CHAPTER XXIII 



THE PRAZO SYSTEM 



No account of Portuguese East Africa would 

 be complete without a reference to the prazo 

 system that is in vogue in the Quelimane and 

 Tete districts ; a system whereby the native tax 

 is farmed out to individuals or companies for 

 a fixed annual payment and an undertaking to 

 do a certain amount of agricultural development. 

 The underlying principle contemplates a payment 

 to the Government of 50 per cent, of the esti- 

 mated yield of the tax, which proportion the 

 prazo holders are to collect from the natives ; 

 the labour of the people to be acquired instead of 

 the other 50 per cent. Taking the whole district 

 of Quelimane at a rough computation at 9,000,000 

 hectares, the area administered under the prazo 

 system may be set down at 5,400,000 hectares ; 

 that under direct Government administration 

 at 3,600,000 hectares : roughly in the proportion 

 of 3 to 2. 



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