GOLD COAST COLONY, a British crown colony on the Gulf of Guinea, West Africa, bounded on the east by Togoland (German) and on the west by the Ivory Coast (French). Its coast line is about 350 miles; its area, in clusive of Adausi, Ashanti and the Northern Territories, is about 80,000 =.nare miles; Gold Coast, 24,200; Ashanti, and Northern Territories, 35,800 sq. miles. Pop. 1,503,386, including Europeans, 1,900 (Gold Coast, 853, 766; Ashanti, 287,814; Northern Territories, 361,806). The native state of Ashanti lies inland, at the back of the central portion of the colony. The territories in the hinterland to the north of Ashanti were erected into a separate district, the Northern Territories, in 1897 and placed under the administration of a commissioner. The products are chiefly palm oil, gold, palm kernels, rubber, timber, etc. The revenue for 1914 was f1,331,713; expendi ture, f1,755,850. The imports (including bul lion and specie), #4,456,968; exports, 14,942,565. Public debt (1914), f3,464,118. Tonnage entered at ports (1914), 2,812,776 tons. Railways have been built from Seccondee to Coomassie <168 miles), and from Akkra to Mangoaze (40 miles). There are 1,653 miles of telegraphs
in the colony. Chief towns, Akkra, the capital, pop. 19,585; Coomassie, 18,853; Cape Coast Castle, 11,364. The government includes a governor, an executive council and a nominated legislative council of nine. Trouble arose be tween the king of Coomassie, who had declared himself king of Ashanti in 1894, and the British authorities, and in 1895 an expedition was sent against him, under the command of Sir Francis Scott, which resulted in the sub mission of the king, who was afterward taken to the coast. The kings of Bekwai and Abodom also made their submission, and the country was placed under British protection, and a resident appointed at Coomassie. The Niger Convention, drawn up by the Anglo French Commission sitting at Paris, and signed 15 June 1898, and the agreement of Germany 1899, settled the boundaries of the hinterland to the west and the north. Bona and Dokta were given up to France and the French had to concede Wa and other points to the east of the Volta, which had been occupied by them.