April 1, 1901.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 6^3 
EUBBER IN SOUTHERN NIGERIA. 
HOW THE INDUSTRY IS FOSTERED— GOVERNMENT 
REGULATIONS. 
Major H L Galhvey, Acting Hio;h Commissioner 
for Southern Nij^eria, reporting on tiie adminis- 
tration of the Protectorate during llie year ended 
31st March last, says that the general condition 
of the colony, both as regards finances and the 
prospects of future development, may be considered 
very satisfactory. "In a climate like this," he 
adds, " where fur more than half the year any 
real efforts towards opening up country arp de- 
feated by the heavy rains, progress must neces- 
sarily be slow, although it is probably very sure. 
The very low type of native which inhabits the 
greater part of the Protectorate is also a factor 
which has to be considered when taking account of 
the actual progress made. The natives of the Pro- 
tectorate, without exception, are conservative to 
a degiee, especially among the older chiefs, and 
it is with the greatest difficulty that improvements 
of any kind cau be introduced amongst them, and 
the only way hy which this has been achieved has 
been by the use of the greatest patience, energy, 
and tact. It is needleess to say that from time to 
time punitive action has had co be taken in order 
to put down wholesale massacres, cannibalism, and 
closing of trade routes, but such punitive means 
are never resorted to unless all efiforts of a pacific 
nature have utterly failed. The factor, the con- 
servatism of the people, must also be considered 
when the work which has been performed in this 
Protectorate during the nine years of its existence 
is looked into. The work of opening up inland 
from the coast has been slow, and must always 
be so, for if done in a hurry and with no thought 
for the welfare and improvement of the people, it 
would take a very short time for the country to 
fall back again into its former state." The total 
trade during the period under review came to 
£1,614,753 as against £1,507,288 in the previous 
year. Imports fell off nearly £7,000, but exports 
moved up over £14,000, so that the net result 
was a fair increase. The principal commodities 
sent out are palm kernels and palm oil, but rub- 
ber is beginning to take an important place in 
the list: Last year 1,450,567 lb of the value of 
£105,117 vvas exported, as against 874,298 1b of 
the value of £60,608 in 1898-9, an advance of 
more than 65 per cent. Very great care is exer- 
cised in developing the ruliber industry. It is 
practically under the control of the Forestry 
Department, which has issued regulations designed 
to preserve the trees and foster trade. The 
r"orestry Inspector, referring to the way these reg- 
ulations work, says : — " I endeavoured to make 
them preventively operative by personally inspect- 
ing and assessing the value of rubber forests be- 
longing to nearly 100 Bini towns and villages ; by 
creating, in accordance with the extent of forest 
staffs, >ex-officio rubber inspectors in each of 
them ; by instructing the inhabitants of all of them 
in the only safe regulated way of tapping suited 
to local circumstances ; by explaining in detail the 
rubber regulations prohibiting tapping during the 
dry season ; and by constituting every Bini an 
ex-officio policeman to bring to justice any rubber 
gatherer infringing the regulations For- 
tunately the Binis, whose eyes I have opened oa 
every possible occasion to the value of their rub- 
ber forests, responded with alacrity, and today 
exercise bucU restrainiag influence on prohiDited 
rubber-tapping and adulterated rubber-producing 
that not a single rubber-gatherer is free from close 
' shadowing,' and not a single ball of rubber and 
prohibited root rubber could work its undetected 
way to Lagos or our own trading factories. Even 
though gatliere 1 out of this Protectorate, it could 
not work its way down unchallenged, provided t 
had to pass any poition of the Btnin City terri- 
tories. This is so in every part of the territories— 
evenin the newly-acquired districts stretching east- 
wards." It is only in the Benin territories that 
such regulations are in force, as the other rubber 
forests in the Protectorate lie in those parts where 
native councils do not exist, and it has not been 
found possible to enact native laws by which the 
regulations can there be rendered effective. Major 
Gallwey thinks it will probably be advisable to 
issue a proclamation dealing with rubber forests 
throughout the whole of the colony. Nurserie.s 
have been established in some centres, the object 
being to form plantations close to villages for 
seed-producing pui poses. This will eventually allow 
every village to collect its own seed in order to 
sow in the bush at the commencement of the rainy 
season. It is also interesting to note that, outoc 
an approximate length of roadway in the Benin 
territories of 450 miles, the Forestry Inspector has 
planced 250 miles witli rubber seed, four deep on 
each side of the road. Before very long it is not 
improbable that the Government will establish 
rubber reservations in different parts of the Fro- 
tectova,be.— Financial Times. 
A BIG "BASKET." 
(To the Editor of the Pioneer.) 
Sir, — The following record of fish recently killed 
in theJumusiby Mr. Herbert Vansittart of Goodrich 
Castle, Dehi-a. Dan, may prove of interest to your 
anprling readers. 
February 19th, morning — 1 gonch, lb 40. 
,, ,, afternoon — 1 gonch, lb 125. (weighed 
in camp not counting loss of blood ) This enormous 
fish was hooked about 4 p.m. and landed between 6 
and 7, after being first drawn into shallow water, 
where its backbone was severed with axes. It took 
fonr men io carry it to camp. Length, 6 feet, girth 
round shoulders 40 inches. With this rish, Mr. 
Vansittart has beaten his previous resord for the 
Dun by 5 lb. 
Feb. 20th, Mahseer, 31 lb, 30 lb. 22 lb, 11 lb. 14J lb, 
15* lb, 23 lb, 18i lb, 15 lb and 2l8t Feb. Mahseer, 
38 lb, Gonch, 96 lb. 
Feb. 22nd, blank day. Water coloured, unfiahable. 
„ 23rd Mahseer lb 44 
„ 24th „ „ 30i 
making a total of lb 5531 in sis days' fishing. The 
tackle used was ordinary American salmon line, wire 
trace and treble hook on a fifteen foot bamboo rod. 
The fish were all taken with dead bait. 
H. G. Mainwabing, Colonel. 
Meerut, March 7. — Pioneer, March 13, 
PENSIONS WITH TEA. 
COMBINATION OF SHOPPING AND INSURANCE, 
Widows, tea merchants, and insurance offices 
will be interested in a case that is to be lieard 
in the High Court about May. 
This is the appeal of Messrs. Thomas Nelson and 
Co., tea merchants, who were prosecuted for doing 
assurance business without depositing £20,000 with 
the Board of Trade, as is required by the Insur- 
ance Act. To every widow who has purchased half 
a pound of their tea, every week for a year beforq 
