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RHODES SCHOLARSHIPS

1608

RHODODENDRON

Rhodesia into Northeastern and Northwestern Rhodesia. Southern Rhodesia has an estimated area of 144,000 square miles and a native population estimated in May, 1911, at 743,640, 497,165 in Mashonaland and 246,475 in Matabeleland. In 1911 there were 11,039 Europeans in the former and 12,543 in the latter province. The entire ootimtry is administered by the British South Africa Company through its administrator and by a resident commissioner appointed by the secretary of state, with executive and legislative councils. Natives and non-natives stand equal before the law except in regard to spirits and arms and ammunition.

Gold-fields with a total estimated area of 5,250 square miles have been discovered in Rhodesia, and 300 companies and syndicates had registered for mining and development work before 1906. Gold to the amount of 231,872 ounces was produced in 1903 and 267,737 ounces in 1904. There are 600 square miles of coal-fields about Wankie, 203 miles northeast of Bulawayo, and a company has been formed for their exploitation. Silver, copper, antimony, blende, arsenic and lead have been found. Southern Rhodesia belongs to the South African Customs-Union. The railway from Bulawayo to the Wankie coal-fields was finished in 'September, 1903, and 212 miles were thus added to the line up the continent from the Cape. On April 25, 1904, it had been pushed on to the Victoria Falls on the Zambezi, and is heading for Lake Tanganyika across North Rhodesia. In 1906 it was open 374 miles north of Victoria Falls. A branch-line from Bulawayo to Gwanda, 120 miles south, was opened in 1903, and the line to the Matopos the same year. Salisbury is connected with Bulawayo by way of Hartley and Gwelo, and the line from Beira to Umtali has also reached Salisbury, the narrow gauge of the latter having been standardized. Salisbury is also connected with the Ayrshire mine in the Lomagundi district by a narrow-gauge road, a distance of 84 miles. The Bne between Gwelo and Selukwe is also open for business. The route between Salisbury and Mazoe has been surveyed for immediate construction. Nearly 3,000 miles of railway have been built in northern and southern Rhodesia. In Southern Rhodesia there are 3,000 miles of post-roads, maintained at a cost of over ^8,000 a year. The Rhodesian telegraph-system, including the African Transcontinental Telegraph Company's lines and those belonging to the police-telephone service, Aggregated 3,984 miles of line and 7,118 of wire, with 99 offices open. Direct communication by wire is opened between Umtali and Beira, and the trunk-line, now 1,600 miles long, has reached Ujiji by way of Blantyre and JCaronga. The telephone systems are ex-

tensive. The penny-post prevails, and there are 73 postoffices in Southein and 35 in North Rhodesia.

Northern Rhodesia, formed by the amalgamation of Northeastern and Northwestern Rhodesia in 1911, has an area of about 190,000 square miles and a population of approximately 1,000,000. The Europeans number 1,434. The territory is divided into ten magisterial districts, with administrative headquarters at Livingstone, on the Zambesi. A good road exists between Lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika and the telegraph line runs from Zomba in the Protectorate to Ujiji. The slave-trade has been suppressed throughout the country, and strict regulations regarding spirits and trading with the natives are in force.

The authorized capital of the British South Africa Company is £9,000,000, of which nearly all has been issued, besides £1,250,000 in debentures. The total revenue for the year ending March, 1911, was £i,-163,874; the expenditure £993,264.

Rhodes Scholarships. Cecil Rhodes (q. v.) of South Africa by his will endowed a large number of perpetual scholarships entitling each of the recipients to spend three years at England's famous University of Oxford, with an annual income of $1,500. These scholarships are distributed among English-speaking people throughout the world, each state and each territory in the United States being entitled to two representatives. Mr. Rhodes' object was to bind all English-speaking people in sympathy and esteem, by means of the social contact and the mutual understanding which such a plan should bring about.

Candidates are to be selected on the basis of four qualifications 5 (i) Attainments in scholarship, as tested by preliminary examinations in Latin, Greek and mathematics; (2) fondness tor and success in outdoor sports; (3) unselfishness and good fellowship; and (4) moial force of character and zeal in the performance of public duties.

It would seem that those best suited for the scholarships are those who have already received the A.B. degree, as the majority of those who have not attained to this standard lack the breadth arid maturity necessary for profiting fully from the splendid opportunities afforded by the social life at Oxford.

The first of the Rhodes scholars began their residence at Oxford in 1903, and those who have recently returned to America report high respect for British institutions.

Rho'doden'dron, a genus of trees, shrubs and various forms of heath, which includes some 200 species, is an evergreen, in many of its species native to North America and in many others to Asia and, especially, the Himalayas, Borneo and Java. Rhododen-