Q4i are beginning to be appreciated. Industrial instruction is regularly imparted to about 40 people. \' Tiie American Mission has in the Soudan four boys’ schools and a day and boarding school for gills. The total number of pupils is 486. At the mission station on the Sobat river a great deal of useful work, medical, industrial, and educational, lias been done. Doctor Lambie has in the course of the year performed some 30 operations and treated over 2,000 patients belonging to the Shillouk, Dinka, Anuak and Nuer tribes.

The Austrian Mission maintains four schools and several mission stations, two on the White Nile, and three in the Bahr-el-Ghazal. A.t all these places tbe confidence of the natives is being steadily gained and they are being initiated into the beginnings of civilization by means of elementary education and instruction in agriculture, tailoring, carpentering, and smithing. Dispensaries and a room for the sick are attached to three of the stations.

5. Exploration and Surveys.

No exploring expeditions of special interest have been undertaken during the year, but the officials in the outlying districts, notably Captains Dove and Jennings Bramly in the Mongalla Province, Captain Black and Messrs. Willis and MacMichael in Kordofan, have all done useful work. Captain Kelly made an expedition through south-west Abyssinia, returning to the Soudan through the Beni Shangul country, and compiled an interesting report on the country through which he passed. Captain Coningham has also done good work in correcting the maps of the northern portion of the Bahr-el-Ghazal province.

The cadastral survey has made satisfactory progress. The staff of settlement officers has been strengthened in the Gezira so that both survey and settlement work may proceed at the same rate. At the present rate the Blue Nile province should be finished in about four years’ time. In Mesellamia the settlement party, under Judge Peacock, completed, as the result of two years’ work, the registration of an area of about 325 square miles, and, in addition, about 200 square miles have been demarcated ready for survey, and 185 miles of tracks marked out. In the Kamlin district Mr. Corbyn and his party have now finished work over 175 square miles and the properties in an equal area have been demarcated. The work included the settlement of the ownership of properties as to which disputes and feuds, often resulting in bloodshed, had for generations been rife'between the rival tribes.

Mr. Bonham Carter, the legal secretary, writes ;— “ Good progress has been made by the land settlement parties, and the benefits of the work which has been accomplished are already beginning to be realized. Litigation in connection with land has diminished, the disputes and fights over boundaries, which were a usual accompaniment of the fall of the rains and the commencement of cultivation, have practically ceased where boundaries have been demarcated and the land surveyed. Owners are assured that their titles will be respected and that their fortunes are bound up with those of the Government. Dealings with the land are facilitated and an equitable basis for laud taxation has been provided.”

Survey work has proceeded at a satisfactory rate in the Haifa, Berber, and White Nile provinces and in the town of Omdnrman, and great credit is due to Captain Pearson, Director of the Department, for the results achieved in this branch of the administration.

n. ECONOMICS.

6. Laboui and Population. Approximate estimates made by the Governors of provinces show a steady increase in the population of the Soudan, which may now be roughly put at 2,400,000.

The want of a sufficient labouring population for. the agricultural districts is one of the great difficulties to be faced in the development of the Soudan; but natural causes, which are being given free scope by an era of peace and security, are rapidly •Working towards a solution of the problem. With a view to preventing vagabondage and helping the Soudanese who are willing to work, a labour bureau has been instituted for the registration of available labour. The working of the scheme, the success of which is greatly due to the untiring efforts of Captain Symes, has been facilitated by the fact that both private and Government employers have all co-operated in supporting the new organization, House of Commons Parliamentary Papers Online. Copyright (c) 2006 ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved.