XVII 
LABOUR 
1 7 1 
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 1910, 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 
