. Thoy were terribly emaciated, and were very cruelly treated. Mr Clarke had seen a slave-driver .strike down with his assegai a mother with a newborn child in her arms, because the unfortunate woman was too fatigued and enfeebled to keep pace with the rast of the party. It was very seldom thai', the slavers reached the ro«sr with more than 50 per cent of the slaves with which they farted. The eHhor died from the effects of fnl.krue and nrivation or were murdered by their captors. Representations av.to made io the Rritis.ii Government on the subject oI the slave irade from time to time, and the British authorities conferred with the Portuguese Government, which naturally reported that everything was j»l! rijzht, and that there was no cause for eomVi 'im. The r.irvc:; i-.'ere honpht by the u '.u'iau.uest3 oa ti*" ,l -cot. Coast, at Bctt-

guela, and wero shipped from there to St Thome, in the Cocos Islands. THE TSETSE FLY. Tho ravages of the dreaded tsetse fly were very evident in the district in which Mr Clark laboured, and in man.y instances populous villages had been well nigh wiped out by the sleeping sickness. Tho Belgian Government was making a not very zealous attempt to combat the evil, but the British authorities in North-east Rhodesia, were taking drastic steps to prevent the spread of the fly to that territory, and had succeeded in practically isolating tho district from all possible sources of contagion. GREAT COPPER FIELDS.

The Katanga country, once known as the Garengnryo country, had been brought prominently before tho world in recent years by the discovery of rich veins of copper and tin. These were being mined by an Anglo-Belgian syndicate. The southernmost mine of the company, Tho Star of the Congo," had been connected by a branch line with the Cape to Cairo railway. The Belgian authorities hoped to push this branch beyond the mine to join one of the large'southern tributaries of tho Congo, once the river is navigable, so that in a few years' time it might be possible to travel nortli from the Capo, across the famous Victoria Falls bridge, and reach the West Coast by river. Another line of railway which would bring a great stretch of country into touch with civilisation was that in process of construction from Lobito Bay, on the West Coast, to the great copper field. A hundred miles of the line had been finished, and in a. few years it would be possible to reach the heart of Dr Livingstone's gr£at countrv in twelve or fourteen days from London. The line would revolutionise the whole of the central part of the Dark Continent, and might eventually prove the quickest route to Johannesburg. , Mr Clarke intends durinn: h;s stay in Ciristchurch to deliver a series of afterchurch lectures on Sunday evenings in the Alexandra Kail.