abundant crops. The black soil of Rooigrond is of great fertility. Maize, or "mealies," and Kafir corn are produced in abundance, and also vegetables of all kinds. Acacias and thorn trees abound north of Setlagoli. Well sinking and windmill pumps are found adequate to secure the requisite irrigation. Among natural products the wild indigo is especially remarkable from the excellence of the dye. Cotton also grows wild. Tobacco is being cultivated. Gold has been discovered near Pitsanie, in the neighbourhood of Mafeking, on the Setlagoli and Maritsani Rivers, at Morokwen, on the borders of the Kalahari, and also near Vryburg and Taungs. Some of the specimens of quartz produced are rich, and small nuggets have been found on the Maritsani. Lead, tin, silver, coal, and iron have also been found. As there is no customs establishment, the value of the external trade cannot be given. The imports, which nearly all come from the Cape Colony, consist of textiles, hardware, and alcohol. The exports, nearly all for the Kimberley market, consist of mealies, wool, hides, cattle, and wood. Means of Communication. There is a good road from Barkly West to Taungs, and thence there are two routes to Vryburg, the chief town of Stellaland. In order to escape the imposts on waggons levied by the South African Republic, a loop road for waggons has lately been made in British Territory so as to avoid Kunana. In addition to these routes there is the western road from Kuruman to Pitsanie. From Mafeking excellent roads branch out in all directions. Shoshong and the country to the north up to the Zambesi may be reached either by the direct route from Molopolole, which is badly watered, or by the Notwani and Limpopo or Crocodile Rivers. Mafeking is the emporium of the trade with the interior, and is at present mainly supplied with merchandise brought from Kimberley, since the Cape Colony has allowed rebate to the extent of the difference between the Cape duties and those of Natal. A railway is about to be commenced between Vryburg and Kimberley, which will be eventually extended to Mafeking. The temporary military line of telegraph left by Sir Charles Warren has been replaced by a perma nent line, extending from Barkly West to Mafeking, a distance of more than 200 miles, which is thus in telegraphic communication with all parts of the world. This is now being extended to Shoshong and Gubulawayo. There is a tri-weekly post with Cape Town and all parts of the Cape Colony. The English mail leaving Cape Town on Saturday reaches Vryburg on the following Tuesday, and Mafeking on the following Wednesday. Letters posted in Mafeking in time for the mail on Thursday morning reach Cape Town in good time for the out-going English mail steamer on the following Wednesday. There is also a horse post between Kuruman and Vryburg, and letters can be sent weekly by native runners to Kanya, Molopolole, Shoshong, the Tati, and Gubulawayo in Matebeleland. The extra colonial mails leave Kimberley for Bechuanaland on Tuesdays and Fridays, arriving in Vryburg on Thursdays and Sundays, and returning on Mondays and Wednesdays. The branch post to Kuruman leaves Vryburg on Wednesdays, and Kuruman on Saturdays. Postal business is rapidly increasing. A system of postal drafts and parcels post has also been established. British Bechuanaland forms part of the Anglican Diocese of Bloemfontein, and is within the circuit of the Archdeacon of Griquland West. There is a clergyman at Phoquane. At Vryburg two schools for young children have already been opened. There is also a school at Mafeking. The London Missionary Society maintains a fine educational establishment for natives at Kuruman, and has missionaries at that place, Taungs, Kanya, Molopolole, Shoshong, and elsewhere. The Wesleyan Mission has been long established at Mafeking and elsewhere. There is a large Wesleyan native church and a European chapel at Mafeking, and one at Vryburg. The foundation of a Dutch Reformed Church has recently been laid at Vryburg. Patrols of the Bechuanaland Border Police visit the various districts from time to time. A small detachment is at present stationed at Shoshong, where the chief Khama is apprehensive of attacks from other chiefs. There are also small detachments at Kanya and Molopolole. An Assistant Commissioner has been appointed, who lives in a waggon and travels from place to place, having to spend much of his time at Gubulawayo, where he lately concluded an important treaty with Lo Bengula. With regard to the Kalahari-much of which is a fine, well-watered, and productive country— little has been done beyond establishing a good The Land Commission of British Bechuanaland. effected by the Commission has been eminently Surveys. Extensive surveys of Native Reserves and Crown lands have been authorised in connection with main triangulation of British Bechuanaland. The Transvaal Border is also being surveyed by a joint Commission, a measure rendered necessary by the circumstance that the boundary line is a road liable to deviations, and at first very insufficiently defined by landmarks at long intervals. The Bechuanaland Border Police. Colonel (now Sir F.) Carrington, K.C.M.G., raised this useful force while the army of Sir Charles Warren was leaving South Africa, and picked men from other Corps were enrolled, but the force has been chiefly recruited from the young farmers of the Eastern Districts of the Cape Colony, especially from Lower Albany. They are well disciplined, and their uniform and equipments are adapted for the requirements of their service, which are very varied. They have erected fortifications and built their own barracks at Mafeking, Vryburg, and Taungs; they sink wells, and perform countless duties beyond the scope of ordinary troops or police. They are trained both as cavalry soldiers, and to act on occasion as infantry or artillery in connection with the six field guns belonging to the Colony. Col. Commanding, Sir F. C. Carrington, K.C.M.G., 1,000l. Majors, H. Goold Adams, 600l.; R. Grey, 25s. per Captains, F. McAdam, W. F. Coleman, C. Lawrie, Paymaster, Capt. E. H. C. McPherson, 20s. per Medical Officer, A. P. Green, 4507. Stores Department. Clerk, S., Herman-Schwabe, 1507. Bechuanaland Protectorate. Assistant Commissioner and Resident with Lo Bengula, Rev. J. S. Moffat, 1,000Z. BRITISH GUIANA. Situation and Area. This Colony is a portion of the South American Continent, extending from east to west about 200 miles. It includes the settlements of Demerara, Essequebo, and Berbice, and is bounded on the east by Dutch Guiana, from which it is divided by the River Corentyn, on the south by Brazil, on the west by Venezuela, and on the north and northeast by the Atlantic Ocean. Its area is about 109,000 square miles, extending from 9° to 1° north latitude, and from 57° to 62° west longitude. About 130 square miles only are under cultivation. History and Constitution. The territory was first partially settled by the Dutch West India Company in 1580. It was from time to time held by Holland, France, and England. It was restored to the Dutch in 1802, but in the following year retaken by Great Britain, and finally ceded to that power in 1814. Under the Dutch, Demerara and Essequebo constituted one Government, and Berbice another, an arrangement which continued in force under the British Administration down to the year 1831. The constitution of the Colony of Berbice dates from the year 1732; under it the Governor was nominated by the Directors of the Mercantile Body called the Berbice Association, and was assisted by a council of six. In 1826 an order of the King in Council was issued, dissolving the then Council of Government, appointing another, and thenceforward vesting the right of appointing to vacancies in the Governor as representing the Crown. The Court of Policy for Demerara appears to have been established in 1773. In 1789 that for Essequebo was merged in it, and the seat of Government for the United provinces established at Stabroek, the site of the present capital Georgetown. Disputes having arisen between the Colonists, the local Government, and the West India Company, as to the right of appointing the colonial members of the Court of Policy, in the year 1788, a provisional "Plan of Redress," as it was termed (being in fact the draft of a new constitution), was framed by a Committee of the States-General, to whom had been referred sundry petitions of the Colonists. This being approved of, a commission was despatched by the States-General to the Colony, who on their arrival in 1789 dissolved the then existing Government, established a new one for the conjoined Colonies upon the basis of the scheme in question, which continued in operation, notwithstanding the captures of the Colony by the British in 1796 and in 1802, and its cession in 1803; the Articles of Capitulation having stipulated that the laws, usages, and institutions of the Colony should be maintained as before. the Office of Kiezer, as subsequently defined by Proclamation of Sir Benjamin D'Urban in 1831, was to be for life, unless the party resigned, or ceased to be an inhabitant. In 1795 it was deemed necessary, during a period though without affecting the definition of the duties With an exception in regard to the franchise, procedure till now, from which the inference has to be noticed hereafter, this has been the usage and been drawn that the Financial Representatives had, and have, no authority whatever, except by express permission from the Crown, to discuss any item upon they might refuse to include any sum to which the estimate so as to alter its amount, although they objected in their calculations of the funds necessary to be raised by taxation.† this interpretation of the constitution, and there The colonial members have never acquiesced in have been frequent collisions between the Executive and Elective sections of the Court. The position they assume is based upon the construction of a passage in a decree of the StatesGeneral, dated 27th August, 1788, to the effect that "the contributions for the Colonial Chest are to be regulated by the inhabitants themselves;" Director-General Van Grovestein in 1793, "He and a passage in the instructions issued to will take care not to leave the administration of the Colony Chest wholly to the Colony Members of the Court of Policy, but will thereto admit a great number of the Colonists, for example the "Kiezers of both rivers." The nature of certain entries in the Minutes from 1798 to 1806 has also been held to support this contention. In the year 1855 under the administration of alter and amend the Political Institutions of the Sir Philip Wodehouse, an Ordinance was passed to Colony, but it was not approved by Her Majesty. Since that time no legislation has been attempted in the same direction except the passing of Ordimeaning of the term "Colonist," as employed in the nance No. 1 of 1864, a declaratory act, defining the "Plan of Redress" above noticed; and Ordinance The Council or Court of Policy consisted of 1st, The Director-General; 2, The Commander of Essequebo; 3, The Fiscal of Essequebo; 4, The Fiscal of Demerara; 5 and 6, two Colenists from Essequebo; 7 and 8, two Colonists from Demerara. In the first instance, the unofficial portion of the Council was to be chosen from a double nomination by the Colleges of Kiezers or Electors, of which there were two, one for each Colony,* each consisting of seven Members, elected by a majority of the votes of the inhabitants possessing not fewer than twenty-five slaves, such votes to be in writing and signed by the voter. The tenure of difference between the sums fixed and the amount provided. * Demerara and Essequebo only are here alluded to. * Beaujon's Procl., Loc. Cuide. During the discussions on the Civil List in 1848–9, it was suggested by some of the Elective Section to adopt this course, leaving upon the Governor the responsibility of paying the Proceedings relative to the Functions of the Financial Representative, 1832. |