110 THE GREAT COMPANIES 



companies upon the Zambezi have to show for their 

 many years of effort, what they have actually 

 accomplished, it must be confessed that the net 

 result is disappointingly small ; that the gigantic 

 task which they set themselves at the outset has 

 been entirely out of proportion to their physical 

 or financial powers. Why not endeavour to remedy 

 this ? Why not take the only step possible to 

 populate these rich lands which have for so many 

 centuries lain idle and fallow ? Throw open the 

 country to industry and agriculture. Make its 

 acquisition for legitimate objects easy to whomso- 

 ever will come and devote his time and his capital 

 to increasing its value. Let the governing com- 

 panies make free grants of land to approved 

 persons, as is done elsewhere, and wait for their 

 reward until success in its cultivation is assured. 

 That success will not, of course, come in all cases, 

 but even those who fail will have done no harm, 

 whilst those who succeed will have done more to 

 dispel the existing gloom than all the well-meant 

 but unconcentrated efforts of the present under- 

 capitalised administrative bodies. 



A director or manager of a large association 

 controlling such areas as those above described 

 surveys his responsibilities as a confused, nebulous 

 whole. He is unable, unless he be a sort of 

 administrative Napoleon, to devote proper attention, 

 even had he the capital at his command, to tasks 

 of such magnitude and variety as those which 

 demand it of him, the inevitable result being 

 something attempted and but httle done. If, on 

 the other hand, the same director or manager 



