The Niger Company is gathering the fruits of having been the pioneer firm at Zaria. The mud houses and sheds are being replaced by more permanent structures. The retail store is of brick and is 80 feet by 35 feet. There are also two iron buildings with cement floors, one for warehousing the trading goods and the other for keeping the produce purchased. In addition an 80 feet long, open shed is used for weighing produce bought and to give shelter to the sellers whilst they wait their turn. The large compound in which the buildings stand is itself a public market on a small scale. Natives foregather there, sit down as at a meeting-place, and small traders assemble to sell food to the people who dispose of their produce, which may have been brought several days’ journey. Although it is generally assumed that the gold discoveries made are in Zaria Province, the only one of which the finder says he is satisfied lies just over the border, in the Niger Province. That belongs to Mr L. H. L. Huddart, who has shown me specimens from the ground which look enchanting. Whether the mineral is to be won in payable quantity is a question I am not prepared to answer. There is Mr Huddart, who was first in that field and who declares he is content with that on which he has lighted; whilst, on the other hand, some of the smartest mining men in the country have prospected around the centre and have reported adversely. Of course, both may be right. Apart from this matter of gold, Mr Huddart evidently believes in the country’s minerals, for a couple of miles from the European cantonment at Zaria he is putting up permanent buildings to be used as offices and a laboratory at which he proposes to carry on his profession as a consulting mining engineer. Zaria, the administrative headquarters of the province of the same name, consists of three parts: the native city—a large, walled town resembling Kano—four miles from the railway, so that the native life, under the Emir, may be as free as practicable from disturbing influences; the Government offices and officials’ bungalows; and the European merchants’ stores. The group of stores and the group of bungalows are quite near each other and within a stone’s-throw of the station. A quarter-of-a-mile from these centres there is the small sabon gari—i.e., native town—established for the requirements of natives who draw supplies there which they retail to the resident Europeans, in the way of daily household requirements. The sabon gari is also a great convenience to the large number of natives who bring in produce to sell to the exporting firms. Compared with Zaria City, this sabon gari is of limited dimensions. It differs markedly from Zaria City in having been laid out on Sir Hesketh Bell’s plan for model native towns.