NATIVES AND LABOUR 219 



because it could be performed by transport 

 animals. Going on to consider the labour em- 

 ployed in growing the produce, it is a moderate 

 estimate that altogether between 60,000 and 

 70,000 are locked up with this tax. The prazo 

 companies who complain of shortage of labour 

 have an obvious remedy in their own hands. 



But this, though it furnishes a sidelight upon 

 the labour troubles of the district, scarcely touches 

 perhaps the subject of recruiting. Recruiting 

 for the mines is not permitted in the prazos, 

 but it is in the Government reserves in the east 

 of the district and in Tete. In the year 1910 

 4,387 people were recruited from the district of 

 Tete and I'iO from Barue. They were taken 

 down the Zambezi, past the very doors of the 

 sugar plantations upon which there is a shortage 

 of labour to the extent of some 3,000 men. 

 The opening up of another factory that could 

 find employment for several thousand more is 

 being held over solely on account of the un- 

 certainty of being able to obtain labour. In the 

 Government reserves 2,529 went to the Rand 

 the same year. Here then w^e find on the one 

 hand agricultural development being actually 

 held back for want of labour, and on the other 

 7,000 men taken away to develop the resources 

 of another country. There is thus, I think, a 



