So It Must Not Be Regarded As An Equivalent
For Steam Transport, As It Will Only Serve To Bring Down The Little
Trickle Of Native Trade, And Possibly Not Increase That Trickle
Much.
The question of transport of course is not confined to the Gold
Coast.
Below Lagos there is the great river system, towards which
the trade slowly drains through native hands to the white man's
factories on the river banks, but this trade being in the hands of
native traders is not a fraction of what it would become in the
hands of white men; and any mineral wealth there may be in the
heavily-forested stretches of country remains unworked and unknown.
The difficulty of transport here greatly hampers the exploitation of
the timber wealth, it being utterly useless for the natives to fell
even a fine tree, unless it is so close to a waterway that it can be
floated down to the factory. This it is which causes the ebony,
bar, and cam wood to be cut up by them into small billets which a
man can carry. The French and Germans are both now following the
plan of getting as far as possible into the interior by the
waterways, and then constructing railways. The construction of
these railways is fairly easy, as regards gradients, and absence of
dense forest, when your waterway takes you up to the great park-like
plateau lands which extend, as a general rule, behind the forest
belt, and the inevitable mountain range. The most important of
these railways will be that of M. de Brazza up the Sanga valley in
the direction of the Chad. When this railway is constructed, it
will be the death of the Cameroon and Oil River trade, more
particularly of the latter, for in the Cameroons the Germans have
broken down the monopoly of the coast tribes, which we in our
possessions under the Niger Coast Protectorate have not. The Niger
Company has broken through, and taken full possession of a great
interior, doing a bit of work of which every Englishman should feel
proud, for it is the only thing in West Africa that places us on a
level with the French and Germans in courage and enterprise in
penetrating the interior, and fortunately the regions taken over by
the Company are rich and not like the Senegal "made of sand and
savage savages." Where in West Africa outside the Company will you
find men worthy as explorers to be named in the same breath with de
Brazza, Captain Binger, and Zintgraff?
Some day, I fear when it will be too late, we shall realise the
foolishness of sticking down on the sea coast, tidying up our
settlements, establishing schools, and drains, and we shall find our
possessions in the Rivers and along the Gold Coast valueless,
particularly in the Rivers, for the trade will surely drain towards
the markets along the line of the French railroad behind them, for
the middlemen tribe that we foster exact a toll of seventy-five per
cent. on the trade that comes through their hands, and the English
Government is showing great signs of an inclination to impose such
duties on the only stuff the native cares much for - alcohol - that he
will take his goods to the market where he can get his alcohol; even
if he pays a toll to these markets of fifty per cent. But of this I
will speak later, and we will return to the question of transport.
Mr. Scott Elliot, {463} speaking on this subject as regarding East
African regions, has given us a most interesting contribution based
on his personal experience, and official figures. As many of his
observations and figures are equally applicable to the West Coast, I
hope I may be forgiven for quoting him. His criticism is in favour
of the utilisation of every mile of waterway available. He says,
regarding the Victoria Nyanza, that "it is possible to place on it a
steamer at the cost of 12,677 pounds. Taking the cost of
maintenance, fuel and working expenses at 1,200 pounds a year (a
large estimate) a capital expenditure of 53,000 pounds, (13,000
pounds for the steamer and 40,000 pounds to yield three per cent.
interest) would enable this steamer to convey, say thirty tons at
the rate of five to ten miles an hour for 1,600 pounds a year. This
makes it possible to convey a ton at the rate of a halfpenny a mile,
while it would require about 53,000 pounds to build a railway only
eighteen miles long."
The Congo Free State railway I am informed, has cost, at a rate per
mile, something like eight times this. Further on Mr. Elliot says:
"In America the surplus population of Europe, and the markets in the
Eastern States have made railway development profitable on the
whole, but in Africa, until pioneer work has been done, and the
prospects of colonisation and plantation are sufficiently definite
and settled to induce colonists to go out in considerable numbers,
it will be ruinous to build a long railway line."
I do not quote these figures to discourage the West Coaster from his
railway, but only to induce him to get his Government to make it in
the proper direction, namely, into the interior, where further
development of trade is possible. Judging from other things in
English colonies, I should expect, if left to the spirit of English
(West Coast) enterprise, it would run in a line that would enable
the engine drivers to keep an eye on the Atlantic Ocean instead of
the direction in which it is high time our eyes should be turned. I
confess I am not an enthusiast on civilising the African. My idea
is that the French method of dealing with Africa is the best at
present. Get as much of the continent as possible down on the map
as yours, make your flag wherever you go a sacred thing to the
native - a thing he dare not attack.
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