A new Police Camp was built and three cells erected for confinement of prisoners. The story goes that, when an early prisoner was sentenced to three months� hard labour, he was sent home before being gaoled in a pole-and-dagga hut to collect his first month�s rations, and was told to tell his wife to bring him enough food each month for the length

of his stay.

Work was started on the new road, which ran through Sawerombi West, with the first outspan just below today�s Nyashama homestead, and came out at the confluence of the Nyanyadzi and Biriwiri rivers.

Rinderpest had died out and stock was in splendid condition. Besides their cattle, farmers had sheep, goats, pigs, horses, donkeys and mules. In the three districts about 72 farms were occupied, with fruit trees growing well:  figs and guavas throve specially well, and peaches and vines had started bearing. Almost every kind of vegetable was grown, and the chief crops were mealies, oats, wheat, barley, pumpkins, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and onions. Most farmers had tobacco of a fair quality in taste and aroma. Tea and coffee planting was being tried with very encouraging results.

Willem Prinsloo paid I / 6d per morgen for Albany, which was also the price paid for the excess on some farms which were larger than the original grant amount.

Toxine was used on locusts with good effect and many swarms were destroyed, but it was felt that unless the Portuguese co-operated in using it the district would continually be visited by the pest.

 

Attendance at Farmers� Association meetings was very good, with nearly all farmers being members.

There was a Tennis Club with a fairly good court and steps were taken to start a Cricket Club and a Racing Club. A very keen interest was taken in the Rifle Club which had about 60 members and a canvas target as a temporary range; ammunition was supplied to the Club by the Government at 10/- per 100 rounds for Lee Metford and 15/3 for Martini-Henri rifles.

In November H. Remmer wrote to the R.M.:
�I hear you are in want of a Gaoler and Municipal Police Sergeant. I should very much like the billet. I will undertake the work for �15 a month, rations and quarters. My time of service with the B.S.A. Company Police will expire on December 23rd 1898, when I will have served two years. If you are in favour of this application, I will be very much obliged if you will forward it to Salisbury.� On 2nd December the Law Department wired that Sergeant Remmer was fit for any position of trust and would make a good gaoler. Bertie Remmer married Engela, daughter of G. F. Heyns, soon afterwards.

A 78-mile long telegraph line with wooden poles was erected from Umtali, and Melsetter Telegraph Office was opened on the 10th January 1899 for the transmission of public business, with rates the same as to other Rhodesian offices. After this most official correspondence was conducted by telegraph, and telegrams in original handwriting are in the National Archives, many very long and difficult to read.

In January 1899 a meeting of inhabitants requested the Government to apply the provisions of Village Regulations to the township, and recommended the appointment of a Board to carry out the provisions. Salisbury approved of the application, but said that a Board of Management would be premature in view of the smallness of the population of the town, and asked Longden to attend personally to preparing bye-laws and carrying out the rules and regulations.
The cemetery site on Stand 6 was selected and reserved, with provision for the requirements of the various denominations.

A flourishing Athletic and Dramatic Club arranged Sports and Concerts during the Nachtmaal weekends.
Predikant le Roux held services regularly in Dutch and once a month in English in the pole-and-dagga D.R. Church. During tfle year a schoolroom, 60� x 30�, was built of brick and iron, and here he ably managed the undenominational school. Fees were reasonable, but attendance was only fair as few European children were receiving any education because most farmers had very limited means and had not been able to get markets for their produce, and lack of boarding accommodation also prevented the filling of the spacious school building.

The F. A. distributed poison for the destruction of vermin and some very gratifying results were reported: on one farm alone three lions and a couple of "tigers" and numerous small vermin were destroyed. (Leopards were then commonly called tigers). Some ammunition, over from the issue to the Moodie Trek, was handed in and the C.C. sold some of it to farmers for guarding against the depredations of wild animals; in asking for permission to sell the lot he said he did not think it safe to keep it in the grass hut store.

Dunstan was transferred to J. T. English from his brother�s estate and he applied for permission to occupy it as a stock farm only without having to build on it; his hands were full on Tilbury, where he employed several white men putting up permanent substantial stone buildings roofed with corrugated iron, including a large homestead and a cattle shed. He also had some 50 acres under cultivation and an orchard of over 500 selected imported fruit trees.

Other farmers were not in such a good position: one had run up a debt of �23.15.8d at the B.S.A. Store, which he could not settle owing to illness and being unable to find work; he said that if the Company pressed the account he would have to dispose of his interest here, and his Promissory Note at four months was accepted.

Wayland�s general survey of the district was progressing satisfactorily, and he and the Portuguese Surveyor fixed the intermediate beacons between those erected by the Anglo-Portuguese Boundary Delimitation Commissioners.
The new road to Umtali was opened for traffic about July. It was the shortest route ever made to Umtali, and the journey could comfortably be done in eight days instead of the fortnight or three weeks which the old road had taken, and its opening reduced transport costs by 50%. Unfortunately the necessary drains and culverts were not made before the rainy season set in so a great deal of damage was done, and as the drifts also needed to be remade each year it was a difficult road to maintain.

Construction of a new road to the south was started along the banks of the Nyahode until near its confluence with the Rusitu river and then almost due south to Silinda, instead of following the old very bad and circuitous road over the Waterfall range of mountains.

In October M. J. Martin made the first of his planned five-year anniversary visits to Ebenhaezer, and over 80 Melsetter residents signed a letter of appreciation to mark the occasion, congratulating Mr. and Mrs. Martin on having borne their share of trials and hardships very well, and wishing them long life and prosperity.

The fact that the posts of Resident Magistrate and Civil Commissioner were held by one person, who had to carry out instructions from all Departments in Salisbury, led to some acrimonious correspondence while H. A. Cloete was Acting R.M. and C.C. in 1899 during Longden�s absence on leave.

The argument started when the Surveyor-General sent the C.C. to travel along the boundary and report on farms which had been partly or wholly cut off by the delimitation. He was absent from his office for nine days, but part of the frontier still remained to be inspected. In March the Public Prosecutor objected to Magistrates going out of their offices without having previously obtained his permission.

The Surveyor-General, being anxious that the interests of regularity should be promoted, requested instructions for his future guidance in giving directions to the Civil Commissioner. He had not known that Magistrates were under the control of the Public Prosecutor in regard to their movements, and had thought that Magistrates� clerks were Assistant R.M.s, who could carry on the Public Prosecutor�s business in the absence of the C.C.

The Administrator ruled that the Surveyor-General should consult the Department of Public Prosecution before sending a C.C. and R. M. on any assignment away from his headquarters, and arrangements would then be made for the performance of duties during his absence.

The Surveyor-General told the Public Prosecutor that it was necessary for the C.C. to visit and report on the position of farms between the Rusitu and Umvumvumvu rivers, and asked the Under-Secretary to make the necessary arrangements. A month later Cloete reported that he had not received his instructions, and even if these arrived by the next mail he would not be able to proceed with the work immediately as his only horse had been sent to Umtali by His Honour�s orders.

The Administrator then approved of Cloete�s hiring a horse and proceeding on the tour provided he could arrange for the performance of his duties during his absence, and the Acting Under-Secretary asked the Surveyor-General to consult with the Acting Public Prosecutor on the arrangements for Cloete�s duties during his absence.

One wonders whether it was because so many senior officials were Acting that so much confusion resulted. The next letter was from the Acting Secretary of the Law Department in May, only two months after the Public Prosecutor had started the argument, and flatly contradicts the first letter. �The Acting Public Prosecutor has not at any time desired that he should be consulted with reference to arrangements for the performance of a Magistrate�s duties when absent from his station. If anything indicating the contrary appears in correspondence it has been inserted incautiously.�

A telegram was then sent to Cloete authorising him to visit and report on the farms and to ask Native Commissioner Meredith to take any statements during his absence. Cloete�s last letter on the subject reads as something of an anti-climax. He asked permission to postpone visiting the farms, as should he leave his station then it would interfere with his studies for the forthcoming examination.

 

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