The absence of a fixed scale of emoluments for public servants is always the weak point of native government. Northern Nigeria was no exception to the rule. The proportion of the taxes actually collected which eventually found its way into the so-called Public Treasury, was used by the Emir with small regard to the public interest and with a great deal for his own. The Alkalis and their assessors, though by no means universally corrupt, were dependent for their living upon such sources as the fees (usheri) upon judgment debts and upon the estates of deceased persons (ujera). To Mr. Charles Temple, now Acting Governor, whose knowledge of Northern Nigeria and its peoples is unequalled, belongs the credit of having instituted in the Kano Emirate the Beit-el-Mal or Public Treasury in the proper sense of the word, which has since been extended, or is being extended, into all of them. The system follows traditional lines but vastly improves them. In practice it works out as follows. Half the total revenue collected goes direct to the Northern Nigeria Government. Of the remaining half, fifty per cent. is paid into the Beit-el-Mal to provide salaries for the native officials and to pay for necessary public works. The balance is divided into fifths on the basis of two-fifths of each district’s yield to the District Headman; two-fifths of the sub-district’s yield to the Sub-district Headman; one-fifth of his own village’s yield to the Village Headman. It will doubtless be possible, as the system becomes perfected, for each district to have its own Beit-el-Mal with limited powers, receiving its instructions from the central Beit-el-Mal, just as the local British Treasuries receive instructions from the Treasury at Zungeru. This would enable the District Heads, Sub-district Heads and Village Heads to have fixed salaries like the Native Executive, a very desirable ideal to aim at.