THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
IJan. i, 1895. 
Mr. Johnston's interesting account of the flora and 
fauna of the country we cannot enter ; hut it 
must be counted to him for righteousness that by 
declaring Mlanje Crown property he has preserved 
the magnificent cedar forests that crown the sum- 
mits of that mountain mass. As for game, British 
Central Africa is a hunter's paradise. Ivory 
is the principal export at present, and if the 
indiscriminate slaughter of the elephant is pre- 
vented, Mr. Johnston sees no reason why a mo- 
derate trade in ivory should not continue to 
exist, and the elephant's existence be indefinitely 
prolonged. The rhinoceros, too, he would pro- 
tect from extermination ; but against the hippopo- 
tamus Her Majesty's Commissioner declares war 
to the knife. Ivory is not, however, likely to hold 
the place of honour among the exports for long, an 
it seems certain that coffee will rapidly supplant 
it. The story of the coll'ee plantations of the 
Shire Highlands belongs to the romance of trade. 
A single plant, bought by a Scottish horticul- 
turist from the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens, was 
the progenitor of the two millions of trees which 
are estimated to exist in the Shire province, and 
it is satisfactory to know that this patriarchal 
tree still flourishes at Blantyre, and that the 
Scottish horticulturist has reaped the reward of 
his (foresight, and has now the largest coffee 
plantations in the protectorate. Rice, too, is 
grown with remarkable successs, and Mr. John- 
ston sees "no reason why the shores of Lake Nyassa 
should not produce rice enough to feed the whole 
■world." There is, however, it is needless to say, 
a fly in the ointment — a metaphor peculiarly 
applicable to South Africa, where the existence 
of the tsetse fly makes it impossible to employ 
horses and cattle in certain districts. Time may 
work a remedy, as the tsetse likes neither the 
presence of man nor water, and will probably 
disappear as the country becomes more thickly 
populated, and realibresting affects the rainfall. 
For purposes of administration. Mr. Johnston — 
who has had to create a system — has divided the 
country into provinces, in each of which an 
officer of the administration resides, dis- 
charging duties of the most multifarious cha- 
racter. The native chiefs are as little interfered 
with as is possible, but it is generally under- 
stood that there is an appeal from the chief 
to the British representative. Custom-houses 
have been established and ordinances passed for 
stringently regulating the trade in arms and 
ammunition. A hut tax is levied in the Cen- 
tral provinces where an engagement has been 
made with the chiefs, and Mr. Johnston justi- 
fies the imposition of this annual tax on the en- 
tirely reasonable ground that the natives should 
contribute towards the cost of securing im- 
munity from the slave raids, which formerly 
rendered their lives a burden and a terror to 
them. This terrible traffic is not yet stamped 
out even on Lake Nyasa ; but during the three 
years of Mr. Johnston's administration it has 
been rendered increasingly difficult and dan- 
gerous and increasingly costly. Where form- 
erly 2,500 slaves were annually exported from 
the Eastern portion of British Central Africa not 
more than 1,000 are now smuggled out, and 
Makanjira's defeat has strack a deadly blow at 
the trade. Forts have been built on the lake 
and along the frontier. Order is maintained, 
and the salvers are punished by a force of 200 
Sikhs who have volunteered for service in Africa, 
under European officers. There is also a Makua 
police force, and a number of native levies are 
raised when occasion requires it. There remains 
the further question. Of what value is British 
Central Africa likely to be to the Empire ! 
What future is there before the country? Mr. 
Johnston, though an interested, is a singularly 
impartial witness. He does not 6eek to prove 
that in British Central Africa we have another 
Australia or Canada. The conditions of life 
are not such as to enable the white man t<> 
engage in the actual work of cultivating tin- 
soil, and European colonisation, in it* most 
extended sense, is therefore impossible. But 
" in course of time, and as life becomes lei--, 
uncomfortable than at present," he thinks thai 
"it would be actually possible to found Euro 
pean colonies on some of the highest plateaux- 
that is to say, in districts which are over 5,(XMp 
feet in altitude." In these regions he is inclined 
to think that Europeans might not only re- 
tain their health, but might even rear children, 
without much, if any, deterioration of race. This 
view is, if we are not mistaken, shared by other 
who know this part of Africa — including Captain 
Lugard — but it is by no means the commonly 
accepted view, and can only be tested by actual 
experiment spread over a long period of years. 
If, however, the European in Central Africa b 
to be confined to the r6le of ruler and teacher, 
it is obvious that he must be assisted in the 
development of the resources of the continent 
by a race qualified to play the part of 
hands to the European brain. Is the negro >-o 
qualified? Mr. Johnston is inclined to think 
not. Here we come face to face with a problem 
of the first magnitude in the future of the African 
continent, and it is extremely interesting to note 
the conclusion which Mr. Johnston's wide ex- 
perience has led him to form. He adopts the 
opinion of a well-known negro-writer — that "the 
pure and unadulterated negro cannot, as a race, 
advance with any certainty of stability above his 
present level of culture ; that he requires the 
admixture of a superior type of man." Where 
is this superior type to be found ? Not in 
the Arab, since the Swahili, the Arab-negro 
hybrid of the East Coast, though phsically 
a fine type, is " recalcitrant to European in- 
fluence. It is in India that Mr. Johnston would 
find the admixture of yellow required by the 
negro. The Indian would get the physical de- 
velopment which he lacks, " and in his turn 
would transmit to his half-negro offspring the 
industry, ambition, and aspiration towards a 
civilised life which the negro so markedly l.'icks." 
It is a fascinating speculation, but still .1 »;.ecu- 
1 at ion ; and here, as in the case of European 
settlements on the high plate iux, it is time 
alone that can apply the touchstone. It is. how- 
ever, something to find such questions raised in 
a blue-book ; and it may serve to mark the ex- 
ceptional character of Mr. Johnston's report that 
it is equally interesting as a record of what 
has been already done, and as a forecast 
of what still remains to be accomplished. — 
Speaker. 
DIVI-DIVI. 
An Uva planter writes : — 
"Can you give me any information as to the com- 
mercial valae of the Divi-Divi tree and bow the seed 
or pod, or dye or whatever is used, is prepared for 
market, as I have a considerable crop on some trees." 
A great deal of information about " Divi-Divi " will 
be found by onr correspondent in his volumes of the 
Tropical Agriculturist in Fsbiaary, Llarch, Jane and 
August 1883 and in December 1B88. The valae of the 
seed seems to vary from £5 to £8 per ton. We read 
of 165 cwt. selling Is Madras for B460, and so on. 
