tT ° .feei ; b?t whether these rivers are used or not
J * * eKlan(?lnS ° f railroad plant, it is certain that that plant
must be landed, and the railways made, for if ever a
district required them the Gold Coast does. There has been
or some time much talk of the Government constructing a
line, and a survey for it has been made, but I believe this
survey has not given satisfaction, and a new one is in contemplation.
11 is to be hoped it will soon enter intothe phase of
construction, for it is a return to the trade (from which it
draws its entire revenue) that the local government owes, and
owes heavily; and if our new acquisition of Ashantee is to be
developed, it must have a railway bringing it in touch with
me coast trade, not necessarily running into Coomassie, but
near enough to Coomassie to enable goods to be sold there
at but a small advance on Coast prices.
_ It is an error, easily fallen into, to imagine that the natives
in the interior are willing to give much higher prices than the
sea-coast natives for goods. Be it granted that they are
compelled now. to give say on an average seventy-five per
■cent, higher prices to the sea-coast natives who at present
act as middlemen between them and the white trader, but if
In 1 ?r g ° eS into the interior, he has to face, first,
the difficulty of getting' his goods there safely; secondly, the
opposition of the native traders who can, and will drive him
out. of the market, unless he is backed by easy and cheap
means of transport. Take the case of Coomassie now A
merchant, let us. say, wants to take up from the Coast to
Coomassie A3,000 worth of goods to trade with. To transport
thishe has to employ 1,300 carriers at is. 3d. per day a
head. The time taken is eight days there, and eight days back
- sixteen days, which figures out at ¿1,300, without allowing
for loss and damage. In order to buy produce with these
goods that will cover this, and all shipping expenses, &c., he
would have to sell at a far higher figure in Coomassie than he
would on the sea coast, and the native traders would easily
° UStuh™ the market Moreover so long as a district is I
the hands of native traders there is no advance made and no
development goes forward ; and it would be a grave error to
allow this to take place at Coomassie, now that we have at last
done what we should have done in 1874 and taken actual
possession for Coomassie is a grand position that, if properly
managed for a few years, will become a great interior market
attracting to itself the routes of interior trade. It is not now
a_great centre ; because of the oppression and usury which the
Kings of Ashan(ee have inflicted on all in their power, and
which have caused Coomassie mainly to attract one form of
trade, viz., slaves ; who were used in their constant human
sacrifices, and for whom a higher price was procurable here than
from the Mohammedan tribes to the north under French
sway. And as for the other trade stuffs, they have naturally
for years drained into the markets of the French Soudan;'
instead of through such a country as Ashantee, into the
' markets of the English Gold Coast ; and so unless we run a
railroad up to encourage the white traders to go inland, and
make a market that will attract these trade routes into
Coomassie, we shall be a few years hence singing out “ What’s
the good of Ashantee,” and so forth, as is our foolish wont,
never realising that the West Coast is not good unless it is
made so by white effort.
The new régime on the Gold Coast is undoubtedly more
active than the old-jjMknore alive to the importance of pushing
inland and so forth— and a road is going to be made twenty-five
feet wide all the way to Coomassie, and then beyond it, which
is an excellent thing in its way. But it will not do much for
trade, because the pacification of the country, and the greater
security of personal property to the native, which our rule will
afford will aid him in bringing his goods, to the coast, but
not so greatly aid our taking our goods inland, for the carriers
will require just as much for carrying goods along a road, as
they do for carrying goods along a bush path, and rightly too,
for it is quite as heavy work for them, and heavier, as I know
from my experience of the governmental road in Cameroon.
In such a country as West Africa there can be no doubt
that a soft bush path. with a thick coating, of moss, and
leaves on it, and shaded from the sun above by the interlacing
branches, is far and away better going than a hard, sunny
wide road. This road will be valuable for military expeditions:
possibly, but military expeditions are not everyday affairs
on the Gold Coast ; and it cannot be of use for draught
animals, because of the horse-sickness and tsetse fly which
occur as soon as you get into the forest behind the littoral
region : 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