Annual report on Nyasaland / Colonial Office.

  • Colonial Office
Date:
[1946]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on Nyasaland / Colonial Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/68 page 14
    issue, were reflected by a considerable increase in revenue from stamp sales, which, however, was undoubtedly also due to the great increase in African correspondence which advances in literacy and the influence of the war have brought about. The estimated surplus balance at the end of 1946 was £932,000, almost twice the pre-war annual ordinary revenue. Towards the end of the year a Fiscal Survey was carried out, but the report of the committee engaged on the work had not yet been published. Another indication of education progress was to be seen in the decision further to pursue the policy of giving increased responsibility to Africans in the Police Force by the appointment of four African Assistant Sub- Inspectors. In addition, the literate establishment of the Force was con¬ siderably increased. About a quarter of its members are now literate in English, and all in the “literate” section have at least reached Standard IV. There has been a steady increase in the number of cases dealt with in the Police, but save in regard to breaches of the liquor laws this is mainly due to an increase in the proportion of alleged offences which are actually reported by the public. The Prison Service is rapidly approaching the day when it can claim to be numbered among the Social Services, for regular progress is being made in implementing the policy of emphasising the remedial effect of imprisonment, although recidivists still account for over 16 per cent, of the prison population. The segregation of first offenders is now practicable, a prison farm has been opened near Zomba, and during the year the establishment of an approved school was authorised. General behaviour within the prisons continued to improve, reflecting the incentives provided by the Convict Leader scheme and the increased scale of remission of sentences for good conduct; there were no cases of corporal punishment for breaches of prison discipline. The five year plan for education development passed smoothly through its second year, and there was a marked increase in the number of suc¬ cessful candidates for the Standard VI examination, which augurs well for the future of secondary education and for teacher and other vocational training; among these were four girls. Four Africans at present hold Government scholarships, two at Makerere, one at Fort Hare, and one in Johannesburg. A teacher belonging to the Church of Scotland Mission was seconded to the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London to assist in the teaching and study of Chinyanja. Other scholarships are held by non-natives at Universities in the United Kingdom and India. In matters of educational policy, Government agreed in principle to recommendations by the Advisory Committees that men and women teachers should receive equal pay for equal work, that cost-of-living allowances should be introduced for certificated African teachers in assisted schools, and that the Education Department should take over the European School in Blantyre. A special committee reviewed the whole question of African higher education, especially the means of raising the local secondary schools to full matriculation standard and the provision of post-matriculation facilities outside Nyasaland; it reported towards the end of the year. The Protectorate continued to be free from serious epidemic disease,
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