CHAPTER XXIII
MINES—MEDICAL
Tin-mining—First Exclusive Prospecting Licence—Early tin-winning—Mr Law’s work—Health and economics—Feminine nursing—The medical service.
Although Jos is chiefly known for the Niger Company’s trading store and Finance Department, there are two other phases which should not be omitted. They are the Company’s Mining Department and the headquarters of the medical officer, who is supposed to be engaged by most, if not all, the mines, whereas he is really the officer of only a few. The Mining Department, is, to an extent, explained by its title. There may, however, be people in England who are not acquainted with the part the Niger Company has taken in development of the tin fields, and it is for these persons that this short story is given; not in any tone of exaltation, simply an unvarnished tale with tone and shade to present what seems to me a true picture. Nothing like a complete history of the movement is being rendered; merely a thin outline for better understanding of how the position of to-day has been reached.
In 1901 Mr Walter Watts, Agent-General—a West African title corresponding to General Manager—of the Niger Company asked Sir Frederick Lugard, High Commissioner—Governor—of Northern Nigeria for a concession to send prospectors for tin. The High Commissioner refused, on the ground that there was no mining law to regulate the situation. The position was altered the following year by the promulgation of the Mining Proclamation, and on Sir Frederick returning from furlough in England Mr Watts followed him to Jebba and obtained the first issued Exclusive Prospecting Licence, which related to 1,000 square miles with Badiko as centre. The same day Mr George Macdonald was granted a similar E.P.L. for 3,000 square miles surrounding that ground.
On receipt of information from Mr Watts that he had secured a Licence, the London office of the Niger Company despatched Mr G. Nicolaus to test the existence of tin. He located the Deleme River deposits at Tildi Fulani as a payable portion. Mr Nicolaus was on the tin areas only a few weeks, but his reports led the Niger Company to send Mr H. W. Laws to ascertain definitely whether the areas were of commercial value.
In 1902 Mr Macdonald commissioned Mr Probis to test the land the former had acquired. The resultant report on the prospects generally induced Macdonald not to proceed with the work.
The investigations of both Nicolaus and Probis were confined to the north of the Plateau.
Meanwhile, in the early part of 1902 Mr, now Sir, William Wallace, then in the service of the Niger Company as Political Agent, accompanied the expedition against the Emir of Bauchi. At the close of operations, by means of messengers he obtained about a quarter-of-a-hundredweight specimens of tin from the Deleme River, at Naraguta, which is six days’ journey from the place whence Mr Wallace had sent his emissaries. That, apparently, was the first tin obtained by a European in Northern Nigeria, although about the same time Mr George Macdonald led a prospecting party into Bauchi territory and brought back tin.
Mr Laws arrived towards the end of 1903 and formed his principal camp between the present Naraguta Mine and Naraguta Extended, in fact where Naraguta village now stands. His expeditions practically discovered the configuration of the Plateau and located tin at Jos, in the neighbourhood of Bukuru and at N’Gell. At the close of 1905 Mr Laws took out plant and commenced systematic tin-winning at Naraguta.
Having discovered ore, the next question to be decided was what should be done with the acquisition? Whilst the Niger Company had every wish and interest to see the tin fields, and the country generally, grow and flourish, it had no desire—so I gather—to add to its commercial responsibilities that of mining on a large scale. It preferred that should be done by people who could concentrate on that form of activity.