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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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C.O.885

18 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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No. 63.

SOUTHERN NIGERIA.

THE ACTING GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

(Confidential.)

(Received July 15, 1907.)

[Answered by No. 71.]

Government House, Lagos, Southern Nigeria,

MY LORD,

June 24, 1907. On the 22nd instant I replied as follows by telegram to your Lordship's telegram of the 21st June,* on the subject of survey progress reports:—

"Referring to your telegram of 21st June, plan of area required will be sent to you by 31st August. Despatch follows by mail."

2. I now enclose a report on the subject by the Director of Surveys, written in the somewhat unrestrained manner which, as it is characteristic of Mr. Cotton's general correspondence, does not call for such comment as it otherwise might.

3. He seeks to justify the delay by the method which he adopted with a view to securing efficiency and economy, and to a layman there would appear to be some force in his arguments.

4.

I do not agree with the plea set up in paragraph 7 of the report, and I consider that work of the nature described therein properly falls within the pur- view of the duties of a Director of Surveys.

5. Mr. Cotton's failure to meet your Lordship's wishes is not, I can safely state, due to any lack of energy. He is extremely keen on his work, and is most anxious that it shall be of the very highest type, and I trust that the plans which he promises to send before the 31st of August will be of such a kind as to justify the delay in their transmission.

6. I would ask your Lordship to instruct me whether Mr. Cotton should from time to time send later instalments, or whether in consideration of the arguments adduced in paragraph 12 of his report he may be permitted to take home the entire balance at the close of his present tour of service in November.

(No. 127/110/1907.) YOUR EXCELLENCY,

I have, &c.,

J. J. THORBURN,

Acting Governor.

Enclosure in No. 63.

Survey Department, June 24, 1907. THE cablegram from the Secretary of State, which you were good enough to forward me yesterday, is couched in such language that I can hardly believe the facts of the case with which it deals could have been accurately placed before him.

2. In the Annual Report of the Colonial Survey Committee for 1906, page 42, may be found a map on which is set forth in red hatching the area which I arranged with Major Close should be completed during 1907. At that interview Major Close was doubtful if the area which I specified could be accomplished during this year. I, however, was of opinion that, under ordinary circumstances, the work would be finished in the time stated, and it was accordingly assented to.

3. When I arrived in the Colony (which was at the beginning of the dry season) I at once started the work in, what I consider, the most economical and advantageous manner by immediately putting all the available surveyors, excepting those neces- sary for cadastral and special surveys, on topographical work.

4. Each surveyor was given a section which was arranged in such a manner as to avoid, as far as possible, the rains in the hinterland, which are very sporadic, and do not occur at the same time as the coastal rain. The programme was so arranged that the locality of earliest rainfall was surveyed first and so on. state that this scheme effected great economy.

• No. 54.

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5. It will now be seen that it would have been unwise and bad generalship to have placed all the surveyors in, say, one square degree, and I would here state (the reasons for which will be given hereafter) that early in the operations, I decided upon straining every effort in pushing on the surveys during the dry season, and completing the plotting during the wet weather, with a result that between 3,000 and 4,000 miles of new and good work was completed between the commencing of my present tour and the end of May, a result which I should think ought to more than satisfy even the most exacting. To this should be added a large number of astronomical positions determined for the purpose of checking and verifying compass

traverses.

6. These surveys (with the exception of a few small areas, which wet weather and flooded rivers prevented us from surveying, but which can easily be surveyed in a month or two hence), comprise the entire area which it was arranged to survey during this year, and a considerable area in addition, vide plan attached to my Progress Report, No. 85/110/1907, of the 6th of May last.

7.

I had hoped to have been able to send home from time to time plans of the surveys as they were completed, but it was found that the drafting staff as allowed by the estimates was quité inadequate to carry out this scheme, and at the same time to keep abreast of the local and special demands, many of which I consider quite extraneous to the proper work of this Department, e.g., the whole of the drafting for the Lands Department has had to be done in this Department. I have also been compelled to carry out surveys and drafting for the railway in connection with certain trainlines of very considerable extent. Similarly, I have had to conduct surveys and prepare plans for the bar and other marine surveys.

8. It will be seen that with three draftsmen and two or three pupils the above- mentioned scheme was put entirely out of court, especially when it is remembered that for the production of the new map it was necessary to increase the provincial map of last year from a scale of four miles to an inch to one of 1/125,000."

It was, therefore, necessary to commence the whole work on a clean piece of paper.

9. It was also necessary to "tie up" several "surrounds" with a theodolite survey, and to trigonometrically calculate the “close." Further, it was imperative that the large number of astronomical positions be calculated and plotted; and those who understand the work involved in calculating some 30 positions for longi- tude should know that it was impossible to do this single-handed. Mr. Cleminson, the man capable of doing this class of work, has been on leave practically the whole of the time, and returned only a few weeks ago.

10. I submit, therefore, that with the material available an entirely proper course has been adopted. Had the surveys been completed in sections, and sent home in instalments, the surveyors would have had to plot the greater part of their work in the dry season, and would have been practically idle during the wet weather, when heavy rains and flooded rivers practically stop work for at least three months. Instead of which, the whole of the surveys, with considerable additions, have been practically completed, and we are now able during the wet season to project the entire area comprehensively—a scheme which gives us the great advantage of being able to check the entire skeleton first trigonometrically-a desideratum which could not have possibly been employed had the work been done in instalments.

A great part of the skeleton has now been projected on a scale 1/125,000, and over 1,500 miles of the new compass work has been plotted, and is now being reduced to that scale. Every line in the entire survey of between three and four thousand miles has been chained, and its true bearing determined, and every line will be plotted. The whole of the work that was promised and I hope almost half as much more--will be projected into a finished plan (capable of reproduction by the method of heliozincography), and will be ready to accompany me at the end of my present tour.

11.

12. The area asked for in the Secretary of State's cablegram will, of course, be despatched by the end of August, and it will be possible if necessary to send other instalments at a later date if desired; but it is hoped that this will not be pressed for, as it means extra work. We desire to retain the original as we wish to reproduce from it a number of copies for local requirements, which may be available when the complete map of this year's work is being prepared for extensive circula- tion. Hence, any work sent home before the end of the year will need to be traced off the original sheets.

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