these three indicators -- balances due to Post Office Savings Bank Depositors
-- the increase since federation is a mere three points bigger than that in the
period before federation. In another -- electricity consumption -- the increase
since federation is exaggerated by the fact that supply increased through the
commissioning of generating capacity the installation of which was decided
upon before federation. Three of the indicators even show a smaller absolute
increase since federation, while the absolute increase in several of the other
indicators is not very much greater in the post- than in the pre-federation
period. Such an examination of the data in the Jack Report makes it difficult
to understand the confidence with which the Report refers to the greater
rate of growth of Nyasaland since its inclusion in the Federation.

In this section data have been assembled to test the view that the rate of
economic growth has increased since federation. It has been shown that this
view is ill founded. There has been an increase in the rate of growth of
Southern Rhodesia, but for the other two territories, and for the Federal area
as a whole, the rate of growth has been slower since federation than in the
preceding years. This is purely a matter of fact, and does not justify any
conclusion about the effects of federation. That is the question that occupies
the remainder of this study. The economic arguments for federation are
analysed in the next chapter; chapters III and IV deal with different aspects
of public finance in the Federation; and in chapter V other effects of federa-
tion are examined, with particular reference to Nyasaland.

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