170 A COLONY IN THE MAKING chap. 



will get during that season 150,000 rupees' worth of 

 labour, neither more nor less. As time goes on the 

 native will get to appreciate luxuries, such as better 

 clothes, better food, etc., and then it would seem that 

 the labour supply will be more elastic. Certain 

 points strike one as giving proof that the present large 

 Reserve system is not entirely satisfactory. The whole 

 manual work inside the Reserves is done by women 

 and children. Nearly the whole labour supply outside 

 is done by the sickly, the undersized, or the old men. 

 The class which in a civilised State would be regarded 

 as the bread-winners, are here represented by brawny 

 savages, covered with grease and oil and carrying 

 enormous spears. This very large body do nothing, 

 and exist on the efforts of their women-kind and weaker 

 brethren. They offer a certain menace to the pros- 

 perity of the country. It is this class who ought and 

 some day will be made to do their fair share of work. 



Again there are certain districts where various crops 

 grow well, but where there is little local labour avail- 

 able. This is the case on the Uasin Guishu plateau 

 and on many parts of the coast. Here labour has to 

 be imported, and that it may be induced to come, 

 various attractions, monetary and otherwise, are held 

 out. On this imported labour the Government keep, 

 and rightly so, a very careful watch. Those portions 

 of the Protectorate which were originally not inhabited 

 by natives were left barren for definite causes ; in some 

 instances it might be for fear of warlike and aggressive 

 neighbours, in some perhaps through fear of wild beasts, 

 but in some in all probability because the climate was 

 found prejudicial to health. The question is a delicate 

 one, but at all events it may be said that the movement 

 of natives, like the Kikuyu, from the cool uplands to 



