Kamerun was administered by an Imperial Governor, a Chancellor and two secretaries, with a local council of three merchants. Professor Bönn pointed out that there are ample signs of the growing strength of the administration, and gives as an instance that there is a yearly increase in the number of native criminals brought to justice. The ever-increasing returns of the hut tax, too, which in the Kamerun has nearly doubled in the last four years, is pointed to as proof of increased administrative efficiency.
Kamerun stretches into the interior to Lake Tchad, in the direction of which a railway has been built for 400 miles.
The trade of the Colony in 1912 amounted to £1,629,895 imports and £1,102,803 exports, the latter being the usual tropical products.
Cotton is known to have been grown and cultivated round about Lake Tchad for centuries, and agricultural experimental stations have been established in the lake districts. As in Togoland, the agriculture is all in native hands.
Kamerun has been held back by transport difficulties which it was hoped to overcome by building railways, and railway projects were propagated energetically which it was hoped to carry into effect shortly.
The usual means of transport, as in other parts of the coast, is by native carrier; and the villages are therefore grouped within a reasonable distance of the main trade routes, paths which the chiefs and people are responsible for keeping in order.
Palm-oil and copra are, as in the other West African Colonies, the chief articles of export; and palm kernels are daily coming more and more into use in Europe as a substitute for butter, and for the manufacture of cattle-food, etc. Two-thirds of the copra exported from Kamerun, amounting to £300,000 worth in 1912, went to Germany and one-third to England.
In the Colony itself five oil works have been established, but owing to lack of transport it is calculated that three-fourths of the yield of the oil palm trees is left to rot on the ground unused.
The forests of Kamerun hold an immense quantity of trees bearing timber of excellent quality, and this to the value of £35,000 was exported in 1912.
Round the Kamerun mountains exist large tracts under cultivation of cocoa, of which 4,550 tons, valued at £212,500, were exported in 1912. The natives have been urged to extend this industry, and travelling instructors were appointed by the Government to train them in the best methods of cultivation. More and more fresh as well as dried bananas, too, have been exported from Kamerun, and this trade offers a promising field of enterprise.