[Illustration: LANDING-PLACE AT BARO.] [Illustration: GROUP OF RAILWAY LABOURERS—BARO.] The great advantage which the Northern Nigerian system possesses over that of Southern Nigeria is unity of direction. But the vital difference between the two systems is this: Northern Nigeria has shown that it is possible to construct a railway without the services of Consulting Engineers in England at all. Now this is a fact which cannot be too pointedly emphasized; because Consulting Engineers are most expensive luxuries if they are not necessities. The logical deduction is, either that Consulting Engineers can be, and if they can be should be, dispensed with for any future railways in West Africa; or that the Baro-Kano railway, without them, is a failure. It appears to me that the Baro-Kano railway has been a marvellous success from the point of view of construction. What are the facts? The Administration, _i.e._ its Public Works Department, with the help of a few Royal Engineer officers lent by the Home Government, has been its own builder. The absence of any foreign body has reduced friction to a minimum. In fact, there has been no friction whatever, because the Railway Staff has co-operated in every way with the Political Staff, and the exercise of the Political Officers’ legitimate duties in protecting the interests of the natives has not been resented or looked upon in the light of vexatious interference by the railway management. I should be the last to wish to minimize the excellence of the individual work performed by the engineers in charge of the Southern Nigeria line, which I was able to admire, and from whom I received the greatest hospitality and kindness at various stages in my journey; but the nature of the system there followed precludes that enthusiastic co-operation of all the elements concerned which is the predominating characteristic of Northern Nigerian methods. And, as already stated, there is a very considerable item of expense to be considered through the employment of Consulting Engineers in London. In the Northern Protectorate every one, from the Governor—the Baro-Kano railway owes, of course, its inception to Sir Percy Girouard—down to the foreman, has been, as it were, a member of a single family. In fact, one might almost say that the line has been built on the communistic principle. In no direction does the system show better results than in the organization of labour. It has proved to demonstration what is the right way of dealing with native labour in West Africa, viz.: that the labourer on public works shall be drawn from the neighbourhood where the public works are situate, that he shall proceed to the scene of his labours accompanied by his own Village or District Headman, the native authority to whom he owes allegiance, and whom he knows and trusts; that he shall perform his duties in the presence and under the supervision of that Headman, and that for the conduct of the Headman himself, and for