xvii LABOUR 



171 



the hot and feverish coastlands, requires very careful 

 watching. There has already, unfortunately, been a 

 considerable mortality. 



There is not in the country at the present day 

 any labour bureau on any co-operative basis. In 

 1909 and 1 910, Mr. T. R. Swift brought forward a 

 scheme for instituting such an organisation. The 

 scheme was well received, but fell through owing to 

 various causes. Mr. Owen Grant subsequently drafted 

 a similar scheme, but it shared the fate of its pre- 

 decessor. The reasons which have militated against 

 the successful formation of any such organisation are 

 probably as follows : Firstly, the labour crisis has 

 never yet been sufficiently acute to stimulate united 

 efforts. Good masters have, except in rare instances, 

 been able to obtain the labour they require. There 

 has been a lack of sufficient funds to start a bureau on 

 permanent and satisfactory lines. Until the necessity 

 is imperative every available penny of capital is required 

 for development. Finally, many of the up-country 

 settlers felt that they would be forging a weapon which 

 the planters on the coast might use against them. 

 Conditions are so very different on the unhealthy 

 coastlands where money can be made and quickly 

 made, but where no Englishman can make a home, 

 from those on the Highlands, which it is now safe to 

 assume will form the habitation of a permanent white 

 population, that there is bound to be acute competition 

 between the two. The argument that because we are 

 one Protectorate our interests are indivisible does not 

 seem to me a sound one. I confess that I hope to see 

 before long an institution to protect the labour 

 interests of the upland farmers and also another to 

 uphold those of the planters. Finally, I would draw 



