PUBLIC
RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
PEPELE C.O.885
18 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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(i) The cost of land in the Colony is annually increasing and valuation becoming more and more difficult and litigation spreading.
The officer responsible for the valuation should be in a position to make a fair and equitable assessment. A Survey and Lands Department, by keeping in touch with current prices and watching private transactions, would be the best Govern- ment authority to make valuations.
There is a considerable amount of Government property leased at Sekondi and Tarkwa which should be under the control of the Director of Surveys and Commis- sioner of Lands.
TOPOGRAPHICAL WORK.
6. The Director of Surveys will be responsible for keeping the Colony map up to date and from time to time, when the amount of fresh topographical work renders the expense justifiable, to produce revised sheets.
During his first year, however, we consider that the Director of Surveys will have his hands full in organising and executing the land duties and survey works of his Department, and that he should not be called on to complete the map of the Colony. The map, with the materials used in its compilation, should be handed over to him fully completed by the Director of the present Survey Department before the latter leaves the service of the Gold Coast Government.
MISCELLANEOUS SURVEY WORKS.
7. (a) The Survey Department will be able to undertake such special duties as water supply, surveys, light tramways, whether in towns or as feeders for the Government railways, and the demarcation of tribal boundaries where such is neces- sary for the information of the Courts in settling disputes. The last-mentioned work should be paid for by the stool concerned in the dispute.
The growing value of land due to the development of agriculture, specially cocoa, leading, as it may well do, to the taking up of agricultural concessions, will no doubt lead to inter-stool boundaries becoming of greater importance and giving rise to heated litigation.
(b) But not only does the increased interest in agriculture render the stool boundaries important, it also opens up what may prove a very large question, viz. :— The survey of agricultural concessions leased by companies from the stools in the same manner as mining and timber concessions. The survey of agricultural plots worked by people of the stool in which they lie may be superfluous, but once an outside company comes in, a rigid definition of concession boundaries becomes
necessary.
The present necessity for agricultural concession surveys may not be apparent but to fail to draw attention to their possible future necessity in a rising Colony would be a grave omission in our recommendations.
(c) As we understand that legislation is contemplated for the reservation of tracts of country for the preservation of forests, some work will be created for the Survey Department in defining these tracts sufficiently clearly to avoid trespass.
(d) The examination of candidates for licensed surveyors' certificates is, and should continue to be, exclusively the Director of Surveys' work.
AN INDEPENDENT DEPARTMENT RECOMMENDED.
8. In preparing this report we have mutually examined the nature of our respective duties as Director of Surveys and Director of Public Works.
We are convinced that, if the Survey Department is made a branch of the Public Works, and the Director of Public Works also be made Director of Surveys, his position with regard to the Survey Department will be merely nominal. The official in charge of the Survey Department must above all be an expert surveyor and it by no means follows that Directors of Public Works possess this qualification. A man who has served the long apprenticeship to survey that in the ordinary course of events leads to his appointment to the position of Director of Surveys would experience considerable practical difficulties in working under a man who not only was deficient in technical knowledge but who had not the time to take more than a nominal interest in survey work. We consider that the director of such a large
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and important Department as the Public Works has not the time to direct the survey work still necessary in this Colony.
For the foregoing reasons we consider it would serve no practical purpose to make the Survey Department a branch of the Public Works, and we recommend that it should form a separate Department under an official designated "The Director of Surveys and Commissioner of Lands." The expense will be no greater, as the salary and allowances we suggest in the attached Estimates for the Director of Surveys amounts in total to what a reliable head to the surveys should receive, whether he is an independent director or an assistant director who would be, if under the Public Works, entirely responsible for the discharge of his duties.
SELECTION Of Staff.
9. Certain details in the organisation and formation of the staff of the mines surveys incidental to its nature as a temporary Department led to the creation of a strong esprit de corps.
As this feeling is of the greatest value in the successful running of a Depart- ment, we consider that it would be a great advantage if the new staff could as far as possible be formed of men who served in the old Department. Should this be done a further advantage of having men used to the country and its peculiar condi- tions of survey would be obtained.
The staff we propose consists of three Europeans and five natives, one of the latter a clerk.
For the post of Director we recommend Mr. A. J. Stronach, late of the Gold Coast Survey and now in Ceylon Government employment. Besides being a skilled surveyor generally, he is especially experienced in water supply and railway surveys and in the administration of Crown lands.
For the post of Chief Surveyor we recommend that any candidate should be examined and reported on by the present Director of Surveys before his appointment is confirmed.
For the post of Surveyor we recommend Lance-Corporal G. V. Mathieson, R.E., who will be retiring from the corps and who has developed into a skilled surveyor during his three years on the Coast.
For the post of Native Surveyor we recommend Mr. J. B. Esuman-Gwira, condi- tional on the present Director's approval of his work this year. He is a highly- trained and expert native and needs no further schooling.
For the posts of 2nd class Assistant Surveyors we recommend Mr. E. J. Smith (whose training for two years in the Department with his previous knowledge entitles him to start on an incremental salary of £125) and Mr. T. H. Vaughan, who should also start on a salary of £125. Mr. Smith is a native of the Coast and Mr. Vaughan of the West Indies. Both of these men should do a year's training in the Survey School (if it is formed) at some time convenient to their Director.
For the Assistant Draughtsman's post we recommend Mr. R. J. Josiah, a native of the Coast, who is also a trained Assistant Surveyor. He would be available for survey work and should undergo a year's course at the school, as mentioned above.
As we propose that the staff will spend from four to six months at headquarters every year, there will be no necessity to provide more draughtsmen.
10.
TERMS OF Engagement of Staff and Service ON COAST.
We recommend that the staff should come under the usual pension and leave rules of the Gold Coast Colony.
Each member should be on probation for three years.
In order to arrange for the carrying on of the Director's duties special leave arrangements should be made in the first year. The Director should go on leave about the 1st September and the Chief Surveyor should come out by the steamer leaving England on April 18th, 1908, from which day he should be engaged and paid. The European staff should embark for the Coast on January 4th, from which date engagements and salaries should be reckoned.
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The Native Surveyors are being employed on survey duties and their salaries are allowed for until December 31st, 1907, in this year's Estimates. They would come on the pay of the new Department on January 1st, 1908.
For detailed arrangement of the Europeans' leave for the first three years, see table below.
TABLE showing Arrangement of Leave and of Service on Coast for First Three Years to explain Estimates.
1908.
1909.
Officer.
Jan. to
May
Sept,
Jan.
May
Sept.
Jan.
May
Sept.
to
to
to
April. Aug.
Dec.
April.
to Aug.
to Dec.
to April.
to
to
Aug.
Dec.
Director...
Coast Coast Leave
Coast Coast
Const
Leave Coast
Coast
Chief Surveyor...
·
Coast Coast Coast Leave Coast
Coast
Coast
Leave
Surveyor
Coast
Coast
Coast Leave Coast Coast Coast Leave
Coast
·
Engaged and paid from April 18th, 1908, date of embarkation. (258,366th of £400).
THE ESTIMATES.
11. From the attached Estimates it will be seen that we anticipate an expendi- ture of £3,235 19s. 7d. Against this there will be a revenue of at least £1,000 from mining concessions, so that the net expenditure will be but little over £2,000.
We have drafted the Estimates so as to make the Department entirely independent, the amount shown being actually what the Department will cost with- out any charges against any other Department.
We are strongly of opinion that horse allowance ought to be given to the European Surveyors while they are at headquarters from four to six months annually.
As exercise is a necessity for their health, and as work finishes at 4.30, there would not be time for a go-cart to be of any use for taking them into Accra.
Should a surveyor not wish to keep a horse, the usual cart allowance should be given to him.
STORES.
12. There will be very few new stores to be purchased as the present Survey Department have sufficient." A certain number of the instruments will require over- hauling. As it is proposed to give the new staff no outfit allowance, their camp equipment should be provided and maintained out of the Survey Store.
We have, &c.,
F. G. GUGGISBERG, Major,
Royal Engineers,
Director of Surveys.
W. E. LEES, Captain,
Royal Engineers,
Director of Public Works.
The Honourable
The Colonial Secretary,
Victoriaborg, Accra.
• This is a mistake, vide paragraph 3 of my despatch.—J. R.