§ 21. Mr. WEDGWOODasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies on what grounds an Ordinance has recently been passed for Southern Nigeria enacting that rubber shall be sold under the supervision of the executive, and that the proceeds of the sale should be divided equally between: the Government, the chiefs, and the villagers; and whether, seeing that this amounts to the imposition of a heavy duty on rubber collected for export, he will say-why the chiefs are to receive one-third, and what guarantee it gives that the individual natives who collect or grow rubber will get the full reward of their labour?
§ The SECRETARY OF STATE for the COLONIES (Mr. Harcourt)No such Ordinance has been passed. My hon. Friend probably refers to a Native Council Rule applying only to the Central Province of Southern Nigeria and only to-cultivated as opposed to wild rubber-This rubber is grown from seed supplied by the Government, and every stage in the growth of the trees is closely supervised by officers of the Forest Department. The rubber is extracted and prepared by a special method, also under the direction of these officers, which has enabled the natives to obtain a far higher price for the prepared rubber than would otherwise be the case. The retention of one-third of the proceeds of sales only suffices to-compensate the Government for a portion of the expense incurred by them over the 273 cultivation and preparation of the rubber. The natives are satisfied by the existing arrangement, and it appears to me to be an equitable one.
§ Mr. WEDGWOODMay I ask whether the cultivation and collection of the rubber is communable?
§ Mr. HARCOURTI should not like to give an answer on a detail of that sort without notice.