PROGRESS IN NIGERIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12588, 24 August 1901, Page 6

PROGRESS IN NIGERIA.

The British officials in Nigeria should by this time be settling down once more to the work of estabJishina: peace and order

in the country. It iHis o«,j > afc the beginning of last year that this territory was formed into a Protectorate under BrigadierCk rural Sir Frederick Lugard as its first High Commissioner. Previously, of emirs®, it was exploited by the Royal Niger Company, and there ivas little in the shape of civil government. The charter of the company naturally hampered the action of the Imperial officers, with the result that the troubles which seem to be inseparable from missionary enterprise and trade in a new country were allowed to go unchecked. Sir Frederick Lugard and Sir James Willcocks in 1897 had commenced to organise a force to police the territory and to protect the frontier against possible French aggression, but their hands were practically tied until the administration was entirely taken over by the Colonial Office in 1900. Then Sir Frederick set himself to open up nearly four hundred thousand square miles of scarcely known country andi to render peaceful trade and commerce posable in the interior. Lokoja, at the junction cf the Niger and Benue rivers, and Jebba, 300 miles further up the Niger, were the two most important British base?, and Jebba was selected for the capital. But : it was a most unhealthy spot, and it was decided to seek a more suitable locality inland. Two surveying parties, headed respectively by Lieutenant-Colonel Moriand and Lieutenant-Colonel Lcwry-Oole, set opt from Lokoja and Jebba to map the country, but they met with hostility from ah most all the tribes, and little progress was made. There had been severe fighting up tba river Benue also, and it was hoped that effective measures could be taken to check the slave-raiding then so rife in the hinterland. But in April of last year all military and punitive operational in Nigeria had practically to be abandoned because the outbreak in Ashanti and) the siege of Sir Frederic Hodgson in Kumasi called for the massing of all available troops at Capa Coast Castle. Now, it appears from ai cable message, Colonel Morland has. once more started up the Benue from Lokoja with the intention of restoring order af; Yola and of repelling raiders from the Adnmawa district of the ..German Camerocns. In his “ Belief of Kumasi ” Captain Biss gives a very interesting account of the Northern Nigeria regiment to which he was attached. Composed of Haims, Yorubas and a few Nupes, splendid marchers and fighters ?t ; tharki-clad and armed with ‘Martina-Metford carbines, it did most useful work during the Ashanti trouble j and under European officers these native soldiers should prove quite capable of coping with the military difficulties of the Protectorate for many years to come.