THE OVER-TAXED NATIVE

Commonwealth and Foreign

By CULLEN YOUNG

THE issue .from Geneva, in a summarised version, of the

Report presented to the Government of Nyasaland by the mien Commission set up to enquire into the effect upon village life of labour emigration, has given to the world a very tragic story. The Commission was appointed last year and did its work during the months of the dry season under the Chair- manship of Mr. Travers Lacey, Nyasaland's Director of Education. . , It was not composed of persons coming from the outside to investigate n situation which Government ignored.

was appointed by the Governor because, in face of very many warnings uttered by individuals during the past fifteen years, a situation had developed which threatens the financial foundation upon which the administration of the country largely stands. What is at stake is not only a condition of native distress—though as we shall see-that is something very near to tragedy—but a principle of trusteeship which functions very largely upon a system of taxation without any relation to the individual's income and without representation by the taxpayer. The only position offered to any Nyasaland native upon any representative body is the seat held by Mr. L. Z. Mumba upon the AdvisorY Board of Education.

The Commissioners were all men acquainted with the economic circumstances of the country. They all, in greater or less degree, were aware that things were going wrong. Here, after six months work, is what they say :

" We must confess that there was not one of us who realised the seriousness of the situation. As our investigations proceeded we became more and more aware that this uncontrolled and growing emigration brought misery and poverty to hundreds and thousands of families, and that the wastage of life, happiness, health and wealth wes eolossal."

The " uncontrolled and growing emigration " is, of course, the attempt by thousands of able-bodied men to find some- where the means of paying tax which they cannot find at their own homes or even in Nyasaland territory. And the Report goes on to say :

" Unlers the immediate carses of emigration are counteracted . . . the moral, social and physical life of our native population will be so affected that any attempts by Missions, Government or other agencies to maintain, let alone to improve upon, the present low standard of health and happiness, will be abortive."

And- later -there come the following words which-sinee I am able to :speak from acquaintance with the men who wrote them—I would commend to the attention of everyone :

Resident chiefly in other lands, the 'Nyasaland-6m n natives will have acquired a eomp!cte mistrust in and loathing for administration by the white people."

This, then, is what our African principle of but and poll-tax has led to. Is it, by any chance, an exaggeration ? Appar- ently not ; as the following example will show.

Nyasaland areas differ in their suitability or otherwise for the production of economic crops, and in their nearness or otherwise to lines of communication for marketing. Prac- tically the whole of Northern Nyasaland—which was the scene of the Commission's investigation—can neither grow nor market an economic crop except in one or two quite small patches where openings for native employment are available to tens and twenties only. The able-bodied men in a total population that may be roughly put at 300,000, must therefore either go away or go to prison. The Commission gives figures from a group of five districts, on the other hand, which have the fortune both to be able to grow and to market three economic crops.

Here the native tobacco, grower gets id. per lb. for his tobacco, and the total income from this crop in these districts amounted in one year to £250. Income from the other two erops—cottop and rice—was approximately £750 ; giving ,A total income in the five districts of about £1,000. The actual wages earned in the five districts taken, together (that is, wages known to have been paid there for all manner of steady —clerking, teaching, &c., or casual—load-carrying, crop- harvesting, &c.,—jobs) came to 113,000. In all a total of £14,000. Yet from these five districts tax was paid amounting

to £18,379 in the year. . Does that picture reach the imagina-. tion of the reader of these words ?

In five districts under our trustee rule a number of Africans had to pay the complete total of all wages and profits, earned

in order to meet tax requirement and were even then still

short by £4,379.! Where did they find their deficit ? Some May hive found a casual purchaser of a cattle-beast, a goat or

a sheep out of their little, scraggy herds. But the great bulk of that deficit came from postal-order _. remittances. from absentee husbands and sons on the Copper Belt of Northern Rhodesia or on the Rand.

It would be easy to take up space here with examples.of what one has oneself seen in destitute, crumbling villages,;

ill-tilled little plots of food-grounds in place of the.. once large and carefully tended fields ; deserted wives 'and children who only at long intervals—and sometimes, never-see a person called " father." Of what one knows, on the other hand, of the crowded compounds of Rhodesia and the Rand, where amid a deceptive sort of comparative abundance and a far from deceptive squalor, distant. Nyasaland homes are slowly forgotten and tax-support to family groups dwindles and then, too often, ceases. But that is not to the purpose here.

Nemesis has overtaken a certain tax-policy. Whither do we turn if those for whom we act as protectorate governor (are we not beginning to dread the appearance of that word " trustee " ?) are to be prevented from acquiring " a complete mistrust in and loathing for administration by the white people " ?

There was a time once when British policy was dominated, in one territory at least, by the principle that it was entirely unjust to tax any person simply on the ground that he or she existed. Lord Cromer stood for that, and all who served under him have always been critics of our East African taxation principle. But it was put into force nevertheless and has brought us today to the point indicated- by this Nyasaland Report. Is it too late . to make a new start ? Can we have the courage to admit that taxation irrespective of income, and taxation without representation are inexcus- able ?

Further ; can we at home retreat from the principle that each colonial or protectorate area must, as soon as possible, " pay, for itself " ? For the trouble, lies there. The experne of colonial administration must, so runs ti c principle, be removed at the earliest moment from the British. Budget, The old African method of " working for the chief looked like a reasonable ground upon which the principle of but or poll-tax could be introduced. It was not understood, however. We did not recognise that in return for his people's services the African chief was always and completely his people's servant. He actually was a Trustee. His- people actually were his wards. Can we, perhaps, institute enquiry along this line ? Would not the roots of -` mistrust and loathing " be most probably discovered somewhere here or hereabouts ?

Finally ; could we institute enquiry in Belgian Congo into the policy proposed there, following upon .governmental decision that any emigration of able-bodied males over a figure of 5 per cent. is dangerous ? The official figures in Nyasaland show an average of 50 per cent. in the whole sphere of the investigation. I could personally have shown individual villages—when I left Nyasaland five years ago,- with an able-bodied absenteeism of 80 per cent. Here I wish to point out that the Belgian calculation, which was founded upon careful medical, agricultural and social in- vestigation, was made public as much as ten years ago. I heard•it stated •officially at the. International African Congress at Le Zoute in Belgium in September, 1926. British officials were present at that Congress. Nothing has been done in these years to modify our fatal tax policy. The present Governor of Nyasaland has now moved in the matter, and the facts are before the country.

The facts are also—through- the action at Geneva—public to the world. Will this consideration, perhaps. Stimulate speedy action where 'all other considerations have so -far failed ?