755 
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA: 
An Official Newspaper Stabted ; News of 
Old Feiends. 
Just as we are in the midst of writing about 
" British East Africa " from Mombasa up to 
Uganda, there arrives very interesting in- 
telligence from the other great British-African 
Bub-tropical division in tlie shape of a letter 
from Mr. Alex. Whyte, formerly of Kandy 
and Nuwara Eliya, and copies of "The 
British Central Africa Gazette" — the first 
newspaper, we suppose, published in Africa 
between Natal— or say The Transvaal — and 
Egypt. Mr. Whyte writes from Zomba under 
date 8th Feb. — so that bis letter has taken 
nearly two months en route — as follows : — 
I seaA 50U copy of our new paper ; The British 
Central Africa Gazette and copies of it will be posted 
to yon regularly ia Inture. In return, Commisaionef 
Johnston will feel much obliged if you will po3t \\i the 
weekly Observer. 
"I should have written to you long ere this and re- 
peatedly it I h«d hnd time, but my duties here, as you 
may imagine, ia a new country have been very numeroiis 
and Bbsolutely no time has been left for outtile oorre- 
spondence, I think, however, that 1 oan guarantee that 
the new paper will keep you well posted up on what 
goes on here. We h»ve had trying times of it here 
lately with tha slsve raidcr^ and trado-s, but as you 
will see by the papers they got a thorough thrashing 
on the lako from Mr. Johnston and his handful 
of Sikhs the other day. 
"You will see the Ce itral African Telegraph isgoing 
nhcad, aod there is now a scheme on hand to connect the 
ZimbeFi with Lake Nya'a by moans of a railway, 
and which I have no doul t will be osrr'eii out ere 
long. I have now bf en out here threft years and I go 
home on leave soon. I hav<> kept my health well on 
these uplands of the Shire Highlands, but even Ihey 
cannot be calleil healthy for Europeans. However 
as the ground cleared and estates opened np, I 
have no lioubt that it will improve and that there is a 
bright prospect for the coualry in the not very dis- 
tant future. I felt much the news of the death of 
my nephew, Jas. Broiiie of Colombo, by last mail. We 
were all very foud of James and I always looked on 
him as an exceptionally fine chiracter." 
The number of the new "Gazette" before us 
is a very interesting one indeed, giving us 
8 pages of about the size of the Overland 
Observer of closely printed matter. It opens 
with an official notice from Commissioner 
Johnston that the paper is to be the official 
Gazette for "British Central Africa," but ia 
to be conducted independently of the Ad- 
ministration. Next we have a report on the 
Telegraph Road betsveen Tshikwawa and Tete, 
a distance of 90 miles, giving a full descrip- 
tion of route and signed by Messrs. J. O. 
Bowhill, S. Argyle Gillmore and G. C, L. 
Ray. On the '2ud page we have Mr. Thistleton- 
Dyor's information about cotfee disease already 
noticed by ua and published in full detail in 
the IropiiMl. Af/rivalti(rini, and further on, 
come the Queen's Regulations tor preventing 
the introduction of coffee disease into Central 
Africa, as drawn up by the Commissioner 
and very stringent they are about permission 
being required to introduce bceds, living or 
dried plants from Asia or dependencies, 
Natal, Mauritius or Zanzibar. Certainly all 
the coffee planted in Central or East Africa 
cjliouUl l)p from the indigenou'i plants — coffee 
j/ro\s's wil l in the Uganda forests and no 
(joubt iu other accessible parts as well as iu 
Abyssinia. We have also a further great 
variety of Queen's Regulations dealing with 
the Registration of Titles to Land after a 
very simple and economical fashion ; giving 
a list of Import Duties (generally 5 per cent 
ad valorem, but a good deal free, machinery, 
&c. ; 10 per cent on guns, gunpowder, &c. : 
alcohol under special restrictions. — In respect 
of Export Duties, we have Gd per lb. on 
ivory up to tusks weighing 15 lb., 9d per 
lb. above that; Id per lb. on rhinoceros 
horns and hippopotamus teeth ; Is an oz. on 
gold. A list of 15 Customs houses and ports 
of Entry and Exit representing the different 
districts is given. Then we have Licenses 
to carry firearms ±1 ; to kill big game ^625 ; 
to trade £IQ — all per annum ; besides licenses 
in respect of importing and selling alcohol. 
A Postal Notice and Report of " E. E. Harrhy," 
P.M.G. is very interesting. Nothing can show 
us better how civilisation is advancing in 
Central Africa tbaa the following table and 
extract : — 
Postal Service in Bhit(sh Centbal Afhica 
fob one month. 
(Ootober 20th to November 20th, 1893.) 
OUTWARDS. 
E .2 „ • 
M Ol pL, fcl 
Tshiromo 
2269 
18 
2592 
33 
Zomba 
501 
25 
160 
3 
Port Herald ... 
122 
2 
1 
Fort Johnston ... 
660 
76 
901 
8 
Blantyre 
1989 
253 
718 
28 
Fort Anderson ... 
79 
3 
12 
1 
Pangomani 
188 
20 
Fort Lister 
32 
1 
5 
5840 376 
3310 
74 
INWAEDa. 
Tshiromo 
2346 
20 
2108 
39 
Zomba 
385 
8 
55 
2 
Port Herald 
26 
1 
2 
1 
Fort Johnston ... 
ns 
87 
983 
8 
BUntyro 
1388 
11 
1089 
25 
Fort Anderson ... 
57 
2 
13 
2 
Pangomani 
218 
19 
70 
2 
Fort Lister 
103 
5236 
148 
4320 
79 
From a " ways and means'' point of view the 
position of the British South Atrica Company's 
British Central Africa Postal Service is a unique 
and difficult one. Incoming mails are only conveyed 
so far as the Tshinde mouth of the Zambezie at 
the expense of the country of origin, and the cost 
of carrying them up river to the nearest point of 
British Central Africa territory— some two nundred 
ani forty miles distant — has to be borne by the 
British Central Africa Post Office. This, taken in con- 
juuction with the fact that the English newspaper 
I mails for Nyasa and Tanganyika alone are, as a 
I rule, three times as heavy as the whole of the 
I homeward newspaper despatches made up at Tshinde, 
, will tend to prove that, for at least a few years to 
come, very little profit can bo made out of the De- 
partment which 1 have the honour to represent. 
A Revenue Abstract for the Ruo Division 
shows that the revenue has increased from 
i;144 in 1891 and £1,780 in 1892 to i'4,70d 
in 1893 ! The native population iu the 
several divisions is also rapidly increasing 
through immigration and settlement — the 
result of good Government, of course. Who 
can estimate the benefit couforre<l on the 
many poor native tribes that hitherto could 
