Whilst, of course, there is a Mines Department at Zungeru—really a section of the Secretariat that specially deals with mining matters—the office of the Government Inspector of Mines, Mr E. A. Langslow-Cock, at Naraguta. A few facts of the duties he has to perform will not be out of place here. Upon him is focussed most, if not all, dissatisfaction at the mining law and impatience that things are not done or decisions given. Langslow-Cock is too good an official, too loyal a subordinate, to even suggest or infer that he should not be blamed for what he has to carry out or for that at which he must hold his hand. If people blame him let them, he seems to say mentally. His temperament enables him to receive the slings and arrows of criticism with equanimity, and his personal popularity stops marksmen from dipping the points of their shafts into bitterness. The work of the office has been said to be in a state of chaos. A greater misapplication of words could scarcely be used. If statements of that kind are not completely denied there usually is a suspicion that there is some ground for the indictment. As the term is understood, I say there is none. With the staff the Government Inspector of Mines has, the duties have been expeditiously and well performed. With the exception of the railways, where it is a question of safety of life, there is hardly a department of the public service not undermanned. Until this year the Protectorate has been allowed an Imperial grant-in-aid. Whether on that account or for any other, expenditure on salaries has, in most cases, been kept as low as possible—in many instances much lower than they should be—and too few men in receipt of them for the extent of country occupied. This does not apply specifically to the Government Inspector of Mines staff, but generally. Naraguta is the centre of administration for the Central, formerly the Bauchi, Province. Naraguta bulks so largely in men’s minds that some persons who have not seen the place regard it as a small town. Nothing of the kind. Except for the scattered houses and offices, all but two of mud, for the half-dozen or so English officials, there is nothing, beyond the alluvial tin operations a few miles round and the native village which has sprung up in consequence, to mark the country from the virgin land it was 10 years ago. “The office of the Government Inspector of Mines” sounds imposing. That building Mr Langslow-Cock had to have put up by his native servants. No windows or doors are fitted to the mud structure; only openings. I have seen him drawing a Government map whilst rain came through the roof, dropping at the side of the table at which he worked.