Rhodesia of Today; a Description of the Present Condition and the Prospects of Matabeleland and Mashonaland

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895 edition. Excerpt: ... vm administra tion The scheme which has now been adopted for the administration of Matabeleland, though criticised as faulty in some of its details, has met with a general approval in South Africa. It was at first feared, and not without reason, that a Crown Colony would be established here; but Her Majesty's Government, bearing in mind that Matabeleland as well as Mashonaland is included within the region described in the Charter as the principal field of the operations of the British South Africa Company, that the concessions held by the Company are applicable to the whole of Lobengula's territory, and that the recent war had been principally carried on at the expense of the Company, decided that it would be right to place Matabeleland under the direct administration of the Company, and that the Company's machinery for government which was at work in Mashonaland should be extended with certain modifications to the newly acquired country. The Company was to be left to govern the entire territory; but in order that the rights of the natives might be safeguarded, the Imperial Government was to be vested with a somewhat fuller control over the Company than heretofore. The day will no doubt come when a representative form of government will prevail in Ehodesia. An agitation for an extension of local self-government in the townships has already commenced, and the settlers have also petitioned that one member of the Administrative Council, recently created by the Imperial Government, should be elected by ballot by the residents of the country. To accede to this desire, which is by no means general, but is rather the whim of certain busybodies, is out of the question at this early stage of the country's development, and to hold a general...