CO885-(21-23) — Page 457

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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C.O. 885

22 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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steady development, and that many of the details are undoubtedly "counsels of per- fection which he should aim at imitating, but which depend for their success on the existence of:

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(i.) A strong and efficient supervising staff of suitable Europeans who are willing to devote many years of their lives to the service of Nigeria, as intimate knowledge of local conditions is essential to the efficiency of a revenue

survey.

(ii) A large and systematically trained native staff.

2. The extent to which the highly organised methods of the Egyptian survey can be applied therefore depends on the strength of the staff that the Protectorate can afford, and that the conditions of land taxation justify.

The data by which they can be adopted more or less fully and the date by which the revenue of Nigeria can be expected to profit appreciably by the work of the revenue survey depends on the time necessary to train the native staff, as the training of Europeans will naturally be more rapid than that of natives.

The profit to the revenue depends very largely on the systems of revenue survey and training of the staff adopted at the start, as subsequent alterations in system are usually costly in that they are productive of loss of revenue-earning power during the period in which such altérations are taking effect.

3. It therefore appears that the two chief things the Chief Surveyor should pay particular attention to are:—

(i.) The system of survey.

(ii.) The training of natives.

4. System of survey:—

(i.) Egyptian methods of survey are suitable.

(ii) The unit of measurement should be the foot, and decimal parts thereof should be used, not inches.

(iii) The scales used in Egypt should undoubtedly be used.

(iv) The triangulation and traverse framework should be frequently checked by bases, but until a sufficient European staff is available, moderation in this respect should be observed.

5. Organisation.-It will be many years, if ever, before the Survey Department can expect to be divided into the number of branches existing in Egypt, desirable as such an organisation is.

Decentralisation is greatly to be desired as soon as highly trained reliable senior men are available to take charge of branches.

I thoroughly agree with the Chief Surveyor that the computation office is almost the chief factor in the successful and economical working of a revenue survey.

6. Training of Natives. The general system of training the natives that was recommended by me, and approved by His Excellency, should be put into effect. I drew the attention of the Officiating Secretary on the 9th October, 1913, in

letter, my No. 26/555, in answer to M.P. 6843/1912, Zungeru, 22nd August, 1912, that the system which has apparently been adopted by the Chief Surveyor does not agree with my recommendations. I have received no acknowledgment of this letter.

As the Kano revenue section cannot get to work until the school has turned out a sufficient number of native surveyors, and, as the whole economical working of the revenue survey depends on the system of training adopted, I urge most strongly that the school should at once be placed on a sound basis and not conducted on the haphazard principles which, I consider, are being employed.

7. With regard to making cach native fit in as part of a machine, I agree generally with His Excellency. I believe, however, that the Egyptian method in this respect is carried to excess. All the native pupils should receive sufficient general survey education during their first year to enable them to specialise, which cannot be satisfactorily done until their different capabilities are discovered.

A certain number of exceptional men will be discovered in the various classes and these should be trained as general surveyors and draftsmen. This will result in economy, as eventually certain appointments can be filled by these men instead of Europeans.

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8. I recommend that the detailed organisation of the school and of the revenue section should be drawn up at once. The school organisation should have been properly and completely drawn up six months ago and submitted for approval.

F. G. GUGGISBERG,

Major, R.E., Surveyor-General.

8th January, 1914.

APPENDIX VII.

MEMORANDUM No. 2 ON KANO SURVEY SCHOOL BY THE ACTING SURVEYOR-GENERAL AND THE ACTING DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION.

Note. His Excellency the Governor-General's remarks are in brackets and italic. (No. 555.)

1. General. The chief object of a Survey School at Kano is to provide the Administration with natives sufficiently trained to execute land measurements with reasonable accuracy. It is therefore advisable, before submitting our proposals, to consider briefly the amount of accuracy required in the revenue survey, as on this depends the standard and duration of education adopted in the Survey School.

2. Accuracy of revenue survey required.-For assessment purposes, the survey of land in Northern Nigeria need not be of the highest form of cadastral survey, the slowness and consequent expense of such a survey being prohibitive. On the other hand, an assessment survey should not be of too hurried and sketchy a nature, or it will be productive of such evils that any saving in cost effected at the moment will be more than counterbalanced by the expense of re-survey in the near future.

Examples of this are furnished by the system at present obtaining in Northern Nigeria, where the results of the rough methods of land assessment, although undoubtedly of temporary advantage to the Administration, are in the highest degree inaccurate and possess no permanent value; and also by experience in Cyprus, where the system adopted has been the subject of recent investigation by the Colonial Office.

A happy mean is, however, easily obtainable, for, provided that the assessment surveyors are well grounded in practical knowledge and are working under an efficient technical organisation, such simple methods can be adopted as can be carried out rapidly and cheaply, and, at the same time, possess the accuracy necessary to permanent value.

3. System of survey in which mallamai are to be trained.-The system is briefly that of a rigid framework by which errors are controlled and which is chiefly con- structed by the Survey Department, supplemented by a cadastral survey of land on an inexpensive and simple method of "chain survey "by a revenue section of mallam

assessors.

NOTE. A mallam assessor will be a native who has received a year's training in the Survey School: he should not be confused with the present taki assessor.

4. Data influencing proposal.-The system of chain survey above referred to is of such a rule-of-thumb nature that the partly trained personnel (viz., the mallam assessors) for its execution can be trained in a third of the time that would be spent in turning out fully trained surveyors. We submit that it is advisable that partly trained men, such as the mallam assessors, should continue to work under the same technical organisation (ie., that of the Survey Department) as that under which they are trained, for, to entrust any but a professional surveyor with the technical supervision of such men would eventuate in such confusion in the adjustment of errors, preservation of records, and general technical control as would deprive the results of the survey of at least 50 per cent. of its permanent value without in any way hastening the execution of the field work.

Arrangements can be so simply made by which, without increasing cost, the ⚫ future mallam assessors can continue their work in the revenue surveys under the same general technical control as that under which they are trained, that it seems to us advisable that the Survey School and the revenue survey section should both be units of the Survey Department. The question of the control of the revenue survey section is fully dealt with in memorandum No. 3. It is only necessary to say here,

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