July, 1908,] 



28 



Fibres* 



with a small expenditure on dredging 

 there will be little difficulty in maintain- 

 ing a channel of six feet throughout the 

 whole year. To use Sir Percy's own 

 words : — 



"The Niger will compare most favour 

 ably with the Mississipi, and is the cheap- 

 est and best outlet for the trade of 

 Northern Nigeria." 



The Government are now organising a 

 public service of steamers from Forcados 

 up the Niger and the Benne, and it will 

 soon be possible for a merchant to open 

 trading in this country without havine: 

 to incur an expenditure of at least £20,000 

 on steamers alone. 



In the meantime the Association is 

 working in those districts which are 

 accessible by river transport. The qual- 

 ity of the cotton is well maintained, and 

 is increasing in quantity, and a small 

 ginning factory was erected at Ogudu, 

 rather over 100 miles above Loko,ja up 

 the Niger. The operations of the Associ- 

 ation have been much facilitated by the 

 co-operation of the Niger Company. 



The Local Manager has recently trans- 

 versed the country between Lokoja, 

 Zaria, and Kano, and he fully confirms 

 the previous optimistic reports of the 

 possibilities of cotton growing in these 

 districts. Sir Percy Girouard was also 

 much impressed with the high state of 

 agriculture between Zaria and Kano. 

 Everywhere one will find large tracts of 

 country ploughed or hoed up with as 

 long, deep, and straight furrows as one 

 would find in England. These statements 

 are also confirmed by Mr. C. A. Birtwistle 

 (the Commercial Intelligence Officer of 

 Southern Nigeria), who read a most inter- 

 esting paper on Nigeria at a meeting of 

 the Royal Colonial Institute on December 

 18th, 1907. 



4. Nyasaland. 

 The Council are glad to report that the 

 Government have decided to restore the 

 old name of this colony, in place of the 

 misleading term British Central Africa. 



The season of 1906-7 has been disappoint- 

 ing. Some planters have done well, 

 others have done badly, and it is feared 

 that the Association may not be able to 

 recover all the advances made in 190(5. 

 It has therefore been decided to take the 

 precaution of reserving a further sum of 

 £1,000 to meet any possible deficiency. 

 Endeavouis are being made, with the 

 corporation of the African Lakes 

 co-operation, to establish cotton grow- 

 ing as a native industry, and a consider- 

 able amount of native grown cotton 

 was received last year. 



The Shire Highlands Railway is still 

 uncompleted. The original contract time 



expired in November, 1906. This was 

 extended to December, 1907. The Asso- 

 ciationurged that the Government should 

 take over the railway, or should not at 

 any rate cancel the large concessions of 

 land which formed part of the contract. 

 The Government have, however, decided 

 to grant the Company a further exten- 

 sion of six months to .June, 1908. For 

 the present, Blantyre and the adjacent 

 country has still to depend on altogether 

 inadequate means of transport. 



In spite of these difficulties, cotton 

 now heads the list of exports, which in 

 jecent years are as follows, stated in 

 bales of 400 lbs :— 



1903 ... ... ... 2 bales, 



1904 ... ... ... 141 „ 



1905 ... ... ... 713 „ 



1906 ... ... ... 1,444 „ 



5. British East Africa. 

 At the end of 1906 the Association 

 were approached by Major Leggett, on 

 behalf of certain capitalists who pro- 

 posed to interest themselves in East 

 Africa. After some negotiations it was 

 decided to co-operate with them, and 

 the British East Africa Corporation was 

 formed, to which the Association banded 

 over its work, Sir R. Moor, K.CM.G., 

 is the chairman, and the Association is 

 further represented on the Board by 

 Mr. Crapper and Mr. Hutton. 



An arrangement had been previously 

 entered into with the Government to 

 spend £2,000 a year on " experimental " 

 and educational work, one-half of which 

 is paid by the Government and the other 

 half by the Association. This obligation 

 has been taken over by the Corporation. 



The small ginnery at Kiliiidini (Mom- 

 basa) was taken over and worked by the 

 Corporation. A larger ginnery has been 

 erected at Malindi. and two small 

 ginneries are now being erected at 

 Kisumu (the lake terminus of the Uganda 

 Railway) and atjinga, where the Nile 

 runs out from Lake Victoria Nyanza. 

 Considerably larger quantities of cotton 

 are being grown, mostly of the Egyptian 

 type, and one can confidently look for- 

 ward to British East Africa shipping an 

 appreciable quantity of long-stapled 

 cotton in the immediate future. 



6. Uganda. 



The most noticeable event during 1907 

 was the visit of Mr. Churchill to East 

 Africa and Uganda. One could wi=ih 

 that some system could be arranged by 

 which most of the officials at the Colonial 

 Office should periodically visit those 

 countries, the administration of which 

 they have to control. Mr. Churchill 

 speaks most enthusiastically of the great 

 possibilities of Uganda as a cotton- 



