Annual report on the Bechuanaland Protectorate / Commonwealth Relations Office.

  • Great Britain. Office of Commonwealth Relations
Date:
[1950]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on the Bechuanaland Protectorate / Commonwealth Relations Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to record that an increasing number of individual Africans are exporting cattle. Negotiations continued with the Colonial Development Corpora¬ tion and finality was reached towards the end of the year on the arrange¬ ments for two projects which the Corporation proposes to establish, one in the Northern Protectorate and the other in the Southern Protec¬ torate. The northern project involves a large scale ranching scheme for which approximately 10,000 square miles of land has been set aside. In the south at Lobatsi work on the conversion of the old cold storage premises to an up-to-date abattoir and cold storage works is due to com¬ mence in January, 1951. The abattoir project will be operated in con¬ junction with holding ranches along the north bank of the Molopo River involving 600,000 acres of Crown Lands. Surface water development financed from Colonial Development and Welfare Funds continued during the year and 18 dams were comple¬ ted in the Bangwaketse Reserve. The three dam construction units were moved to the Bakwena Reserve at the end of the year. With additional funds the Geological Survey has been able to broaden the scope of its geophysical investigations. Petrological and chemical research has continued and work on a geophysical map is well advanced. Public Works Department staff having become available the con¬ struct on of the health centre at Kanye was begun in April. Progress towards the completion of the buildings was retarded towards the end of the year by a shortage of building material, particularly roofing. The Colonial Development and Welfare Fund scheme for the control of tsetse fly in Ngamiland has been handicapped by a high inci¬ dence of sickness among both the European and African personnel. The revised estimates of the Territory’s finances for 1950-51 show a deficit of £71,000 as against a budgeted deficit of £13,097. The un- budgetted expenditure of £33,500 on Foot and Mouth Disease control measures and the various expenses arising out of the Bamangwato poli¬ tical crisis contributed largely to the increased deficit. The non-co-operative attitude of the Bamangwato towards the Central Government at the beginning of the year which was particularly manifested in a refusal to pay taxes, underwent a distinct change on the departure of Seretse Khama to the United Kingdom. The year was marked by the inaugural session of a Joint Advisory Council consisting of the eight elected members of the European Advi¬ sory Council together with eight members nominated by the African Advisory Council and four official members nominated by the Resident Commissioner. It has long been felt that the existing machinery for the consideration of matters of common interest, whereby separate discus¬ sions are held in the European and African Advisory Councils, was unwieldy and conducive to delays in the tendering of advice to Govern¬ ment. The new Council will enable the representatives of both sections of the population to discuss together their common problems and to appreciate each other’s difficulties.
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