THE SPECIAL COMMISSIOX, ETC. 207 



Uganda Ixailway tluit from the windows of his carriage he can see 

 as the train crosses certain tracts positive zoological gardens let loose. 

 Rhinoceroses, sometimes e\'en ele])hants, zebras, gnus, hartebeests, gazelles, 

 reedbuck, waterliuck, oribi, and ostriches can be noted by an observant 

 traveller as the train whizzes o\er the Athi Plains, np tlie Kift \'alley, 

 and over the green downs of Njoro. 



The Uganda Ixaihvay will carry much goods and manv passengers for 

 the Government of (lerman East Africa, and, not improbably, material 

 and men for the nortli-eastern part of the Congo Free State ; for, as a 

 counterpart to the railway, a fleet of steamers managed in connection with 

 it will be placed on Lake A'ictoria. Tlvis will enable the management of 

 the railway to land goods and passengers within a week from the East 

 African coast at any part of (lierman East Africa on tlie sliores of the 

 Victoria Nyanza. In like manner passengers can be landed at ports on 

 the west coast of the lake, and if good roads for wheeled traffic are main- 

 tained between the west coast of the Victoria Nyanza and the district of 

 Toro, a week's journey may convey passengers past the slopes of Kuwenzori 

 to the frontier of the Congo Free State. The same tim^ might also take 

 them to Lake Alliert Nyanza, from which steamers could convey them to 

 the end of navigation on the Upper Nile. It is a fairly safe prophecy to 

 make that the Uganda Kailway in ten years' time will be returning a 

 handsome profit on its working expenses — such a profit as may enable a 

 prudent Government to gradually pay back to the nation the original 

 cost of its construction. In any case the railway was the inevitable con- 

 comitant of the declaration of the British Protectorate over Uganda. The 

 justification for this Protectorate, and the possible profit it may bring to 

 the British Empire, will be discussed in the next chapter. 



With the present organisation of the Uganda Protectorate — an organi- 

 sation which one cannot but regard in some respects as provisional — there 

 is the following system of government : A Commissioner and Consul-Geueral 

 appointed by tlie Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs represents the 

 Imperial Government. He is at the same time (theoretically) the 

 Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. Under him is a Deputy Com- 

 missioner. Thea follow three sub-commissioners, who are placed over 

 three of the six * provinces into which the Protectorate is divided 

 (Uganda proper being the " home " province Avhere the Commissioner and 

 Deputy Commissioner reside). Next in civil rank come the collectors' 

 assistants, from amongst whom would be chosen the collectors of districts. 

 (The duties of a collector I have already explained. He is political 

 officer, magistrate, and collector of Im})erial revenues in a district, or it 



* Now five, since the Eastern Province was transferred (A] nil 1st, 1<J02) to East 

 Africa. 



