On the railway route from Lagos to Kano the largest European trading centre produced by the opening of the line is Zaria. Several factors have contributed to making the place prominent and important. Until Kano was subdued, in 1903, Zaria was the foremost Hausa city which had submitted to the British. Secondly, the idea of making Zaria, instead of Zungeru, the administrative headquarters of Northern Nigeria, and the steps taken towards that object, which included building a suitable house for the Governor and others for the principal officials, mark Zaria as a Government station of distinctiveness, for though the commodious bungalows are not occupied by the class originally intended the men there are a senior grade.

Thirdly, the junction of the Lagos-Kano trunk line with the branch, Bauchi Light Railway, and the fact that passengers from either to the other must stay at Zaria at least one night necessitate the provision of several rest-houses and has encouraged the increase of European stores to cater for items supplementary to the outfit and the “chop boxes” which people take from England.

Fourthly, Zaria possesses several districts in which produce is raised of the kind readily bought by exporting firms, and the railway has enabled natives who cultivate such material to bring it with ease to a comparatively large purchasing centre. The chief descriptions are shea-nuts, ground-nuts, benniseed, and a little beeswax. There are also hides and other skins.

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.

No doubt in time Zaria will outgrow its present condition beyond recognition, but I am by no means sure that already the supply of stores is not well in excess of the demand for several years, both for selling to Europeans and for the purchase of native produce. Even as matters stand, there is not nearly enough to go round remuneratively, and, though the amount is sure to increase, a long time will pass before it is of sufficient quantity to warrant the number of establishments which have been and are being run up.

Moreover, Zaria is more likely to diminish, rather than increase, in importance as a stage on the railway when the gauge of the trunk and the branch lines have been altered to uniform gauge—the work will have started weeks previous to this being published—which will avoid breaking bulk for transhipment and will enable travellers to continue the journey without change of carriage; the acceleration providing a through service thus making unnecessary the present enforced wait at Zaria.

The Niger Company is gathering the fruits of having been the pioneer firm at Zaria. The mud houses and sheds are being replaced by more permanent structures. The retail store is of brick and is 80 feet by 35 feet. There are also two iron buildings with cement floors, one for warehousing the trading goods and the other for keeping the produce purchased. In addition an 80 feet long, open shed is used for weighing produce bought and to give shelter to the sellers whilst they wait their turn. The large compound in which the buildings stand is itself a public market on a small scale. Natives foregather there, sit down as at a meeting-place, and small traders assemble to sell food to the people who dispose of their produce, which may have been brought several days’ journey.

Although it is generally assumed that the gold discoveries made are in Zaria Province, the only one of which the finder says he is satisfied lies just over the border, in the Niger Province. That belongs to Mr L. H. L. Huddart, who has shown me specimens from the ground which look enchanting. Whether the mineral is to be won in payable quantity is a question I am not prepared to answer. There is Mr Huddart, who was first in that field and who declares he is content with that on which he has lighted; whilst, on the other hand, some of the smartest mining men in the country have prospected around the centre and have reported adversely. Of course, both may be right.

Apart from this matter of gold, Mr Huddart evidently believes in the country’s minerals, for a couple of miles from the European cantonment at Zaria he is putting up permanent buildings to be used as offices and a laboratory at which he proposes to carry on his profession as a consulting mining engineer.

Zaria, the administrative headquarters of the province of the same name, consists of three parts: the native city—a large, walled town resembling Kano—four miles from the railway, so that the native life, under the Emir, may be as free as practicable from disturbing influences; the Government offices and officials’ bungalows; and the European merchants’ stores.

The group of stores and the group of bungalows are quite near each other and within a stone’s-throw of the station.

A quarter-of-a-mile from these centres there is the small sabon gari—i.e., native town—established for the requirements of natives who draw supplies there which they retail to the resident Europeans, in the way of daily household requirements. The sabon gari is also a great convenience to the large number of natives who bring in produce to sell to the exporting firms. Compared with Zaria City, this sabon gari is of limited dimensions. It differs markedly from Zaria City in having been laid out on Sir Hesketh Bell’s plan for model native towns.

It is divided into rectangular blocks, or plots, 50 feet by 100 feet. The rent for a plot is 12s. or 16s. a year. The main avenue is 100 feet wide, and other roads have a breadth of 50 feet, whilst streets parallel with the houses—which, of course, are of mud—are 15 feet across; 183 plots are occupied.

Rentals from plots are divided evenly between the British administration and the Beit-el-Mal, but dues from the market stalls go entirely to the Beit-el-Mal. This institution—which is the Treasury for native administration—is described in Chapter VII.

General taxation in Northern Nigeria in every province is adjusted to local custom and usage. Therein lies one of the secrets of our success in governing the country, that the ways of the people are interfered with as little as possible.

But the population must pay taxes. They have always done so in one form or another. Whereas formerly they had to render service, or its substitute, for war or for slave-raiding and were squeezed in actual taxation according to the requirements of the Emir’s Chiefs and, in addition, any man who prospered became an object of cupidity for the taxing Chief, now everybody is rated on a general plan and the amounts levied are decided upon in consultation between the British and the native authorities. Perhaps it will not be considered unduly out of place if, as an example, the system in Zaria Province is stated.

There is, first, the kurdin gidda, or house tax. Every owner—lessee, as we should term him—pays 1s. 6d. annually for occupancy. The kurdin kassa, or farm tax, is levied on every adult male farmer, whether working on his own account or for somebody else. The amount depends on the wealth of the town and the facilities of the inhabitants for earning money, such as proximity to trade routes and a railway. The tax ranges from 3s. to 6s. annually.

The kurdin gari—tax of the town—is paid by adult males who do not farm, whatever their work or occupation, or if they have none. The actual sum paid is fixed on the capacity of the payee to earn. The average is about 3s. a year.

A special tax which has been in existence for centuries is the kurdin karra, or tax on sugar, charged on sugar-cane plots, at 4s. yearly, independently of the size of the individual plot and of the number of men working on it.

Native non-Moslems are levied for a hoe tax, which is imposed only on adult male farmers, who pay from 3d. to 3s. a year on the same principle as that applied to the kurdin kassa.

As in every Hausa Province, all these taxes are collected by the district Chief and paid into the Beit-el-Mal. Fifty per cent. is taken by the British administration and goes towards the cost of the supreme Government. It is the price for protection from aggressive wars by neighbouring peoples and for the control of their own rulers against the extortions and oppressive demands which past rulers exercised. No part of the present taxation is taken out of the country.

The 50 per cent. balance is divided roughly into two. One of the two parts is for the Emir of Zaria Province, who has a fixed civil list for his personal expenditure and the expenses of his Court and for the payment of native Judges and police and the upkeep of a central prison; the other part is apportioned among the town Chiefs of the Province, who pay their subordinate officials a salary previously decided on the proportion it shall bear from the collected taxes. The salaries must not, however, exceed the figure decided when each appointment is made.

Of course, any attempt, detected, on the part of the Chiefs or village Headmen who collect the taxes to act in an irregular manner is dealt with severely. The natives know they can appeal against injustice to the British Resident. But the Residents do not interfere between the native Chiefs and the population unless some great principle is violated. By utilising the machinery of social organisation, which has existed for hundreds of years, for the purpose of native government, a Civil Service has been obtained of men who understand their own people in a way no white could be expected to, and is obtained at a fraction of the cost incurred in having the work done by Englishmen, who could not carry it out with a tithe of the efficiency.

The Government officials’ bungalows at Zaria are the best in Northern Nigeria. Nearly all are of brick. The roads are excellent. They were laid out by the Public Works Department, with the exception of the main trading road to Zaria native city, which was made by the Emir with his own people, directed by those of them who had been on railway construction. The highway is 60 feet wide and is planted both sides with trees, which give a comforting shade.

Two groups of rest-houses are at Zaria. One is within a few feet of the station, in charge of the railway staff, and is very convenient for persons who arrive by a main line train and leave the following day by a branch line train, or vice-versâ; the other group is used by the Resident for travellers who may be staying a little longer.

It was to the latter group I went on my first stay; and it would ill-befit me to omit mentioning the courtesy shown at each visit. When here previously the Resident, Captain Fremantle, was occupied with preparations for moving into the native city for one of the usual periodical visits, lasting a few days; but the morning following my arrival he sent his next-in-command, Mr M. P. Porch, to enquire if I was comfortably quartered, and Mr Porch so thoroughly carried out his mission as to spontaneously ask whether I was short of any supplies, as, if so, he would willingly send me some of his. Dr Johnson, the medical officer, did not wait for the formality of an application for condensed water—that or the filtered variety is indispensable—but offered the necessary authority to draw a daily supply from the man in charge of the condenser. Dr Johnson had sufficient thought and human feeling to reflect that a new-comer might lack the appliances to convert liquid poison into drinkable stuff. He did not put across a polite note a pencil scrawl, “Apply to the railway people,” whose place is a mile away.

On reaching Zaria this time I find Captain Fremantle, whom I had looked forward to meeting, temporarily invalided to England, his place filled for the time being by Mr A. C. Francis, who had been described as one of the most delightful men in the Northern Nigeria Government service. That is just what I should say of him.