326 GOVERNMENT OF SUBJECT PEOPLES 



the facts which we need are mostly such as come 

 before officials in the daily performance of their 

 duties. The question is whether these facts shall 

 be understood or misunderstood, and whether, if 

 correctly noted and understood, the knowledge so 

 acquired shall be limited to the official who has 

 grasped their meaning or whether his experience 

 shall be utilised for the benefit of his colleagues and 

 successors. At present too often in our colonies, the 

 experience gained by a successful official disappears 

 when he dies or leaves a colony and is of no use to 

 his successors. To give a concrete instance : in the 

 courts of any colony of the Empire cases are tried 

 daily the settlement of which involves the collection 

 of native evidence, and the eliciting of native ideas 

 and modes of social conduct. Though such cases 

 have rarely been published, they have afforded ma- 

 terial of the utmost value to students of sociology. 

 In our own country the whole structure of juris- 

 prudence rests upon the records of cases. Such a 

 record of cases and precedents will have to be built 

 up sooner or later by similar collections in each of 

 the countries governed by the Empire. If a be- 

 ginning were made in this direction there would 

 be begun a record by which the experience of 

 existing officers would not only become available 

 for the instruction of their colleagues and successors, 

 but would also serve as most valuable material for 

 students of the subject at home, by whose efforts 

 towards the better understanding of the minds and 



