I invariably had trouble with my natives when they were not occupied. The native has no means of amusing himself, nor idea of making occupation, and consequently, like women similarly situated, has recourse to chatter and the hatching of mischief. Work, I am convinced, is the keynote to the betterment of the African; and he will not work for the asking. No amount of example will assist him. What are the results of several hundred years’ communication with the Portuguese? A few natives wear hats, and the women’s morals have deteriorated. Africa labours under many disadvantages--remoteness from markets, inaccessibility, dearth of waterways, and in parts a pestilential climate; but it has one great advantage in an inexhaustible supply of potential labour, which, if properly handled, should place it on terms of equality with countries more favourably endowed by Nature. The first essential in opening up new country in Africa is for the Administration to fix a rate of pay, and to make that rate a low one. If it is left to competition the rate is bound to be forced up by contending trading companies. The first profits from new country are usually large, and the difficulty of obtaining labour very great before the native has gained confidence. Hence the rate dependent on competition is a fictitious one, and cannot be sustained under the conditions that will prevail subsequent to the harvesting of the first-fruits of the land. But it will be well-nigh impossible ever to lower the rate to meet diminishing profits. At first sight this seems severe on the native, but in reality it is not so. As he is, he has every necessary of life, and everything that we give him is a luxury. The taste for pay is a cultivated taste, and three shillings really gives him as much satisfaction as three pounds. The native on the Tanganyika plateau works more cheerfully for his three shillings a month than the Rhodesian native does for his two pounds, and yet beads and cloth are much more costly on the plateau than in Rhodesia. There is a short-sighted inclination amongst British officials to give the native more than he requires or even asks for, presumably simply because he is a native.