182'
proposed visiting the Central Province and Lokoja to fix the position of certain places in that province; that Mr. Cotton visited the Central Province in October and November, 1907; that he was instructed to report on the result of his visit; that he reported that during the month of November, 1907, the position of 11 places in the Central Province was fixed by observation and telegraphic exchanges; that since then up to the present time the Government has been unable to obtain from the Department the position of those places; and that the Acting Director of Surveys has lately gone on leave and is alleged to have taken away the papers connected with the observations, for the purpose of calculating the longitude whilst on leave.
2. The whole matter is unsatisfactory and reflects discredit on the Depart- ment, and I have the honour to solicit your Lordship's assistance in obtaining from Mr. Cleminson, the Deputy Director of Surveys, now on leave, the position of these 11 places, noted in the margin, as soon as possible.
Forcados, Warri, Onitsha, Agbor, Benin, Sapele, Iaele, Asaba, Igbodo, Oja, Ogo.
3. I would further request that the new positions may be communicated to Captain Beverley who has been entrusted, under the circumstances described in my despatch, No. 358, of 12th June,* with the work of compiling a new edition of the provisional map of the Central and Eastern Provinces during his present leave.
4. I cannot think that the calculation of the results of observations taken to fix 11 positions is so onerous a work that it could not have been done by Mr. Cotton before his proceeding on leave on the 10th December, 1907, or by Mr. Cleminson during the further period that elapsed before his proceeding on leave on the 9th instant.
5. This is only one of many instances which I have met with of passive resist- ance to the supply of information by Mr. Cotton's Department.
I have, &c.,
W. EGERTON,
Governor.
SIR,
183
DIRECTOR OF SURVEYS to the COLONIAL SECRETARY.
Survey Department, Lagos, West Africa, 7 December, 1907. In terms of your instructions in M.P. 4499/1907, dated 6th December, 1907, I beg to report that I left Lagos, per S.S. "Karina," on 29th October and arrived at Forcados next day.
2. During the month of November the following places were fixed :-
by direct telegraphic exchanges: Forcados, Warri, Onitsha, Agbor, Benin,
and Sapele;
by transportation of eight chronometers: Isele, Asaba, Igbodo, Oja, and Ugo. 3. The places have been determined in latitude to within two seconds of arc, and in longitude it is anticipated that the probable error will not be greater than quarter of a second in time where telegraphic exchanges were possible, the exchanges between Lagos Observatory and Onitsha are the longest on record here for this method of determining longitude), and under one second where transporta- tion of chronometers had to be resorted to.
4. These rigid determinations should enable us to make great use of the surveys already carried out, when an accurate map of the Central Province is being prepared.
5. Former correspondence on this subject may be found in M.P. 2233/1907, which is forwarded herewith.
In connection with this work I desire to express our great indebtedness to the Director of Telegraphs for being good enough to not only allow us the use of his lines, but also for his kindness in supervising the telegraphic operations on every evening that exchanges were made. Without his assistance it would have been impossible to have approximated to the very satisfactory results which have now been obtained.
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I have, &c.,
E. P. COTTON,
Director of Surveys.
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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Reference :-
C.O.885
18 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
SIR,
Enclosure 1 in No. 121.
The ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY to DIRECTOR OF SURVEYS.
Colonial Secretary's Office, Lagos, 23rd June, 1908.
I AM directed to transmit to you an extract from certain correspondence showing that in November last you, with the assistance of other officers of your Department, were employed on work designed to fix the position of 11 places in the Central Province, and that notwithstanding attention has been called to the matter, the result of these observations is not yet at the disposal of the Government.
2. His Excellency cannot help expressing the opinion that this delay must be partly due to your spending your time on other matters than on work of your Department, and that it is very unsatisfactory that the result of the observations taken in November should not be available in the following July.
E. P. Cotton, Esquire,
SIR,
Director of Surveys,
Lagos.
I have, &c.,
F. S. JAMES,
Acting Colonial Secretary.
DIRECTOR OF SURVEYS to the COLONIAL SECRETARY.
Survey Department, Lagos, West Africa, 21 September, 1907.
I BEG to apply for permission to proceed on leave on the 29th of October (being the date upon which twelve months' service will have been completed) or as soon afterwards as I may have completed the work which I am undertaking in the Central and Eastern Provinces.
The Honourable
The Colonial Secretary,
I have, &c.,
E. P. COTTON,
Director of Surveys.
Lagos.
24112: not printed.
The Honourable
The Colonial Secretary,
Lagos.
MINUTE by the GOVERNOR, dated 14 December, 1907.
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR,
THE interest would be greater if Mr. Cotton would communicate the result of his observations. Please ask him to put up a schedule of new positions adding, in another column, the positions fixed for some of the places (and published in "Government Gazette ") by Captain Woodroffe, who had not the assistance of the telegraph. On receipt, the information should be gazetted.
2.
No reference is made to the not carrying out of the work proposed in paragraph 4 of Mr. Cotton's minute on 2233/7 of 17th September.
3. I hope that necessary work in Lagos and Ebute Metta is not suffering from this sudden commencement of Central Province surveys. I should have preferred the completion of survey of Western Province-Egbaland.
4. I presume Mr. Cotton is not on old leave rules.
14 December, 1907.
MINUTE by ACTING DIRECTOR OF SURVEYS.
HONOURABLE COLONIAL SECRETARY,
W. E. (EGERTON).
I WILL forward a schedule so soon as the calculation of the new positions is
completed.
As I prefer to make the calculations myself and my hands are fairly full there must necessarily be some delay before the results are available.
2.
Mr. Cotton, I think, found his original programme much too long, and was obliged to curtail it in order to keep his promise to the Intelligence Department in regard to the maps of the Western Province.
Page 330Page 331
184
3. There are very few surveyors available at present, but all are working at headquarters or Western Province, and I do not propose to undertake surveys out- side this province until the revision of Lagos, which I have now in hand, is finished. Surveys in Egba territory can be undertaken in about a month.
185
has been done. Mr. Cleminson, however, has taken the papers with him, and has very kindly promised to complete the work during his leave.
I have, &c.,
E. P. COTTON,
Director of Surveys.
A. CLEMINSON,
Acting Director of Surveys.
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27 December, 1907.
MINUTE by ACTING DIRECTOR OF SURVEYS.
HONOURABLE COLONIAL SECRETARY,
I HOPE to have the calculations finished in about a fortnight or three weeks' time.
3 March, 1908.
A. CLEMINSON,
Acting Director of Surveys.
MINUTE by DIRECTOR OF SURVEYS.
HONOURABLE Colonial SECRETARY,
It was quite impossible for Mr. Cleminson to carry out this work, he was too busy with more pressing matters; he has, however, taken the calculations home with him, and he proposes to complete them during his leave.
E. P. COTTON.
(No. 334.) MY LORD,
No. 122.
EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE.
THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
(Received 3 August, 1908.)
[Answered by No. 129.]
Governor's Office, Mombasa, 13 July, 1908.
I HAVE the honour to submit a note by the Acting Director of Surveys, together with a memorandum by the Commissioner of Lands regarding the prepara- tion of cadastral sheets on the 6-inch scale.
2. It will be observed that the Commissioner of Lands, the Land Officer, and the heads of the trigonometrical and cadastral branches of the survey are agreed as to there being no necessity for these sheets on so large a scale in East Africa.
3. I would ask your Lordship's approval of the proposals made in paragraph 14 of Captain Knox's note.
11 June, 1908.
Enclosure 2 in No. 121.
I have, &c.,
J. HAYES SADLER.
SIR,
The DIRECTOR OF SURVEYS to the COLONIAL SECRETARY.
Survey Department, Lagos, West Africa, 24 June, 1908, REFERRING to your letter, No. 2655/4499/7, of the 23rd instant, I beg to point out that the work undertaken in the Central Province in November last was carried out with the assistance of one junior native assistant, that the operations at Lagos in connection therewith were conducted at night and, hence, after office hours, and were commenced after I was due for leave, and completed chiefly in order that I might meet the wishes of the Intelligence Division of the War Office, and provide them with the necessary data from which the various positions could be determined for computation purposes.
2. As a matter of fact, I did calculate each initial longitude sheet for every position observed, and had to carry out these calculations after office hours, when the majority of officials are enjoying themselves. I would point out that during the whole of my last tour, I had on an average to work more than two hours a day overtime. These facts are generally known, and were commented upon by the Lieutenant-Governor, and I had hoped would have established other views than those which His Excellency has been pleased to express in paragraph 2 of above- mentioned letter.
3. If my record be referred to, I am confident that, however much I may be interested in other matters than the work of my Department, I have never been accused of lack of zeal in departmental affairs; on the contrary, I have been com- plimented by the Secretary of State, all previous Administrators, and in the Legis- lative Council, upon zeal and good work.
4. In conclusion, I would point out that almost immediately upon the com- pletion of my observations in the Central Province, I proceeded on leave; there was then no time to do more than I did in the matter of completing the necessary calcu- lations (the amount, difficulty, and tediousness of which may not be apparent to the lay mind) which had, of course, to be expanded and checked. Mr. Cleminson, the only other officer in this Department capable of doing the work, had his hands too full to undertake these labours during my absence and, upon my return, he, after handing over, immediately proceeded on leave.
5. It will, therefore, be seen that it was practically impossible to do more than
Enclosure 1 in No. 122.
NOTE.
HONOURABLE THE COMMISSIONER of Land.
1. HEREWITH the note you asked me to prepare on the desirability of prepar-
ing cadastral plans in sheets on the scale of 6 inches to 1 mile. 2. The following remarks do not apply to township areas.
3. In a postscript, dated 2nd January, 1907, to a report to His Excellency Major Smith explains "the main point of cadastral sheets is to take the place of deed plans in a more efficient and rapid manner. When a deed plan is required in a portion where cadastral sheets exist, a suitable portion will be cut from a sheet or sheets and become a plan."
+
4. In Major Hills's report to the Colonial Office (received there 3rd April 1907) he says: the systematic cadastral survey in sheets should now be started at the earliest date
on the 6-inch scale.' 5. Major Smith left me with instructions to start cadastral mapping in syste- matic sheets on the 6-inch scale in the country round Nairobi and to the north. This country is already closely occupied by settlers who have received their deed plans.
6. However, I have reason to think that after Major Smith had seen the 6-inch cadastral sheets of the "Sotik" survey he realised that this scale was absurdly large for this country, where the size of holdings runs into several thousand acres.
7. The foregoing are the facts of the situation, and I have the following remarks to make on them.
8. The "Sotik" sheets on the 6-inch scale have proved quite useless to the Department, and none of the public has wanted any. Inasmuch as the large farms in most cases come on to more than one sheet, and the co-ordinates of the farm boundaries are known, for deed plan purposes it is found more rapid and more convenient in every way to plot the deed plans on a scale suitable to each, so as to form a document of convenient size.
9. When Major Hills made the remark quoted above in paragraph 4, I venture
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