Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1913.djvu/1463

 AKEA AND POPULATION — INSTRUCTION — JUSTICE 1341

Area and Population.

Extending southwards from the frontier of Egypt to Uganda and the Belgian Congo (approximately N. lat. 5°), a distance of about 1,650 miles, and stretching from the Red Sea to the confines of Wadai in Central Africa, the subject territory has an area of about 984,520 square miles. The population is now roughly computed at 3,000,000. Massawa, which was formerly Egyptian, now belongs to the Italian Colony of Eritrea ; Harrar was, by agreement, made over to the local Emir and now belongs to Abyssinia ; while Zeila and Berbera now belong to British Somaliland. The Eritrea-Sudan frontier has been completely de- limited and demarcated, as also has the greater part of the frontier with Abyssinia (see under Abyssinia). The cliief towns are Khartum, population (1909), 18,235, the capital, Omdurman (the old Dervish capital), population (1912) 48,000, Khartum North, population 35,285, Haifa, Merowe, El Damer, Atbara, Port Sudan, Suakin, Kassala, El Dueim, Kosri, El Obeid, Nahud, Wad Medani, and Singa.

Instruction.

■ The schools under the Central authority are classified as follows : — There i are first the elementary vernacular schools, " Kuttabs " as they are called, 47 in number (June, 1912), situated in all parts of the country, and with a total number of about 3,226 pupils. In these schools instruction is given to boys from 7 to 10 years of age in reading, writing, arithmetic and religion. Next there are the primary schools, of which there are now six — at Khartum, Omdurman, Berber, Wad Medani, Haifa, and Suakin. The subjects taught in schools of this class include English, Arabic, Mathematics, and in some cases land-measuring, and the total number of boys in atten- dance is 810, After completing their primary course, boys can proceed to the secondary school at the Gordon College, or they may be employed as clerks or translators in Government offices. The secondary school at Gordon College numbers 53 pupils, some of whom take a course in engineering and surveying, while the rest are trained to be teachers in primary schools. There is also in the Gordon College buildings a training college attended by 98 students, who undergo a five years' course of training, after Avhich they are drafted out as teachers in vernacular schools or as Kadis in district courts. The industrial workshops of which there are at present three, at Khartum, Kassala and Omdurman, total 258 boy apprentices. At Khartum and Kassala, smith work, carpentry, fitting, &c., is taught, and at Omdurman stone-catting and brick-work. A primary school has been constructed adjacent to the Gordon College, while a boarding house to accommodate 100 is shortly to be put in hand. A start has been made in the education of girls by the opening of a girls' school at Rufaa — which is at present attended by 60 students. Affiliated to the Gordon College are the Wellcome Tropical Research Laboratories, where investigations are carried on in connection with diseases and with the economic products of the country.

Justice.

In Khartum and Port Sudan civil justice is administered (except in small cases) by civil judges who are English barristers, or Scottish advocates. Elsewhere civil cases are heard by Governors and Inspectors of provinces ; in some provinces a special inspector, called a judicial inspector, is ap- pointed for this work. Civil judges sometimes go on circuit.