The concensus of opinions held by men who understand the amount and nature of the work entailed in this particular form of mining, and are, at the same time, personally familiar with the material that the country has to offer for the purpose, shows that the supply of labour in Northern Nigeria is entirely adequate, and although the development of West Africa depends almost entirely upon the labour question, there is no prospect of any difficulty on this account. Mr. Astley Cooper believes the chief grounds upon which trouble might arise, are the desire of the majority of the natives not to do too much work, the fear that a few months’ work in the mines would give a native sufficient money to live on for a year or two, and the difficulty of getting the right sort of European to take charge of the native labourers. But after all there is little reason to anticipate trouble on any one of these counts. No native in any part of the globe does more work than he is kindly but firmly obliged to perform, and there is no necessity for employers to demoralise the native labourers by a policy of over-payment. But the necessity of employing the right sort of European to put in control over the natives is quite to the point. The West African is more domestic than the Kaffir—of whom there are over 200,000 at work in the Transvaal mines—and there is no more willing worker if he has the proper white man over him. But it is the duty of the Government and the trading companies, and the mining corporations, to select the right men for their purpose, and if they are wise in this respect there need be no fear of labour troubles in either Southern or Northern Nigeria. THE FUTURE OF THE FIELD The published opinions of Government officials, engineers of repute, capitalists, traders, and travellers, all tend to prove that in Northern Nigeria we have one of the largest, if not the very largest, of the tin-producing areas of the world. Other minerals are known to exist, and very big developments may be looked for in the near future, as the pioneering efforts of the Niger Company and the Champion Gold Reefs of West Africa are being followed by powerful financial houses, but alluvial tin stands out, and will always stand out, as the leading product of this remarkable mineral country. Two such astute men and persons so well acquainted with the country as Sir Walter Egerton, the Governor of Southern Nigeria, and the late Sir Alfred Jones, have expressed the strongest views as to the extent and importance of these tin deposits, and the acting Governor of Northern Nigeria in his latest report asserted that “with the introduction of more capital and a good means of transport from the field to the railway a very large development is anticipated.”