VII. SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN THE FOREST 
114 
not yet learnt to understand what we really mean by 
continuous work. 
There is, therefore, a serious conflict between the 
needs of trade and the fact that the child of nature is a 
free man. The wealth of the country cannot be ex- 
ploited because the native has so slight an interest in the 
process. How train him to work ? How compel him ? 
“ Create in him as many needs as possible ; only so 
can the utmost possible be got out of him,” say the 
State and commerce alike. The former imposes on 
him involuntary needs in the shape of taxes. With us 
every native above fourteen pays a poll tax of five francs 
a year, and it is proposed to double it. If that is done, 
a man with two wives and seven children will contribute 
£4 (100 francs) a year, and have to provide a corre- 
sponding amount either of labour or of products of the 
soil. The trader encourages voluntary needs in him 
by offering him wares of all sorts, useful ones such as 
clothing material or tools, unnecessary ones such as 
tobacco and toilet articles, and harmful ones' like 
alcohol. The useful ones would never be enough to 
produce an amount of labour worth mentioning. 
Useless trifles and rum are almost more effective. 
Just consider what sort of things are offered for sale in 
the forest ! Not long ago I got the negro who manages 
for a white man a little shop close to a small lake, miles 
away from civilisation, to show me all his stock. 
Behind the counter stood conspicuous the beautiful 
white painted cask of cheap spirits. Next to it stood 
the boxes of tobacco leaves and the tins of kerosene. 
Further on was a collection of knives, axes, saws, nails, 
screws, sewing machines, flat-irons, string for making 
fishing-nets, plates, glasses, enamelled dishes of all sizes. 
