Dr. R. H. Bowie talks To Rotary Club On The Gold Coast

Wanganui Chronicle, 9 June 1948, Page 6

Dr. R. H. Bowie talks To Rotary Club On The Gold Coast

Some impressions of the Gold Coast were given in a talk to the Wanganui Rotary Club yesterday by Dr. R. H. Bowie, of Wanganui, who was stationed there in 1942.

Originally the chief exports front the Coast were gold and slaves; when the slave trade was stopped palm oil, cocoa, gold dust and rubber took their place, he said. The Gold Coast is noted for its export of cocoa. Cocoa and gold became rivals as the two chief exports, but in reecnt times cocoa has outdistanced gold, while the discovery of manganese ore in 1914 added another vaiuabl product to the list of exports, added the speaker.

In the recent war the manganese was invaluable in the war effort for the manufacture of guns and other armaments.

Dr. Bowie said the greater part of the colony is covered with primeval forest. Among the trees of the Gold Coast are silk cottons, but they are of little use except for firewood. At the head of the Administration of the Gold Coast is the Governor, who is assisted by an Executive Council composed of officials and members elected by municipalities and chiefs chosen by the council of head chiefs of each province. All are under the jurisdiction nt the Colonial Office in England, said Dr. Bowie. The first Europeans to contact the Gold Coast were the Portuguese in the 14th century and the English in the next century, and from then onwards the fame of the Gold Coast spread to the outer world.