OCR Text |
Show LIBERIA'S PROGRESS. Though we have never been inclined to boast about our only experience as a nation in colony planting and have never in the late discussions used Liberia Li-beria as in any sense an example of our success in colonial affairs, still we cannot help but feel cheered and encouraged en-couraged by the news which has just come across the seas that, for the first time in twenty-five years,. Liberia has I paid the interest on her public debt. In 1871 Liberia floated a debt of $500,000, mostly in England; three years later sho was unable to pay the interest j and it has lapsed ever since. The bond- j holders had given up hopes of ever' getting their money, for the colony j was constantly falling behind. Recent- I ly, however, a new source of wealth ' was discovered in- the rubber of the I I district. The Liberian rubber syndi- cate, an almost entirely English eon-I eon-I cern, has paid such royalties into the j treasury as to enable the arrears of in-I in-I terest to be wiped out, by an arrange- j ! ment with the bondholders in which I they agreed to accept $75,000 in full for i back interest. A further arrangement I J has been made to reduce the interest I from 7 per cent to 3 per cent, rising i Ys of 1 per cent every three years until j the extinction of the loan. Naturally j the renewed prosperity of the colony, I j which has been for many years a I j plague spot almost, in the eyes of Eu- ropean nations, has drawn the. atten- tion of Europe to it, and it is said that j designs are forming to bring it under j ! control of one of the powers. American ; negroes are at present at the head of I the government and of course in any agreements that are entered into the United States would have a voice. i |