THE BENEFITS OF A CHARTER 99 



8. To construct a railway from the Pungwe River to the 



British frontier. 



9. To concede to the Government at Lisbon 10 per cent, of 



the share capital as issued in fully paid-up shares ; also 

 2^ per cent, of the profits until dividends of 10 per cent, 

 should be declared, and 5 per cent, of profits thereafter. 



There were, in addition, some other more or less 

 difficult undertakings which were duly accepted, 

 whereupon the company received control of the 

 region which it still administers. 



On reading through the foregoing, one is seized 

 with the conviction that the Zambezia Company 

 across the river, with a much wider concession and 

 equally important possibilities, cannot but feel vastly 

 relieved to have been spared the doubtful benefits 

 which a charter containing the above formidable 

 list of serious obligations would have conferred. 

 Of what benefit are sovereign rights M^hen they are 

 accompanied by such an array of conditions that, 

 after superhuman efforts to fulfil them, the harassed 

 company now finds itself with a considerable period 

 of its chartered existence elapsed, the greater part 

 of its capital issued, and certainly not more than 

 one would expect it to show for all this expenditure 

 of effort and time and money ? 



Still, with all this, there can be no doubt that the 

 Mozambique Company did what it could to carry out 

 its obligations. It might perhaps have been more 

 successful than it has been in this direction had it not 

 been for certain unfortunate restraining influences 

 by which, in the past, it has been greatly hampered. 



This important association possesses on the 

 Zambezi five sub-districts, Lacerdonia, Inyaruca, 



