Mr. Archibald Colquhoun, formerly Administrator of Mashonaland, on Tuesday delivered
a remarkable lecture on South Africa at the Royal Colonial Institute. He stated that the Protectorate of the British South Africa Company extended over 750,000 square miles, and that' Mashona- laud, which is three-fourths of the size of France, is for the most part a healthy plateau, producing gold in quantities, and almost all the cereals and vegetables of Europe. He thought the expulsion or extirpation of the Matabele impossible and injurious, as their labour would be wanted for every kind of undertaking. He con- firmed the accounts of the raids on the Mashonas, but was kindly in his references to Lobengula, whom he considered
able, industrious, and not cruel, but forced into raids and into the recent war by his young soldiers, who were anxious for victories to enable them to marry. Mr. Colquhoun believes strongly in the future of South Africa, and especially in the expansion of its trade, which he now expects to advance by leaps and bounds. He held the expansion of the Empire to be wise; for, as we could not feed ourselves, we must either export our people, or find for them new means of disposing of their manufactures.
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