To all these incongruities must be added the series of events which have led to the creation of two competing railway systems, and, consequently, to open rivalry between the two Administrations in the effort to secure the traffic from the interior, a rivalry which is certainly not lessened by the circumstance that the method of railway construction followed in one Protectorate differs radically from that pursued in the other. This rivalry, needless to say, is perfectly honourable to both sides, but it is deplorable, nevertheless, and not in the public interest, and were the two systems placed under one management before the amalgamation of the Protectorates, _i.e._ if Southern Nigeria took over the Northern line, which it very naturally wishes to do, having lent the money for its construction, and not appreciating the _rôle_ of milch cow without adequate return, friction between the railway management and the Political Staff would be inevitable owing to the fundamental divergence of method already referred to. Moreover, the results achieved by Mr. Eaglesome and his staff in laying the Baro-Kano railway have been of so revolutionary a character as to suggest the advisability of reconsidering the whole policy of railway construction in British West Africa, such as has been pursued hitherto. I will refer briefly to this method in a moment. Meanwhile the position of the competing lines is roughly this. Southern Nigeria has built—or rather is building, for the last section is not quite finished—a railway from Lagos which crosses the Niger at Jebba, proceeds therefrom to Zungeru, the capital of Northern Nigeria, and onwards to a place called Minna.[13] Northern Nigeria has built a railway from Baro, a spot 407 miles up the Niger to Minna, where the junction is effected, and thence to Kano. Southern Nigeria, which looks upon the Northern Protectorate as its natural hinterland, wishes to attract the trade of the north over its line to Lagos, and desires that the through rates it has drawn up should be accepted by Northern Nigeria, and claims the right of fixing the rates on the section of its railway from the point where it enters Northern Nigeria territory (Offa) to the point of junction. The Northern Nigeria Administration, which does not in the least regard itself as the natural appanage of Southern Nigeria, desires to feed the Baro-Kano railway in conjunction with the Niger, and declares that the through rates proposed by Southern Nigeria are so manipulated as to ensure the deflection of the northern trade to Lagos and thus to starve the Baro-Kano line, which would tend to reduce a considerable section of it, apart from its very definite strategical importance, to scrap iron. That was the position when I left the country, and I do not gather that it has greatly advanced since. There has been a conference, but it has not resulted, and could not result, in agreement as to the question of what line is to get preferential treatment; and