Abstract
III. THE main result of the Algiers Congress has undoubtedly been the acquisition of a considerable amount of matter tending to the development of the great French colony, while at the same time it has been the means of making hundreds of Frenchmen well acquainted with the principal features—physical, geographical, and political—of a country which they knew previously only by name. The general results, as far as universal science is concerned, have been slight, but we cannot regard the Congress as less than a success. It is as if the French had said to the world of science, “Come and see this undeveloped country, and help us to apply each and all of the sciences to its special requirements, to aid us in a more perfect colonisation.” The work has been nobly initiated by the French. It is probable that not less than a hundred millions sterling have been expended in the country. The roads and bridges, and telegraph and postal systems are perfect. Everywhere you find evidences of complete organisation. Every small village has its mayor and council; its post-office and diligence service. its water supply and sanitary arrangements. its groves of eucalyptus-trees and trimly-planted streets. Let us take one example—that of Bordj-Menaïel, a village to the east of Algiers, which we visited in the course of an excursion. Twenty-three years ago Bordj-Menaïel was made a centre of colonisation, and 1718 hectares of land were distributed among the first colonists. The total superficies of the commune is 4200 hectares, and it contains a population of 837, of whom 659 are Europeans and 178 indigenous races. Situated at a distance of 70 kilometres from Algiers and 38 from Dellys, it is traversed by the main departmental road passing to Eastern Algeria. It stands in the midst of a highly fertile alluvial plain, 28 metres above the sea, and is watered by the Isser. This commune possesses the following municipal officers: mayor, deputy-mayor, justice of the peace, sheriff's officer, receiver of “contributions diverses,” a recorder of the census, a manager of ponts et chaussees, a departmental business agent, a bureau of posts and telegraphs, a “médécin de colonisation,” a midwife, and a pharmacien. Its spiritual and intellectual wants are provided for by a curé and two schools. Since 1873 a brigade of gendarmerie has been stationed in the village. The organisation appears excessively elaborated for so small a population. but we must remember how doubly necessary such arrangements become in a new colony, which without sufficient proofs of the strong arm of the law would speedily become lawless, and without the benefit of well-directed and properly enforced municipal arrangements would form an ill-regulated and degenerating community. The bureaucracy evidently enters largely into the French system of colonisation.
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RODWELL, G. The French Association for the Advancement of Science at Algiers 1 . Nature 24, 31–33 (1881). https://doi.org/10.1038/024031b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/024031b0