CAPE COLONY AND SOUTH AFRICA. 



107 



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British South Africa. The total area of the 

 territories committed in 1891 to the administration 

 and commercial exploitation of the British South 

 Africa Company, including British Central Africa, 

 or North Rhodesia, is about 600,000 square 

 miles. The part south of the Zambesi, known as 

 South Rhodesia, is 350,000 square miles in extent. 

 The pioneers of the company in 1890 settled in 

 Mashonaland, then a province of Matabeleland, by 

 permission of Lobengula, the Matabele chief, having 

 built 400 miles of roads through Bechuanaland to 

 reach this country, which wa$ reputed to be rich in 

 gold. In 1893 the colonists ousted the Mataheles, 

 and the company took possession of their country 

 also. Matabeleland has an area of about 61,000 

 square miles, with an estimated population of 240,- 

 000, while Mashonaland is 80,000 square miles in 

 extent and its population is about 210,000. The 

 gold regions are believed to cover 5,250 square 

 miles, but their development is slow and their actual 

 value uncertain. There were 5,708 white persons 

 in the country at the time of the Matabele rising in 

 1896. 



Silver, copper, tin, antimony, arsenic, lead, coal, 

 and other minerals have also been found. The 

 British and Boer volunteers who aided in the con- 

 quest of the Matabeles were allowed to peg out 

 1,070 farms of 6,000 acres each. In Mashonaland 

 about 5,000 square miles have been surveyed. The 

 capital of Rhodesia is Salisbury. Other towns are 

 Buluwayo, the old Matabele capital, Umtali, Vic- 

 toria, Gwelo, Enkeldoorn, and Melsetter. Telegraphs 

 connect these places with Mafeking and Cape Col- 

 ony, and the line has been extended north of the 

 Zambesi to Blantyre, in Nyassaland. This extension, 

 establishing telegraphic communication between 

 Cape Town and Blantyre, a distance of 2,000 miles, 

 was opened on April 20, 1898. A further extension 

 was built to Kotakota, 263 miles north of Blantyre, 

 and is being carried through to Lake Tanganyika. 

 The company's telegraph system on Sept. 30, 1897, 

 consistedof 1,856 milesof line,with 2,538 milesof wire. 

 The railroad built by the company from Kimberley 

 to Vryburg in British Bechuanaland, 126 miles in 

 length, has been transferred to the Cape Govern- 

 ment, and the line has been extended to Buluwayo, 

 453 miles. The whole cost of the railroad, 579 miles 

 in length, was 2,000,000. Another railroad com- 

 pany has constructed a railroad from Beira, on the 

 east coast, to Chimoio and Umtali. It was expected 

 to reach Salisbury* in the beginning of February, 

 1899, giving a total length of 1,086 miles of railroads 

 established by the British South Africa Company. 

 To the Bechuanaland Railroad the Imperial Govern- 

 ment gives a subsidy of 20,000 a year for ten years 

 and the Chartered Company gives 10.000 a year. 



The capital of the British South Africa Company, 

 originally 1,000,000, was increased in 1895 to 2,- 

 500,000, "and in November, 1896, to 3,500.000. 

 There is also a 5-per-cent. debenture debt of 1,250,- 

 000. The company derives its revenue from mining, 

 trading, and professional licenses, the sale of stands 

 for business in the towns, and the postal and tele- 

 graph services. 



The revenue for the year ending March 31, 1895, 

 was 118,883, of which 53.047 were derived from 

 the sale of stands. In 1896 the total receipts were 

 399,090, including 211.676 from the sale of stands. 

 The receipts exceeded the expenditure by 69,650, 

 but in 1897, owing to native disturbances and the 

 rinderpest, the revenue fell away to 122,542, while 

 the expenditure on account of the rebellion alone 

 was 2,266,976. The Mashonaland uprising was 

 not finally quelled before September, 1897. The 

 rebellion of the Matabele and Mashonas cost 3,- 

 000,000, including the cost of the local volunteer 

 forces and of the imperial troops, 360,000 paid in 



