matter through. On January 1st of this year the most far-seeing measure of constructive statesmanship West Africa has ever known was put upon the statute-book. “The Land and Native Rights Proclamation” consecrates the three main principles of native law and custom. First, that the whole of the land whether occupied or unoccupied is “native land.” Secondly, that the land is under the control and subject to the disposition of the Governor, to be “held and administered by him for the use, need and common benefit of the natives of Northern Nigeria.” Thirdly, that the Governor’s power shall be exercised in accordance with “native laws and customs.” For the rest, and without going into detail, the measure can be described as expressing the native system, and the natural developments of the native system, in English. It is not, in Nigeria, an innovating measure, but a conservative measure; not an experiment, but a preservation of the _status quo_. It is not a measure of land nationalization, because land nationalization means State control of the land and all that is done upon it. What this measure does is to provide for the communalizing of the communal value of the land, leaving the occupier full control over the use of land and full benefit for his private enterprise upon it, with payment of rent to the community to which the land belongs, instead of to a landlord. The individual’s right to all that is due to individual work and expenditure, but not to the communal value, is secured. No freehold can creep in and no monopoly profit can be made out of the land. The holding up of land for speculative purposes is, in effect, penalized, while the man who is industrious is not made to pay more as the outcome of his enterprise. At the same time the basis is laid for a land revenue which, with the years, will be the chief source of income of the Government—the healthiest form of income, perhaps, for any Government. For the first time in the history of West Africa, the art of governing the native on native lines has become consecrated in British legislation and the pernicious tradition of applying the law of England to African land questions has been set aside. It is impossible to exaggerate the potentialities for good of such a departure from crude, ignorant and unscientific precedent. It will be the duty of the Colonial Office, to whom everlasting credit is due for having sanctioned this proclamation, to watch strictly that the principles laid down therein are not departed from in practice, and to apply them, with the modifications of method which differing and pre-existing conditions render advisable, to Southern Nigeria also. That attempts to undermine the provisions and the spirit of the Northern Nigerian law will arise, may be unhesitatingly assumed. CHAPTER XI THE FOUNDATIONS OF NATIVE SOCIETY—THE ADMINISTRATIVE MACHINERY