Belgian Congo 113 KATANGA : INDUSTRY consists of maize meal (from Rhodesia) , meat, salt fish, rice, pea -nuts, sugar, salt, and beans. (Beans and tobacco are raised locally . ) Now that the railway has been completed to Bukama, it is probable that recruits and food supplies will be drawn largely from the north .

Beyond the mining areas native unskilled labour is plentiful, and wages are low , though higher than in other parts of the Congo. In the Lake Tanganyika zone porters are paid 1.50 frs. ( 1s. 3d. ) per diem ; in the Lomami region, 1 fr. ( 10d. ) ; while 5d. to 8d. is the usual rate elsewhere .

(b) European Settlement. - In regard to European settlement, conditions in Katanga are in some measure different from the rest of the Congo. The Belgian element in the population is much less numerically strong, being 51.5 per cent. on January 1 , 1912 ; since then the population is estimated to have increased by January 1 , 1914, to about 2,500, of whom about 1,000 are at Elisabethville, where the population is extraordinarily cosmopolitan. The political danger of the swamping of the Belgian element in Katanga by the South African element has been recognized by Belgium , and a real attempt has been made to encourage agricultural settlement by Belgian farmers, the Government giving free passages third class and obtaining large reductions for emigrants on the South African railways, while the Agricultural Department, as has been seen , is endeavouring to clear land and establish a pastoral industry. A special company for this purpose operated for some time, acting on the basis of bringing out settlers to whom , after a year's work, land and assistance were given, while for others industrial employment for two years was guaranteed .

1 Cd . 6606 , pp . 50–71 . Of 434 Belgians imported in 1910–12. 82 left (Cd . 6665—1 , p . 3 ) . Undesirable persons may be deported (ibid. , p . 18.)

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