464 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY and servant. To this end Residents are Instructed to direct the attention of chiefs and employers of labour to the inevitable nature of the approaching change, and in order to encourage a gradual adaptation of the social system to the new conditions, they are specially to point out the practical advantages of the employment of free labour under the British administration. These are, in fact, very real, since, if an employer's slaves choose to desert him, the British courts cannot force them to return, while, if he employs free labour, he has the full assistance of the administration In enforcing his contract.

It is hoped that the example of Government, in employing gangs of free labour for public works, may serve to illustrate the nature of a free contract, and be gradually adopted by the native chiefs. The more intelligent among them have shown a great willingness to accept the necessary transition, recognising themselves that, since their raiding grounds are closed, the present system must come to an end. Already, from different parts of the Protectorate, interesting accounts have been received of experiments which have been tried by native employers in free labour. They have generally taken the form of piecework — plots of land being divided into the equivalent of pennyworths of cultivation, which are paid for in cowries. The experiments reported upon have been successful, and accentuate the value which will attach in this connection to the introduction of a cash currency in which labour can be paid. The development of a system of direct individual taxation will also tend to teach the peasant his responsibilty to the State, and his personal interest In and obligation to it. The conception of individual responsibility has to be taught to the slave, and respect for this Individuality has to be learned by the master, In the transition period through which both are passing.

The transition period has its own difficulties. One of these consists In the numbers of runaway and freed slaves, for whom, though the practice of running away is