214 THE TASK OF ADMINISTRATION remembered that in a malarial climate it is unfair to a man, whatever his wishes, to continue his sojourn too long in a country prejudicial to health.

Yet it is strange that a highly malarial country provides the most important exception to this principle—that of the Upper Nile province, which has been administered by one Governor for no less a period than eight consecutive years. It is the cumulative effect of a broad continuity of administration, and, as far as may be, the retention of those who direct it, or selection of successors of experience and sympathy, which is eventually bound to meet with the greatest measure of success.

In connection with this lies the danger of overcentralization, and since the construction of the telegraph-line the tendency has been for this to become increasingly possible. A competent ruler is best left to his own methods within limits of reason, for in all distant and overhead government there is a liability to interference in detail which diverts the energies and attention of the responsible actor, who, after all, is in the best position to judge facts, and is most directly interested in the advance of his work. This has been exhibited times without number in past years as between Downing Street and our Colonies, though latterly a highly instructive example has been afforded by the bowing of the British Parliament to the wishes of collective South Africa in respect of the elimination of native suffrage—a provision not generally sympathized