41
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
Tim C.O. 885
22 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE
BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
('lakeer ( survey.
Order of
16125
SIR,
April.*
No. 13.
NIGERIA.
MAJOR F. G. GUGGISBERG, R.E., to COLONIAL OFFICE.
(Received 2nd May, 1914.)
London Office, Nigeria Survey, Members' Mansions, 38, Victoria Street, S.W.
April 30th, 1914.
HAVE the honour to forward the scheme called for by your letter of the 20th
Ten appendicest are attached to the scheme to enable reference to be made to maps
and previous proposals. Three appendices are in one roll, and seven are under separate covers.
I have, &c.,
F. G. GUGGISBERG, Major, R.E.,
Surveyor-General.
Enclosure in No. 13.
REPORT OF THE Surveyor-General.
I. Summary of the various Surreys, their objects, and the order in which they should be executed.
1. The chief classes of survey work required in Northern Provinces are :--
Miscellaneous Cadastral Surveys.
I.
II.
Revenue Surveys.
HII
Mining Surveys.
IV. Topographical Surveys.
V. Instruction Survey Schools.
VI. Provisional Map Compilation.
2. It is not possible to place the above surveys in an actual order of execution. execution. All are required at once in a greater or less degree. The most feasible plan is to organise the Survey Department into sections, one for the execution of each class, each section to be organised so as to be capable of expansion or contraction as the demand for its particular class of survey increases or falls off.
Miscel- laneous cadastral
surveys.
State of revenue surveys.
Proposals for such an organisation are shown in Appendix II., and are commented on in paragraph 38.
3. In view of the rapid development of the Northern Provinces, a large number of cadastral surveys of a miscellaneous nature are, and will be for some time to come, constantly required. These consist chiefly of station surveys required for designs of lay-outs in accordance with principles laid down by the Governor- General; surveys of traders' plots, rights of occupancy, and mining lands outside the area reserved for the Mines Section; and special surveys for water supply and other purposes. The majority of these surveys are urgently required, and a special H.Q. section of the cadastral branch should be organised for their execution.
In the course of time. when the staff of each revenue section is sufficiently strong and well trained, the majority of the above surveys can be conveniently executed by the revenue section of the province in which they lie.
4. Summary of Progress.-The necessity for a revenue survey of the Kano Province of a more accurate and permanent nature than that existing at the time. was first brought to the notice of the Secretary of State by the Acting Governor on (Appendix July 15th, 1912, in despatch No. 461, Northern Nigeria, enclosing a copy of my IV.) memorandum No. 1. Later, on May 3rd, 1913, I submitted a fresh memorandum, (Appendix No. 3, embodying the views of the Resident of Kano. Early in 1913 the Chief V.)
↑ Appendices I., II. and III not reproduced.
• No. 12.
Surveyor visited Egypt and submitted a report on the methods of survey adopted. (Appendix I commented on his report in a letter, 28/555, of 8th January, 1914.
VI.)
Copies of the above memoranda are attached as Appendices IV. to VI. The Governor-General approved generally of the principles suggested in memo- (Minute 13 randum No. 3. Later, His Excellency decided that the survey fee should be 1s. per 1913, M.P.
acre.
In view of the deficiency in staff of the Northern Nigeria Survey it was not to be expected that any great progress was possible up to March, 1914. The exact organisation should, however, have been drawn up, and the revenue survey of one district lying around the Survey School at Kano should have been partly completed by the pupils during their training.
of 30 July,
2972/1913.)
5. Accepting the necessity for a revenue survey of some description for a Object of country depending largely on land taxation as a source of revenue, the chief points revenue to consider are :---
(i.) The areas over which revenue surveys are necessary.
(ii) The nature of the survey.
(iii) The funds available for survey expenses.
surveys.
6. At the present moment the province most urgently in need of a revenue Ares of survey is Kano. Next come Sokoto and Zaria. In regard to the other provinces, revenne it seems likely that the great agricultural areas in Bornu and Illorin will require survey. revenue surveys in the near future.
To start a revenue section for each of these provinces at once, and before we have definitely ascertained the capabilities of the mallamai, on whom the cheap working of the sections will depend, is not advisable. I advise that the Kano section be started at the earliest possible moment, and that in July, 1915, both the Sokoto and Zaria sections should be started on a small scale. Some con- siderable time will elapse before the Survey School will be able to supply sufficient trained mallamai to bring the sections up to the required strength, but a start can be made by the Europeans with a few men, and in the meantime the present system of" taki assessment can fill the gap.
I should like to draw attention here to the extraordinarily large number of appeals that were made in Egypt against the new assessments made when an accurate survey replaced the old system. Speaking from memory, I believe that some 15,000 appeals were made in a year, and it can readily be seen that a large expenditure of time and money in investigations resulted. The longer the methodical revenue survey of Nigeria is postponed, the greater will be our difficulties in this respect.
7.
I submit that it would be inadvisable, even if it were possible, to provide. Nature of at once any such large and expensive machinery for the assessment of land as that revenge which exists in countries such as Egypt, where the revenue survey has been slowly Burvey. built up on the lessons of past experience. On the other hand, an assessment survey should not be of too hurried and sketchy a character or it will be productive of such evils that any saving in cost effected at the time will be more than counter- balanced by the expense of re-surveys in the future. Examples of this are to be seen at the present moment in the Northern Provinces, where the rough methods of land assessment, though of temporary advantage to the Administration, are in the highest degree inaccurate, and of no permanent value. Further examples exist in Cyprus and in the past history of Egypt.
A trigonometrical supplemented by a chain survey forms a happy mean between expense and inaccuracy, and there is no reason to believe that this mean will not be obtained in the Northern Provinces if the school and revenue sections are suitably organised.
8. With a survey fee of one shilling an acre, as approved by the Governor- Cost of General, each revenue section will not only be self-supporting, but will show a large revenne excess of revenue from survey fees over expenditure. This excess depends on the Farvey. proportion the native staff bears to the European staff, on the capability of the natives, and on the care with which organisation and training is planned.
When revenue sections exist in all provinces at full strength, revenue from survey fees should cover the whole of the survey expenditure of the Northern Pro- vinces. Reasons for this statement are given under" Finance" in paragraph 50.
9. The object of the mines survey is to demarcate the boundaries of lands Object of applied for or held under mining leases and licences, and, by means of a framework, mines to establish their position on the map of Nigeria.
33517
Burveys.
F