Education 113 



allow lands to lie idle. Meanwhile, it is to be hoped, we 

 shall by then be doing all we can to educate every class and 

 colour of man both here and in the Tropics to help increase 

 the output of raw materials and food supplies for the 

 Einpire and its Allies, as without this no one will prosper 

 as fully as they otherwise can do. Belgium knows only 

 too well what the Congo means to her just now, and it is 

 to be hoped that the natives of West and Central Africa 

 will, on their own initiative, be as anxious and active to 

 increase their crops as the Basutos and other tribes lower 

 down south have shown themselves to be. Then, as the 

 cartoon shows, the horse whose name is Native Labour will 

 be far quicker and more ready to carry John Bull, urged 

 only by the reins (of Agricultural Education), to the land 

 of increased Imperial resources, without the need of the 

 whip of State exploitation to drive him to work, as has 

 been used on him far too often in the past. 



Urging on the natives by the reins only, and establishing 

 agricultural colleges in the Tropics for those who are to 

 lead them by their exauiple of how estates should be 

 managed and pests, &c., kept at a distance is bound to be 

 the best policy in the end. By such a course we shall turn 

 out experts of all classes, but equally useful each in their 

 own way, whether as planters, plant-doctors, or agricul- 

 tural chemists, and the great strength of such a movement 

 will be (as with men in an army at war) that the best men 

 who come out top will be drawn from all ranks and con- 

 ditions of men. This would give everyone an equal chance, 

 as each (under the scheme we want to see established of 

 granting agricultural scholarships from the lower schools 

 to the secondary ones, and then up to the agricultural 

 colleges at home or in the Tropics) will have an equal 

 chance with his fellows, for the Empire needs such help, 

 and must therefore see that all those under training live 

 healthy lives whilst being taught. Steady work, strong 

 limbs, sound health, tenacity of purpose, keenness to seize 

 every opportunity to push yourself and your country ahead, 

 these are the monopoly of no single class, or, if they are, 

 such qualities are perhaps more frequently found in those 

 who have never had all that money could buy, and have 

 done their best to " make good " with whatever tools or 

 chances comes their way. In our Imperial development 

 scheme of the future, every man that means to get on 

 shall get on, no matter what his colour is, for, like the 

 warriors under Napoleon, each one must be allowed to 

 start with his marshal's baton in his knapsack. Xo more 

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