100 
A COLONY IN THE MAKING 
CHAP. 
this point the farmers and townsmen are for once 
unanimous ; and it must be confessed that it is almost 
incomprehensible that the opinion of those who have 
special knowledge, and who alone are affected, should 
be held absolutely valueless. 
The argument of the farmer is this: I take up 
5,000 acres of land, the possibilities of which are un¬ 
known and which is accordingly valueless. My neigh¬ 
bours and I spend time and money in experiment and 
find out that it will grow coffee, wattle, or sisal. By 
our efforts the unimproved value of this land becomes 
^2 an acre. As a reward for my efforts I am to be 
fined £500 per annum! It is pointed out that when 
unearned increment was introduced into England, on 
not one but on a thousand Radical platforms it was 
argued that the duty was only fair where it arose from 
extraneous circumstances, and that to penalise a man 
for the improvements his own industry had effected 
would be grossly unjust. What was grossly unfair to 
the voting community in England is good enough for 
the voteless people of British East Africa. 
The only two arguments in favour of this 'revisal of 
rent that I have heard from the British East African 
officials are :—Firstly, that long before the end of the 
thirty-three years the Protectorate will be in a position 
to make or repeal any land laws it may choose. 
To which the answer is that it seems a pity to impose 
a regulation with the anticipation that it will be 
repealed, but which in the meantime undoubtedly 
repels the influx both of settlers and capital. 
Secondly, that as the Ordinance is not retrospective, 
it actually increases the values of those farms held 
under the older and better conditions. 
This argument is as immoral as it is unsound and 
