PLANT INDUSTRY 399 



tained as far as is compatible with the fundamental laws of pro- 

 duction, than if they themselves were the authors of the restrictive 

 measures, but adequate technical control would be provided, since 

 it would be charged against the industry and not against the com- 

 munity. 



Dr. Leake quotes the two examples of development by corpora- 

 tions within the Empire in support of his proposals, the Colonial 

 Sugar Refining Company in Fiji and the Sudan Plantations 

 Syndicate in the Sudan, and uses these to support his argument 

 that a competitive product can be raised by corporations with 

 profit. Both have found it economically profitable to employ a 

 supervisory staff such as no government could entertain. In the 

 case of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate one officer is employed 

 for each 5,000 acres. In addition to these advantages, he considers 

 that such corporations would produce a source of employment for 

 the educated native, who, in regions which attempt to maintain 

 the native social organization, have no future except in the law or 

 government service. 



Not all authorities share these views. There is a strong body of 

 opinion, that schemes of this nature are not entirely beneficial, and 

 may even prove disastrous to native life in the regions concerned. 

 The development of export crops at the expense of native food 

 crops, which characterizes the company system, can easily lead 

 to an unbalanced system of agriculture. An alternative method 

 of obtaining the requisite measure of technical control in agricul- 

 tural production is a government run on strictly business lines, 

 but this naturally has its own disadvantages. It is perhaps appro- 

 priate here to refer to the success of the Dutch in Java, where the 

 government exercises a substantial control over native activities in 

 connection with sugar-growing, and also to the great experiment 

 of the Office du Niger in the French Sudan, an undertaking which 

 is to be organized on the corporation basis, though the large capital 

 expenditure involved is drawn mainly from government funds. 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION OF AFRICANS 



Once the best methods of agriculture in any set of conditions are 

 proved by research, and suitable crops for each district bred and 



