As the various tin-mine companies were formed and proceeded with their operations, transport became a first-value consideration. You have only to plant yourself in a virgin country and depend upon outside supplies for sustenance to realise that. Folks in England, with everything brought to their doors—parcel post and carrying agencies playing the part of universal provider—can scarcely appreciate what it means to have a single slender source of supply, and that necessarily an uncertain one. Try the real simple life under these conditions, not a few hours from the railway or navigable river, but five to seven days’ journey. Then you will understand how much gratitude you can feel towards people whom you are glad to pay at their own figure for what they bring; and you are also sure to discover what a wealth of strong language you can employ without an effort when you are disappointed in such small items as kerosene, or flour for bread-making. You may afterwards wonder at your linguistic aptitude, you who at home never uttered an expletive under normal annoyances and disappointments; yet in most instances the tongue accomplishment comes in the easiest and most natural manner possible. I marvel at my own deficiency in that respect. It was the Niger Company’s organisation which supplied the indispensable adjunct of lines of communication to the various mining camps. The Company had all the human machinery working. There was none other, and therefore the system which was wanted and that available adjusted themselves accordingly. It only had to be expanded. True, the expansion could not be made on a scale commensurate with the needs of the hour. But what would have occurred had that organisation not been available? Each camp would have had to make its own transport arrangements. That would have resulted in confusion, if not chaos. The competition for labour has been bad enough. Imagine what it would have meant for the mining concerns to have scrambled for carriers as well, whose services were in more urgent demand than ordinary labourers. I am no special pleader for the Niger Company, but I do consider it due to that body to state that the tin-mining industry would have been in a much more backward state had the Company not taken the part it has in the development of the fields. I have been told that if the Niger Company had not—in the matter of transport and its Finance Department—somebody else would. Possibly. That does not alter the principle of merit being given where earned. Were I not here writing these despatches probably someone else would; and there is no doubt scores would be glad to do it. Yet surely that would be a poor argument against awarding any reward there might be due to the individual who did the work.