PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 885
22 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
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I am not able to approve or recommend to you the expenditure of these large sums of money, and I have telegraphed instructions that the existing survey party must deal with all mining leases and exclusive prospecting licences (whether granted before or after the closing of the minefields) which fall within the surveyed area, even if by so doing the area completed when the party returns to England should be considerably curtailed. The Special Survey was organised to meet an emergency at a time when the Survey Depart- ment of Northern Nigeria had not as yet been properly constituted, and my intention was that it should complete a cadastral survey of the whole of the area most closely occupied by mining leases and licences, and be able early in 1914 to hand over this completed survey to the Survey Department of Northern Nigeria with all arrears brought up to date. This anticipation will not now, it appears, be fulfilled. It would seem that the Royal Engineers non-
commissioned officers selected for the work were, for the most part, too young and inexperienced. It was reported that there had been much sickness among them due to neglect of ordinary precautions, and many months had elapsed before they had settled down to their work. Two have been sent back to England.
"In these circumstances I fear that the experience of the past year may only be repeated with the new party now asked for, and I think it will be safer to entrust the work to the Chief Surveyor, Northern Nigeria, whose staff will require to be augmented for the purpose.. I have just received a letter from Mr. Collard, in which he writes as follows:-
"I would propose that all current mines surveys be handed over to me, and that the Officer Commanding minesfields party's responsibility is limited to the survey of areas applications for which have been received on or before the date I take over. If I am given three extra surveyors for my Mines Survey Section for next year, I guarantee to keep the survey of all applications for exclusive prospecting licences and mining leases up-to-date. It is essential that all these mines surveys should be under one Department, and that Department should be, I suggest, the Northern Nigeria Survey Department; it is also essential to have the work kept up-to-date, and that I guarantee to do if the work is handed over to me, and that without a very excessive increase of staff.'
"I recommend, therefore, that four surveyors should be engaged at once for the Northern Nigeria Survey in order that they may work for some little time in conjunction with the Minesfield Special Survey party, and carry on their work when they leave, with a full knowledge of the methods hitherto employed and of all fixed survey points, &c. I am requesting the Crown Agents to engage two additional men for the Land Revenue Survey around Kano, whose salaries will be paid from Native Administration Funds. Of the total number required two should be engaged as Surveyors' on £400- £20-£500, duty pay £80, if qualified men can be found, and the remainder as' Assistant Surveyors' on £300-£15-£400.
In my opinion the system of special surveys by Royal Engineer officers and non-commissioned officers is one which is at once very costly and unsatis- factory (as I pointed out in paragraph 4 of my despatch, No. 181, of the 7th July*) in that the local experience gained is lost to the country. I would prefer to considerably increase the permanent Survey Department, which under the new rules should be largely remunerative.
"The difficulty, however, consists in finding young men qualified for appointment. The limited number of surveyors who respond to advertise- ments by the Crown Agents are, believe, 'land surveyors whose training is not what is required for the work in Nigeria. I attach a copy of a letter from Mr. Collard in which he makes suggestions as to the class of man who should be selected, and I would also refer you to Major Guggisberg's suggestions in paragraph 9 (d) and (e) of his letter which forms Enclosure 2." On the 11th of August the Governor forwardedt a copy of a letter from Mr. Collard, and requested that the four surveyors he had asked for should be increased to ten, apart from two wanted for the Kano Revenue Survey-in default of men with good survey qualifications the men to be "young men with a University degree and some aptitude for mathematics, or men who have obtained a degree or
† 28138/13: not printed,
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23178/13: not printed
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diploma in engineering." Eventually it was ascertained that what he wanted was twelve altogether, including the three "trained surveyors from the Ordnance Survey. The remaining nine were to be young, untrained probationers " (seven for the minefields survey and two for the Kano revenue survey). In the despatch* reply- ing to these proposals we wrote:-
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You are, no doubt, aware of the difficulty of obtaining trained civil surveyors in this country for such work as that for which you require them. The Ordnance Survey have, however, been approached on the matter, and I hope that, as a result, the three trained men for which you ask will be sent out to Nigeria without delay.
"I can, however, see no prospect that the further nine surveyors which you require can be supplied from this source. The creation of a considerable civilian staff to replace Royal Engineers can only be effected gradually. If probationers are selected the necessity for their being trained at Southampton and in the Protectorate will cause a considerable amount of time to elapse before they will be of any real use to the Survey Department. I enclose a copy of the Colonial Office print, Miscellaneous No. 225, which shows how probationers are at present selected for Ceylon, the Federated Malay States, and East Africa. In view of your proposal to set up a civilian survey staff in Nigeria, it might perhaps be well to extend the scheme so as to embrace Nigeria in the future. This would not, however, make it possible to provide such probationers immediately in order to meet the present emergency.
In all the circumstances, I have thought it best to cause enquiry to be made of the Institute of Civil Engineers as to whether it would be possible for them to recommend any civil engineers with experience of surveying as suitable for the appointments in question. I hope that some candidates will be obtained from this source. As regards the balance of the appointments, I propose that they should be filled by probationers selected under the Colonial Surveyors Scheme, if and when this can be done. The salary of a probationer in Northern Nigeria will be fixed at £300 a year. If at the end of his first tour his service is approved by the Surveyor-General he will be placed on the ordinary establishment on the scale £300-£15-£400 on three years' probation. "It is possible, however, that the filling of these appointments cannot wait until probationers have been examined, sent to a course, and their train- ing completed locally. Should this be the case, I fear that I can see no alter- native to appointing non-commissioned officers and sappers of the Royal Engineers to fill the remaining posts."
So far one post only out of the nine has been filled-by Mr. Hurt, who went out in October without taking an examination or a course of instruction. The Institute of Civil Engineers, to whom we wrote on 20th September, referred our letter to the Civil Engineers Appointments Board, but so far only one candidate has applied in consequence.
On 10th November, 1913, the Governor wrotet reviewing the situation and the opinions expressed by Major Guggisberg and Mr. Collard.
He asked that two Lieutenants and five non-commissioned officers of Royal Engineers (in addition to two non-commissioned officers already selected to replace men invalided from the first minefields survey party) should be selected and sent out in January, 1914, thus reverting to the original proposal of July. In addition he asked that Mr. Waters might be allowed to select the 9‡ civilian surveyors wanted in addition.
In the course of the despatch he said :—
395 17
In making this recommendation I counted on Mr. Collard having the three trained surveyors whom the Director of Ordnance Surveys had promised to supply. One of these has arrived. He is an ex-non-commissioned officer, Royal Engineers, who, I understand, has been employed chiefly in the office, and is wholly unsuited for the work which offers. He will, I am told, require almost as much training as the new men whom Mr. Collard desires to engage. The other two, Mr. Kingston (the newly-arrived man) says, are like himself, ex-non-commissioned officers, Royal Engineers, of similar training.
"In these circumstances I have no option but to reconsider my recom- mendation.
*
• 28138: not printed.
† 41315/13: not printed, Really 8, as Mr. Hurt had already been selected.
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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99 Lou RECORD OFFICE LONDENT ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
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