TAXATION  OF  NATIVES  IN  NORTHERN  NIGERIA.

5

those  taxes  or  restrict  the  power  of  chiefs  as  to  the  extent  to
which  they  might  tyrannise  over,  or  extort  from,  the  peasantry,
the  object  of  the  present  proclamation  is  to  lay  down  limits  to
taxation  by  native  chiefs,  to  define  and  legalise  the  various
taxes,  and  to  place  them  under  the  supervision  of  the  Administration, ­
  and  at  the  same  time  to  assign  an  adequate  portion  of
the  revenue  so  collected  to  Government.”
3.  In  order  to  obtain  sufficient  information  upon  which  to
frame  legislation  and  instructions  to  Residents,  not  only  were
the  reports  from  different  provinces  carefully  studied,  but  the
High  Commissioner,  during  the  year  1904,  and  early  in  1905,
himself  visited  every  province  (except  Sokoto,  where  no  taxation
had  previously  existed).  The  Northern  States  had,  at  that  time,
been  so  recently  incorporated  under  the  Administration  that
little  information  had  as  yet  been  forthcoming.  As  a  result  of
this  preliminary  study  a  lengthy  memorandum  was  drawn  up
(April,  1905),  in  which  the  various  taxes  existing  in  the  different
provinces  were  summarised,  and  full  instructions  were  given  to
Residents  as  to  the  general  policy  to  be  pursued.  On  the  enactment ­
  of  the  Proclamation  of  1900  an  additional  memorandum
(No.  21,  of  April,  1906)  was  circulated,  giving  more  precise  instructions ­
  in  accordance  with  the  more  precise  nature  of  the
proclamation,  and  in  order  to  meet  the  necessities  of  accounting
and  audit  (so  far  as  was  possible),  which  are  laid  down  in  the
financial  instructions  for  Crown  Colonies  and  Protectorates.  By
the  light  of  the  actual  experience  of  a  complete  year  I  am  now
revising  these  memoranda  with  the  object  of  meeting  the  actual
difficulties  experienced  by  Residents,  of  explaining  various
matters  which  have  been  misunderstood,  and  of  giving  fuller
and  more  complete  instructions  regarding  the  necessary  returns.
&c.,  which  are  required  to  enable  the  High  Commissioner  on
the  one  hand  to  keep  in  touch  with  the  taxation  of  the  Protectorate, ­
  and  to  promote  uniformity,  and,  on  the  other  hand,
to  render  the  accounting  and  audit  easier  and  more  effective.
4.  The  system  thus  introduced  may  be  briefly  summarised.
In  the  first  place,  it  has  been  my  desire,  while  promoting  a
general  uniformity  in  matters  in  which  it  is  essential  that  a
common  policy  should  prevail  throughout  the  Protectorate,  to
give  as  large  a  latitude  as  possible  to  the  varying  conditions
of  each  Emirate.  As  years  go  by  these  divergencies  will  tend
to  disappear,  and  a  single  uniform  system  will  be  developed,  but
too  drastic  a  change  is,  above  all  things,  injudicious  in  Africa,
and  amongst  a  people  so  conservative  of  tradition  as  the  population ­
  (and  especially  the  Pulani  rulers)  of  Nigeria.  The  inauguration ­
  of  British  rule  is  beyond  doubt  the  right  moment  to
introduce  important  changes  which  are  essential,  for  at  no  later
time  would  it  be  so  easy  to  introduce  them,  but  all  that  is  nonessential
  can  best  be  introduced  gradually.
(a)  The  first  essential  was  that  so  far  as  Government  is  con  ­
cerned  the  innumerable  petty  taxes  should  be  amalgamated