It is satisfactory to gather from the report of the acting Governor dated 11th December last, that the year 1909 was a very peaceful one, the military operations which it was found necessary to carry out being on a small scale, and chiefly on account of highway robberies. From all the Provinces it is reported that the general feeling of the Emirs and native chiefs towards the British Administration continues to be most friendly. They are beginning to show an intelligent interest and zeal in the political work, and political officers are receiving support in any scheme proposed for the improvement of the Native Administration. The people show signs of wishing to be on friendly terms with the Government, and the agricultural classes are feeling a sense of security which enables them to spread out in all directions and take up new holdings. Their present position is described as “one of progressive tranquillity and content.” The inter-colonial traffic in slaves has already ceased; local slave-dealing is not entirely stamped out, but it is not extensive, and last year 1,392 slaves were freed, practically all by means of native courts, the majority of these ex-slaves being self-redeemed. The cultivation of food stuffs has increased; new markets have been established, and the present safety of the roads has greatly stimulated the internal trade of the country. A great improvement in the export trade has followed the extension of the Baro-Kano Railway. To the north of Minna there is a most extensive area of shea butter trees, but very little of the produce of this area has so far been placed on the market, partly on account of the cost of transport, and partly owing to the reluctance of the pagans to have intercourse with markets outside their districts. The construction of the railway has done much towards gaining the confidence of these people, and the reduction in the cost of transport, consequent upon the completion of the railway, will render it possible to place profitably this sylvan produce on European markets. Further north the railway will pass through the rich agricultural and stock-raising Lausa provinces, which at present export live-stock, skins, and potass by means of annual caravans. The idea that Northern Nigeria is an especially unhealthy place for European residents is scarcely borne out by the total death-rate of roughly twenty per thousand, calculated on the average resident European population; but the proportion of officers invalided home is still large, though it is much smaller than it was a few years ago, when less satisfactory sanitary conditions prevailed at the stations.