The Rhodesian Study Circle is a philatelic website for the areas of Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia, British Central Africa and Nyasaland, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Civil Commissioner’s Office – Quitrent (II)
27 February 1913
The British South Africa Company 1913 extraordinary general meeting took place in London in 1913.
Department of Roads
The Department of Roads was established in 1895. Operating as a sub-section of the Public Works Department and administered by the Secretary for Mines and Roads, the Roads Department was given the onerous task of constructing and maintaining roads throughout the country.
The task was to prove very difficult to fulfil mainly because, for many years, the department remained underfunded and possessed neither the necessary manpower nor the required road construction equipment. It accomplished little before the First World War.
Nine years after its formation, the department had no more than a handful of European employees comprising the Engineer in charge, one Inspector stationed in Matabeleland and six Overseers. The total number of native African labourers who were expected to service the entire country was approximately 240 people.
In 1914, the department had a total transport fleet of only 39 scotch carts and 89 mules. Because of inadequate resources, the department managed to establish only a few earth roads and had built a total of only seven footbridges.
The unsatisfactory condition of the country’s roads at this time was strongly deplored by the settler farming community at its 1911 Convention held in Umtali, where several speakers complained about the unprofessional manner in which the Roads Department conducted its business and the generally unserviceable state of the nation’s roads. It was pointed out that inexperienced and unqualified people were appointed to the department and were left to do as they pleased without any meaningful supervision, and that road construction and maintenance work was being carried out in a half-hearted and haphazard manner.
In a bid to encourage district authorities to contribute their fair share to the road construction programme, the government passed the Road Councils Ordinance in 1921.
In a bid to encourage district authorities to contribute their fair share to the road construction programme, the government passed the Road Councils Ordinance in 1921.
The Road Councils Ordinance provided for the creation of road councils throughout Rhodesia and ruled that the government should give financial aid to such councils through a grants-inaid system on a £ for £ basis. The road councils throughout the country oversaw the construction and maintenance of district roads, while the Vehicle Tax Ordinance of the same year imposed a tax on all vehicles using the country’s roads in order to raise funds for road maintenance.
District councils were rather slow to respond to this law and it was not until 1923 that the first Road Council was established in Que Que. The 1930 Road Councils Act limited rate levies to once every 12 months.
Argus & Co (2360)
Hartley
The Pickstone Gold Mines Limited was registered in 1912 with an authorised capital of £50,000. In 1914 they reported that three separate reef’s had been more or less developed and a large quarry containing rubble opened up. The mines included Concession Hill, Pickstone East and Pickstone West.
In 1960 Pickstone was acquired by Rio Tinto Rhodesia Limited.
British South Africa Company
During an insurrection in 1896 the National Society offered assistance to the Army Medical Department, sending two surgeons, William Greenwood Sutcliffe and William Redpath, to Rhodesia.
