THE PROTECTORATE PROCLAIMED
The United Africa Company’s efforts were recognised by the grant of a Royal Charter in 1886, but its mission and its potentialities failed to appeal to the general public; and even when in 1900 the Territory, with its area equal to that of Germany and the British Isles combined, was added to the Dependencies of the Empire, the new Protectorate was regarded with indifference and suspicion as a present burden and a probable source of future trouble.
That was but a decade since, yet it was only the other day that Lord Crewe declared that “there is no part of the Empire about whichhigher hopes may properly be entertained than the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria;” and the Colonial Report, in emphatic corroboration of this optimistic opinion, asserted that “very few countries have witnessed such great changes for the better in such a short space of time, as has been the case with this Cinderella of the British Dominions.”
It must be admitted that the Nigerias have been of late years more favoured in the matters of ocean transport and inter-communication. Since McGregor Laird started his monthly service to Lagos, the African Shipping Company has been succeeded by six shipping lines—the British and African Steam Navigation, African Steamship, Elder Dempster, Woermann, Hamburg-America, and the Hamburg-Bremen-Africa—the first three of which, to all intents and purposes, may be classed as Elder Dempster’s. Twenty-five liners and Elder Dempster’s regular services call at Lagos each month—one nearly every day of the week. Two vessels of some four thousand tons are exclusively employed in bringing Welsh coal to Lagos; and a cargo service, another Elder Dempster enterprise, now runs from inside Lagos Lagoon to Hamburg, thus avoiding the transhipping of cargo in Lagos Roadsor at Forcados. Persons who only know of Elder Dempster’s famous service of ocean liners, which leave Liverpool every Wednesday and arrive at Lagos Roads sixteen days later, may be surprised to learn that they have a large and distinct inter-colonial service between Lagos and Secondi. These vessels, built of light draught to enable them to cross Lagos bar, not only afford shippers a short and rapid means of forwarding their produce, but are of immense service to the growing number of natives who travel, mostly for trade purposes, between Lagos and the smaller ports along the Gold Coast; while another Elder Dempster service runs weekly to and from Porto Novo in Dahomey and Lagos, carrying general outward cargo and bringing back produce for shipment to the United Kingdom and the Continent.
These services, which cater for the ramifications of the commercial activities of West Africa, are practically unknown at home, and the organisation and development of this enormous industry was, to a great extent, the work of one man—the late Sir Alfred Lewis Jones. It has been said of him that “when the story of our times comes to be written comprehensively, he will be bracketed with Cecil John Rhodes. One obtained a largeterritory for the Empire; the other enhanced immeasurably countries formerly judged as of questionable value. He was a pioneer in building up their commerce, and is of still higher estimate—he was instrumental in making them more fit to live in by revolutionising the health conditions.” His varied commercial enterprises in West Africa are well known, and it is unnecessary here to enlarge upon them. They ranged from coaling and engineering companies with dry docks, to banking—which facilitated relations between the natives and the European traders—and included his cold-storage scheme, which the medical faculty admit has been one of the most powerful factors in lowering the mortality of West Africa. This object was also largely assisted by the investigations carried out at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. The school was financed by Sir Alfred Jones, who also provided the means for putting the resultant discoveries into practice. He further established a branch of the School at Grand Canary, and arranged with Elder Dempster a cheap service from the West African Coast to the Canary Islands for malaria patients, whose lives depend upon their reaching that Mecca for invalids. By such means the dead merchant prince has lowered the death-rate among Europeans and natives in WestAfrica to a degree unthought of fifteen years ago, and he has built in that part of the Continent a monument to his name more enduring than brass, because the foundation was made for the betterment of his fellow-men.
But if the Elder Dempster Line have accomplished great things in establishing regular communication between England and the new Dependencies, much splendid pioneer work has been done in the country by the Niger Company. During the last few years they have opened up the Bauchi tin field in Northern Nigeria, and their trading and transport facilities have made it possible for them to carry out an enormous amount of development under great difficulties. The directors have had the courage of their convictions. In forwarding their own interests they have benefited the Protectorate, and if they have profited by their enterprise they have made the country a source of profit for others.
From the proceeds of the surrender of its charter to the British Government in 1900, the company were able to make a special distribution to its shareholders amounting to 145 per cent., and thesale of certain of their mining rights in the Bauchi Province has more than repaid them for the work that they had carried on in the district since 1902, and resulted in raising their dividend payment in 1909 from ten to twenty per cent. And in addition the Niger Company possess practically a monopoly of the transport to the tin fields, the value of which cannot be overestimated.
The Niger Company’s share of the credit that is due for effecting this great improvement in the present condition and future prospects of the Protectorate may be at once admitted; but much has been accomplished since the control of the country devolved upon the British Colonial Office. In 1900 only some 30,000 square miles, out of a total of 250,000 in Northern Nigeria, were under some form of organised control. The remainder was controlled and ruled under conditions giving no guarantee of liberty or even life. To-day the whole condition of the country is entirely altered. Sixteen provinces, comprising the entire Protectorate, have been organised by the never-ceasing efforts of Residents, and the sum total of the unadministered area does not now exceed the 30,000 square miles that were under administration ten years ago.
At the date of the proclamation of the Nigerian Protectorates the Southern Colony was in a much more advanced state of development than its Northern neighbour, and was naturally regarded as the paramount partner. It had a sea border, a port at Lagos, which to-day is the most important town in West Africa, and it was destined to be the terminus of the first railway to be built in the new Dependencies. The markets and trading stations of the Niger Company were within its boundaries, the fertility of the soil was proved, its richness in rubber, tobacco, and coal was established, and its wealth of other vegetable products was well known. It is not at all surprising, then, that British pioneers and capitalists saw the splendid commercial future that was before Southern Nigeria, and were somewhat neglectful of the distant, isolated, and inaccessible Northern territories. Nor were they wrong, for the advance of its trade justified the most sanguine predictions, and, as will be seen by a glance at the appended tables (prepared in francs by Mr. C. A. Birtwistle, the Commercial Intelligence Officer of the Colony), its commerce to-day practically equals the total of the FrenchColonies of Senegal, Guinea, the Ivory Coast, and Dahomey:—
It will be noted at a glance that whilst French West African trade has increased by 65 per cent., that of Nigeria has grown by 136 per cent.
Northern Nigeria, however, was known to be rich in iron, and the existence of other minerals was suspected; its suitability as a field for the exploitation of the cotton-growing industry was realised and the British Cotton-Growing Association reported a few years ago that “in Northern Nigeria alone lies the possible salvation of Lancashire.” Moreover, the Directors of the NigerCompany had always foretold the ultimate importance that would be attained by the regions north of the Niger and the Benue. The company’s trade flourished in the south, new products were being continually discovered and new factories opened, and the optimism of its shareholders was justified by the declaration of substantial dividends, but Sir George Goldie consistently predicted the boundless potentialities of the unopened North, and as far back as 1889 declared: “We can hardly impress too strongly upon our shareholders that our hopes of future prosperity rest far less on the lower regions of the Niger than upon the higher, inner, and recently explored country.”
Sir Percy Girouard and others have warned the public against confusing Northern and Southern Nigeria, and running away with the idea that there is no great difference between them. As Colonel Mockler-Ferryman says: “Commencing with what is called the Niger Delta, we have a land of swamps and impenetrable forests, intersected by a vast network of streams and creeks and inhabited by numerous pagan tribes addicted to every species of vile custom, including even cannibalism and human sacrifices.... Above the pagan land—i.e., at the confluence [of the rivers Niger and Benue] thereis a marked change, not only in the type of the people but also in the nature of the country. Mohammedan influence commences to show itself, and low swampy wastes are superseded by rocky hills or far-extending grassy plains, well studded with magnificent trees.”
The existence of alluvial tin in these Northern regions was known for some considerable time, but until a year or two ago its value as a commercial asset was not seriously considered. Rumours of such sources of wealth frequently reached the Niger Company, and quantities of small faggots of very pure metal, which occasionally found their way down to the coast, afforded evidence that the natives had been working and smelting tin for a lengthy period. It was subsequently discovered that the procedure adopted by the native Nigerian tin miners, and described by Mr. Nicolaus, is as follows:
“The washers, usually working in gangs of three or four, wade into the river, tributary creeks and gullies, generally at or near some shallow rapids, and, loosening the gravel under water with a short hoe-like implement, scoop it into largecalabashes about 18 inches to 24 inches in diameter. As soon as sufficient gravel is collected (about 30 lbs.), it is washed, and the resulting rough concentrate placed in a smaller calabash, 6 inches to 8 inches in diameter, and thoroughly cleansed, nearly all the fine tinstone being lost. The resulting ‘black tin’ containing the equivalent of from 60 to 65 per cent. metal, is sun-dried, and packed in bags and skins for transport to the smelting furnaces.
“This ‘black tin’ is usually smelted in various parcels on a royalty basis, exclusively by members of one family, who hold the process a profound secret. Only three native smelting furnaces are in use, and these are each capable of turning out about 2 cwt. of metal per diem. They are built of well-puddled clay, and are 3 feet 6 inches in diameter, and have at the back four tuyère holes conducting the blast from primitive sheepskin bellows to the hearth. The tin is reduced by means of charcoal, and runs through a channel 2 feet 6 inches long and 4 inches broad to a catch-pot, whence it is ladled by small gourds or calabashes and poured. The tin is cast in the form of thin bars of about an eighth of an inch in diameter and 12 inches long, which are produced by pouring the molten metal on semi-circularbanks of clay, 18 inches high, perforated by dry Guinea corn-halms.”
The first actual discovery of tin in the Protectorate, or the first conclusive evidence of its actual existence there, has hitherto been ‘wrop in mystery,’ but, thanks to the courtesy of Sir William Wallace, late acting Governor of Northern Nigeria, I am in a position to dispel all uncertainty on the subject. In the course of a letter I received from Sir William, dated 21st October 1910, he says:—“Up to ’84 we used to believe that the tin used by the Hausa people for tinning their brass ware was brought across the desert. I then, being busily engaged opening up the Benue River to trade, got a hint that the tin was being smelted in some of the Hausa States, and, on making inquiries, found that it was being produced in Bauchi. We did all possible to develop the trade in the tin straws, but with little success, as the pagan tribes would have no dealings with the Hausa merchants, and rightly so, as it would have only led to the subjection of the tribes to the Fulani, whom they kept at bay till our advent in 1902. Early inthat year I went with the little army as Political Agent to subdue the Emir of Bauchi, and after settling that matter I was able to get messengers through to the Delimi River, close to the Naraguta, from whence they brought about a quarter of a hundredweight of the tin sands, the first ever procured or seen by Europeans. This sample I brought home, and submitted to the Directors of the Niger Company, who shortly afterwards took out a prospecting licence over 1000 square miles. Since then, thanks principally to Mr. Laws, the mining industry has slowly forged ahead, until the rush came along this year. Year in, year out, I have been urging companies and encouraging prospectors to come along until I almost despaired of success; but now, given a railway to the tin field, the industry cannot but prosper if the Government do not hamper it with too many restrictions.”
Sir William Wallace’s tribute to the work done by Mr. Laws, the plucky and importunate mining adviser of the Niger Company, is entirely merited. The existence of paying tin was regarded with some scepticism. It has also been surmised that the officials and civil servants had too comfortableberths to risk the disappointments and discomforts of prospecting work. Moreover, the Niger Company was in a flourishing condition, and its directors were not anxious to launch into mining enterprises. But Mr. Laws and his assistants were indefatigable. In 1902 and 1903 three expeditions were despatched to locate the tin areas. The little party, under the protection of an armed escort—for at that time the natives, now so friendly, were somewhat hostile—proceeded to make a geological examination of the country east of the Niger, and eventually found tin in the Province of Bauchi, some 600 miles to the north-east of Lokoja. Further prospecting located the stanniferous area to the outlines of the Gura Mountains, a small range known as the Naraguta and Shere Hills in the Badiko district of that province.
The geology of the area, as described by Mr. R. C. Nicolaus, is composed of granites, igneous intrusions of diabase and porphyry forming the prominent peaks of the hill range. Near the river a coarse grey gneiss forms a contact with the granite, both of which rocks are traversed by lenticles and gash veins of quartz, and severalsmall igneous dykes cross diagonally the general strike of country, which is north-east and dips west.
Although the stream tin had so far only been prospected in the neighbourhood of the rivers, there was abundant evidence to show that the source of the tin supply came from a stockwork formation in the granite at the slopes and at the base of the foot-hills. A somewhat remarkable feature of this deposit was that a considerable quantity of metallic tin was discovered under the river banks during prospecting operations. It was found in small grains and nodules about the size of a bean, its surface very thinly coated with only a trace of iron. It was very ductile, and emitted, on crushing, the peculiar tin cry. Its mode of occurrence in the gravels, associated with coarse grains of stream tin at a depth of some 15 feet under the surface, did not at first allow its genesis being determinable, but it was unhesitatingly put down as “native tin”—a mineral up to that time of very rare occurrence.
Mr. Laws and his engineers were so well satisfied with their work, and the results they producedwere so encouraging, that the Niger Company applied in 1905 for a number of mining leases in selected areas. In spite of slight difficulties arising from a scarcity of water in the dry season, a considerable amount of development work was accomplished, and the company secured an output of one ton of black tin per diem. These results proved that the gravels could be worked profitably, while the geological structure of the country compelled experts to the conclusion that the field represented by far the most important discovery of native tin that had been made. Further examination of the district, which fully confirmed the expectations raised by the first reports, has inspired the prediction that this Northern Nigerian tin field is perhaps the richest in the world.
The Niger Company continued to treat the alluvial in the old primitive method, which consists in the main of the use of calabash and sluice boxes, by which they have, up to the present time, secured over 1000 tons of black tin. Still, the mineral resources of the colony were not, until recently, appreciated in accordance with the proved facts. Lord Scarborough year after year had told the British public, in his annual speech to the shareholders of the Niger Company, that there was treasure in Northern Nigeria inthe shape of alluvial tin. He told them, in March 1907, that during the previous fifteen months roughly 240 tons of black tin, of the approximate gross value of £30,000, had been obtained from one property, the Naraguta, or an average of 16 tons a month. He told his shareholders in 1908 that the Niger Company had won £29,933 worth of tin for that year. Last year he said: “As regards tin development, we have brought home and marketed an increased quantity of ore compared with the previous year.” This year the chairman of the Niger Company declared a 2s. dividend per share as a result of the sale of a small portion of their mining lands.
The first official recognition of the importance of the Bauchi tin deposits was conveyed to the public in the Colonial Report on Northern Nigeria in 1905, and in 1906 was published the First Report on the Results of the Mineral Survey of Northern Nigeria, 1904-5. “The mineral resource of Northern Nigeria being virtually unknown” (to quote the report), “a mineral survey of the Protectorate to be carried out under thegeneral supervision of the Director of the Imperial Institute by surveyors nominated by him, was proposed by Sir F. Lugard, the High Commissioner of Northern Nigeria, and sanctioned by the Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1904.” It was arranged that the officers of the Survey should spend about eight months of each year in Northern Nigeria in exploring the mineral deposits of selected districts.
In the general introductory summary of the first report of the surveyors, the prospects of the tin fields of Northern Nigeria are described with the customary official reserve. “Tin, in the form of cassiterite,” the report stated, “has now been found in the stream beds of other districts. It is probable that as soon as suitable transport is provided Northern Nigeria will become an important tin-producing country. Already deposits in the Bauchi Province are being worked by the Niger Company, and the metal smelted on the spot. The first consignment of tin from the Protectorate has reached this country.”
The prospect presented by this information, backed up by substantial shipments of tin, might have been expected to stimulate the curiosity of both prospectors and capitalists, and that other Richmonds would have made an appearance inthe Bauchi field. But any hopes of such a result were doomed to disappointment. The Niger Company continued to win mineral, and the Mineral Survey persisted in their efforts to prove the extent of country over which the granites were tin bearing. It is possible that the remoteness and inaccessibility of the Protectorate operated unfavourably in the minds of mining adventurers, and the evil reputation which had been erroneously given to the country may have moved financiers to an excess of cautiousness. The colony made no new friends, and, as will be shown later, it was not until last year and then only by the accident of failure in another direction, that capital was diverted into the new tin field.
Eleven specimens of tinstone concentrates from the Zagi River, south of Bauchi, from Bula, Tilde, and the river beyond Joss were forwarded to the Imperial Institute, and with only one exception were found upon analysis to contain tin in quantities of from mere traces up to 80.85 per cent, of tin oxide, equivalent to 63.5 per cent. of metallic tin in the concentrate.
The official general remarks on the specimens analysed were as follows:
“Most of the concentrates were obtained from the plateaux of Tilde, Rukuba, Joss, and Ngell. On the first three of these the principal surveyor reports that the Niger Company has prospecting camps. The finest grained tinstone is found on the Tilde plateau, the coarser material coming from Joss and Ngell. The tinstone is said to be irregularly distributed, and adjoining pits may furnish such different yields as 10 lbs., or less, and 400 lbs. per ton on gravel worked. The average yield at the Rukuba camp is 25 lbs. per ton. The present works, it is stated, are all in the near neighbourhood of the river Delimi, but it appears that the gravels are more or less rich in tin over the whole surface of the plateau. The river-beds in some cases contain valuable tinstone-bearing gravels, as is shown by the results of the analysis of the concentrate from the river-bed at Tilde, which contained 68 per cent. of tinstone. That from beyond Joss contained only 40 per cent. of tinstone, possibly owing to the difficulty of separating the ilmenite from the tinstone by washing. The concentrate from the Kende River consisted almost entirely of ilmenite. The presence of the latter mineral in the stream beds will introduce a difficulty in the concentration of the tinstone, as it is notreadily distinguishable by inspection from tinstone, and collects with it in the first concentration.
“The results so far obtained show that tinstone is widely distributed in the province of Bauchi in the alluvium of both the high and low plateaux. As these tinstone districts are in process of being prospected, it is scarcely worth while to discuss the commercial value of the tin concentrates here, but it may be pointed out that several of these concentrates contain monazite, and this may be worth recovering. The amount of monazite present is usually small, and it is scarcely likely that its recovery under present circumstances would pay for the working of an electro-magnetic concentrator, which would be required to effect its separation. If, however, it becomes necessary to use such concentrators in order to separate the ilmenite, which occurs with the tinstone, then it would probably be worth while to recover the monazite as a by-product.
“The question of the origin of the tinstone occurring in this region is of great interest, and the officers of the Survey propose to devote further attention to the subject.”
The Colonial Report for 1907-8 carried us no further, as the third Survey party which arrivedin the country in December 1907 were still upon their seven months expedition, and the results of their work had not been received. The report referred, however, to the fact that the Niger Company, continuing its work on its licensed area in the Bauchi Province, were exporting black tin to the amount of 500 tons per annum, and added: “The main difficulty in the development of this promising industry is its situation. With the construction of the railway through Zaria it should be possible to place the mines in close connection with it by means of a road, which should also serve the Bauchi Province.”
In one of his reports on the Bauchi tin area, Mr. Lush says:
“There is not the slightest doubt that before very long many of the deep alluvial flats that are some distance from the shallow and more easily worked tin ground will be worked. The values may turn out to be poorer than the shallow ground, but the natural facilities are better owing to the water supply being sufficient for continuous working without the expense of erection of dams. On the other hand, when you get out of thegranite country, the further you are away from the source of the tin the greater are the impurities mixed with it. The numerous creeks, after passing through the schists and other rocks emptying into the main river, all tend to this, and titanic iron, tourmaline, rutile, and gem sand form a large percentage of the concentrates. However, if on boring, the deep ground turns out payable, there should be no difficulty in getting rid of the impurities and dressing the tin up to 70 per cent.”
Mr. L. H. L. Huddart, writing on this subject in his report on the South Juga property, says:
“Sources of the Tin.—The black tin is probably derived from the granite of which it is a rock constituent, and from stockworks in the granite quartz porphyry occurs very similar to the ‘elvans’ in Cornwall.
“Nature of the Wash.—In the upper end the wash is a fine whitish granite, containing no large pebbles or boulders, and is near the original source of some of the Juga tin. The surface is slightly cemented with iron oxides in which cassiterite often grows. The whole wash very easily breaks down with water. The ground further down the property is similar except thatthe alluvial has travelled further, and consequently has been sorted to a greater extent.
“Taken generally, the tin bearing is the product of denudation from the granite of which the bed-rock, and sides of the valley are composed. The tin occurs in the wash right up against the granite on both sides of the valley. The topaz is abundant in the wash, and with some zircon and rootile is almost the only mineral besides cassiterite occurring in the concentrates.”
In his report on the Kurdum River Tin Concession, Mr. Huddart says:
“Geology.—The base rock is a foliated gneiss and schist; the great granitemassifforming the Jarawa Hills lies to the west of the property. There is a good deal of granite on the property, with some dolerite. The rocks are compact, and show considerable signs of regional metamorphism.
“Source of the Tin.—The tin has been carried down from the rich placers at the head water of the Kurdum River, and form feeders that come in above the property from the Jarawa and Fuersum country. In one or two places the natives work the river-bed, an indication in itself of high value, as it does not pay them to work any but rich gravel. The alluvial ground is aquartz gravel with sand near the top. There is very little clay, and long boulders are unlikely, and the wash is friable and easy to work. The river-bed gravel where coarse is very rich.
“Concentrates.—These contain usually minerals such as ilmenite, rootile, zircon, and some topaz and garnet. The tin is of good quality, and varies in colour from black to ruby and pale yellow. A little monazite is found, and an occasional colour of gold. There should be no difficulty in shipping concentrates that will assay 71 or 72 per cent. metallic tin. The tinstone is of a good average size for saving in the sluice boxes which can be given a good grade.”
The Government Report on Northern Nigeria for 1908-9 contained the announcement that tin in paying quantities had been located in the Provinces of Bauchi, Nassarawa, and on the Kobba-Ilorin border, and this information has since been supplemented by the Akerri (Nigeria) Tin Company Ltd., which has taken up a tin area in an entirely fresh district, one day’s journey west of Zungeru, and one and a half day’s journey north-east of Jebba.
Meanwhile, in a White Paper on “Nigeria, September 1910,” issued in the following month of October, we get an official reference to the new tin industry:
“Mr. Parkinson states that in the Oban Hills, Southern Nigeria, there are tourmaline pegmatites, and Schmeisser has recorded that since the discovery of an apparently rich tin deposit near Banyo, there has been much prospecting for that mineral in the Cameroons. Surface tin is found in Northern Nigeria by the natives, and sold, chiefly to the Niger Company, but mines on a large scale have not as yet been worked. The geological surveyors sent out by the Imperial Institute have detected the presence of alluvial tin in many sand and river gravels. At Uwet, in Old Calabar, Mr. Parkinson reports the occurrence of tinstone during the year 1906, and of the washed samples 80 per cent. was tinstone, and the remainder was garnet, tourmaline, quartz, and columbite.”
The Bauchi tin won by the Niger Company is of rich quality, and commands a considerablyhigher price than ordinary English tin; but while Lord Scarborough persistently told the public of the results of their operations, mining was not energetically proceeded with, and as has been said the new field attracted less attention than it deserved. But as prospecting work in the district became more general, it was realised from the virgin nature of the area, the cheapness and abundance of labour available in the district, and the enormous extent of the surface deposits, that the regions were extremely valuable and presented potentialities of great and continuous profits. In the face of this later information the first feeling of scepticism with which the discovery was received passed away, doubt yielded to confidence, and it was soon known that some of the most astute and influential groups in the City were interested in the exploitation of the new field.
But although the future of the Bauchi tin district was assured, it was necessary for some one to be first in the systematic development of the new field. Every report emanating from the colony confirmed the story of the richness of Nigerian tin, and a Royal Colonial Institute address had admitted that “if the professional reports were anything like approximately correctand the supply is regulated, a fabulous amount of wealth is waiting to be extracted,” but the opportunity to make fortunes out of Northern Nigeria was neglected until the Champion Gold Reefs of West Africa, Ltd., who had abandoned their gold property on the Gold Coast, boldly threw their remaining capital of £12,000 into the new field.
The credit, therefore, for placing the Nigerian tin fields before the British investor is due to Messrs. Walter and Oliver Wethered, and Mr. S. R. Bastard. It was Mr. Walter Wethered, being impressed by the large quantities of metal which were being brought down by the natives and sold to the Niger Company, who formed the opinion that these fields might be suitable for working on a large scale. Having satisfied himself on this point he was able to induce Mr. Bastard, and his brother, Mr. Oliver Wethered, to join in the business, and as a result the Champion Gold Reefs of West Africa, Ltd., of which Mr. Bastard was Chairman, decided in the month of September 1909 to embark its remaining capital and all its energies in the exploitation of the newNigerian tin field. In October the first members of their staff were sent out to the properties they had already secured, to be followed on 3rd November by Mr. C. G. Lush, the well-known tin expert, who was to advise them as to the best method of developing their properties. Everything that happened satisfied this pioneer group of the value of the field, and they formed the Tin Fields of Northern Nigeria, Ltd., which was registered on 7th October 1909, with a capital of £100,000. Mr. Bastard became chairman of this company.
The Nigerian Tin Corporation, Ltd., was registered on 14th October 1909, with a capital of £100,000. On this occasion Mr. Oliver Wethered took the chairmanship. No further company was floated during the year 1909, but on 15th January 1910 this same group issued the Naraguta (Nigeria) Tin Mines, Ltd., with a capital of £175,000. This company has already, in the few months it has been working, recovered over 300 tons of tin, and has declared its first dividend. The next venture to be floated by the Champion Gold Reefs company was the Northern Nigerian (Bauchi) Tin Mines, Ltd., registered on 2nd February 1910, with a capital of £200,000, of which Mr. Oliver Wethered became a director.
The foregoing were the first five companies registered for the sole purpose of working the alluvial tin deposits of Northern Nigeria, and they were all promoted by this pioneer group, comprising Messrs. Walter and Oliver Wethered, and Mr. S. R. Bastard. All these companies are doing excellent work, and showing good results. After February of this year others entered the field, and since March last a large number of companies and syndicates have been registered and formed, several of which are at work.
It was only to be expected that such brilliant results as these would have the effect of inducing the more conservative firms to enter into the fields of Northern Nigerian mineral enterprise, and now Messrs. Wernher, Beit, the Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa, Fanti Consolidated, and many other leading groups of bankers and capitalists are represented in the Bauchi Province.
But while the prospecting and actual mining work being done on the Bauchi field are establishing an ever-widening recognition of its mineral wealth, its inaccessibility and the difficulties of transport, which represent its chief drawbacks, have not yet been overcome, and it may beopportune to explain here the methods of transport employed in the two Nigerias, to describe the railway system, and to give some ideas of the difficulties of carriage with which the mine owners of Northern Nigeria have to contend.
Southern Nigeria, through which the Northern Protectorate is reached from the coast, is covered with a network of waterways, which are the natural transport roads of the entire region, and the Marine Department is continually surveying old and overgrown streams and opening up new river routes. It is possible, travelling by the Niger River from Forcados to the confluence at Lokoja, and following from that point the Benue River to Loko, to arrive within about 180 miles of Bauchi, or going by rail from Lagos to Jebba, the present northern terminus of the line, to get, as the crow flies, within 300 miles of that centre. The river route is obviously the quickest and cheapest, and is the one still in use, the natives carrying the tin in parcels of 60 lbs. weight on their heads from the field to Loko, travelling about 15 miles a day. At Loko, the metal is put into small steamers or barges, according to the season, and conveyed to the confluence, where it is transferred to Niger boats and taken to Forcados for shipment to Liverpool, the entirejourney occupying thirty-five days and costing £29 10s. per ton.
When the construction of the Kano Railway from Baro on the Niger to railhead is opened, and the road connecting the railway to Bauchi is made, the journey will be appreciably shortened. The completion of the railway from Lagos in 1911 should further reduce it to about twenty-eight days, and again when motors are available on the new road, to about three weeks.
The cost per ton by the Forcados-Baro route will be:—
This will be increased when the maximum rate is charged, and will be reduced when the motor transport on the new road is available.
The future cost and time of transport depends upon the completion of the railway construction atpresent in hand, and the decision of the Government with regard to the suggested new line to connect the tin fields with some selected spot upon the Baro-Kano line of railway. The Lagos railway to Jebba in Northern Nigeria is 307 miles in length, but although the last constructed stretch of 60½ miles from Ilorin was only opened in August last, the line has already been continued for some 50 miles beyond the Niger, and the balance of 70 miles to be completed to Zungeru, the capital of Northern Nigeria, is expected to be finished early in the coming year. By this route, when the connecting line from Zungeru to the Baro-Kano railway is constructed, and the branch from the latter railway to Bauchi is built, it will be possible to carry machinery all the way from Lagos to the new field by train, and bring the metal down to the port by the same service.
But although this Lagos railway, as it is still called, taps a fertile and thickly populated country and connects the capital of the north with the coast, it became, with the commencement of the new Baro-Kano line the second, instead of the first, most important factor in the development of Northern Nigeria. Until the year 1907 the Northern Protectorate possessed in the way ofrailways but one light 2 feet 6 inch tramway of 22 miles in length, which connected its capital, Zungeru, with Baro, the nearest navigable point on the river.
It was in May 1907 that Sir Percy Girouard, the Governor, whose name had already become famous in connection with his splendid railway work in the Sudan and in South Africa, formulated the railway policy, and recommended the construction by the Public Works Department of the Protectorate of a 3 feet 6 inch gauge railway from Baro, on the Niger River, to Kano, a distance of a little short of 400 miles, on an estimate of £3000 per mile. In August of the same year the Imperial Government sanctioned the construction of the proposed line.
At the same time the views of the administrative Southern Protectorate were met by the extension of the Lagos line into Northern Nigeria, with a connection to be established from Zungeru with the Baro-Kano railway, making it possible to travel from Kano either all the way by rail to the coast at Lagos, or by rail to Baro, and thence by river steamers to the mouth of the Niger. It is expected that the bulk of the exports will follow the line to Baro, and thence be carried to the sea by water transport, but the Lagos line serves sucha rich and well populated country, that when the Port of Lagos has been rendered accessible by the harbour improvements now in construction, the line should prove of increasing economic value, quite apart from any trade it may attract from the more easterly provinces of Northern Nigeria.
The Baro-Kano railway was put in hand at an extremely opportune time, and it was while the work of construction was being rapidly pushed forward that the discovery of tin in the Bauchi Province turned the thoughts of railway construction in an easterly direction, and the continuous and consistently rich finds which rewarded the efforts of prospectors in this region called daily and hourly attention to its remoteness. At first it was considered that the formation of a good road from Bauchi to strike the Baro-Kano line about Zaria would suffice for the needs of the field, but the extraordinary extent and richness of the deposits, and the phenomenal success achieved by the Naraguta (Nigeria) Tin Mines, Ltd., the Lucky Chance Mines, Ltd., and other companies at work there, emphasised the self-evident fact that nothing less than a branch railway would besufficient to adequately develop the new industry. London capitalists expressed their willingness to find the money to finance the new line, but the question was, and still is, under the consideration of the Colonial Office, and Sir Walter Egerton, the Governor of Southern Nigeria, and Sir Hesketh Bell, the High Commissioner of Northern Nigeria, and Sir William Wallace, the late acting Governor of that colony, all strongly favour the construction of the line by the Government rather than by private enterprise.
Sir Walter Egerton, in an interview he granted to a Press representative in June last, said: “Everybody believes the tin deposits to be very rich, and if only half the reports concerning them are true, there is more than enough to warrant the expenditure of making a branch to the tin fields of the Province of Bauchi. This would give direct access from the sea at Lagos to the tin fields. The reports show that the tin alluvial is similar to that of the Malay Peninsula, which produces more than half the tin of the world. Southern Nigeria has already lent the money required for the construction of the railway to Kano, and it is a question for the considerationof the Secretary of State whether we should not also finance the building of the line to the tin areas. I should think it would be a great advantage to Southern Nigeria to have such communication, as a large traffic might be expected. If the Secretary of State agrees, there is no reason to expect that there will be any opposition in Southern Nigeria to financing the line, for the success of the tin industry will have a wonderful effect not only on Northern, but also on Southern Nigeria, for the Protectorates, though two politically, are one geographically.”
Since this interview was published it has been persistently rumoured that the Government have decided to build the suggested line from a point near Rigachiko, on the Baro-Kano line, to a place called Toro, between 120 and 130 miles distant, in the centre of the tin district, and midway between Naraguta and Juga. The country which the line would traverse has been surveyed, and a new road, 12 feet wide throughout, and capable of conveying light motor traffic in the dry season is being constructed, and will probably be completedbefore the end of the present year. But the Government have not yet announced their decision, and it is doubtful, although efforts have been made to induce them to divert the funds for extending the line from Zaria to Kano for the purpose of the tin fields branch, whether they can be persuaded to do so. It is believed, as Sir Walter Egerton said, that if the Government acts on the recommendation of the Governor of Northern Nigeria, the Government of Southern Nigeria would be willing to undertake the construction of the line, and should the Colonial Office decline to sanction the scheme, representatives of several of the companies interested in the new tin field have expressed their readiness to finance the railway.
As recently as October 22nd a meeting of representatives of the various Northern Nigerian tin companies was held at the London Offices of the Niger Company, when a general committee, to be named the Northern Nigerian Mines Association, was formed, composed of a representative of each of the companies, and a sub-committee, composed of Lord Scarborough, Mr. S. R. Bastard, Mr. O. Wethered, Mr. Godfrey, and Mr. Berry was appointed to deal with urgent business. The chief attention of this meeting was naturally paid tothe question of transport, and the first business done was the passing of a resolution urging the Colonial Office to construct the railway to the Bauchi tin fields as early as possible. The Association decided on the appointment of a medical officer, and they have, furthermore, given instructions for a hospital to be built on the field at Joss. It will therefore be seen that everything possible is being done to urge upon the Government the importance of pushing forward this work, which will doubtless be taken seriously in hand before long.
Everybody connected with the Protectorate or interested in the new tin field is agreed as to the absolute necessity of constructing the line.
Mr. J. Tomson, the chief engineer of the Anglo-Continental Mines Company, who recently returned to England after an extended tour in the Bauchi district, declared that the difficulties of transport are at present tremendous, but he is of opinion that they could best be overcome by running a railway from Minna, a point on the Baro-Kano line to Naraguta, the capital of Bauchi.
“Before I left,” said Mr. Tomson to a representative of theMorning Post, “I had an interview with Sir Hesketh Bell, the Governor, and found him most sympathetic towards the mining industry. He recognises that the railway should be built to the tin fields as quickly as possible, but of course it is a question of ways and means. If the Colonial Office came to the rescue and made a special grant for laying the line, or else allowed the united mining companies to construct it themselves, which they are quite willing to do, all would be well. But it is important that something should be done at once. If not, there is going to be a serious difficulty over the food supply, because so many mining companies have gone to the Bauchi district that the farmers are unable to cope with the demand for food. With a railway to Minna and then along the line now being laid to Zungeru, which connects up the Lagos railway and the line from Baro, the ore would reach port in a few days.”
Mr. Beresford, the Secretary of the Administration of Northern Nigeria, in an official letter written to a correspondent, discussing new means of transport in the Protectorate, says:— “A survey for a road has just been completed, and it has been found that the Rishi Pass is not apracticable line, and it is considered that Toro or Tilde, and not Liruei, should be the point of objective. It is hoped that by December next a rough road, fit for carts or light motors, may be completed to Toroviathe Gusu Pass, but the Governor is strongly of opinion that nothing but a railway will suit the requirements of the tin fields, even in the near future, and he hopes that it may be possible to find funds for such a project.”
When the work of seeing these pages through the press was nearing completion, a letter arrived at the London offices of the Tin Fields of Northern Nigeria, Ltd., from their engineer, Mr. Jerome J. Collins, describing the means of transport from the coast to the seat of operations in the Bauchi Province. The particulars, which are given from personal experience of the journey, are both interesting and instructive, as they are also the last word to hand on the subject, and the excerpts which follow are published by the courtesy of the directors of the company, by whom the letter was received.
Writing from Kogin Jarawa, under date September 13, Mr. Collins says:—
Niger River Transport.—Forcados to Baro.
The distance is 407 miles. The Niger Company, Ltd., and the Government run shallow draught steamers carrying passengers and cargo. The Government steamers run a weekly service in connection with the mail steamers from Liverpool. The Niger Company run steamers as inducement offers.
The time occupied is about ten days by both services, but a great deal of this time is taken up with stoppages at the various towns along the river.
The Government steamers are in a very bad state of repair, and much time is lost owing to breakdowns. In the rainy season branch steamers travel between the coast and Baro, at present carrying railway material. They have facilities for handling heavy cargo.
The season extends from July to September.
The Government and Niger Company’s boats have no facilities for handling heavy cargo, being limited to packages capable of being handled by native labour, which is tedious and expensive.
The cost of transport by Government steamers for ordinary cargo from Forcados to Baro is from 40s. to 60s., and down from Baro to Forcados is from 21s. to 33s.
Railway Transport.—Baro to Rigachiko.
The distance is 225 miles. The railway is not yet completed to Rigachiko, where the Bauchi road starts, but I understand from railway officials that the line will be through by next March, 1911. Railhead at present is at Kogin Serikin Pawa, 172 miles from Baro, but rails are laid to within fifteen miles of Rigachiko, and this part of the line will be ready as soon as the bridges are completed.
The railway is 3 feet 6 inch gauge, and has been constructed with economy always in view. Up to the present there is no ballast on the line, and consequently there are serious delays during the rainy season owing to derailment of engines and the washout of embankments. My journey from Baro to railhead occupied fifteen days; the most of this time was lost owing to breakdowns on the line.
The journey should occupy two days, and I have no doubt that by March next it will be possible to get from Baro to Rigachiko in two days.
The freight on the line at present is 8s. per ton per mile, equal to £7 10s. per ton from Baro to Rigachiko, but at present the railway company will not undertake to transport cargounless it is accompanied, and even then they will take no responsibility.
I understand that in the next year, when the railway is open to Zaria, the freight will be reduced to 6s. per ton per mile, equal to £5 12s. 6d. per ton from Baro to Rigachiko.
Road Transport.—Rigachiko to Naraguta.
The distance is approximately 135 miles. On my journey across by this road I took eight days, which is as quick as can be expected.
The Government engineers are clearing a track twelve feet wide, and pulling out tree stumps. They are also grading down banks of creeks to one in ten.
They are expending £20 per mile on this work, and have completed fifty miles in two months.
This road track will come into the tin fields at Toro, twelve miles north-east of Naraguta, and twelve miles west of the company’s property at Federri. This track should be finished by the end of the year.
The country is flat and very easy for road building. There are four large rivers to cross, which would require bridges of over 100 feet in length, and numerous small creeks which could be bridged cheaply.
There is plenty of stone suitable for road ballast, available near the road. When the road track is through to the tin fields it will be possible to transport stores by carrier in seven days from railway.
It may be mentioned here that the Niger Company up to the present have had great difficulty with the prospectors and others travelling up to the tin fields, owing, in some cases, to their not having left themselves entirely in the hands of the company. The Niger Company have practically controlled the country, and have perfected arrangements by which they can supply large numbers of natives for carrying goods from the river to the tin field, but on several occasions their organisation has been interfered with by persons offering the natives three or four times their usual pay in order to get them through quickly to the fields. This, of course, as will be seen, is a dangerous policy, for if a scale is not strictly adhered to, the time will come when the natives will start attempting to dictate their own terms.
The Niger Company are not in favour of the motor route from the head of the Baro-Kano to the fields. Their opinion is that the money would be wasted on such a road, and that themining community should be satisfied to wait until the railway is made. Their view is that the mining companies should join together and come to an arrangement with the Niger Company for carrying all the goods along their own route from Loko to the fieldviaKeffi and Bukeru. This road, they say, could be reserved for mining business, and they would open up another route, starting from a point near Sinkai higher up the Benue River, which could be used for ordinary commercial purposes. They point out that with the rush of goods required for the mines, they have been unable to get up a sufficient and proper supply of provisions. This question, of course, requires careful consideration, as although the Niger Company wish to be considered as offering this advice in a purely disinterested manner, it should be remembered that they are asking for contracts for the whole of the transport, which would enable them to employ thousands of natives at a very low figure.
Meantime the energetic prospecting and mining work that is being done in the Province of Bauchi is establishing the fact that the new tin area is ofenormous extent and value both in the nature of alluvial gravels and the more permanent form of tin lodes. Mr. Lush, the well-known mining authority, who has examined a great part of the Province, estimates that these deposits are scattered over an area of no less than 2,500 square miles, and the tin produced is considered to be some of the best ever imported into Europe, and commands a price equal, if not higher, than the Straits tin. The land is situated about 3,000 to 4,000 feet above sea-level, and the late Director of Mines in Northern Nigeria states that the climate is equal to that of Rhodesia, if not even better.
“Few people have any idea,” Mr. Tomson asserts, “of the possibilities of this country. It is quite a mistake to think it is unhealthy. Naraguta is over 3,500 feet above the sea-level, and is a healthy and fertile district. Here you are hundreds of miles away from the malarial swamps and the coast. If you walk up out of the town of Naraguta on to rising ground, as far as you can see stretch out great plains of waving grass, here and there dotted with masses of the Fulani cattle. It would make a splendid wheat-growing district, for the land requires very little cultivation, and there is no bush country. Kano, which liesnearly two hundred miles to the north, is a remarkable place. Several travellers have stated that it is the largest market in the world.”
Mr. Huddart, until recently Director of Mines, who has declared that the climate of Northern Nigeria is better than that of Rhodesia, and that the country is without a single tsetse belt, says:
“The nights are quite cold, and any man who lives well ought to have perfect health. I do not reckon it in the least like any other part of West Africa; it is more like Eastern Soudan, and it is known as the Western Soudan. With regard to water, which, as you know, is a very important question, it is quite erroneous to imagine that there is very little water here. In Northern Queensland and South-Eastern and Western Australia there is much less water than here; in fact there is no comparison between them. Mr. Lush and I—and I had the pleasure of travelling with him—were never at any trouble in getting water, we never had even to carry water, and those who have travelled know what that means.”
In Nigeria they have only two well-defined seasons, the wet and the dry season. The wetseason lasts from April till the end of October, and during that time it is very difficult to do any prospecting work, although, of course, mining can be carried on in certain districts. It is during the dry season, from the end of October to April, that most of the work can be accomplished, especially from a prospector’s point of view.
Mr. Lush, writing on the subject of the cost of living and provisions, says “living is cheap, there being plenty of beef, mutton, fowls, milk, eggs, &c. Any kind of vegetable grows well, especially English varieties; in fact very few mining fields that I have visited can be compared to Northern Nigeria in respect of the various sorts of wholesome fresh food that can be obtained. In fact all one requires is flour and a few groceries. The country will provide the rest.”
The new mining regulations, incorporated in the “Minerals Proclamation, 1910,” have already been published in Nigeria, but they are not yet obtainable in this country, and I am privileged to be able to reproduce a copy of them as an appendix to this book. From this document itwill be seen that a prospector must either take out a prospecting right, which costs £5 per annum, and entitles the holder to explore for minerals in those parts of the Protectorate not already leased or reserved by Government notice, or an exclusive licence to prospect within an area not exceeding 16 square miles for a fee of £5 per square mile. Mining leases are only granted to holders of either one of these permits, who, upon application, must show thatbonâ fideprospecting operations have been carried on on the area applied for, and that they possess or command sufficient working capital to ensure the proper development and working of the mine. Leases of tin areas, which are granted for a term up to twenty-one years, with the option to renew for a further twenty-one years, are three in number, viz., lode mining leases, which may be obtained up to a maximum of thirty claims of 80,000 square feet per claim, at the rental of £4 per claim per annum; alluvial mining leases, not exceeding 800 acres in area, with a minimum width throughout of 400 yards, at a rate of 5s. per acre per annum; and stream mining leases, which shall be confined to the bed of a stream, not exceeding one mile in length, at a rental of £1 per 100 yards per annum. Penalties in theshape of fines or imprisonment are to be inflicted for prospecting without a licence or working a mine without a lease, for interfering with a prospector in the exercise of his rights, for giving false information in an application for a mining lease, or for “salting” a mine, and the Government reserve the power to cancel a prospecting right or revoke a mining lease for certain breaches of the new regulations. Over and above the fees charged for yearly rental of leases, the holder is by statute required to pay a royalty of 5 per cent. to the Niger Company on the value of all metal won, and another royalty of 5 per cent. to the Government, who collect their royalty in the form of export duty.
A population estimated at seven to nine millions is already on the land, and although their labour would not be very efficient so far as skilled work is concerned, there is plenty of rough work to be done, for which about 6d. per day is paid. The costs of treatment are not expected to exceed 6d. per cubic yard. When it is remembered that it is possible for one property to contain many hundreds of thousands of cubicyards of alluvial wash, and that this alluvial tinstone is worth approximately 10d. per lb. at the present time, it will be realised that with the working costs at the liberal figure of 6d. per cubic yard, there is a very considerable margin of profit in these undertakings.
Mr. J. Tomson says of the natives that they make very good labourers: “They insist on being paid with English money, ‘threepenny bits’ being very popular. They have no liking for gold, and do not consider it so valuable as silver. The pagans, who are the farming class, appear to be a most industrious people. They still live in fear of invading Fulani, and always take their bows and arrows with them to the field. Neither men nor women wear dress of any kind. They have a juju or secret oath which forbids them to put on any garment. With these people the missionaries make no headway at all. Neither do they with the Mohammedans.”
The manager of the Lucky Chance Mines, reporting under date 29th August, said he was still paying 6d. per day for ordinary labour, and so far he had had little trouble with the men on day wages, although they had several times tried to get him to raise the rate of pay.
Reporting on a property at Juga in the tin district, Mr. Huddart says:
“The properties are very favourably situated to obtain labour. The men from Bauchi and the east come along the main caravan route looking for work to enable them to earn money to pay the taxes, &c. As this particular property is near the market, and the men usually halt at the market, they can easily be recruited. The cost of ordinary labour is 1d. per hour, and is easily trained. The Bornu and Eastern Kanuri are, in my opinion, the best workers available. A further advantage lies in the position of the property in settled country under the control of the Filani Emir of Bauchi, and the men prefer this to the pagan country.”
Referring to another property about twenty miles further south, Mr. Huddart says:
“When all is in proper working order, I am convinced that ample labour will be forthcoming, as the property is favourably situated in that it can tap the Angass country and the western part of Bornu, as well as the eastern Bauchi territory. When the proper camps are made, markets organised, and the natives learn that a certain income awaits them, I feel sure that labour will come in without any difficulty, and I speakas one knowing their language and having an intimate knowledge of the conditions.”
Mr. H. W. Laws, General Mining Manager of the Niger Company, in his report to the Bisichi Company, whose property is near Naraguta, says:
“There is a good supply of labour in the country; owing to a sudden increase in the demand for labour a temporary shortage was reported this wet season, but the labour market is now rapidly recovering, and in view of the very large amount of labour available in the Hausa States, and the Province of Bornu, no difficulties need be anticipated as to the supply in future.”
The concensus of opinions held by men who understand the amount and nature of the work entailed in this particular form of mining, and are, at the same time, personally familiar with the material that the country has to offer for the purpose, shows that the supply of labour in Northern Nigeria is entirely adequate, and although the development of West Africa depends almost entirely upon the labour question, there is no prospect of any difficulty on this account. Mr. Astley Cooper believes the chief grounds upon which trouble might arise, are the desire of the majority of the natives not to do too muchwork, the fear that a few months’ work in the mines would give a native sufficient money to live on for a year or two, and the difficulty of getting the right sort of European to take charge of the native labourers. But after all there is little reason to anticipate trouble on any one of these counts. No native in any part of the globe does more work than he is kindly but firmly obliged to perform, and there is no necessity for employers to demoralise the native labourers by a policy of over-payment. But the necessity of employing the right sort of European to put in control over the natives is quite to the point. The West African is more domestic than the Kaffir—of whom there are over 200,000 at work in the Transvaal mines—and there is no more willing worker if he has the proper white man over him. But it is the duty of the Government and the trading companies, and the mining corporations, to select the right men for their purpose, and if they are wise in this respect there need be no fear of labour troubles in either Southern or Northern Nigeria.