PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :--
C.O. 885
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
20 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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that the method and conditions of engagement in England of survey probationers as indicated in the S. of S., No. 172, of the 12th July, and the accompanying memo- randum, are generally quite suitable for the purpose we have in view.
With reference to the modification in the scheme as originally submitted:— 1. As regards the duration of the Southampton course: I quite realise that it would be difficult for the Ordnance Survey to arrange for keeping up courses for periods of six months; and I concur that a great deal of the practical training of the probationer must, in any case, be effected in the country to which he is sent. A course of from two to three months is, I think, really all we can expect from the Ordnance Survey.
2. With reference to the question of commencing salary after the termination of the probationary period, I had anticipated this point by proposing a second grade of surveyor for this Department on a salary of from £250 to £360 a year with one increment of £50 after one year's service, and two biennial increments of £30. I calcu- lated that this would bring the surveyor up to the mean salary of the first grade at about the average age of our present first grade surveyors in these States, suppos- ing he came into the second grade within two years of his coming out at the average age of admission. I am inclined to think, however, that it would be better, as now proposed in this memorandum, to limit the probationary period to one year, to pay the probationer £250 during that year (without quarters), and let him come into the second grade at the end of that year, if he is approved, at a salary of £300, rising to £360 by annual increments of £15. That would allow a minimum of five years to get into the first grade; and, considering what we expect of our first grade surveyors, this is not too much. Moreover, this scheme would be fairly comparable to the first stage of the existing "Cadet Scheme."
3. Referring to the memorandum of proposed arrangements: this appears to me to provide for everything practically.
(a) I presume that in the application mentioned in paragraph 3 (of the memo- randum) the applicant will be required to state that he is not married and has no intention of marrying "in the immediate future." (b) As regards the probationary period: I would suggest that it might be provided that the one year could be extended under special circum- stances. Accident or illness might prevent the probationer from applying himself to his work for a considerable time, and yet he might be one whose services it would be advantageous to the Government to retain.
4. I should like to discuss the scheme before it goes back, more particularly as regards the salary conditions, with the Resident-General.
The Federal Secretary,
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I have, &c.,
H. M. JACKSON, Colonel,
Surveyor-General.
Federated Malay States,
Federated Malay States.
Kuala Lumpur.
No. 39.
THE SURVEYORS' INSTITUTION to COLONIAL OFFICE.
DEAR SIR FRANCIS,
(Received 10 November, 1909.)
[Answered by No, 40.]
The Surveyors' Institution, 12, Great George Street,
Westminster, S.W., 9th November, 1909. REFERRING to your letter of the 28th July,* the Council have now considered the question of the fees to be charged to candidates for examination for junior survey posts, and they are prepared to undertake the duty for a uniform charge of 21s. per head. Unless the number of candidates were at least ten, this sum would not cover the cost, but the Council looked upon it as so important that a uniform charge, such as that suggested, should be made, that they were willing to bear any slight difference there might be out of Institution funds.
• Private letter: see No. 28.
73
I presume that in no case less than five or six candidates would be sent at any
one time, and that we should have plenty of notice beforehand in order to make our arrangements.
The examination could take place here for indoor work.
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SIR,
No. 40.
Yours very truly,
A. GODDARD.
COLONIAL OFFICE to THE SURVEYORS' INSTITUTION.
Downing Street, 25 November, 1909. I AM directed by the Earl of Crewe to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 9th of November, and to request you to convey his thanks to the Council of the Surveyors' Institution for their promise of assistance in the matter of the selection of candidates for junior survey appointments in the Colonial Service. Lord Crewe is causing your letter to be referred with other correspondence on the subject to the Colonial Survey Committee, and a further letter will be sent to you in due course...
9099
No. 41.
UGANDA.
I am, &c.,
G. V. FIDDES.
THE ACTING GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received 28 March, 1910.)
(Confidential.)
MY LORD,
Government House, Uganda, 28th February, 1910. WITH reference to your Lordship's confidential despatch of 8th November. 1909,† on the subject of reductions in the survey staff of this Protectorate, I have the honour to forward herewith copy of a memorandum which I have received from the Director of Surveys, and with which I am in entire agreement, so far as the interests of the country generally are concerned.
2. In the Kingdom of Buganda, titles to land have been conferred by the Agreement of 1900, and it is appalling to consider the mass of disputes and litiga- tion which must ensue owing to deaths, sales, transfers, gifts, leases, &c., of land among persons holding provisional certificates over unsurveyed land during a period of 25 years, or, as now proposed by the Treasury, 45 years.
3. The native of Uganda may have a very exaggerated idea of the value of land, but there is no doubt that the issue of final certificates to the holders of land will have a more quieting effect on their suspicions of our bona fides than anything else we could devise. Any such suspicions, and any ruffle that may occur in the smooth waters of our relations with the native authorities of Uganda, are invariably caused by matters of land tenure.
4. The success which has met the members of the H. M. Syndicate in their plantations of rubber, cocoa, and coffee, will, without doubt, induce others to wish to embark in similar enterprises, but at the present moment it is most difficult for the Land Officer to show would-be purchasers any suitable area of Crown land.
5. The natives were instructed in 1900 to mark out the areas of land allowed to them under the Agreement, and it follows naturally that in many cases the area so marked out is considerably larger than the sanctioned amount, but until such estates have been surveyed, it is impossible for this Government to reduce these areas, and claim as Crown lands the excess so marked out.
6. Should, therefore, thirty or forty private persons or companies wish, within the next year or two, to obtain Crown land for the purpose of plantations, I am given to understand that it would be almost impossible to allot them within Buganda
• No. 39.
† 34811: not printed.