Annual report on Northern Rhodesia / Colonial Office.

  • Colonial Office
Date:
[1952]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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

    11/134 (page 5)
    and electrolytic copper £26,463,604. About 6,000 Europeans and 40,000 Africans were employed in mining during the year, by far the most important occupation in the Territory. Industrial relations throughout the country remained satisfactory. There were no strikes by European labour during the year and only two African strikes which involved the loss of any considerable number of man-days. As the result of a strike called by the Northern Rhodesia African Mineworkers* Trade Union, over a demand for higher pay, a total of 640,065 man-days were lost. The dispute was eventually settled by arbitration. The development of secondary industries has been handicapped by the lack of raw materials and high transportation costs. In the past, the lack of suitably serviced sites was another adverse factor. In 1952, however, many local authorities alienated industrial sites and planned also for the provision of roads, railway sidings, water and electric power. When the hydro-electric scheme in the Kafue Gorge is built, it will give a tremendous impetus to the expansion of secondary industries. New companies registered in Northern Rhodesia in 1952 totalled the record number of 144. The total capital involved amounted to over £1,700,000. WEATHER AFFECTS CROPS For the second successive year adverse weather conditions seriously affected maize production, and abnormally heavy rains in the maize belt made it necessary to augment the Territory’s supplies by imports from Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The estimated annual requirements of maize are now approaching 100,000 tons. The very wet season also reduced the quality of tobacco produced, and in the Eastern Province prices dropped to almost half of those fetched during 1951. The reduced financial returns to the farming industry made it necessary for Government to issue flood relief loans to many maize and tobacco farmers. The year was not unfavourable for livestock, however, and the cattle population continued to increase. Large numbers of slaughter cattle were imported from Bechuanaland, and these additional supplies made possible the removal of beef rationing. The dairy industry also made good progress and it is hoped that the industry will be further encouraged by the higher milk prices which it is proposed to introduce during 1953. FUEL AND TRANSPORT Northern Rhodesia consumers received more coal in 1952 than in the previous year from the Wankie Colliery in Southern Rhodesia, but the mining companies still had to use large quantities of wood fuel.