PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 885
22 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
Kano
School.
Duties of revenue
survey section.
Relation between resident and section,
Extension
46
27. Appendix IV. contains the original suggestions for the formation of the Kano School.
Memorandum No. 2, Appendix VII., contains later proposals approved by the Governor-General, but not yet put into effect.
The Kano School is the most important factor at the present moment in the whole survey of Nigeria. On its products depends the economical and efficient working of every section of the northern branch, but especially that of the revenue sections. This is particularly pointed out in paragraph 8
The future of the school, and incidentally that of the survey, depends very largely on the manner in which it is started. If the European Instructor is not the right class of man to gain the respect and confidence of the "mallamai" pupils and to imbue them with pride in their new profession, and if the pupils are not properly housed and treated, we shall not get the right class of men to enter the school, and on this very much depends, more especially in the revenue sections.
In the present Instructor, Mr. Sidney Smith, we have a very suitable and hard- working European, but I submit that it should be the personal duty of the Surveyor- General to place the school in the state of organisation in which it should continue to be run.
The school by now, had the proposals approved by the Governor-General been put in force by the Director of Surveys, should have turned out about 30 mallamai assessors: the number actually trained was, I understand, 14.
VIII. The Inter-relation of Revenue and Survey Work.
•
28. The duties of a revenue survey section should consist solely of technical survey work carried out entirely under the Survey Department. The assessment and collection of taxes should form no part of the section's duties.
The duties are chiefly:-
-
(i.) To provide plans and areas of all taxable lands to enable the tax to be assessed by the Administration.
(ii.) To provide district plans to enable the Administration to mark on them the different natures of the soil and to see the distance of the various farms from roads, waterways, and markets. This is necessary for the assess-
ment.
(iii) To deal with the survey side of all petitions and appeals received through the Administration.
29. In all matters affecting the natives and the political administration the revenue survey section should work under the general orders of the Resident, whose programme of the order in which districts should be surveyed would be observed. This programme should be drawn up in consultation with the Surveyor-General to enable the necessary technical arrangements to be made for extension of the main framework, &c. The Resident should have no say in technical survey matters.
30. As a revenue survey section attained its full strength, it could conveniently of section's carry out any minor cadastral surveys required by the Resident, to avoid sending parties long distances from headquarters. This extension of duties will facilitate and hasten the survey of scattered mining lands and assist the Resident in planning roads, reservations, &c.
duties.
Progress of Burvey.
Faulty co- ordination
of mines
IX. A Special Report on the Minefields Surrey.
31. Appendix VIII. contains a full report of the work of No. 1 party, my covering letter thereto (No. 2/17/D), and the remarks of the Governor-General.
No. 1 party is now in England.
No. 2 party of two officers and 12 non-commissioned officers is in the minefield. Four hundred and eighty-seven areas were accounted for by No. 1 party, and according to the latest information 171 areas in the Central Province portion of the minefield are requiring survey by No. 2 party. Full information on No. 2 party's capability to complete this and current work, and concerning the re-opening of the minefield, is given in Appendix VIII., paragraphs 10 and 11 of my covering letter. No. 2/17/D.
32. I have the honour to draw attention to the unsatisfactory co-ordination' of the mines surveys in and immediately around the minefield. At present these surveys are in the hands of two distinct departments-the Mines Survey Section survers in within the Central Province portion of the minefield, and the Northern Provinces the mine- Survey outside. The arrangement was adopted on account of the pressing neces- sity of surveying the great mass of mining areas as early as possible with a view
and near
field.
47
to reopening the minefield to prospectors. It can readily be seen that it is techni- cally unsound for two parties under different commands and with different survey methods to be working in close proximity to each other.
33. To lessen the technical disadvantages I suggest that the mines survey Suggested section should, as soon as possible, take entire charge of all mines surveys both in remedy. and outside the minefield of the Central, Nassarawa, and Muri Provinces. This would free the Director of the cadastral branch, Northern Provinces, for the numerous cadastral and mines surveys requiring his attention in other parts of Nigeria.
The date on which the mines section could thus extend their field of operations depends on the reports of progress made and applications received during the next few months, and also on the re-employment of certain numbers of No. 1 party.
If the extension of the Mines Section's area is approved, those surveyors of the Northern Provinces survey who have been detailed to survey the Nassarawa areas should be transferred to the mines section; such a transfer is desirable from the point of view of co-ordination.
A further advantage gained by the suggested step is that the work of the topo- Vide map graphical branch during next season will only require co-ordinating with the work in Appe of one other unit instead of two. This is especially important, as a large number dix I. of mines now being, or shortly to be, surveyed by the Northern Provinces survey lie in the area covered by the season's programme.
Letter
34. Paragraph 12 of the letter marginally quoted contains suggestions for the Appendix re-employment of certain members of No. 1 party, and for the engagement of three VIII. probationer civilians to enable the minefield to be declared open in September next. 2/17/D. For reasons of general survey policy, the appointment of Captain Giles as Re-em- Assistant Surveyor-General, with a non-commissioned officer as draughtsman, is ployment suggested in paragraph 44 of this report. Such suggestion, if approved, will do of No. 1 away with the necessity of re-employing the above officer and non-commissioned party to officer as members of the mines section, which should then be increased by the re- minefield employment of four non-commissioned officers, viz., Lance-corporals Stock, to be McMahon, McDonnell, and Cleary,
The latter has already been re-engaged by the Colonial Office.
In view of the fact that only one probationer has up to the present been secured for the nine vacancies existing in the Northern Provinces survey, it is advisable
for the present to employ trained non-commissioned officers in the Mines Section instead of the probationer civilian originally suggested.
enable
opened.
35. The shortage above quoted in the supply of junior probationers raises a Increase of further question. In paragraph 33 I suggested the extension of the Mines Section's mines work to Nassarawa, and the transfer of certain surveyors to it from the Northern section. Provinces survey.
If all nine vacancies cannot be filled this year. I suggest that the number should be reduced to six, and that three fully-trained non-commissioned officers should be at once added to the Mines Section in their place.
If, on the other hand, these vacancies can be filled. I suggest the transfer of three of the five non-commissioned officers at present employed by the Northern Provinces survey to the Mines Section.
Neither suggestion will affect the working strength of the Northern Provinces survey, as that department would not be required to undertake surveys that would involve sending three men to Nassarawa.
With a total increase of seven non-commissioned officers, as suggested above and in the last paragraph, the Mines Section could, under the general supervision of the Assistant Surveyor-General, undertake all surveys in the Central, Nassarawa, and Muri Provinces.
The non-commissioned officers could gradually be replaced by civilian pro- bationers, and more time would be available for the careful selection of the latter. X. Suggested Organisation.
(NOTE. A section on this subject has not been called for by the Secretary of State, but bears so intimately on the points dealt with in this report that it has been inserted.)
36. The technical disadvantages of the present system of organisation of the Disadvan- survey of Nigeria in two separate department's have been dealt with in the various tages of paragraphs of this report. They can be summarised as lack of co-ordination,' organ'sa- both technical and administrative, and are rendered graver by the fact that both tion.
present