NATIVES AND LABOUR 207 



European to come to their country ; his money 

 and machines are not necessities for them, and 

 they would be well enough pleased, indeed, if 

 he packed up his things and took his departure. 

 It is a point of view with which I can sympathize. 

 It does not entitle natives to ownership of land 

 other than that they occupy, but they are, I think, 

 justified in pleading that while they cannot pre- 

 vent the Europeans appropriating waste land 

 they should make their own arrangements about 

 working that land without interfering with their 

 liberties. 



The indolence of natives is another source of 

 exasperation to the employer of labour ; exasper- 

 ation leading to irritability and irritability to illness; 

 but I am persuaded that if the employer could but 

 see in the laziness of natives not a crime but a pro- 

 vidential phase of constitution, much disappoint- 

 ment and useless irritation would be spared him. 

 Wise in all she does. Nature in equipping Africans 

 with an indolent and languid disposition did so 

 for their protection. Had they not been indolent 

 they would, we may well believe, have been 

 unable to survive the enervating climate of the 

 Tropics, where a race possessed of the energy 

 of Europeans could not perform manual labour 

 in the field regularly. Through their laziness 



