The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-03-22 00:00:00

"A NEARER INDIA FOR ENGLAND,"

In London, os Tuesday night, before a meeting of the
Society of Arts, a paper on "Africa as a Paramount Neces-
sity for the Induitries of England" was read by Mr.
Bradshaw, of Mancsester, Sir Thomas Powell Buxton pre-
siding.

The reader said that in England all trades being at
a dead level of depression it became necessary tq
consider the best means of assisting ourselves.
Africa, he was of opinion, would be found to be as
Livingstone had predicted it would one day be, "a
nearer India for England." It was a land sur-
passingly rich in enema', mineral, and vegetable
wealth; a land of great lakes and rivers forming
natural highways foe commerce. There was a population
of from 200,000,000 to 400,000,000, and the materials to
hand. He thouieht that £10,000,000 sterling should
be raised by shares at a small sum and applied
to the making of I railway 500 miles in length,
which it was wraluted could be made in about
eighteen months; to the providing of steamers for
the great lakes, three points of attack being recom-
mended—the Niger, the Livingstone, and the lake
regions; and the necessary wharves, warehouses, and
trading stations, He particularly instanced the cotton
trade as an industry which would reap incalculable
benefit, far exceeding what had resulted from India,
the latter now diminishing from native manufacture.
The produce of the country in ivory and gold would
be immense and Mr. Stanley had stated his opinton
that on a railway the return traffic would be very heavy.
A modified East India Corn pany wonld, he thought,
bring the blessing of securit.P and civilization to the
natives.
In the discussion which followed the reading, Mr.
Pell advocated the railway system. Mr. Howard said
that he had been delegated by the working men of
Preston to urge the question in the cotton interest,
Preston having now thousands of looms and spindles
idle.
Colonel Grant thought the country should be at-
tacked trom the eastern coast.

The secretary read a paper from Colonel Badger,
who said the Sultan of Zanzibar would insist on being
consulted in the matter, and had stated that his in-
terest in the country could not be overlooked.

Mr. James Stephenson, Manchester, said that there
was already a Livingstania Company, which had
steamers on the Zambesi, trading for some 800 miles up
towards Lake Nyassa. Roads had been made at a
cost of from £5 to £lO a mile. It had also been recently
ordered that an exploration should be made from
Nyassa to Lake Tanganyka, and there was little doubt
that roads would bemade and communication established
with the London mission there. Mr. Stephenson
doubted if colonization would be found to have any
other effect than getting us into trouble. The natives
were very honest and careful, and one of the worst
things that could happen would be to send out bad
goods. By avoiding war and fighting with the natives
—the Zulus existing very close up to the lakes—he
thought we had nothing to fear.
Mr. Hutchinson thought that we were running after
an ignus fatuus in Eastern Central Africa when
Western Africa would offer much greater opportunity.
The Sultan of Zanzibar should, he thought, be assisted
in protecting and consolidating his country.
The chairman having summed up the observations,
a vote of thanks concluded the meeting.