CO885-(21-23) — Page 436

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

T:། ། .................. C.O. 885

22 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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was sent out for one tour on £300 a year (taking the place of a non-commissioned officer). Major Guggisberg was entrusted with the organisation of this minefields party, the officers of which were Captain Giles, Royal Engineers, and Captain Lumsden, Royal Garrison Artillery, and he was given a temporary non-pensionable allowance from Northern Nigeria fuuds of £15 a month and the title of Acting Surveyor-General.

Unfortunately, some of the men recommended by the War Office, and perforce accepted by the Colonial Office on Major Guggisberg's urgent representations, were too young for service in West Africa, and the party seems to have suffered a good deal through illness, and to have been further hindered by difficulties of transport, while the closing of the mining area to new applicants did not cut off the rush of applications to the extent that had been expected. Hence the progress of the party towards the completion of its task has not been so rapid as the Governor at first hoped. It was expected in about fifteen months to check exclusive prospecting licence areas extending over about 1,000 square miles, and mining lease areas amounting to about 48,000 acres.

Major Guggisberg and Mr. Temple had suggested that, in addition to this party for coping with existing exclusive prospecting licences and mining lease areas, a second party of two lieutenants and six non-commissioned officers of Royal Engineers should be sent out in order to cope with fresh applications, but this proposal was not supported by Sir F. Lugard, and this appears to have been the main cause of the subsequent trouble.

In July, 1913, two despatches were received from the Governor. In the first, dated 7th July,† the Governor wrote as follows:-

'The Chief Surveyor in Northern Nigeria informs me that if the officers of his Department proceed on leave at due dates, he will, at the end of the year, be left alone. The work on which the Department is engaged is of extreme urgency and importance. It consists at present chiefly of surveys of exclusive prospecting licences and mining leases throughout the Protectorate, with the exception of the comparatively small area which has been officially declared to constitute the minefields of Bauchi. This area is, as you are aware, being surveyed by a special party.

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Great dissatisfaction is given by long delays in the survey of areas applied for under exclusive prospecting licences and mining leases, and Mr. Collard and his small staff have been working very hard to overtake arrears, and to keep level with new applications.

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There is, in my mind, no doubt whatever but that the Department must be considerably increased next year (with a fully corresponding increase in revenue). I should, in fact, have recommended a larger staff this year, had it not been that the Department was newly created.

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I regard the expedient of special surveys by Royal Engineer officers and non-commissioned officers as an unsatisfactory one, for the local experi- ence and knowledge gained is lost to the country, and they are, moreover, unduly costly.

Mr. Collard asks that three more surveyors may be appointed at once. I propose that their rate of pay should be £300-£15-£400, and I strongly recommend their appointment with the least possible delay. If they leave for Nigeria at an early date, the urgent work can then be done, and the leave roster not appreciably interfered with.

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Apart from the survey of mining leases and exclusive prospecting licences there are many urgent requirements which are causing an embarrass- ing delay in administrative work. I gave instructions that correct surveys of the principal stations in the Protectorate should be made in order that the location of new buildings and other works might be facilitated, but the Department has been unable to carry out this hitherto, or to complete the plans of the proposed site of the new capital which I desired to submit to you. I therefore trust that, if you approve my recommendation, every effort may be made to fill the appointments quickly."

On being consulted, Colonel Close said that he might be able to get three suitable civil surveyors from the Ordnance Survey, and (after lengthy inter-depart- mental correspondence about pension arrangements) Messrs. Kingston, Healy and Woram were recommended to the Colonial Office by Colonel Close, and were

† 23178/13: not printed.

21581/12: not printed.

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appointed on £300-£15-£400. They were placed on the pensionable staff, but it was arranged that for three years they should retain the right to revert to the Ordnance Survey if they chose-while the Protectorate Government could within the same period require them to revert.

The following particulars of them may be useful:-

Date of Birth Education

Army Service Appointed Civil Sur-

Kingston.

Healy.

26 September, 1871 Board Schools till 14

27 December, 1872 Not known

18 years or more December, 1912

21 years

May, 1913 ...

veyor, Ordnance [ Survey.

5s. 1d, a day

Pay as Civil Surveyor' Gs. Id, a day

Worm.

20 July, 1869. Elementary School, 2 years. Grammar School, 7 years. Pupil Teacher and Assistant Master in his old Elementary School.

21 years. September, 1911.

68, 5d. a day.

The last line represents the pay of the three as stated by the Ordnance Survey when claiming for their pay during refresher courses, which the Ordnance Survey had directed them to take before they went out, but it is possible that they normally got more as Mr. Woram in his application stated that he was getting 9s. 1d. a day as trigonometrical computer.

The second despatch of July, 1913,* dealt with the progress of the minefields survey party. Sir F. Lugard stated that Major Guggisberg had recommended that the party should be re-engaged for another tour in 1914, and that a second party of two officers and seven non-commissioned officers of Royal Engineers should be sent out about the end of August, 1913. The Governor deferred coming to a conclusion about the re-engagement of the first party, but asked that the proposed second party might On 2nd August the War Office were accordingly asked for two officers and seven non-commissioned officers; but directly afterwards Sir F. Lugard asked for the letter to be withdrawn as he wished to reconsider the matter in view of a communication which he had received from Mr. Collard. The letter was accord- ingly withdrawn.

be sent out.

In his amended despatch† the Governor said :—

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4.

My instructions were that the minefields party should undertake the survey of such exclusive prospecting licences and mining leases as might he granted after the closing of the area to prospecting in consequence of claims which would be considered valid under the terms of the Proclamation closing the areas, but it is now reported by the Surveyor-General that the survey party will be unable to do this, and the re-engagement of No. 1 party and the creation of No. 2 is asked for in order to overtake this work.

"In the letter which forms Enclosure 2, Major Guggisberg states that the number of these grants up to the 24th April, 1913, amounted to 75 exclu- sive prospecting licences, 57 mining leases, and 9 stream mining leases. He assumes that the grants will continue in the same ratio during the rest of the year, but, since the fields are closed to prospecting, it would seem that practi- cally no more exclusive prospecting licences would be granted, though a certain number of leases on existing exclusive prospecting licences will require to be surveyed. He suggests, however, that the minefields should be declared open on the 1st November, 1913. This would, of course, result in a very large demand for surveys.

"As against the very large sums for which the Acting Surveyor-General asks, he estimates large carnings by survey fees, amounting to £18,397.

"The matter is one of so much public importance, affecting so many interests in this country, that I have considered it advisable to lay Major Guggisberg's calculations and anticipations before you in extenso, the more so that they were entirely unanticipated by me, and stultify the statements I made to you at the time I asked your sanction for the appointment of a minesfield survey.

It is true that by the alterations I have made in the Mining Regulations, surveys will, in future, be remunerative work, but I had intended that the revenue thus earned should gradually make good the capital cost on the initial survey of the fields (which I was assured would not exceed £15,000), and not that it should be absorbed by fresh expenditure.

† 28012: not printed.

24571/13 not printed.

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