THE NIGER COMPANY
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 the sale 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.
PROGRESS OF SOUTHERN NIGERIA
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 French Colonies of Senegal, Guinea, the Ivory Coast, and Dahomey:—
| All French West African Colonies. Imports and Exports. Value in Francs. | Nigeria. Imports and Exports. Value in Francs. | |
|---|---|---|
| 1899 | 116,843,000 | 78,000,000 |
| 1900 | 129,861,000 | 90,575,000 |
| 1901 | 131,459,000 | 96,625,000 |
| 1902 | 130,906,000 | 112,325,000 |
| 1903 | 161,819,000 | 111,700,000 |
| 1904 | 155,949,000 | 130,100,000 |
| 1905 | 152,471,000 | 128,775,000 |
| 1906 | 163,442,000 | 144,925,000 |
| 1907 | 177,436,000 | 192,550,000 |
| 1908 | 193,090,000 | 184,550,000 |
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.