Excerpt from The South African Mining Journal, Vol. 22: Part I., January 4, 1913 The annual report on the Swaziland Protectorate for the financial year ended 3lst March last has recently been pre sented to the Houses of Parliament at Westminster. Swaziland is a Protectorate under the South African High Commissioner. Formerly the country was administered by the South African Republic, but an order-in-council of the lst December, 1906, transferred the government to the High. Commissioner. The report for the past year indicates a steady measure of progress. There is a surplus of ordinary revenue over expenditure amounting to as against for the preceding year. A special sum of has been spent in the general settlement of concessions, including the partition of rights be tween the concessionaires and the Swazis. This amount has been met from loans raised for the purpose, amounting to and from general revenue. It is estimated that of this will be recovered from the concessionaires. The public debt, which amounts to is made up of the Swaziland Consolidated Loan at 3% per cent. Per annum. No statistics of imports and exports are now kept owing to an agreement dating from 30th June, 1910, with the Union Government, by which Swaziland for Cus toms purposes is treated as part of the Union, receiving the proportion of Customs revenue which the average of the collections for three years ended 3lst March, 1911, bears to the total Customs collections of the Union in each year. Although we have no figures by which can be estimated the state of trade, at the same time from mining returns the gold and tin output would appear to be satisfactory. During the year, ozs. Of fine gold have been extracted of the value of and 313 tons of cassiterite valued at as against ozs. Fine gold of the value of and 476 tons of tin valued at for the pre vious year. Practically the whole output of gold and tin has been exported oversea. The increase in the gold won is principally due to the Pigg's Peak mine which is the largest in the district. Tin occurs in payable quantities in the Mbabane district. Agriculture has received a set-back owing to the want of rain, the natives losing a large percentage of their crops and cattle; but the European farmers, with their more scientific methods, have not suffered so severely, although in many cases considerable loss has likewise been occasioned. According to a census taken in May, 1911, there were head of stock in Swaziland, distributed over a population of Europeans, 143 coloured, and' natives. It is generally felt that the construction of' a railway is the main factor upon which the future expansion of Swaziland will depend, and at no distant date this will' become an absolute necessity if justice is to be done to the undoubted agricultural potentialities of the country. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.