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No. 55.

SOUTHERN NIGERIA.

THE ACTING GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

(Received 1.37 p.m., June 24, 1907.)

TELEGRAM.

Referring to your telegram 21st June,* plans of area required will be sent to you by 31st August. Despatcht follows by mail.-THORBURN.

82

In the first instance, however, I am to request that the Secretary of State (1) will be so good as to furnish his own estimate of the total extra expense which the measurement would entail; and (2) will'at the same time inform this Board (a) what portion of such extra expense will fall on the current year's Vote for Colonial Services; (b) how it can be met; and (c) when the contribution of £1,000 would be payable by the Societies.

I am, &c.,

G. H. MURRAY.

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No. 53.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.885

18 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

SIR,

EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE. TREASURY to COLONIAL OFFICE.

(Received June 22, 1907.)

Treasury Chambers, June 21, 1907. I HAVE laid before the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury Mr. Cox's letter (11073/07), received on the 17th ultimo,* enclosing the revised estimates of the Survey Department in the East Africa Protectorate for 1907/8.

In reply, I am to request you to inform the Earl of Elgin that, subject to the following observations, My Lords now sanction these estimates at totals of £17,609 for Ordinary and £754 for Special Expenditure, making £18,363 in all.

Major Hills, in his report, advises the early formation of a full topographical section in the Department. In this connection I am to refer to the observations in Treasury letter of 17th November, 1905,† and to say that, in giving the present sanction, my Lords must not be understood as assenting in advance to this proposal or to the further expansion of the cadastral branch outlined in the report. The question of further developments of the Survey Department must be reserved for subsequent consideration in the light of the immediate requirements of the work and of the general financial situation of the Protectorate.

I am to ask that, in connection with the estimates for next year, their Lordships may be furnished with a statement showing the progress of the survey work, and with a forecast of the amount still remaining to be done, and the approximate time requisite for its completion.

My Lords rely upon the Secretary of State to make such arrangements in engaging the additional staff now authorised as will obviate any difficulty in the event of its hereafter being found necessary to reduce the establishment.

The excess (£510) of the expenditure now approved over the provision in the estimates should, as proposed, be met by savings to be effected during the year.

&c.,

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No. 54.

SOUTHERN NIGERIA.

I am,

G. H. MURRAY.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE ACTING GOVERNOR.

1

(Sent 1.30 p.m., June 21, 1907.)

TELEGRAM.

[Answered by No. 55.]

Please

June 21, 1907. Referring to your despatch, No. 232,‡ Survey progress report, there has been undue delay on the part of Director of Surveys in furnishing sheets of topographical survey of Southern Nigeria. Since Cotton's appointment no com- pleted work for reproduction has ever been received. Delay must cease. instruct him to despatch the complete topographical sheets covering the square degree between latitudes seven and eight north and longitudes four and five east before August 31, or question of his retention in office will be considered.-ELGIN.

:

• No. 13A.

† No. 29 in African No. 777.

* No. 46.

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No. 56.

GOLD COAST.

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

(Received June 24, 1907.)

[Answered by No. 60.]

(No. 227.) MY LORD,

Government House, Accra, May 31, 1907. WITH reference to paragraph 4 of my despatch, No. 174, of the 6th May current, on the subject of the abolition of the Mines Survey Department, I have the honour to transmit, for Your Lordship's consideration, a carefully prepared report by the Director of Surveys and the Director of Public Works, submitting proposals for the establishment of a separate Survey Department at the beginning of next year.

2. It was originally intended that, on the abolition of the Mines Survey Department, the survey work of this Colony would be carried out (as in the Straits Settlements, where the Colonial Engineer is also Surveyor-General) by a branch of the Public Works Department; but, having regard to the arguments adduced in the accompanying report and to the comparative weakness of the Gold Coast Public Works Department, to which attention is drawn in my despatch of the 1st May current,§ I agree that it will be advisable to organize a separate Survey Department, in connexion with the 1908 Estimates.

3. In the meanwhile, I have directed the Director of Surveys, when he leaves the Colony, to hand over to the Director of Public Works all instruments, records, &c., connected with the mines surveys; and, as the salaries of the four native surveyors and draughtsmen, whom it is desirable to retain, are only provided for up to the end of June (vide page 136 of the 1907 Estimates), I propose to take a special vote for their salaries from the 1st July to the 31st December.

They all receive pay, at present, at the rate of £10 a month; and, as one of them (Mr. Gwira) can be employed on the investigation of the Accra Water Supply, for which there is an Open Vote, the amount required will be £180.

Two of the other men (Messrs. Smith and Vaughan) will be employed on town surveys at Accra, Sekondi and Tarkwa; while the third (Mr. Josiah) will be provi- sionally attached to the Intelligence Office at Kumase.

4. I would make the following observations on proposals entered under various headings in the attached report:-

Definition of Government Lands, &c. (paragraph 5 (ƒ), (g), (h) and (i) ).—I do not agree that it would be advisable, at all events in the first instance, to place the Director of Surveys in charge of all Government land, or to confer upon him the title of "Commissioner of Lands." The survey and demarcation of Government land should of course be carried out by the Survey Department, which must also maintain the boundary marks; but the general care of land belonging to Govern- ment, in this Colony as elsewhere, properly forms part of the duties of Provincial and District Commissioners, and no sufficient reason has yet been shown for relieving them of it.

Whether or not it may be advisable to substitute the Director of Surveys for the Director of Public Works, under the provisions of the Public Lands Ordinance

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No. 54.

† See No. 63.

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