CO885-(21-23) — Page 465

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TLC.O. 885

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

22 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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Hausa-speaking officers attached to the Northern Provinces cadastral branch), with a staff of mallams trained in the Survey School.

10. The special Lagos Survey should continue as now constituted (one First Grade Surveyor and four non-commissioned officers) until it has completed its task, and as now should be under the Deputy Director of the Southern Provinces Survey.

11. The existing native staff should be distributed among these different sections. Major Guggisberg states that 90 per cent. of the field work and all the drawing should be done by natives, but the number so far trained by the Survey Department, Southern Provinces, is wholly insufficient. As trained men are turned out they should gradually take the place of a number of the Second Grade Surveyors. 12. An Office Superintendent will be required in the Surveyor-General's office. He and the draughtsmen will be on the same pay as the Second Grade Surveyors.

13. The permanent staff I have indicated is as follows:-

Headquarters:

1 Surveyor-General

1 Office Superintendent

Topographical Branch:—

1 Assistant Surveyor-General

2 1st Grade Surveyors 4 2nd Grade Surveyors

Trigonometrical Branch":—

2 1st Grade Surveyors

3 2nd Grade Surveyors

Cadastral Branch:-

2 Assistant Surveyors-General.

4 1st Grade

6 2nd Grade

2 Draughtsmen

Revenue:-

1 First Grade

2 Second Grade

School Instructors:—

1 1st Grade

2

7

14

5

3

1 2nd Grade

2

viz., one Surveyor-General, three Assistants, 10 1st Grade, and 19 2nd

Grade

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The salaries of this staff will be £12,100 to £15,400, with duty pay amounting to £1,280.

14. There are at present (including Captain Rowe) one Surveyor-General and three Assistants, with eight 1st Grade and nine 2nd Grade on the permanent civilian staff, leaving a deficiency of two 1st Grade and 10 2nd Grade to be appointed in lieu of the military officers and non-commissioned officers at present employed.

They are as follows:-

1 Surveyor-General-Major Guggisberg.

3 Assistants-Captain Rowe, Mr. Cleminson, Mr. Collard.

10 Surveyors, 1st Grade-Messrs. Webb, Drouyn, Boulderson, Wilson,

Waters, Schneider, Franks, Evans,=8.

Two vacancies, dice Dare, Bell, Kentish, Bulkeley.

N.B. One of these two vacancies is at present held by Mr. Middleton, seconded as School Instructor from the Political Department, and Mr. Hawkins is recommended by the Surveyor- General for the other.

19 Surveyors, 2nd Grade-Messrs. Kingston, Woram, Burt, Healy, Bennett,

Murphy, Mindham, Thomas, Robertson, 9.

Eight vacancies, vice non-commissioned officers.

N.B. Two or three of these vacancies, which include the Draughtsmen and Office Superintendent, can be filled by 3rd Grade Surveyors. There are already two or three retired Royal Engineer non-commissioned officers who have accepted permanent service, and are admirably adapted for this work. The pay of a 3rd Grade Surveyor could be fixed at £200-£10-£300.

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15. Taking the mean between maximum and minimum salaries of the European staff

The present cost of the native staff is £2,252+£3,740 The other charges are shown at £5,548+ £13,259

To this must be added the special Lagos Survey.

• £13,750

6,000

18,800

£38,550

or say £40,000

16. The total recurrent expenditure on the Survey Department in 1914 was estimated at £39,847, with an additional special expenditure on the Lagos Survey of £1,408, and £10,787 on the Minesfield Survey. The last-mentioned expenditure should cease in 1915 (except in so far as leave pay may be due to the present staff), since the object for which it was undertaken will have been accomplished. I do not consider that the recurrent cost of surveys should exceed the present expenditure (£40,000) at present.

17. If and when the Department proves to be revenue-earning on the large scale contemplated by Major Guggisberg, it may be time enough to consider a largely increased expenditure. The revenue he anticipates is to accrue largely from a charge of 1s. an acre for revenue surveys. It is at present undecided whether this charge can be made or not, and, as I am about to point out, I do not regard his proposals as to these revenue su.veys at present practicable. Meanwhile, the demands on the revenue for the next year or two will be very heavy, with two new capitals to build, the equipment of the railway to complete, and probable increases in the recurrent expenditure of the Medical, Education, and other Departments.

18. The proposals embodied in Major Guggisberg's report, on which I was not consulted, are, in effect, to create new topographical and trigonometrical survey branches in the Northern Provinces-covering all the provinces which have not special revenue surveys-under Captain Giles, and to make the large expenditure specially sanctioned for the minesfield survey a permanent recurrent charge, and in addition to create three separate revenue surveys.

19. It is universally agreed that these revenue surveys should be undertaken by mallams, trained in the school, and supervised by Hausa-speaking officers, since they do not speak English. The trained native surveyors from the Southern Provinces are already too few to meet the requirements of the topographical and cadastral branches, and would be quite unadapted for a "revenue survey"; as the Northern Provinces Survey School turns out trained mallams, they can under- take this work, but it is futile to propose to begin the Kano survey at once, and a survey in Sokoto (35,000 square miles) and Zaria in July next.

20. In my opinion, the area to be included in a revenue survey should first be surveyed by the topographical section, who would leave a great number of masonry fixed points, and large-scale field sheets for the revenue surveyors to fill in with their field measurements. A great amount of re-duplication of work would thus, it appears to me, be saved, and enhanced accuracy secured.

21.

With this object in view, I should propose as the programme for 1915-16 the inclusion of the minesfields in the topographical sheets, together with a small part of Kano, and in 1916-17 the topographical survey of the central portion of the Kano Province. This would continue the present policy of using the topo- graphical survey for strictly practical purposes of the highest utility to the country. presume though I pretend to no technical knowledge that for all practical purposes the survey next season can be co-ordinated with the completed Lagos survey as soon as it reaches the railway and is able to transmit telegraphic signals from Kaduna.

22. If the general lines of policy which I have indicated, and in which I have endeavoured to give effect to the recommendations of the Colonial Survey Committee, in which you concurred, meet with your approval, I will discuss the details with Major Guggisberg.

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I have, &c.,

F. D. LUGARD,

Governor-General.

L