This appeared in TA issue 33 May 1989

SETTLER FARMING
Tanganyika Opinion (January 7, 1939) discussed non- native agriculture in the light of the annual report of the Department of Lands and Mines. More land was in the hands of other Europeans than in the hands of British settlers. Germans held some 455,000 acres and Greeks 177,000 but the total non-British European settlement totalled 1,014,000 acres. Indians held 278,000 acres and South African ‘Dutch’ 55,000.

But it was the quality of the farming which was exercising the newspaper. According to the then Director of Agriculture (a Mr. Harrison) settlers had an overweening tendency to speculation, there were too many bad coffee estates, many ill-tended and worthless cotton fields and a waste of valuable labour. There was, he said, “a poverty of knowledge, aptitude and money”.

The indictment of Mr. Harrison, the paper wrote, must be wiped out by the creation of better conditions. “This cannot be done by reading lectures …. it can be done by sympathetic guidance, co-operation and the creation of opportunities for self-training”

TANGA TOWNSHIP AUTHORITY TURNS NAZI
Under this heading Tanganyika Opinion (January 27, 1939) outlined new town planning regulations laid down by the Tanga Township Authority. One condition required that in any new building plans flats must not be occupied by more than one family and the family must consist of not more than six adults or, alternatively, two adults and eight children all of whom must be under the age of ten years. Great indignation was said to prevail in Asian circles in Tanga and the Indian Association had brought the matter to the attention of His Excellency the Governor of Tanganyika. The Governor had indicated however that he could not intervene as the conditions were due to the requirements of hygiene and sanitation.