Germany's Vanishing Colonies

by Gordon Le Sueur

The blessing is not altogether so apparent to the negro, regarded in conjunction with the fruit of his labour—usually dishonourable stripes.

The European plantations are in the hands of 758 planters, and cover an area of about 250,000 acres—of which 80,000 were planted with rubber, 50,000 with sisal, and 35,000 with cotton; while 1,000,000 cocoa-nut trees were also put in.

Ivory, which for years was the chief article of export, has given place to sisal; and in 1913 the value of sisal hemp exported approached £500,000, rubber taking second place with £325,000.

Sisal culture in East Africa is of recent origin, and was started in German East Africa with a few plants imported from Central America. The cultivation is difficult and the treatment of the leaves equally so, but millions of plants now exist in both German and British East Africa. The exportation of sisal plants was prohibited by the German Government. While sisal takes about seven years to mature in the West Indies, it takes only three in East Africa.

In contrast to the tropical Colonies on the west coast, the cotton-growing is chiefly in the hands of the whites—not solely in the natives. In 1912 it formed the principal crop, with an output of 1,882 tons.

The "slump" in rubber proved a set-back in the economic development of the Colony.

A report of the Consul at Dar-es-Salaam states the number of rubber trees planted and ready for tapping were 19,000,000.

The report proceeds: "Owing to the low prices, all the plantations have limited the number of hands employed, and two of the largest suspended tapping entirely. The planters are heavily handicapped by having to pay the costs of recruiting labour in the interior and its transport down to the plantation. The costs often amount to about £2, 10s. per head before work is begun, and the rate of wages is high—about 16s. 6d. per month for a Wanyamwezi tapper. Owing to a slight rise in the price of rubber, tapping has been resumed by some of the planters, and there is a more hopeful feeling. The small planter has probably a better chance than the large company; his working expenses are less, he can often obtain local labour cheaply or get time-expired hands without paying recruiting fees; and, in addition, he can keep his men under more personal control.

"The outlook for the larger estates is far from reassuring, and it is said that some of them have already begun to cut down the rubber trees to make room for other crops. The Colonial Economic Committee is taking steps to introduce a standard quality of East African rubber, the absence of which is another difficulty which has hampered the planters.

"There is only one large washing and curing factory in the Colony, at Muhesa, though there are several smaller ones in Usambara. Most of the planters wash the rubber themselves, with the result that it has often to be done again in Europe."