206 A COLONY IN THE MAKING chap. 



through the administrations of a native detective. 

 Having been the victim of a petty theft, I duly reported 

 the occurrence. Some days later the head house boy 

 approached me in a state of considerable excitement 

 and reported that there was a detective concealed in a 

 clump of papyrus which stood in the garden next the 

 house. Looking out of the window, I observed a red 

 tam-o'-shanter which bobbed up and down in the 

 centre of the clump, in which position I allowed it to 

 remain. After about two hours the wearer of the hat 

 emerged and proceeded to arrest and handcuff the 

 whole of the coloured portion of the household. 

 Though certainly the accomplishment of this feat by 

 one savage clad mainly in a red tam-o'-shanter and a 

 pair of button boots was in itself admirable, the clues 

 found in the papyrus bed seemed insufficient to cause 

 the arrest of the whole of our staff and the subsequent 

 demoralisation of the midday meal. There is no doubt 

 that this was an extreme case of misdirected zeal. 



In 1 909- to the estimated value of stolen property 

 reported was ,£4,758, of which property to the value 

 of ,£1,988 was recovered. In 1910-11 the figures 

 were £4,445 and £"1,341, By no process of imagina- 

 tion can these figures be regarded as satisfactory. 

 Practically all stolen property goes into the hands of 

 Indian " fences," as the police are well aware. These 

 receivers of stolen property are, however, so clever as 

 almost to defy detection ; a fact that must be at least 

 as galling to the police as to those who suffer by their 

 depredations. 



The total cost of the police fo 1909 was £46,273, 

 which was reduced in 1910 to ,£38,923. 



The prisons in the Protectorate are in a thoroughly 

 satisfactory condition, and prisoners are so well looked 



