Nigeria and its tin fields

by Albert Frederick Calvert

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 RAILWAYS OF NIGERIA

The future cost and time of transport depends upon the completion of the railway construction at present 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 of railways 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 such a 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.

NEW LINE ADVOCATED

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 be sufficient 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’S OPINIONS

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 consideration of 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.”