The Other Chief Gold Coast River, The Bosum Prah, That Enters The
Sea At Chama, Is No Use For Navigation
From the sea, being
obstructed with rock and rapids, and its bar only carrying two feet;
but whether these rivers
Are used or not for the landing of railroad
plant, it is certain that that plant must be landed, and the
railways made, for if ever a district required them the Gold Coast
does. It is to be hoped it will soon enter into the phase of
construction, for it is a return to the trade (from which it draws
its entire revenue) that the local government owes, and owes
heavily; and if our new acquisition of Ashantee is to be developed,
it must have a railway bringing it in touch with the Coast trade,
not necessarily running into Coomassie, but near enough to Coomassie
to enable goods to be sold there at but a small advance on Coast
prices.
It is an error, easily fallen into, to imagine that the natives in
the interior are willing to give much higher prices than the sea-
coast natives for goods. Be it granted that they are compelled now
to give say on an average seventy-five per cent. higher prices to
the sea-coast natives who at present act as middlemen between them
and the white trader, but if the white trader goes into the
interior, he has to face, first, the difficulty of getting his goods
there safely; secondly, the opposition of the native traders who
can, and will drive him out of the market, unless he is backed by
easy and cheap means of transport. Take the case of Coomassie now.
A merchant, let us say, wants to take up from the Coast to Coomassie
3,000 pounds worth of goods to trade with. To transport this he has
to employ 1,300 carriers at one shilling and three pence per day a
head. The time taken is eight days there, and eight days back, =
sixteen days, which figures out at 1,300 pounds, without allowing
for loss and damage. In order to buy produce with these goods that
will cover this, and all shipping expenses, etc., he would have to
sell at a far higher figure in Coomassie than he would on the sea-
coast, and the native traders would easily oust him from the market.
Moreover so long as a district is in the hands of native traders
there is no advance made, and no development goes forward; and it
would be a grave error to allow this to take place at Coomassie, now
that we have at last done what we should have done in 1874 and taken
actual possession, for Coomassie is a grand position that, if
properly managed for a few years, will become a great interior
market, attracting to itself the routes of interior trade. It is
not now a great centre; because of the oppression and usury which
the Kings of Ashantee have inflicted on all in their power, and
which have caused Coomassie mainly to attract one form of trade,
viz., slaves; who were used in their constant human sacrifices, and
for whom a higher price was procurable here than from the Mohammedan
tribes to the north under French sway.
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