Railway building began in 1896, with a line from Lagos to Ibadan, a distance by rail of 123 miles. This line was finished in 1900. In 1906 a forward policy was adopted, and since then prog ress has been rapid. The railways have been built and are owned and worked by the Nigerian Government and are of the standard African 3 ft. 6 in. gauge, unless otherwise stated. In 1929 some 1,900 m. of railway were open, the system consisting of :—( ) A western line running from Lagos to Kano (705 m.), via Abeokuta, Ibadan, Ilorin, Kaduna and Zaria. The Niger is crossed at Jebba —where there is an island—by two bridges, together 1,795 ft. long. The bridges, the last part of the line to be built, were completed in 1914. A branch line (11r m.) runs from Minna to Baro, on the Niger. Another branch line runs from Zaria, by Guasu to Kaura Namoda (542 m.), and in 1928-29 the main line was extended from Kano to Hadejia (102 miles). (2) An eastern line (built 1913-26) from Port Harcourt to Enegu, for the Udi coalfields, and Kaduna (569 m.), where it joins the western railway. The Benue is crossed at Makurdi, pending the completion of a bridge, by train ferry. A short branch line running to Jos, for the tin fields, was opened in April 1927, and since then all the tin is sent to Port Harcourt. Jos was formerly served by a light line (2 ft.
6 in. gauge) from Zaria, on the western railway. This light line now carries cotton. In 1928 the building of a trunk railway to Lake Chad, at an estimated cost of some L5,000,000, was sanc tioned. The capital cost of the railways, up to March 1928, had been L18,104,000 of which sum L15,245,000 had been raised by loan on the London market, at an average rate of interest under 5%. The railways are worked as a business concern, but the ulti mate profits go to the colonial treasury. Motor traffic has to a large extent superseded other methods of road travel. Some 3,000 m. of all-the-year-round motor roads were being maintained in 1928 by the Public Works Department alone. There are, addi tionally, many miles of dry-season motor roads in the north.
There is regular steamship communication by several lines be tween Europe and Lagos and other Nigerian ports; direct cable communication with Europe and South Africa, an extensive sys tem of inland telegraphs, and a wireless station at Lagos. The principal passenger and mail service is by the Elder Dempster line from Liverpool to Lagos, the voyage taking 15 days. A regular service between British ports and Nigeria has been maintained since 1852.
of Nigeria. At the head of the administration is a governor; there is a lieut.-governor for the northern and for the southern prov inces, and, since Oct. 1927, a separate administrator for the colony. Certain important services, e.g., the railways, function through out Nigeria. The governor, whose headquarters are in Lagos, is aided by an executive council of officials, and for the colony and the southern provinces there is a legislative council on which, since 1923, elected members have sat to represent the towns of Lagos and Calabar. (The franchise is conferred on adult males with an income of Lioo a year or more.) On the council are also members nominated by various commercial bodies and others nominated to represent African interests. The legislative council is given control of expenditure in the northern provinces derived from the revenues of the central Government. The number of provinces has varied from time to time. As far as possible the system of indirect rule is observed; that is, the native governments existing before the British occupation are retained, each with its own treasury and judiciary, the rulers being guided by the advice of a British resident, under whom are district officers. This indirect rule prevails in almost all the northern provinces and also in Yoru baland. In these native states direct taxation and a fixed income for the emirs and other paramount chiefs has led to the abolition of many abuses. Fifty to 70% of the direct tax goes to the native treasuries.
Education and health are departments of primary value. There are Government elementary and technical schools, and King's col lege, Lagos, founded 1909, provides secondary education. At Katsina is a training college for native teachers, opened 1922, and there are training colleges in southern Nigeria, including two for women teachers. Education remained, however, chiefly in the hands of Christian missions ; the Hope Waddell institute at Cala bar, a Scottish missionary enterprise, has a high reputation for industrial training. Both the missions and State schools now pay special attention to practical agricultural training. Some of the native administrations have their own schools. The Yoruba have for long shown an eagerness for education ; after the World War the demand for education among the natives generally greatly increased. The health department has done a great and successful work in fighting malaria, dysentery, yellow fever and plague, and in insisting upon better housing and better food for Europeans. As one result the death rates of whites fell between 1903 and 1926 from over 20 per i,000 to under 9 per i,000.