CO129-349 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1908 [10-12] — Page 534

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officer. from the Police Department and to make the Dis-

trict Officer a separate appointment with an Assistant

District Officer in lieu of an Assistant Land Officer.

This change would not in the remotest degree sever the

Administration of the New Territories from the Central

Authority (Vide C.0.Despatch of 6th. January, 1899). In

my experience however it tends to efficiency and to ecor-

omy in clerical work, where a primitive people are concern-

od, to concentrate various functions in the hands of one

man.

By this means rural villagers in accordance with

their traditional usages are enabled to refer all matters

to a single authority and the machinery of Administration

is simplified.

7.

But if from the point of view of

commanding the confidence of the population and of adapting

the scheme of Government to their needs, the change is de-

sirable, it is much more so from the point of view of faci-

litating administration.

The distances between the vil-

lages situated in the extreme East and West of the New Ter-

ritories is very considerable and for the most part the

communications consist only of tortuous native paths, dif-

ficult to ride on and impossible for bicycles. If the

District Officer visits a district in the extreme Fast and

is temporarily detached from his headquarters he is entirely

out