CHAPTER XI 



AGRICULTURAL PROSPECTS 



The three prime questions that most would-be 

 settlers have to ask consist of : What of the climate ? 

 What of the sport ? What of the possibilities of 

 making money? It is here that we would deal briefly 

 with the last question. Up to the last three or four 

 years, it was necessary to merge the direct answer in a 

 golden mist of future speculation. A great many 

 projects looked favourable, and there were endless pos- 

 sibilities about others; but of a probable fortune and an 

 assured income there was no certainty, the truth being 

 that there was no great amount of capital invested 

 in the Protectorate, and very little produce was being 

 grown and exported. As a consequence, every man 

 lived on his neighbour, and it tended rather to take the 

 gloss off a successful sale or deal to feel that it was 

 done at the expense of a personal friend or perhaps 

 rather one who should have been of that category. 



Luckily, in the last few years this has all been 

 changed. Capital is flowing in, and, better still, 

 exports are flowing out. Land is going up every day 

 and has now an actual and negotiable value, and not 

 one existing solely in the mind of the proprietor. It 



is nowadays possible to say to the intending settler : 



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