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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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Reference :-

C.O. 885

22 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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No. 15.

MINUTES OF MEETING OF THE COLONIAL SURVEY COMMITTEE OF 23RD JUNE, 1914.

PRESENT:

Mr. READ.

Colonel CLOSE.

Colonel HEDLEY,

Mr. A. J. HARDING, and

Captain Cox and Mr. BOTTOMLEY, Secretaries.

The meeting was called to advise upon the future of the survey work in Nigeria, and the Committee considered the correspondence on the subject, ending with Sir F. Lugard's Confidential despatch of the 14th of May.* They agreed upon the following memorandum.

On a number of important points the Governor-General is in agreement with the Surveyor-General's proposals, and the Committee recommend their adoption. These are:-

(a) that the whole Department should be centralised and administered

directly by the Surveyor-General;

(b) that there should be three officers, whom the Committee would prefer to call Assistant Surveyors-General, taking orders from the Surveyor- General, viz. :

One for the Trigonometrical and Topographical Branch for the whole of Nigeria.

One for cadastral and revenue work, Southern Provinces. One for cadastral and revenue work, Northern Provinces. (c) that these officers should be Captain Rowe, Mr. Cleminson, and Mr.

Collard (on probation);

(d) that the special Lagos survey should continue under the Assistant Sur- veyor-General, Cadastral and Revenue, Southern Provinces, until its work is finished;

(e) that it is desirable to train more native surveyors;

(f) that the recurrent cost of the Department should be about £40,000 a year

(the Surveyor-General puts it at £42,000); and

(g) that in the immediate future the trigonometrical and topographical work

should survey the Eastern Railway zone.

The points of divergence of opinion are as follows:-

(h) The replacing of the military staff of the trigonometrical and topogra phical surveys by civilians, and the terms of engagement of existing non-commissioned officers.

(i) The use of a topographical survey as a preliminary to revenue work. (j) The continuance of the excellent regular series of topographical sheets in

the Southern Provinces.

(k) Whether the Minefields Survey can be finished by January, 1915. (2) The commencement of the revenue survey of Kano, Sokoto, and Zaria

Provinces.

(m) Whether reductions in the staff are possible.

On these points the Committee desire to make the following general comments on Sir F. Lugard's despatch. They desire, in the first place, to observe, with reference to paragraph 3 of that despatch, that there has been no misapprehension as to the nature of the surveys hitherto carried out in the Northern Provinces.

1. Organisation of Topographical Section. The topographical work (includ- ing under this title the triangulation) has hitherto been done entirely by officers and non-commissioned officers with the assistance of native surveyors. In para- graph 6 of his despatch Sir F. Lugard says that the Colonial Survey Committee recommended that civilians should be substituted for officers and non-commissioned officers as soon as possible. There is a misapprehension somewhere. The Colonial

• No. 14.

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Survey Committee are altogether opposed to such a course, and their recommen- dation referred to the cadastral surveys only. Cadastral and topographical work are quite distinct. It is, in fact, almost a disadvantage for a beginner at topo- graphy to know cadastral methods. There is always a supply of trained military topographers, whereas the civilian topographer hardly exists. Moreover, the staff for cadastral work is still incomplete. It would, therefore, be most unwise to transfer such efficient men as there are to the Topographical Branch, where they could only become efficient after long training.

The Committee, therefore, consider it essential that the European staff of the Trigonometrical and Topographical Branch be composed of officers (serving or retired) and non-commissioned officers, and they recommend that the European staff, as at present, be fixed at five officers and seven non-commissioned officers.

They are of opinion that the post of Assistant Surveyor-General, Trigono- metrical and Topographical Branch, is one of great importance and responsibility, and that the pay should be £600-£25-£700, with £120 duty allowance. This scale pay and allowance should be attached to the other two appointments of Assistant Surveyor-General also.

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2. Work of Topographical Branch.-The Committee consider it essential that the work of the Topographical Branch be carried on absolutely independently of all revenue and cadastral surveys. It has been repeatedly proved that the pro- gress of topographical work is reduced to vanishing point as soon as it has to be regulated to meet the requirements of cadastral work. Governor-General to say where he wants the Topographical Branch to work, but It is, of course, for the it should always be borne in mind that there are many advantages in completing the sheets in one region before undertaking work in another part of the country. The framework will be executed in such a permanent fashion as to be available for the control of subsequent work on any scale, whether topographical or cadastral. 3. Cadastral Surreys.-The Governor-General concurs in the principle that there should be an officer in charge of cadastral surveys in both Northern and Southern Nigeria, and that he should have charge of all surveys in his province, except topographical work.

There is, however, a very large divergency in the staff for the cadastral sections between that recommended by Sir F. Lugard and by Major Guggisberg. The Committee are not in a position to lay down exactly what staff is required, but they desire to say that, on general principles, it is bad policy to allow large areas of cadastral work to accumulate, and they strongly recommend that a staff be pro- vided on a generous scale. The work of the cadastral, revenue, and mines surveys is of the same character and the staff is interchangeable. It cannot be supposed that there will not be ample work for the staff suggested by Major Guggisberg. The staff should be civilian.

A table* is attached showing for each section the staff proposed by Sir F. Lugard and that proposed by Major Guggisberg. It will be seen that, as regards the survey proper, namely, Northern, Southern, and Topographical Branches, the great divergency of opinion is with respect to the Northern Cadastral Branch. The Com- mittee are of opinion that such a reduction as is proposed by Sir F. Lugard would necessarily involve the abandonment of much cadastral work, and would, in view of the history of other Colonial surveys, require to be most carefully investigated before being sanctioned.

4. Revenue Surrey.-It is for the Governor-General to say when revenue surveys should be taken up, but as revenue surveys will apparently pay for them- selves, it would seem that such surveys should be undertaken as soon as the necessary staff can be found or trained. The Committee are of opinion that the revenue surveys must be actually made by the Survey Department. Instructions will come from the Resident, but if the surveys are to be of any permanent value, it is obvious that the technical work must come wholly under the Survey. consider this an essential point.

The Committee

The staff of the Revenue Survey will be civilian and interchangeable with that of the Cadastral Survey.

The Committee desire to express their dissent from Sir F. Lugard's view, in paragraph 9 of his despatch, that the trigonometrical and topographical work to be carried out in Kano Province will suffice as a framework for the revenue survey. A great deal of preliminary work will be required in breaking up the triangles of the topographical framework.

• Not printed.

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