The chief industries which are owned by Europeans are the tin and coal mines. The ascertainment of the richness of the tin fields in Bauchi in 1902 led to a speedy development of the mines (which employ 30,00o to 35,000 natives), and the output of coal from Ude, which began in 1915, is of much importance.
The coal mines are worked by the railway department for the Government; they supply the fuel for the tin mines, for their own railway and for the Gold Coast railways, and still have a surplus for the Government marine and the shipping companies.
The output for the year ended March 31, 1928, was 345,000 tons. The tin-fields (see BAucHI) are worked by private enterprises, mostly for companies registered in London. The timber-cutting concessions are also in the hands of Europeans. There are 200,000 sq.m. of forest in Nigeria; the timber exported is mainly ma hogany, cedar and walnut, the mahogany chiefly from the Benin forests. Gum arabic is obtained from Bornu and other northern provinces. "Wild" rubber is still tapped, and plantation rubber is exported. The relative value of the chief exports is shown in the following figures for 1927 :—Palm oil, £3,617,000; palm kernels, £4,574,000; groundnuts £1,633,000 (f 2,342,00o in 1926) ; cocoa, £1,968,000; cotton lint, f6i i,000 (L1,182,000 in 1926); tin, L2,403,000.
The imports are of a most miscellaneous character; they may be classed under the main heads of cigarettes, cotton goods (both from the United Kingdom), provisions, hardware, salt, kola nuts (from the Gold Coast), petrol, and alcoholic liquors (mostly gin from Holland). (Though the import of "trade spirits" has been prohibited since 1919, and no alcoholic liquors, save for Europeans, are allowed into northern Nigeria, the growing wealth of the na tives of southern Nigeria led to an increased demand for ordinary spirits and beer.) With regard to the direction of trade the figures for 1927 showed that 53.5% was done with the United Kingdom—which supplied 62% of the imports and took 45.6% of the exports. In that year Germany had 15% and the United States io% of the total trade. Of the exports the palm kernels— largely used as cattle food—go to Germany and England, and the groundnuts to Germany, 6o%, and France. The United States supplies kerosene, petrol and unmanufactured tobacco, and takes about 25% of the palm oil, and 3o% of the cocoa.
Defence.—With a population approaching 19,000,000, order is maintained in Nigeria, and defence provided for the colony, by the Nigeria regiment of the West African frontier force (see GREAT BRITAIN : Colonial Forces). This force, which was raised in 1901, consists of officers and non-commissioned officers of the British Army and other ranks recruited locally for 6 years with the col ours and 3 in the reserve, with facilities for re-engagement. Train ing is on the lines of the British army. Regimental transport is by native carriers; transport animals are not used. The Nigeria regi ment includes 1 battery of artillery (3.7 inch howitzers), 4 bat talions of infantry, 1 light mortar unit, a signal school, and a de pot. The establishment is 3,599, with a reserve of 682. There are also armed police with an establishment of 1,260 in the northern provinces, 2,105 in the southern. These police are liable for mili tary service, and distributed in 7 territorial divisions, each under a senior commissioner.
See also League of Nations Armaments (Geneva, 1928). (G. G. A.) Of the early history of the races inhabiting the coast lands little is known. The Beni appear to have been the most powerful race at the time of the discovery of the coast by the Portuguese in the 15th century, and the kings of Benin in the 17th century ruled a large part of the south-western portion of the existing British protectorate (see BENIN ). The Benin influence does not seem to have reached east of the Forcados mouth of the Niger. In the greater part of the delta region each town owned a dif ferent chief and there was no one dominant tribe. Among these people, who occupied a low position even among the degenerate coast negroes and who were constantly raided by the more virile tribes of the interior, trading stations were established by the Portuguese, and later on by other Europeans, British traders appearing as early as the I7th century. There was no assertion of political rights by the white men, who were largely at the mercy of the natives and who rarely ventured far from their ships or the "factories" established on the various rivers.