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engaged being in-patients, and the medical staff, several of whom were themselves ill with fever, found it almost impossible efficiently to cope with the sickness." The plague in India had interfered with the steady influx of coolies. In the dry season water had to be fetched from long distances. Rails were laid up to March last for 139 miles. The supply of locomotives was delayed by the engineering strike in England. The necessity of transporting troops and stores in connection with rebellions in Uganda also interfered with constructive work. The transport department-camels, mules, donkeys, and bullocks-sustained heavy losses, owing to the tetse fly, which infests part of the line area up to 220 miles. Mules best resisted the disease, but 10 per cent. of these perished in six months, notwithstanding applications of sheep dip. The rolling stock consisted of 8 new locomotives, and 22 second-hand; 307 new and second-hand goods vehicles, and 23 new coaching vehicles. The first length (100 miles), from Mombasa to the Voi River, was opened in December, 1897, under the rules of the Indian Railways Act (9 of 1890). The section was opened to the public for goods traffic and to passengers in February, 1898. For the first three months of 1898 the traffic earnings were, 126,460 rupees 64,570 rupees from coaching (parcels and mails); 32,170 rupees from goods; and 29,720 rupees from railway stores. Excluding the last item, the earnings were 67.6 rupees per mile per week. "There has also been a large saving to the Protectorates through the cheap carriage of troops and stores over the long waterless tract between the coast and the Voi River." The expenditure up to March 31st, 1898, was £1,005,390. The estimate for 1898-99 was £625,000.

Zanzibar and Pemba (Abolition of the Legal Status of Slavery. Africa, No. VI., July, 1898.)-This Correspondence relates to the working of the Decree of 6th April, 1897. The Decree abolished, not the institution of slavery, but the legal enforcement by the Courts of Zanzibar and Pemba of the rights hitherto held under that institution. Thus the Courts refuse to enforce any alleged rights over the body, service, or property of any person on the ground that such a person is a slave. We quote from Commissioner Farler's summary of the points of the Decree :-" Compensation.—If an owner can show that he hitherto had been lawfully possessed of such rights in accordance with the Decrees of previous Sultans, and has now by the application of the said Decree been deprived of them and thereby suffered loss, then the Courts can decide upon the amount of compensation to be granted, and the Government of Zanzibar will pay this sum. Vagrants.-Neither slaves who have left their masters nor freed slaves will be allowed to wander about without a home or visible means of subsistence. They must show that they have a

regular domicile and means of subsistence on penalty of being declared vagrants, and then being assigned definite work and provided with food by the Court before which they are brought. Concubines.-The question of concubines has been much discussed in England, and many wild and extravagant statements have been made about it. It should be understood that by the Sheria of Islam, a concubine has a very important legal status, second only to that of a wife. She has a house and servants assigned to her, she is handsomely clothed, and receives many presents of jewellery, and her children take rank immediately after the children of the legal wife. If the father dies intestate they take their share of the property with the other children. A concubine as soon as she has become a mother is free. The great difference between a wife and a concubine is that a wife can obtain a divorce, but a concubine cannot. For a man to take his slave by force and make her his concubine is considered disgraceful by Arab social law, and is seldom done. The dislike of a woman to be made a concubine is not an objection to cohabitation with the master, but a dislike to the seclusion of the harem." It was provided that concubines "shall remain in their present relations," except where cruelty could be proved. Much of the correspondence relates to this point, the British and Foreign AntiSlavery Society and certain missionaries in the islands contending that the provision has the effect of retaining in virtual slavery the greater portion of the female population. As, however, the Decree is regarded as a further progressive step towards the ultimate abolition of slavery, and not as a final and complete measure, destroying the institution root and branch in defiance of Mahommedan law and social conditions, it is unnecessary here to enter into the controversy between the critics of the Decree and its official defenders. What will be of service is a presentation of the facts showing what has been done under the Decree. These are revealed in a despatch by Sir Arthur Hardinge to Lord Salisbury, dated Zanzibar, April 23rd, 1898. He states that 2,000 slaves obtained their freedom during the preceding year in consequence of the Decree, and that 2,278 more had, without claiming papers of freedom, made contracts with their masters as free labourers. To all intents and purposes, therefore, 4,278 slaves had become free-3,245 in Zanzibar and the rest in Pemba. The number of females thus free nearly equalled the number of males. Of the female slaves only three were concubines, "redeemed " in accordance with Article V. of the Decree, "with the sanction of the Court;" and these were in Pemba. No concubines had applied for freedom in Zanzibar. The sum awarded in compensation of owners was 12,017 rupees in Zanzibar, and 4,330 rupees in Pemba-about £1,043 in all. The average amount granted per slave was between £3 and £4. The total

cost to the Zanzibar Government of carrying out the Decree was £9,001. Sir Arthur Hardinge proceeds to discuss the practical effect of the Decree under three heads-(1) Upon the relations of master and slave; (2) upon the general condition of the slave population; (3) upon the industry of the islands. On the first he says that the majority of the masters are realizing the importance of retaining the slaves on the land by either freeing them themselves, or, without formally freeing them, making agreements with them as if they were already free labourers. "These agreements usually stipulate that the slave shall have an allotment of on an average four acres, the produce of which shall be entirely his own, and that he shall be free to devote his whole time to it for three days a week, but that on the remaining four he shall, in lieu of rent, work gratis for six hours a daynamely, from 8 a.m. till 2 p.m. (or a total of twenty-four hours a week) on the master's land, and shall receive pice, or an equivalent in produce, calculated on the local market rates, for all work done for his employer outside that specified period. Up till now these agreements have been made verbally, sometimes in the presence of the Walis or English Commissioners, oftener between master and slave alone, but the Government has now ordered that they shall in future be drawn up wherever possible in writing, and registered by the Courts, and shall specify the period for which they are to run, which will probably in most cases be two years, that being the term which General Sir Lloyd Mathews considers fairest to both sides. The Sultan has set the example of this system, and the consequence has been that, of the several thousand slaves living and working on his lands, not one has, so far as I know, asked for freedom. The system, however, does not always work well, especially in the case of the smaller and poorer landowners, who cannot pay their slaves in pice for work done over and above the weekly term of twenty-four hours which represents the rent of the slave or freed slaves' allotment. The slaves will work fairly willingly for pice, but not for produce, which they have the trouble of having to take to the towns to sell before they can turn it into money, and which they find it simpler to steal straight off, well knowing that their masters cannot now afford to be too severe upon their delinquencies, for fear of losing their labour altogether. The consequence has been that in many cases their agreements with their masters are only observed by them so long as they care to keep to them, and the complaints of the Arabs on this head are very bitter." to point 2, Sir Arthur says that while the Decree has placed the masters in a somewhat disadvantageous position, the slaves as a whole have greatly gained by it, and are now, in relation to their wants, in a situation which the Protectorate in most European States would regard with envy." Even in the few out-of-the-way places where

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the Decree was not then fully understood, it had effectively protected the slave against cruel or brutal treatment. Concerning point 3-the effect of the Decree upon industry-the labour market in the towns had not been perceptibly disturbed. A gradual general tendency towards a demand for a higher rate of wages seemed apparent, but this was due to the steady advance of civilization and commercial requirements. rather than to the Decree. Clove cultivation is the chief industry of the islands. On this Sir Arthur remarks :--" Last.

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year's clove crop, which, for causes independent of the Decree, was a very poor one, was not affected by it, for the knowledge that they could not be compelled to work had not yet sufficiently spread among the slaves to make any perceptible difference in the picking. This year, however, it seems to be generally anticipated that they will have in many places to be induced to pick their master's trees, where the latter are not in a position to offer them payment in money, by a promise of half the crop picked by them. means, of course, that the landowners will only get half the harvest, a circumstance which will precipitate the bankruptcy of some of them, and, their land being a drug in the market, the conversion of a good many acres now under cultivation into waste land, and will, therefore, indirectly affect, at any rate for a time, the future revenue and agricultural prosperity of the country." The Report proceeds to dispose of certain exaggerated statements made by missionaries in the islands, and to discuss the effects of the Decrees on the Slave Trade. An expected effect was that the owners would attempt to dispose of their slaves in the Arabian market. Special vigilance was accordingly exercised by the Zanzibar authorities and by Her Majesty's vessels to prevent the exportation of slaves, which had long been practically extinct in the islands. On the subject of concubinage, Sir Arthur says:-" An impression seemed to prevail among many critics of the Article on this subject that a master could in virtue of it keep any female slave in servitude by merely declaring her a 'concubine,' and Bishop Tucker has lent the sanction of his great authority to this delusion. Any person, however, acquainted with native customs, would know that a concubine is a slave girl, whom her master, having begotten a child by her, or having only cohabited with her, removes from the category of common slaves, and has to treat for all purposes as a wife. The status of a concubine is familiar to all readers of the Bible, but whilst the Bible makes her children the legal inferiors of those of the wife, and proclaims that 'the son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with the son of the free-woman,' Islam, as becomes the creed of the children of Hagar, puts the offspring of the concubine on the same level as the offspring of the wife, and treats Ishmael as equal with Isaac. Indeed, it

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may safely be said that in almost all Mahommedan societies, in which there is a large slave population, the children of concubines outnumber those of wives, at least among the propertied classes." And again: "The institution of concubinage has no real connection with the economic aspects of slave labour; it belongs, as I observed in a letter to Bishop Tucker, to that borderland between polygamy and domestic slavery in which in an Eastern society the one blends so to speak with the other, and on which it is most difficult to encroach, without disturbing, in a manner, which any people of spirit would resent, the domestic life of the subject race. It ought, however, I think, to be made clear to those whe criticize the law of Islam on this subject without personal experience of its working that a slave woman, in Zanzibar at least, cannot be made a concubine against her will, and, further, that only those Arabs who are in fairly prosperous circumstances can maintain a large number even of voluntary concubines in their harems." He considers that the Decree has, so far and on the whole, realized its main objects. "It has been, in fact, a reform, but a conservative and cautious reform, of far-reaching, ultimate consequences, rather than of striking immediate effects." In a Despatch by Lord Salisbury to Sir Arthur, the Foreign Secretary cites evidence of the advantageous results of the Decree, and says:-"Her Majesty's Government are not disposed to share the disappointment that has been expressed in some quarters as to the relatively slow rate of progress that is said to have been made. A readjustment, rather than a violent revolution, in the social economy of the islands has always been their object; and the information now before them leads them to think that this is in course of being achieved."

Zululand and Amatongaland. Correspondence on Affairs of Zululand. Presented March, 1898.-On May 4th, 1897, Mr. Chamberlain notified to Governor Sir W. J. Hely Hutchinson that he was prepared to advise Her Majesty's Government to assent to the annexation of Zululand (and Amatongaland) to Natal on the following conditions:-1. The existing system of land tenure to be maintained for five years, and during that period no grants of land to be made. In the meantime a joint Imperial and Colonial Commission to be appointed to mark out sufficient land reserves for native locations, which it is understood will be inalienable without Secretary of State's consent, and the Natal Government, at the end of a period of five years, will be at liberty to deal with the unreserved land. The Natal Government, during the period of five years, to be at liberty to proclaim townships, with the consent of the Secretary of State, if necessary in consequence of progress of mining enterprise. 2. The native jurisdiction, as provided for under Proclamation No. VI. of

1894, not to be abolished, but provision for a Court of Appeal for native cases to be made. 3. Restrictions to be maintained on sale of liquor to natives. 4. Obligation for payment of pensions and grants to native Chiefs to be taken over by Natal Government. 5. Lands and buildings in connection with mission stations to be secured. 6. Position of Government officials retained or abolished to be safeguarded. The provisions of the Natal Bill should, I consider, as far as possible, follow the precedent of the British Bechuanaland Annexation Act (see C.-7232), and in accordance with what took place in connection with annexation of British Bechuanaland to Cape, I should have to ask your Ministers to give an assurance that the Colonial Government will not, without previously ascertaining views of Her Majesty's Government, propose to Parliament Bills altering the local law as regards liquor, land or native jurisdiction. I am sure your Ministers will appreciate the validity of my reasons for making this stipulation, by which a divergence of opinion between the Colonial Government and the Imperial Government may be rendered less possible, or altogether avoided. I am prepared to leave it entirely to the Natal Government and Parliament to decide what, if any, franchise privileges should, for the present, be enjoyed by the white residents in Zululand. With respect to Amatongaland, which will be incorporated at the same time as Zululand with Natal, I am ready to authorize the issue of the necessary Proclamation for its annexation as British territory as soon as your Ministers submit to Parliament their Bill. Your Government must, of course, be asked to abide by any agreement come to by Her Majesty's Government and Portugal with respect to the Amatongaland boundary, and to defray any further expenses in connection with the demarcation, if the Boundary Commission has not completed its work before the incorporation has taken place. Annexation Bill was passed by the Natal Government and Proclamations issued annexing Zululand and Amatongaland to the Colony. Arrangements were also made for the return of Dinuzulu and his two uncles, Ndabuko and Tshingana, from St. Helena, whither they had been deported as captives. The conditions under which the return of Dinuzulu and the Chiefs was allowed (they arrived at Eshowe viâ Durban about January 10th, 1897) were thus defined by Mr. Chamberlain :"Dinuzulu will be taken into the service of the Government of Zululand, his position being that of Government Induna. A house will be provided for him on a site to be selected by the Governor, and a salary of £500 per annum will be attached to his office. He must clearly understand that he does not return to Zululand as Paramount Chief; he must respect, listen to, and obey those officers of the Government who are placed in authority over him; the position

assigned to him by the Government, and the salary allotted to it will be held during the pleasure of the Government, and will be strictly dependent on the manner in which he behaves and obeys the laws laid down for guidance, but will not be withdrawn without the approval of the Secretary of State. As Government Induna he will be liable to be employed in native matters that may arise and be brought to the notice of the Governor's representative in Zululand, such as questions of inheritance and others on which it may be desirable to obtain independent evidence and opinions. He will be chief over those people residing in the location marked off for the Usutu. He will govern amongst them and will rule them by the same laws and form of Government as other chiefs of tribes in Zululand, and he will himself, like those chiefs, be under the laws of the Government of Zululand."

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BANKRUPTCY.

Board of Trade Report, 1897, Ordered August, 1898.-The Report of Mr. John Smith, Inspector-General in Bankruptcy for England and Wales, gives the following totals under the Bankruptcy Acts, 1883 and 1889: Number of Receiving Orders, 4,074; Liabilities, £5,678,498; Assets, £2,756,079; estimated loss to creditors, £3,791,196. There was a decrease as compared with 1896 of 79 in the Orders, £223,640 in the Liabilities and £543,747 in the estimated loss to creditors. Under the Deed of Arrangement Act, 1887, there were 3,208 deeds; Liabilities, 3,980,615; Assets, £1,910,492; estimated loss to creditors, £2,706,954. There was a decrease of 63 deeds, £499,268 in liabilities; £428,215 in assets, and £213,791 in estimated loss to creditors. The total of both classes is 7,282 cases, with liabilities £9,659,113; assets, £4,666,571; and estimated loss to creditors of £6,498,150-a decrease of 142 in the cases, £722,908 in liabilities, £6,387 in assets, and £757,538 in estimated loss to creditors. The Report says: "As compared with the figures for 1896 the Table shows a decrease of 142 in the total number of failures in 1897 and a decrease in the total amount of liabilities of nearly threequarters of a million. It is noticeable that

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since 1893 there has been a steady decrease year by year both in the total number of failures and in the total liabilities. The number of bills of sale filed yearly during the same period exhibits a similar decrease, while the number of County Court judgments has fluctuated very little. fluctuations of insolvency in particular trades and occupations in 1897 and four previous years are shown in the Compara tive Table given in Annex No. V., page 65. Out of 65 groups of particular trades, 30 show an increase in liabilities amounting to £1,872,201, and 35 a decrease of £2,118,533. Amongst the failures in which an increase of liabilities is noticeable are bankers, whose liabilities amount to £814,240, as against £34,585 in 1896. This large increase is due to the failure of a private bank having several branches in the South of England. A Receiving Order was made against the firm, while a former partner, who had not long previously retired, executed a deed of assignment, As the liabilities under the deed include liabilities due to the creditors of the bank, the total liabilities are not so great as the figures appear to indicate. The only other trades in which the liabilities exceed half a million are grocery and provisions, £633,356, and leather trades, £544,575. The former amount is slightly less than the similar liabilities in the preceding year, but the leather trades show an increase of over £200,000. The liabilities of directors and promoters of public companies have increased by £154,000, and those of drapers and haberdashers by £182,000. It is regrettable to observe that the liabilities of solicitors, whose failure so often involves great loss or ruin to many of their clients, have increased to over £460,000. Beer, wine, and spirit trades, farmers, shipping trades, cotton, wool, and timber merchants show a considerable decrease in liabilities, but the most marked diminution occurs in the class described in the proceedings as Merchants, whose liabilities are £347,256, as compared with £996,163 in 1896, a decrease of no less than £648,907." Of the failures of women the total (Receiving Orders and Deeds) is 422, with liabilities £309,236, and assets £124,943. The total number of women who failed during the year was 422, a decrease of 17 as compared with 1896. The largest number of failures occurs amongst widows, and the numbers of widows and spinsters who failed under Receiving Orders are practically identical with the failures in the same classes under Deeds of Arrangement. Owing to the fact pointed out in previous Reports that married women cannot be made bankrupt unless trading separately and apart from their husbands, the number of this class under Deeds exceeds the number under Receiving Orders by 35. In 386 out of the total number of failures the debtors were engaged in some trade or occupation, while of the 36 debtors who had no occupation, or whose occupation was

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unknown, 26 were widows. On the subject of Prosecutions and Reports to the Incorporated Law Society the Report says:"In addition to the prosecutions ordered under the Debtors and Bankruptcy Acts, prosecutions were instituted in three cases for offences under other Acts disclosed in the course of the bankruptcy proceedings. In one case the bankrupt as director and manager of certain steamship companies misappropriated large sums of money. He was charged with an offence under the Larceny Act, and was sentenced to three years' penal servitude. In the second case the bankrupt, who was charged with misappropriating trust moneys, received a sentence of three months' imprisonment. The remaining case was that of a solicitor who had been struck off the rolls, and it was remarkable for the number and ingenuity of the frauds perpetrated by the bankrupt, and the extraordinary influence he exercised over those whom he used to further his schemes. The offences charged included forgery, perjury, larceny, and conspiracy. The bankrupt was sentenced to ten years' penal servitude and nine months' hard labour, the sentences to run concurrently, and three of his confederates, one of whom was a solicitor, were sentenced to 12 months' hard labour, 20 months' hard labour, and 9 months' hard labour respectively. Several others, mostly solicitors, appeared to be implicated, but not to an extent sufficient to warrant criminal proceedings against them. This case involved a great expenditure of time and trouble, and the Recorder in passing sentence publicly thanked the Assistant Official Receiver, who was mainly responsible for the investigation. In some cases, however, the results of prosecutions in regard to which much trouble has been taken are the reverse of encouraging to those on whom the duty of investigating the facts and reporting to the Crown is thrown. As an example may be mentioned the case of a bankrupt who concealed the existence of a legacy due to him at the date of the Receiving Order, applied the money to his own purposes, and subsequently when questioned on the subject made a statement which investigation proved to be in every material particular false. His conduct resulted in a loss to his creditors of an asset amounting to £163, and he was accordingly prosecuted for offences under the Debtors Act, Part II., Section 11, Sub-sections 1, 2, 4, and 6. The jury found the prisoner guilty on all counts of the indictment, but recommended him to mercy in consideration of witnesses' testimony to character, and he was ordered to enter into his own recognizances in the sum of £20 to come up for judgment when called upon. The bankrupt had, previous to the prosecution, obtained his discharge, subject to suspension for two years, but upon application by the Official Receiver for a review of the order, having regard to the offences that had been committed, the period of suspension was extended to ten years. In addition to

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prosecution proceedings, the question of bringing the conduct of solicitors before the Incorporated Law Society for misappropriation of trust moneys and other offences was considered in four cases, but in only one case was it thought advisable to take steps.' The percentages of discharges granted unconditionally and refused have increased as compared with the figures for 1896, but the latter forms a smaller proportion than in any year previous to 1896. The total number of cases in which discharge was suspended for two years or more forms 88.3 per cent. of the total number of suspensions as compared with 84-3 per cent. in the preceding year. Only 25 prosecutions under Section 166 of the Bankruptcy Act of 1883 were ordered during the year. This is a decrease of two as compared with the preceding year, and the smallest number since the Act of 1883 came into operation. Of 20 cases tried, 13 resulted in convictions and 7 in acquittals, the latter being an increase of 4 as compared with the previous year.

BARBADOS. (See WEST INDIA COMMISSION.)

BECHUANALAND (Native Disturbances). (See AFRICA.) BEHRING SEA.

Conclusions Signed by the British, Canadian, and United States Delegates respecting the Fur Seal Herd frequenting the Pribyloff Islands in Behring Sea, January, 1898 (United States, No. II.).— The delegates-Charles Summer Hamlin and David Starr Jordan (United States),

D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (Great Britain), and James Melville Macoun (Canada)-met in order to arrive at correct conclusions respecting the numbers, conditions and habits of the seals frequenting the Pribyloff Islands, as compared with the seasons previous and subsequent to the Paris Award. Their joint conclusions state that since 1884 the fur seal herd of the Pribyloff, as measured either on the hauling grounds or breeding grounds, has declined in numbers at a varying yearly rate. Comparing figures from 1871 to 1889 with those of 1896-97, they say that it is plain that the former yield of the hauling grounds of the Islands was from three to five times as great as in the years 1896 and 1897, and the same diminution to one-third or one-fifth of the former product may be assumed as the results of hunting at sea. The final conclusions are:-"(9) The methods of driving and killing practised on the islands, as they have come under our observation during the past two years, call for no criticism or objection. An adequate supply of bulls is present on the rookeries; the number of older bachelors rejected in the drives during the period in question is such as to safeguard in the immediate future a similarly adequate supply; the

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