SIR EDWIN SPEED.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 71, 4 January 1935, Page 3

SIR EDWIN SPEED.

ON PLEASURE CRUISE. > 'LINKS WITH NEW ZEALAND. (Special to the "Guardian.") WELLINGTON, Jan. 1. Former Chief Justice of Nigeria, brother fo Colonel Charles Arney, second in command of the New Zealand forces in the last stage oi the Maori War, and also godson of Sir George Arney, New Zealand Chief Justice in the 'seventies, Sir Edwin Arney! Speed was a passenger by the Oronsay, which called at Wellington at the week-end in the course oi' a pleasure cruise. For 20 years Sir Edwin held high official positions in Nigeria, retiring in 1918. . He was Attorney-General at Lagos when that protectorate was a separate colony, and later he was At-torney-General of Southern Nigeria. Northern and Southern Nigeria and Lagos were amalgamated in 1914 and he then became Chief Justice of United Nigeria. At one time lie was Chief Justice of Northern Nigeria and several times Acting-Chief Justice, Colonial Secretary and Deputy-Governor of Lagos. Along with other countries in the world, Nigeria has been through a period of comparative poverty, but even there things were beginning to look up, Sir Edwin said when interviewed. Gh'ing an instance of the progress made by the country, he said that when he first went there the revenue fo Lagos and Southern Nigeria amounted to about £400,000 a year, derived almost exclusively from the tax on gin. To-day the revenue was in the vicinity of £10,000,000, and the sale of gin was practically prohibited.