Niger Company

“ As matters are, everything goes much easier and is a great deal more reliable than if carriers were hired casually.
The Niger Company is sharply, even bitterly, criticised for the time occupied in goods reaching consignees in the tin fields’ area. The fact should be remembered and counted as an element of consideration [140] that not only is the country new but that the tin-mining industry has come unexpectedly and with a rush and no public or private concern in the land which is actively involved can cope with the mountain of requirements which have arisen. ”

“ The Royal Niger Company shows how great England can be when she is incarnate in a great man, for the Royal Niger Company is so far Sir George Taubman-Goldie. The other thing that stands out unstained by comatose indifference to the worth of West Africa to England is her Commerce as represented by her West Coast traders, who have held on to the Coast since the sixteenth century with a bulldog grip, facing death and danger, fair weather and foul. ”

“ I have neither shares in, nor reason to attack the Royal Niger Company, which has in a few years, and during the period of the hottest French enterprise, acquired a territory in West Africa immensely greater than the territory acquired during centuries under the Crown Colony system; it has also fought its necessary wars with energy and despatch, and no call upon Imperial resources; it has not only paid its way, but paid its shareholders their 6 per cent., and its bitterest enemies say darkly, far more. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Of the European Stores, the Niger Company, as usual, was first in the field, opening in the middle of 1911. It was followed shortly afterwards by Lagos Stores and the Tin Areas of Nigeria. These were joined in time by John Walkden and Co., and Paterson and Zochonis. Sites are now being built upon by Ollivant and Co. and John Holt, whilst plots are in the hands of the London and Kano Trading Co., Pagenstecher and Co., Geiser and Co., and the French Company. Most of the establishments buy produce as well as retail European goods. ”

“ To these men the Niger Company acts as forwarding agent, sending goods over the railway to Baro, thence by the river route to the sea for shipment.
Although the general canteen business of the stores—apart from the trade to Europeans—is small at present, it should extend. In Kano and the immediately surrounding districts there must be 50,000 to 60,000 inhabitants. Nearly all have some money to spend. The trade with these people will probably not be done in a direct manner, but by native retailers, who know their own folk best and with whom, as dealers, Europeans cannot compete. ”

“ At Rahama one says good-bye to the railway. Henceforth locomotion must be of the animal or the human kind. The whole of the transport onwards is in the hands of the Niger Company, and everybody who desires to progress must go there.
Perhaps I should not say “must.” All are free to make their own arrangements, but it will be found impossible to engage carriers direct, for every man-Jack available is constantly employed by the Niger Company, who could do with hundreds, if not thousands, more. ”

“ Although the addition of the Nigerian Protectorates to the Empire is primarily due to the prescience and enterprise of the Niger Company, [69] that corporation has no monopoly of trade within their boundaries nor any special advantage over other traders. It takes its chances against rival firms in the many spots in which it comes into competition with them. ”

“ If the Niger Company has profited by its enterprise it deserved to. It at the same time helped—or, at all events, enabled—others to thrive. I am free to admit that occasionally it has among the employees a member whose manner leaves something to be desired. Any more than elsewhere, there is no monopoly of boorishness and rudeness by any class in Northern Nigeria. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 the [47] mining 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 field via Keffi and Bukeru. ”

“ In 1882 he began a connexion with West Africa which lasted the rest of his life, by accepting the chairmanship of the National African Company, formed by Sir George Taubman Goldie, which in 1886 received a charter under the title of the Royal Niger Company and in 1899 was taken over by the British government, its territories being constituted the protectorate of Nigeria. ”

“ I am perfectly aware that the natives of Lagos and other Crown Colonies in West Africa are, and have long been, anxious for the Chartered Company of the Niger to be taken over by the Government, as they pathetically and frankly say, “so that now the trade in their own district is so bad, it may get a stimulus by a freer trade in the Niger,” and the native traders not connected with the Company may rush in; while officials in the Crown Colonies have been equally anxious, as they say with frankness no less pathetic, so that they may have chances of higher appointments. ”

“ Besides the river and road transport, prosperous communities, white and black, mean increased trade for the stores, for although there are a number of such new arrivals in Northern Nigeria the Niger Company maintains an incalculably premier position.
Present regulations for mining are explained in the next chapter.
The health of every white man on a mine in Northern Nigeria is a serious matter for each owning company. Flesh and blood is not as cheap as in some parts of industrial Britain ”

“ The Royal Niger Company owned the hinterland of Lagos, which means the country back of Lagos, and this is the only hinterland that England did own. France, owning the country back of the English Colonies, effectually checks their development.
Until 1890 there was a dispute between England and France about their West African possessions. In 1890 there was a difficulty about territory on the Lower Niger, and this was settled for a little while by a treaty which marked out the British "spheres of influence" by a line drawn from Say on the Niger to Lake Chad. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In a large plain near Igga there is a factory kept by a white man. Just before we reached it we saw a big boat called the Nigritian, which was formerly the pontoon of Yola. The Royal Niger Company had just been driven from the Benuë and from the Adamawa; its trading agents had been recalled, together with the pontoon they had been authorized to use on the river. This must have been a very severe blow to the Company, for much of the ivory exported through their agents came from Adamawa and Muri. ”

“ Estimate, then, the position in Kano, distance of a week by railway.
With the exception of the Lagos Stores, all the establishments at Kano are in temporary buildings. The Niger Company has houses of mud and straw and one of corrugated iron. The Tin Areas Company has corrugated iron and also mud houses; whilst the French Company and the Syrian trader [76] have confined themselves to the latter material. Each store stands in a compound. A section is 300 feet long by 100 feet wide. ”

“ Arms and powder are also imported. The slave-trade is still alive in this district, and an overland route for slaves is believed to have been established through eastern Bassa to the Benue. In consequence of the natural wealth of the province, there are trading establishments of the Niger Company and of Messrs Holt on the Niger and Benue, and colonies of native traders have penetrated the country from the north. Roman Catholic and Protestant missions are established at Dekina and Gbebe. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is not a banking business; money is only paid on demand. Of course, there has been a preliminary arrangement between the mining concern and the Niger Company in London by which the former guarantees to meet the cheques presented to the latter up to a stipulated sum.
That arrangement having been settled, the mine manager sends to Jos—maybe a distance of four miles, maybe a five days’ journey—for the money with which to pay his labourers weekly, presenting a cheque for the amount. The money is charged at a rateage according to where the cheque may be [185] payable. ”

“ It is safe to state that the purchases of all the other stores together do not approach those of the Niger Company. One can see quite a string of dealers, accompanied by servants carrying skins on their heads, processions of camels and bullocks bearing large bales of skins, and hundreds of donkeys panniered with ground-nuts making their way to the compound of that Company. ”

“ Now by rail to Rahama, and from there distributed via the Niger Company’s Jos centre, it must average 500 tons monthly, with about 14 tons still going over the old Loko-Keffi route.
As the various tin-mine companies were formed and proceeded with their operations, transport became a first-value consideration. You have only to plant yourself in a virgin country and depend upon outside supplies for sustenance to realise that. ”

“ Another Niger Company department at Jos, separate from the others, is that of Transport.
Than transport no matter is of greater importance to the mines. Everything depends upon it. By “everything” is meant the primary items of food and machinery, on which all else rests. Even were the soil capable of being cultivated to an extent which would yield food for the labourers brought from other parts of the Protectorate, at least some years would have to pass before the process was in operation. Food must, therefore, be imported from the districts where it is grown. ”

“ Native settlement—Rents and Treasury—A model prison—Northern Nigeria Constabulary—Mails paid time-work—Sport at the door—Up-country and Coast natives—Selection of Zungeru—The future Capital.
The only European trading establishment in Zungeru is the store of the Niger Company. It adjoins the Cantonment. With a white population composed entirely of Government officials, all of whom bring their main requirements for a twelve-month’s term, it cannot be said there is room for another firm. ”

“ The plan in all these trades is for a long-term man of commendable conduct to be taught a trade, and he teaches others. The system makes honest labour of more monetary value than malpractices to the discharged convict.
The Emirs and Chiefs throughout the Protectorate raise and maintain their own native police, but there is also a force under the central Government, termed the Northern Nigeria Police. It was started in 1900 by Sir Frederick Lugard, with 50 men selected from the Royal Niger Company Constabulary. ”

“ If the Niger Company at Rahama is advised well in advance of a person’s wants he is seldom, if ever, kept waiting. Goods cannot be forwarded at once. A man and his immediate belongings are. Of course, people must not expect 300 carriers apiece. The plan is to allow sufficient for personal requirements—I think 30 carriers to an individual is the present limit—and an ample margin beyond. Engaging and taking away a large number of carriers might be a trick to keep other persons back. ”

“ But at present there are two difficulties, apart from the general difficulties affecting all economic development in Northern Nigeria, to which I shall refer in a moment. One is the question of price. The other is the local demand. In one sense they are inseparable. The local demand for the raw material by local weavers exceeds the supply, and the result is that the price the Association finds itself, either directly or through its agents, the Niger Company, able to pay is insufficient to tempt the growers. ”