PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
།། ་། ་། ། །
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Reference :-
C.O. 885
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
20 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
6889
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No. 91.
NORTHERN NIGERIA,
THE EARL OF ELGIN to ACTING HIGH COMMISSIONER WALLACE.
Downing Street, February 26, 1907.
(No. 94.). SIR,
I HAVE the honour to transmit to you, with reference to my despatch, No. 24, of the 15th of January, the accompanying copy of correspondencef with Mr. J. Brand, F.R.C.V.S., from which you will observe that he has accepted the offer of appointment as a temporary veterinary officer in Northern Nigeria, with salary at the rate of £400 a year. He will also receive an honorarium of £200 for his first six months' service, and so in proportion for any additional period, and an allowance of £50 for the provision of scientific and personal outfit.
2. The Crown Agents for the Colonies have been instructed to take a free first-class passage for him by the steamer leaving Liverpool on the 16th of March.
6889
No. 92.
NORTHERN NIGERIA..
I have, &c.,
ELGIN.
COLONIAL OFFICE to THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES.
[Answered by No. 102.]
Downing Street, February 26, 1907.
SIR,
I AM directed by the Earl of Elgin to inform you, with reference to my letter of the 22nd of December, that 'Mr. James Brand, F.R.C.V.S., has accepted the offer of temporary appointment as a veterinary officer in Northern Nigeria, and that he has been instructed to embark for the Protectorate by the steamer leaving Liverpool on the 16th of March.
2. I am to enquire whether the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries could place at Lord Elgin's disposal the services of another of their officers, who has expert in knowledge of the subject, for the purpose of undertaking a similar survey Southern Nigeria.
3. If the Board should be able to do so, I am to say that Lord Elgin would propose to offer the same terms as those granted to Mr. Brand, namely, salary at the rate of £400 a year, an honorarium of £200 for the first period of six months' service in Southern Nigeria, and so in proportion for any additional period, and an allowance of £50 for personal and scientific outfit.
3524
SIR,
No. 93.
I am, &c.,
R. L. ANTROBUS.
THE EARL OF ELGIN to THE GOVERNORS, &c., OF ALL CROWN COLONIES AND PROTECTORATES.
(Circular.)
Downing Street, 26th February, 1907.
My attention has been called to the desirability of putting veterinary matters in certain of the Crown Colonies and Protectorates on a better footing, and I have been in consultation with the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries with a view to seeing what steps can be taken in this direction.
The ravages caused by disease among animals have been specially marked in South Africa, but the subject is scarcely a matter of less importance in the British Colonies and Protectorates in East and West Africa, where domestic animals are urgently required for food and transport purposes, but where, owing to the pre- valence of the animal plagues peculiar to the tropics, they are exposed to great
• L.F. transmitting copy of No. 78. † No. 71: 3708; not printed, and No. 90. + No. 75.
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risks and in some cases are unable to exist at all. In other tropical Colonies, also, the domestic animals form a valuable asset, and serious loss may be caused at any moment by the introduction of disease, as happened recently in the case of Mauritius.
3. I would ask the Governments of the Crown Colonies and Protectorates which are interested in this question to take into their consideration the following points, which have been suggested to me by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. 4. In a country where animal diseases are indigenous, one of the first steps to be taken is to obtain at the earliest possible moment an accurate knowledge of them, and to guard against the introduction of fresh diseases by means of imported stock.
5. Inasmuch as these indigenous diseases are often more or less confined to particular localities, the ordinary training obtained at home does not qualify a veterinary graduate to deal with them unless he has had a supplementary training as an investigator, and further, it is not so much essential that he should be skilled in the ordinary art of healing as that he should have an intimate knowledge of legis- lative and preventive medicine, including such an intimate knowledge of the subject of serum therapeutics as will enable him to devise modifications of known methods of immunisation which will be applicable to the diseases of the country.
6. The fact that seniority of service generally entitles men to hold the most responsible posts renders it of importance that only competent men should be obtained for the junior appointments of the Veterinary Department of a Colony, and it must be borne in mind that when once a man has entered the Colonial Service it is difficult to supplement any defects in his training by further instructions in this country or elsewhere.
7. In these circumstances it appears desirable to encourage some of the best qualified men to accept service in the Colonies, a step which, under existing condi- tions, they are unwilling to take, owing to the better prospects at home.
8. You will have learnt from my Circular of the 4th of March, 1904,* that a practical course of instruction in pathology and bacteriology of animals adapted to meet the requirements of the whole Empire has been established at the Royal Veterinary College, and, as the instruction is given personally by Sir J. McFadyean, it will be recognised that adequate arrangements have been made for the preliminary instruction of Veterinary Officers desirous of entering the Colonial Service.
9. The Civil Service Commissioners have recently undertaken to examine veterinary officers before they are appointed to the permanent staff of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. The subjects prescribed for the post of Veterinary Inspector under the Board are contained in the syllabus of which a copy is enclosed, and it seems to me desirable that a similar standard of examination should be adopted in respect to veterinary appointments in the Crown Colonies and Protectorates.
10. If the Crown Colonies and Protectorates concerned concur in this sugges- tion, I will approach the Civil Service Commissioners with a view to making the necessary arrangements. Should no difficulty arise in this direction, the procedure which I propose to adopt is as follows. The general non-professional qualifications of applicants for veterinary appointments in the Crown Colonies and Protectorates will be considered in the first instance at the time of the receipt of such applica- tions, and after consultation with the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, a list of prima facie suitable candidates will be submitted from time to time to the Civil Service Commissioners in order that the professional qualifications of the selected candidates may be tested by an examination in the prescribed syllabus. A further list would thus be formed of those who had passed the prescribed examination, and, in the event of any veterinary appointment requiring to be made at any future time in urgent circumstances, the selection of a suitable veterinary surgeon would be facilitated.
11. If this system is to work satisfactorily, it is essential that a reasonable number of appointments should be available every year, and I should therefore be glad to learn whether, in the event of your Government requiring veterinary officers for the higher ranks of its Veterinary Department, it would be willing to take them from the list referred to above. It is also essential that adequate salaries should be offered, and, although it is difficult to lay down any fixed scale in view of the great difference in the conditions of service in the various Colonies, I may say at once that it seems impossible at present to obtain competent men for first appoint-
• Not printed.