176 AN EDUCATIONAL EXPEKIMENT. 



against quantity. We wish to improve their handling of their 

 stock. The Native is a haphazard pastoralist. He keeps his cattle 

 late in the kraal, herds badly, is ignorant of treatment, never 

 thinks of feeding. He has learnt the value of dipping. We must 

 now teach him to build his own dips, and to manage them properly. 

 The majority of them never use the milk, and if they do, fail to 

 keep it clean. We were weaning him from his habit of cutting 

 up the hide with the meat. The drop in hides has given us a set- 

 back, but in normal times there should be money in them, and 

 they might under instruction be put to considerable use among 

 the people. The same considerations affect in similar ways his 

 other stock, sheep, goats, pigs, and poultry, and their proper care 

 should be his business when at home. 



4. Rope and Mat Making. — There is a wealth of fibres in 

 Rhodesia that is practically untouched. The Native knows and 

 uses in his small way many of them, and from the work he does 

 already it seems certain that with instruction and organisation a 

 profitable industry could be started. Where so many fibre con- 

 cerns find such great difficulty and expense that commercial under- 

 takings are impracticable it is quite likely that a number of Native 

 units, each operating on a small scale, and in different localities, 

 but organised from a centre, might find material and water enough 

 to treat the fibre, and at the centres, or even in the homes, make 

 them up into useful articles. If this industry can be developed, 

 it will both help the Natives, and have its influence on lowering 

 the cost of living to us all. There would probably be needed 

 instruction in the use of rope walks and looms of a simple type. 



5. Basketry and C hair- making . — Much that is produced by 

 our Natives, particularly their split-bamboo work, is of excellent 

 workmanship and practical utility. By increasing their skill in 

 certain directions, and by adapting some of their present methods 

 to European requirements, we might be able to build up yet 

 another useful and profitable home industry. Conditions of the 

 work in the country should be more healthy and less expensive 

 than in factories, while the raw material can often be gathered 

 and prepared in the home vicinity. With the introduction of 

 osiers the craft might be extended to chairmaking, thus reducing 

 the cost of an article which up country is for most people almost 

 prohibitive. 



6. Pottery and Tiles. — Judging from the success in Nigeria of 

 the engagement by the Government of a master potter from Eng- 

 land, it should be possible here also to teach the use of the wheel, 

 glazing and proper firing. Suitable clays are said to be found in 

 Rhodesia, kaolin, for instance, has been identified in more than 

 one district, and with instruction in their proper preparation the 

 Natives should soon be able to make a practical start with vessels 

 for their own use. With increasing skill they might well be able 

 to supply many of those vessels which to-day cost the Europeans 

 so much to import. It is hoped also that tiles for various pur- 

 poses could be made, and it should in time become possible to 



